NPUD (New Pickup Day)

DrewJD82

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I put a Suhr Aldrich in the bridge of this Orville and it’s f*cking GREAT! Thanks to @la szum for telling me which wires went where. :rofl

If I had to describe it in one word; meaty. If I didn’t put EMG’s in the Edwards already, I’d most likely buy a set of these for it. They’re not a bright pickup at all but I love the top end of it, it’s the perfect rock/hard rock pickup for a Les Paul. The low end is nice and round, not super tight and not flubby at all. The mids are most focused in the lower mids and I can get some awesome growl out of so many amps with this.

After falling in love with the Edwards pretty hard, I was considering flipping this to fund another Edwards LPC, but over the last week the more I played this the more I fell in love with it. This one took a little bit but I’m glad I kept playing it. With this Aldrich in there I’m REALLY loving it. I got it set up great last week but the bridge pickup still left a little to be desired, it was just underwhelming. I was worried that changing the pickup would remove the ‘air’ around the notes on this thing, it’s a really cool sound and it’s a character I associate with EJ’s early 90’s tones but is really hard to describe. It’s still there after the change. I dig the neck pickup and wasn’t going to change it, but now I’m curious about the Aldrich neck pickup. Whatever goes in there will be covered, I think that looks f*ckin’ ace. with the zebra pickup and the covered one.
 
Glad you like the Aldrich! I tried the slightly lower output version (SSH+) once but it turned out to be too dark for the specific guitar I wanted it for. But I remember it sounding very „pleasant“ overall.

Differently covered pickups are giving me the heebie-jeebies, though. :nails I am already heaving a hard time with my EMG 81/66 combination, because the 66 has pole pieces and therefore looks different than the bridge pickup.
 
Happy NPUD! Great choice.

I have the Suhr Aldrich at the bridge of my almighty RG550LTD, and a Dimarzio Bluesbucker at the neck. Best of both worlds! You already know how the Aldrich is, and the Bluesbucker is amazing for everything: clean, hot cleans, close-to-breakup, and from sweet to nasty overdriven leads. I have a 3-position DPDT switch to get all the combinations form the Bluesbucker. Some of them are very P90ish. And the single-coil positions are as great as a real single coil.

I'm also curious about the Aldrich neck, but I don't want to spoil the Bluesbucker
 
Glad you like the Aldrich! I tried the slightly lower output version (SSH+) once but it turned out to be too dark for the specific guitar I wanted it for. But I remember it sounding very „pleasant“ overall.

Differently covered pickups are giving me the heebie-jeebies, though. :nails I am already heaving a hard time with my EMG 81/66 combination, because the 66 has pole pieces and therefore looks different than the bridge pickup.

I have an SSH+ kicking around, I bought it a while back thinking it was going to be much higher output than it was and when I put it in my SZ I immediately went “WTFFFFFF, this SUCKS!” because it sounded like it was barely stronger than a single coil in the context of a high gain guitar tone. :rofl I’m going to try it on one of my Strats that’s currently in pieces, I think it’d work good on there.

No sound clips, no believe.

This week’s challenge will most likely be done with it, hopefully I don’t have to force myself into my studio today and I can put up some clip of a lil somethin somethin.
 
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I put a Suhr Aldrich in the bridge of this Orville and it’s f*cking GREAT! Thanks to @la szum for telling me which wires went where. :rofl

If I had to describe it in one word; meaty. If I didn’t put EMG’s in the Edwards already, I’d most likely buy a set of these for it. They’re not a bright pickup at all but I love the top end of it, it’s the perfect rock/hard rock pickup for a Les Paul. The low end is nice and round, not super tight and not flubby at all. The mids are most focused in the lower mids and I can get some awesome growl out of so many amps with this.

After falling in love with the Edwards pretty hard, I was considering flipping this to fund another Edwards LPC, but over the last week the more I played this the more I fell in love with it. This one took a little bit but I’m glad I kept playing it. With this Aldrich in there I’m REALLY loving it. I got it set up great last week but the bridge pickup still left a little to be desired, it was just underwhelming. I was worried that changing the pickup would remove the ‘air’ around the notes on this thing, it’s a really cool sound and it’s a character I associate with EJ’s early 90’s tones but is really hard to describe. It’s still there after the change. I dig the neck pickup and wasn’t going to change it, but now I’m curious about the Aldrich neck pickup. Whatever goes in there will be covered, I think that looks f*ckin’ ace. with the zebra pickup and the covered one.

