i have a SX lespaul copy..
and i feel like upgrading it
i checked out the EMG-ZW set = rm750
is it okay to just change the pickups?
cos some ppl said that the body will affect the sound... etc
and chapalang guitars cant handle powerful pickups or sumthing lidat

cos im on a tight budget, and to get a new good guitar would cost me more than 1k...
so im asking all the pro opinions here.. thxx

Any guitar can handle any pickup.... just have to modify it abit

But if you're adding in the Zakk set in your LP, it's going to ROAR.
Heck, throw in EMGs in a baseball bat and it'll still sound brutal.....

If you really love and cheerish your guitar and want to give it a "treat", yeah..... the EMG will work. I installed them into my low end LP-100 and it sounded quite brutal for a metal tone when paired with a powerful amp.....

But you'll have to send it to a luthier to get it installed, because they'll need to install a battery as the EMG-ZW are actives.

battery? where does the battery fit in?
my SX LP body has compartments for switch, and the knobs at the back of the body only..

^
they usually slot it into your control area

means the knobs there?

Yup...... If you flip your Les Paul around, you'll see that there is a compartment there...... where the jack is housed also.....

which one? A or B?

some ppl say not good to fit EMGs into SX guitars..izit a waste?
cos got one salesman said.. "aiya if even if u put SD or EMGs, ppl still see the headstock 'SX'...also don realy respect la"
n im not very pro in guitar also.. i just started playing for 2 weeks after stopping for 1 n half years.
now im tryin to learn some techniques by myself.. i stil dunno much of alternate picking, tapping..
usually for metal sound (81/85 combo) is for fast songs izit?

B

Respect is gained by the music you made.
But you should practice and improve more before you move to upgrade your guitar.
If you have the cash to spring, by all means go ahead.

This post has been edited by sean392: Nov 2 2007, 09:57 AM

It's A.

The battery is wired to the jack, how can you fit it in the switch area?

If you do upgrade to a new guitar, you can always fit your pickups to your new one, and install the old one with the original pickups and sell it off.

Agree on what Rossie says (BTW...... in case you didn't get the sarcasm, it's in slot B)..... even if you buy a new guitar, you can always swap the pickups in to that as well.

I still have a pair of Passive EMG-HZs from my Zakk Wylde LP that I might swap into another guitar on a later date......

No, I don't get it.

if you have the cash to spend on the pickups, why not?
but personally I'd save up and buy a new guitar instead, because honestly, EMGs on a SX guitar seem kinda like a waste. I'd much rather buy a better guitar then upgrade the pickups.
If you're looking for a metal tone, probably an Ibanez or BC Rich? Go for a heavier instrument, because they end to produce a heavier more "metal" sound after distortion (My warlock bass is heavier than an Epi LP ultra, WTH)

if you dont like the sound of the SX, change the pickups.

hanhanhan : What is your budget right now? RM750?

If I were you I wouldn't waste RM750 for the pickups to place it in the SX guitar.. Just my honest opinion.

But if you're really on a budget right now, yeah, why not? At least ur SX will sound slightly better.. But the body will still affect the overall sound.

Later when you buy a better guitar, maybe a Mahogany guitar, when you swap the pups over to that better guitar, you'll look back and laugh.

This post has been edited by skindred: Nov 2 2007, 11:49 AM

I beg to differ. I don't see any problems in outfitting SX's with EMGs or Seymour Duncans. If it'll greatly improve the sound, why not? Who cares about the headstock when you're playing on stage? As long as the guitar is solidly constructed, comfortable to play, and doesn't fall apart, it's fine!

I know coz I outfitted Seymour Duncans that cost more than the face value of my guitar. Something I never regretted

Since when the stereotype EMG/Duncan/DiMarzio/BKPs should only be outfitted on branded guitars existed?

^IMO the construction of the guitar and the tone created by the body is far more important than the pickup. Pickups can completely alter the sound, but remember the resonance generated is still the resonance of an SX, not something to be proud of. I'm not blamming SX, but i personally don't like their "stretched" sound, because it starts sounding awkward very fast.

Well, at the end of the day, a Gibson is a Gibson for a reason.

However, I still think there's no reason why one shouldn't outfit high-end pickups in a low-end guitar. It's an affordable way to get the most out of a limited budget. If we had the money, we wouldn't even consider a SX.

