[madmarcus1960]

I have a cheap RG470AHM w an maple neck that I'm modding. I want to put the pair of a Breed bridge and Fred in the neck. I need a complimentary middle. I have a few DMZ singles hanging around. A Heavy Blues 2, HS-3, True Velvet middle RW, and some Fender noiseless(Vintage and Hot).

I play and write a lot of instrumental stuff. A lot of sustain, but with clarity, not a lot of distortion.

Any ideas will be appreciated, even if it means buying yet another pickup .

Marcus

PS: I also have Petrucci set, Liquifire and Crunchlab if anyone wants to chime in on a middle for those 2.

[DarthPhineas]

Work your way through the ones you already have there and see if you already have a winner.

[madmarcus1960]

Oh mighty Sith , where would YOU start? The True Velvet is in between Nita Strauss's two high output HB's in her sig' Ibby.

[Mark]

True velvet with the breed/fred. Heavy Blues with the liquifire and crunchlab.

[BluesJam]

Obviously you got options,

1) you can use the HS3 wired in single coil which you can get more output, from this low powered pickup.
2) heavy blues, as a humbucker only, still maybe a bit weak.
3) true velvet.

I’m intrigued with a hot single humbucker in the middle position like the Sugar Chakra, lowered down a bit to give you more picking space in the middle of the picking area of the guitar.  HSH configurations minimize your available picking area.  Tone changes on where you pick along the strings,  pickup heights, and magnetic pull on the strings.

If you plan to split the humbuckers in the 2 & 4 Position, a True Velvet or FS1 would work, especially if you can get them wired in hum cancelling.

[madmarcus1960]

Thanks gents, I think I'll start with the True Velvet first and go from there.

[madmarcus1960]

True velvet with the breed/fred. Heavy Blues with the liquifire and crunchlab.

Well, I went the way of the Petrucci set with a Heavy Blues 2 in the middle. Had to put the HB2 out of phase by normal Dimarzio wiring to get it in phase with the HB's. Great sounding guitar now, especially uing a Marc 2C++ on my AXE3.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[DarthPhineas]

Oh mighty Sith , where would YOU start? The True Velvet is in between Nita Strauss's two high output HB's in her sig' Ibby.

I would start by installing one. Trying it out for a week or so. Then try another. And so on until I’ve worked through all on hand.

[darkbluemurder]

Oh mighty Sith , where would YOU start? The True Velvet is in between Nita Strauss's two high output HB's in her sig' Ibby.

I would start by installing one. Trying it out for a week or so. Then try another. And so on until I’ve worked through all on hand.

+1. Only you can finally decide which you like best in your guitar and with your rig, and only after having tried at least one of the pickups you have you will be able to assert what (if anything) is still missing in your tone.

Happy experimenting,
Stephan