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I want a cleaner, clearer sound with more highs than what I am getting now from my stock Tele style Schecter with the Duncan Designed PU's. I play a variety of music, but mostly blues and Ramp;R and usually play a stock Mex Strat. I got this guitar so I could experiment with humbuckers and had heard that the PT's sounded somewhat like a Les Paul. Unplugged, the guitar has a full sound, but is muddy when plugged in. I want the neck pickup to cover jazz if needed and transmit the character of the guitar. The bridge PU just needs to be balanced and have good treble without being peaky. I am no stranger to humbuckers and expect and want more output than the Strat provides. I play only through old Fender tube amps and use a Boss GT-3 for Verb and compression. Any suggestions?
BTW does anyone know how to ID which model PU the Duncan Designed series in my PT are modelled after?
Thanks

Welcome to the forum man.

I have one of those guitars and I put a gold covered set of 59's in it and it totally turned that guitar around and made it a ton better. They sound really good too in single coil mode. If I recall correctly, these came stock with the Duncan Designed HB-103's and they are patterned after the Duncan Distortion set. Here's a link to help you out with the Duncan Designed pickups.

from : localhost//website...andesign.shtml

I'd definitely stick with something PAF-ish. Like Jolly said the 59's, Alnico 2 Pros, Seth's, or a set of Jazz's................Joly why did you put 59's in it instead of Jazz's?

And Welcome to The Forum!

Luke

Wlecome to the forum!! The PT's are alder as far as I know. You should be able to use virtually any Duncan you like without your tone being muddy; even an Invader. That is, unless you raise the pickups too close to the strings. Then, you get mud....

Luke, I put in 59's just so I could have a set of different pickups besides the jazzes basically. Butch, those guitars are mahogany with a 1'2 inch maple cap on them.


Originally Posted by JOLLYLuke, I put in 59's just so I could have a set of different pickups besides the jazzes basically. Butch, those guitars are mahogany with a 1'2 inch maple cap on them.

Ya know, I was thinking they were; but I went to Schecter's website and they said they were alder...

I am leaning in the direction suggested of something tamer with a bit more highs.
Since this is my 'spare' guitar, I thought I would try experimenting with the existing pu just for kicks. I broke the pu down and measured the dc resistance of each coil. They came in around 4.55k and 3.95k which was a bit surprising as I think a Duncan built HB 103 neck position pu is about 12k or so total. Anyway, I removed enough wire to get the resistance down about 10%. I then replaced the pickup and tried it with the cover off. I now have a pickup that is a little too bright. Some of this is the amp because it sounds pretty good at a lower volume, but when cranked, it gets harsh. I am going to try putting the cover back on, but don't expect it will affect the frequencies that bother me, but maybe it will. If that fails, I will then add about 40% of the wire back that I removed and see what happens. I also ordered an Alnico V bar magnet to replace the ceramic mag that is on there now, so that will involve another round of experiments to see how the magnet change affects the tone.