I'm looking to buy a neck pickup for my guitar. I'm looking for something that will give me nice and warm tone when I play my guitar on a clean channel. The body of the guitar is alder with neck through 3p maple neck and ebony fretboard. Also I have an EMG HZ H4 at the bridge so I'm sure that that matters too.


Thanks.

First of all I would suggest ditching the HZ and getting a better one for the bridge position. They are really bad IMO.

For the neck position, I would suggest a Duncan '59 but if you're going to use the neck pickup for leads with the gain channel as well, get a dimarzio PAF Pro instead, because it can do both equally well.

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The DiMarzio PAF Pro sounds excellent on clean channel, and has nice smooth distortion on the high notes if you use distortion. Good for legato, too.

thanks but would it work in conjunction with a EMG HZ H4 cuz its a high output pickup and the DiMarzio isn't. It's medium output.

The paf pro works like a charm in the neck position in conjunction with really hot bridge pickups, including many that have more output than HZ's.

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String vibrations over the neck pickup are stronger than they are at the bridge, so your neck pickup will always be less output than your bridge pickup.

+1 for the PAF Pro

I have one paired with an X2N and that combo sounds great IMO.

+1 for the PAF Pro. I use mine in conjunction with a X2N in the bridge.

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Your neck pickup is a single coil? Should've told us that; the PAF Pro is a humbucker and won't fit in a single coil spot. As for the hot rails, from what I've read the hot rails is kind of harsh sounding and has very poor cleans. Might want to read up on it at www.harmony-central.com, but I'm pretty sure it isn't what you're looking for.

for single coils go dimarzio chopper or fast track necks. They are amazing, i have them in one of my strat's. Even the YJM pups are alright. But single coils i find sound a lot less full than humbuckers, DiMarzio's are huge though if you know what i mean.

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For clean-sounding single coils, with your guitar, Dimarzio actually recommends the Area '61, Area '58, and Cruiser Neck.

oh ok thanks guys! but no no...lol I know the Dimarzio Paf Pro is a humberbucker and that the Seymour SHT-1 is a single coil lol. The thing is i dont have either installed yet. I'm getting a customed guitar made so I'm trying to decide which one i should throw in there as my neck pick up. COnsidering all those single coils that have been mentioned , sounds like I should be going with the dimarzio ones if i were to get a single coil? but since i still have the possibilty of getting a humbucker do you guys think I should pick the paf pro over them? ...Also Mortal_ Lament mentioned that humberuckers sound fuller...even fuller than a stacked single coil? I think Im gonna go either with the Dimarzio Paf Pro or the Dimarzio chopper. Which one between those two you guys think i should go with.

The Hot Rails are great bridge pickups. But would seem odd in the neck for a good cleans sound since they're WAY hot.

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Yeah try the Chopper. It's hot enough for leads(I think bumblefoot uses this one) but it can do nice cleans.

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+1 on the chopper man, i love that neck pup.

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This should give you a pretty idea as to what the Chopper neck pickup sounds like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiW22O914Cg

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Thanks for that video dude....and hmm fuck this is hard to decide. What do you guys think I should go with then? The Dimarzio Paf Pro dp151 or the Dimarzio single coil chopper? I'm getting a custom guitar made so the fact that one is a single coil and the other is a humbucker doesn't. Once I decide which one I want , the proper routing will be made accordingly. I mainly want my neck pup for clean playing so it doesn't matter if its hot enough or not for leads too much. My question if i did go with the Dimarzio chopper, would it be THAT much big of a difference in sound on how full it would sound compared to the Dimarzio Paf Pro? Anyways yeah which one should i go with ?

PAF Pro in the neck has a pretty good deal of bass, and it's a humbucker, so it's going to sound a lot fuller than the Chopper. Hell, if you wanted, you could have your guitar made with a single coil between the bridge and neck pickups, or you could have your guitar wired with coil splitting so that you can use only one coil from each humbucker, giving you a nice clean sound as well. I say go for the PAF Pro with coil splitting! You won't be sorry.

+1