Haha, no actually you have 3 pickups. 2 humbuckers(double coils), but counting the middle pickup it's a total of 5 coils.

Mainly death metal? Well you can try:

For the Bridge: Dimarzio X2N, Tonezone, Seymour Duncan Invader, EMG-81.
For the neck : PAF Pro, EMG 85, EMG 89, Duncan Jazz, Dimarzio Evolution,
Middle pickup: unless you do coil splitting to use 3 of the coils to get the strat sound, you don't need one, especially not for death mettal, so take it out.

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A question on this note: if I had a H - S - H guitar with a 5-five way switch, what kind of adjustements / procedure would I have to follow in order to remove the single coil and not fuck anything up (ie. avoid excessive buzzing, not make wierd electric shocks go around the guitar etc etc)?

Just rip it out, its as easy as that. You wont fuck anything up. If youre not planning on using the single coil, just lower down till its flush with the body and leave it there. I had a guitar like that before, I hated the center single coil cause it would interfere with my picking.

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I lowered it down as low as it gets but it doesn't go down low enough. I put a piece of duct tape over part of it so I don't accidently hit the little metal pieces and get stuck.
If I rip it out and remove all the wiring and gizmos, there won't be a problem with nothing being assigned to Switch position 3, right?

thanks guys, ive read the first 20 pages of the EMG pickups thread and decided im gonna get some 81/85s and get rid of my middle pickup. only problem now is the price, they arent cheap here in australia, for the 81 and 85 its around $520AU....thats around $350 US....ive searched ebay but found nothing, anybody in aus, now where to get em cheaper?

that sounds like a tough question, man. i hope someone knows. there's something wrong with decent gear being so expensive in a country that spawned the likes of Psycroptic. good luck, though.

No shoudnt be a problem, everything else is already hooked up independently, youll just have a blank when flickin the selector to the center.

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well i actually found the ZW set for $150US on eaby. cant wait!

Alright heres my dilemma: I'm looking at getting a 7 string. But, when I do I'm gonna want to switch out the pickups right away. So my question is whats a good versatile passive pickup combination for a 7 string? (COIL TAPPING IS A MUST!)

What are humbucker covers for? I'm assuming they're not just for aesthetics.

ie, these

The holes are for the adjustable polepieces. Other than that they are purely aesthetic.

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For you guys with a middle pickup you don't know what to do with, StewMac sells "megaswitches" that provide some interesting switching options for a variety of pickup configurations

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electro...gaswitches.html

I have the "E" model with a super distortion in the bridge, super 2 in the neck and fast track2 in the middle. I thought the switch may be a problem if I had a really powerful pickup like the x2n that would overpower every thing so I chose humbuckers that have equal outputs and different tonal qualities. I get some nice sounds out of it.

yo, i plan to get an ibanez rg1570mrb soon, and its going to be set up with 9s and tuned to e. this is because i will be using it to learn and practice ''shred''.

i dont think the pickups that come with this guitar are very good so as soon as i get it, im going to swap them. so, i came here because i need help choosing which pickups to get, i was thinking of emgs, but i dont think theyre great for shred, well theyre ok, but im sure theres better. they seem a bit too hot for me.

so what neck pickup would be suitable for clean and fluid sweeps (i use my neck pup for sweeps) and for fast runs?

and what bridge pickup would be suitable for heavy and tight distortion whilst still being suitable for shred like runs and licks?

i hope you can help me out

cheers
user01

im looking into a new guitar, but my decision will be based in the pickups, so dont flame this post.
Ones the fernandez ravelle elite, and the ravelle deluxe, the difference being the deluxe has JB/jazz, and the elite has JB/fernandez sustainer. From what i've read... the sustainer is a fairly muddy pickup... and when its on with distortion it just sounds like feedback. But i've gotten mixed reviews... some hate it, some love it.
I need this guitar to sound different than my GP (x2n/super2) and my BCR(81/85)... but i want the bridge to have decently high gain (jb is good for that right?) and the neck to be able to dish out a clear sound while clean and distorted... so which neck pickup/guitar works for this?

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Who is selling them for $520??Fuck.How about $355
EMG ZAKK WYLDE SET(81 AND 85)

PAFpro neck-great for 'fluid' sweeps,and a X2N-bridge - tight,high output
EVO set,better for picking runs(neck),and a great bridge pickup.Work great with Ibanez's.Popular choice,too.

cheers man
thanks alot for the help :P

im probably going to get with the pafpro/x2n and maybe have the evo set in my other guitar, im starting to grow a bit tired of emgs, too hot for shred imo. or maybe its just with my setup...

I'm in need of some new pickups and I was wondering what would go well with my guitar (an Ibanez SA160)and that would have a great sound/sustain and be versatile as well (ranging from jazz to death to metalcore). Anyone that can help me?

The Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) and '59 (neck). I have the seven-string versions on my Schecter C-7 and when I shift about my pickup selector I get five distinct and toneful sounds for about any music I could want to play on it.

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+1 to the JB/'59.