This post has been edited by nerd: Nov 2 2007, 12:28 PM

heck, even in a epi LP that costs double the SX...ppl will still change the pickups in them.
so yea, usually only in a guitar at least RM3k that most ppl dont really change pickups cos they're good enough.

Well, that depends also.
If I get a Gibson Classic, I wouldn't mind swapping in SD Alnico II ala Slash.......
If it's a Gibby Explorer, I would drop in EMG 81/85 in a heart beat.

Bottomline, no matter how cheap or expensive a guitar is, it's perfectly OK to modify them with pickups.

i think if you gig alot ...

then yes...SX + EMG sounds like a good idea..

i.e ..i own both Epiphone and Gibson..

i don't...bring my Gibson for gigging (obviously) , and you will realized all my Epiphones are pump with Dimarzio / EMG / Duncan

when gigging/jamming , midrange/low end guitars sounds like a great idea
cause i expect my guitars to hit here hit there lar...

but to get a decent tone i will need at least some good pickups...

Trust me , your MIA getting a big ding is wayyyyy more painful than people laughing at you ..saying you should get an epiphone intead of SX+ EMG ..so funny

The real bottomline is, if you've got the cash to spare, why not?

If you stick in EMGs into your SX, don't expect it will not sound like a Gibson+EMGs... but it will sound better than an SX+stock pickups.

And it's not like you're planning on buying crap pickups... if you later buy a new guitar, you can always swap those EMGs in.

It's a reasonable stop-gap measure until you can source the funds to buy a better guitar, IMO...

http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Divisions/Gi...lorer%2DWeek47/

now...amp or guitar more important again?

I say, if you wanna buy a guitar, get a good second hand one with the pups you wanted, otherwise just buy the pickups n install into your sx. Is there anyone here who had upgraded their pickups on their sx LP? Could use their opinions.



This post has been edited by quarantined: Nov 2 2007, 03:13 PM

Dammit Everdying!!!!!! Why must you make me Salivate so much!!!!!!! But it just proves my point of installing EMGs into an Explorer.......
It reminds me of James Hetfield's Explorer.......
Obviously Gibson works on the same brain frequency as I do

This post has been edited by blacktrix: Nov 2 2007, 04:51 PM

too bad its a guitar of the week, so only 400 copies made.
maybe thats how many metallica fans are left

eh?
LOL i mixed up A and B

sorry sorry my bad
I swear to god I saw B as the tone pots slot lol


Hmm? Most Epiphone Les Pauls use South African mahongany where else SX uses Cuban Mahogany, which is closer to Honduran Mahogany in density and tonally compared to South African.
Sure the qc on SX may not be as tight as Korean made Epiphones, but then again, aren't most things made in China ?
Just for comparison, I myself own an Epiphone Les Paul, and I have tried SX. Other than the neck dimensions on the SX (which is not to my taste), I haven't found anything better on the Epiphone compared to the SX LP which I happened to try.

This post has been edited by sean392: Nov 2 2007, 05:42 PM

Oh wait.. it IS A......
I swore that it was B that housed the tone ports too........
Weird.

dont worry too much about brands. i use epiphone LP MIK and still i do get ppl laughing and saying all sort of things. yea i did change the pickups of that to a burstbucker pro but still...if u r worried of ppl talking about the brand of guitar u're using, its never gona end unless u own a custom PRS or supreme Gibson. i'm quite happy with my guitar as its setup nice, sounds good and plays nice.

my vote.... load your SX with those brutal EMGs.

Nah, em lespauls sound better with low output pickups! active pickups suck!
lol jkjk XD

from what i know, only MIJ epiphone's use african mahogany.
MIK / MIC use whatever mahogany they can get from like philipines / indonesia / china.

sorry arr.. im a big noob here..
so will the batteries fit into the compartment or not?

now i'm tight on budget..so i cant get around 1k for a bcrich..tryin to save $$ + do odd jobs for 2 months to get my rm750

its not like im expecting it to sound like gibson+emg.. just wana get a better heavier sound out of my guitar, then im happy already.

and since i can swap the pups to another guitar in the future, i dont mind investing 750 in it.

another thing is that im really comfortable with my guitar now..

dont tell me you dont have a screwdriver and 9v battery to try yourself if can fit?