Yes! We have a success story, people!!! :banana

That's awesome, Drew. Pickups are often a crapshoot and we don't know what
we are gonna get. Glad that Pup is all you hoped it would be and then some. :beer


Then again, kind of not shocked it works.... since Doug is a Les Paul almost straight into a Marshall kind of guy.
 
I tried a set of Aldrich pickups once in my PRS and they were super super hot. Didn't like them. I got them for a steal, like $100 shipped used for the pair, and flipped them for $150 or so. Probably should have kept them but I don't like guitars with high output humbuckers much.
 
This week’s challenge has been recorded entirely with the Orville and this pickup, aside from the clean parts I tracked with a Strat, so it’ll be heard.

Very cool. I haven’t tried or heard those. Are they active or passive?

Passive!

I tried a set of Aldrich pickups once in my PRS and they were super super hot. Didn't like them. I got them for a steal, like $100 shipped used for the pair, and flipped them for $150 or so. Probably should have kept them but I don't like guitars with high output humbuckers much.

They’re definitely on the hot side but juuuuust under that point where they stop working for me, or maybe they’re just voiced in a way I find more pleasing than other hot humbuckers I’ve played. I generally prefer a medium output humbucker and like the guitar and amp working together to get my high gain tones, with too hot of a pickup they just slam the front end too hard I don’t dig the way the amp(s) react to it.

Yes! We have a success story, people!!! :banana

That's awesome, Drew. Pickups are often a crapshoot and we don't know what
we are gonna get. Glad that Pup is all you hoped it would be and then some. :beer


Then again, kind of not shocked it works.... since Doug is a Les Paul almost straight into a Marshall kind of guy.

Hahahah I made a sarcastic post in one of my guitar FB groups, “I’m just blown away this thing works in a Les Paul :ROFLMAO:“ and still had people coming back with “No sh*t it works in a Les Paul, do you even know who Doug Aldrich is?” :rolleyes:

Hahahah I left my solder iron plugged in when I tested the pickups. I mean, this was only 2-wires, but still, I have a history. :rofl

Also, I almost f*cking cried when I first removed the stock pickup the day I got the Aldrich and f*cked up the tab; when I went to put the stock pickup back in, getting that f*cking wire into the channel and out to the control cavity took me like 20 minutes and felt impossible. This time I did smart stuff-

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Got it through in 20 seconds!
 
The results speak for themselves!! :chef

You kind of prodded me (not that you knew that!) to put a better Bridge
PU in my Epiphone Cantrell LP. I have not liked that pup since I got the
guitar. Guitar kills. Pickups not so much.

So I found a legit Gibson 498T in Gold that comes in the Les Paul Customs
and am going to rock that.

Oh, and I don't like the JB either in a Les Paul. Mush!
 
The results speak for themselves!! :chef

You kind of prodded me (not that you knew that!) to put a better Bridge
PU in my Epiphone Cantrell LP. I have not liked that pup since I got the
guitar. Guitar kills. Pickups not so much.

So I found a legit Gibson 498T in Gold that comes in the Les Paul Customs
and am going to rock that.

Oh, and I don't like the JB either in a Les Paul. Mush!

Hahaha I told you I had a reason for changing it out! I just got lucky I picked a good one right away. It's deserving of the things said about it, that's for sure.

I forgot or didn't even know you had a Cantrell Epi?! Oh wait, you got the white one, right?
 
Nice!!!! the Aldrich and Jalen FW are probably my 2 favorite Bridge pickups right now.
I've got an Aldrich that's going into my Charvel DK24 this week , can't wait to hear it (not a fan of the full shred)
 
Hahaha I told you I had a reason for changing it out! I just got lucky I picked a good one right away. It's deserving of the things said about it, that's for sure.

I forgot or didn't even know you had a Cantrell Epi?! Oh wait, you got the white one, right?

Wino. Apt considering my alcohol intake. :guiness
 
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