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It will go in a fairly bright sounding H/H Strat copy with swamp ash body, maple neck, ebony fretboard, and vintage tremolo. It is a project guitar that has gone through 7 or 8 extreme makeovers within the last two years!!! I am finally happy with the CC in the bridge.

My main guitar has an Alnico II Pro neck and I love it, but with this guitar, I want to go in a different direction. I am going to use the neck HB exclusively for high gain leads, mainly in the upper registers. I want a super saturated, thick, long sustaining lead tone without mud. I'm not at all concerned about the cleans.

What would you SD experts recommend?! Would a 59N suffice or how about DDn or even a bridge pu such as JB or Screamin' Demon etc.?

Bridge pups tend to sound very warm/dark in the neck... 59 looks like a good option!!!

I would say the Seth Lover for the neck.

Can't recommend a hot neck humbucker. Never heard one I liked.

I went with a Seth Lover with my Custom Custom.

If you want something with a bigger tone than the A2Pro then the 59N is about as hot as I would recommend.

You might run into it having alot more bass than your CC though and when you turn down the bass on your amp to clear up the tone of the 59N you'll be reducing the bass on your CC too and that might not be a good thing.

Personally, with a alnico 2 Custom Custom bridge, I'd stick with alnico 2 for the neck too, and that would mean the A2Pro or Pearly Gates, IMO.

Lew

I really like the way the Pearly Gates goes along with my Custom Custom.

Pearly Gates would be my vote based on all the soundclips I've heard of the CC and my experience with the PG neck.

Seth, 59n, or PGn

I had a PGn in this guitar briefly and it was too bright. This is a bright guitar. I kept having to turn down the tone to zero to get a warm lead tone. Alnico 2 Pro, which is my favorite neck pu overall, is not what I envision for this guitar either. I will probably try a 59n to begin with. I don't think it will be bass heavy in this particular guitar. If it does not work out, Seth will be my second choice.

I was thinking about a hot neck pu because when I played a friend's Schecter C1 with the Duncan Designed set, which is supposedly modeled after Duncan Distortion, I really enjoyed the saturated lead sound of the neck pu. Those pu's do have a somewhat cheap, tubby quality though but that's another thread.

Another fairly hot neck pu that I like is Gibson 490R. Is there a SD equivalent to it?

BTW, I appreciate all the input you guys have given. There are some people on this foum who really know their stuff!!!

If you really like the Duncan designed set that is modeled after the Distortions, It sounds like the Distortion neck will get the sound you want. I am not sure how well it will sound in the middle position with the CC though.

But, as Lew stated, if you use a DD neck the tone eq of both pickups will very different and you'll have to tweak your amp each time to change from one to another.


Originally Posted by BreoganBut, as Lew stated, if you use a DD neck the tone eq of both pickups will very different and you'll have to tweak your amp each time to change from one to another.

Right. Alot of guys overlook that.

In my humbucker guitars, I always try to have the pickup with the least bass be the neck pickup and the pickup with the most bass be the bridge pickup. That way I can reduce the bass on my amp to keep the neck pickup from sounding woofy and the bridge pickup will still have plenty of bass and not sound to thin.

That's why I tend to use alnico 2 for the neck humbucker and alnico 5 (or 2) for the bridge humbucker.

But never alnico 5 for the neck humbucker and alnico 2 for the bridge.

But that's just me. YMMV as they say...and that only applies to humbuckers.

When it comes to single coils, I actually prefer a vintage style a5 neck and middle single coil and an overwound alnico 2 bridge pickup.

with a CC I love the Alnico II Pro, and I really dig the PGn...both if those are amazing with the CC