True, but I meant the species. I don't remember species names, freaking siao meh lol
**based on the grains la, the newer MIC and post 2005 i've seen the grains look alot like sapele


This post has been edited by sean392: Nov 2 2007, 08:58 PM

stil have the idea...
save for a better gita
and sell the old1


and SX is stil an SX....

sell to who la..
ppl would rather buy a new sx for 400-500+

True. Upgrade that SX guitar with the EMGs.... You have my vote too!
And besides, the SX isn't a bad sounding guitar. With the EMG, you will DEFINITELY get a much better tone then your current pickups.

my vote goes to..............change ur pups, coz i'm going to do so too. mine's epi thou.

Why not get a new amp?If you have the cash to spare,then get a 5150.

Freakfingers have been pushing a 5150 for so long, hasn't he

I'm actually interested in the 5150, but then the Spider Valve came and the Ceriatone JCM800 is sooooooooooooooooo tempting!!!!!!

People like me.
If the neck dimensions suit my taste, and i know the woods as well as the construction is fine, i'd take it.

oh and for amps right.. is LINE 6 Spider 3 good?
its selling for 400 only i think.

eh, how's ur so-called special deal on laney vc's huh.....
no more news geh?

I TOTALLY agree. The 5150 III is such a sexy amp. You can see it on EVH's guitars site.

Lol jk la, the pickups do matter, but as some other people(and me) have been saying, no matter what you do to the pickups, an SX is still an SX.

This post has been edited by liew90kw: Nov 3 2007, 01:34 AM

There are better choices, but they cost slightly more I guess. Its pretty hard to get good tones out of the Spider3 unless you spend hours on it. I'm no fan of it so I can't say much other than recommending you away from it.



And of what significance branding does to a guitars playability and tone? Sure, Gibson, PRS, ESP, Fender are "branded" because they produce stellar guitars, sure but for how much? You pay for what you get. Those brands use premium grade wood with strict quality control. If you're gonna recommend him to get a "better" guitar, you're probably going to tell a student who isn't making much even with part time jobs to get a probably 3000MYR and above guitar.

First thing first, are you skilled enough to own a "better" guitar, if your fingers can't keep up with your guitar, it doesn't matter if its a relic '59 Les Paul into a 87 JCM800 with a boat load of pedals, you're still gonna sound bad.

If you think installing pickups into an SX or a cheap guitar is not going to affect tone much, rest assured, many can prove you wrong easily. Cheap guitars come with poorly made pickups, meaning they either have too much or too little output, with poor to no wax potting and lousy note definition. How is that changing to better pickups will not change by a large margin?

Sure, body construction is also important for sustain, but don't forget even more expensive "budget" brands like Epiphone, LTD and etc don't utilize single piece bodies. Most of them use multiple pieces and glue them together to get a 2/3-piece body. So if thats the case, doesn't that beat the argument of "body construction?".

Woods are a different story, yes, I do agree, lower priced guitars tend to use wrong woods or very low grade woods. Thats why you test the guitar before buying. Also, doing some research before going out to spring your hard earned cash will also do you good. Its quite irrational not at least read up a little on details on something you're planning to spend a lot on.

I hate to, but I have to disagree with your statement. I do not think brand plays a very heavy role on what works.

some question here. my bro's sx lp is heavy as hell, n my epi lp is much lighter compare to his. his guitar made from mahogany, but dunno xxx or yyy mahogany.

heavy = better? or otherwise?

Stop Worrying about an amp now..... just worry about the pickups!

And I tried the Laney....... Didn't like it.....

Oh, The Spider III, haven't tried it..... but tried the Spider II........ sounds like microchips.

Quoted for truth.

Putting Seymour Duncans on my sub-RM650 guitar worked wonders.

You pay for what you get -- that's the whole main point here. If somebody can afford a premium guitar, s/he would be going for it without much qualms. The key word here is, we CAN'T.

IF the pickups on branded guitars are so good, why do we still see people changing 'em?

@sean ==> I'm not merely talking about the branding. It's true that testing a guitar before buying it is vital, but I feel the most important thing is a "connection", if you will, between the instrument and the owner. For example, when I bought my warlock, I was looking through all the other guitars at the store. All of them sounded great, but I didn't feel that "connection". They made an awesome sound, but that was about it.
Then I saw my warlock in a corner, beat up as it was, tried it, and bought it immediately. Haven't looked back since.
But it's always a matter of personal preference. I for one never really liked the tone of SX stuff. So to me, of course I would say change the guitar.

But honestly, man, active on a SX? Unless you're actively gigging I feel you should just stick with the stock pickups on the SX. han3, you already said you were gonna work part time and save up money right? Just do that, but save the money for a new guitar, just IMHO. Since you're still brushing off the dust and learning new tricks and licks, save up, and get a wicked new guitar when you get really good, and do yourself justice.

.....and I need to start making shorter posts.

FLAME ON

dude this argument has gone on since before elvis presley came along.
thats why gibson in the 50s came along to offer quality stylish instruments to the mass public

and there is no rule that says you must reach a certain skill to own a certain guitar, this is not like bloody DOTA or whatever where u must level up to earn it.
so wat? must reach level666 godmode to earn a '59 LP?
oh man, in that case the guys in avenged sevenfold or even MCR have already reached very close to that level since they obviously arent using SX...damn what is the world coming to

yes, it may be irritating to you when someone who can only play MCR owns a AAAAA Flame top Gibson LP Custom Shop '57 VOS reissue with 100yr old Brazilian Rosewood fretboard...but then its their money.

ok, this post may get too long...so at the risk of reading this for longer than it takes for an avenged sevenfold guitar solo...i'll stop here for now

Well, to me, it doesn't matter what brand the guitar is or how expensive..... a good pick-up can really change the way a guitar can sound...... believe me, I know.

I installed a pair in my crappy LP-100 and it did wonders for the sound.

To me the pickups will definitely be a great improvement.
And who cares if it's a Gibson or SX, its the playing that counts most in the end.

Well, go ahead, buy a set and install it yourself. I earned my Guitar Electronics 101 cert that way.

If you're happy then we're happy!

I know, but I'm talking about this case. Which he's just a student. So its not feasible aight?

Actives sounds similar in most guitars that is made out of the same woods. Its actives, power > tone. At least thats how I hear active pickups. I'm not a huge fan of active pickups cause to me they sound harsh and tonally dull, but thats just me.

This post has been edited by sean392: Nov 3 2007, 01:57 PM

thanks for all ur comments......
i'll just earn up that 750 first.. then only decide whether to change the pickups.
right now i'll just concentrate on improving..

go for it like i did! u will like it!
pickups are transferable! no worry dude!

Lol,I love that skull crushing tone of 5150!Playing Necrophagist with that is extreme br00tal-ness

TS: I think that's the bottomest of the bottomest bottom line: get kick-@ss pickups and load em up into your SX, coz the pickups are transferable.

Later if you save up money for a new guitar, chances are it won't be an ESP Custom Shop loaded with the dream pickups of your choice. (Unless you hit the jackpot.)

Chances are, you're next guitar will be better quality, but it may not come with the pickups that you like. So you may end up swapping pickups again then.

So if you think that EMGs are going to do it for your, get em now and when your next guitar comes along, pop em in there...

Are you sure that you want the EMG-ZW set in the first place? I bought that set pretty much on a whim but some days, that "character-less" sound kinda annoys me. The EMG-81 and EMG-85 are very high output pickups, and you may find that it makes your mistakes more apparent. That's not a bad thing overall because it'll force you to clean up your technique.. don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking your technique since I've never seen/heard you play, but it's easy to sound like a train-wreck when you're playing with high-output pickups.

For RM750, you can take your pick of any 2 Seymour Duncan or Dimarzio pickups. You might want to scout around first before buying any pickups...

if ur nex gita wud b in the range of 2-4k chances are u wil use the pups
if ur nex is a 6-10k range den they're oredi stock wit pups

like now...
im stuck wit the idea of changin pups or save up more for a better 2nd hand...
but of cz u can sell it wen u get 1 of the high range 1
but my fren is oredi stuck wit sellin his pups...

after he upgraded his JEM Jr wit 3x DiMarzios
suddenli a great deal of his dream gita appear
wit a very very gud price

now he owns the JS series
but the pups and gita stil nt yet sell out
he damn stress dy T-T

too bad he isnt selling the pups i'm aiming for. else might buy from him.
saw someone selling jb/jazz, but reserved. T_T