Help me make a dumb decision

[mackerelmint]

I really like the mustang concept. It's different enough, and practical.

Also, as I came in to say and saw that it had been quoted from another thread: Two is the correct number of pickups, and the correct number of pickups is two. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

[alkalineHemlock]

Tri-sonics are among my most recent "eureka!" pickup discoveries. I have a set of the strat-sized "mini" trisonic as well as a vintage early-60's one that I've tried as a bridge pickup. The modern minis are definitely strattier, but not strat-like in a direct comparison. The narrower shape just sounds...narrower. Sharper, not quite as full.

I love them so much, I'm putting a set of the minis into a Marauder II build I have in the works.

They kind of occupy a similar space to the G&L MFD pickups, which kind of makes sense since they both employ ceramic bar magnets in a single coil now that I think about it. You get the kind of treble you only get out of a single coil, but with full bass and present but not hyped midrange. I like them a lot more than P90's, which I find too congested in the mids.

In the neck and middle, a trisonic-style pickup is very full but still clear. In the bridge, it's one of the best tones I've ever heard. Has treble bite and snarl in a way that only a great single coil does, but so full and so versatile.

There's an immediacy to the string attack that I love. The opposite of what a goldfoil or PAF does where the attack is round off and compressed. The trisonic just kind of launches notes out there in a way that would be sharp if it didn't have so much low end and midrange to go along with it.

This is what the full-size reissues sound like with a 25.5" scale. They're made overseas and are quite a decent value in tone-per-dollar. This is the directly comparable demo with the minis. The minis are more familiar to a Fender-acclimated ear. Same character, just a bit more slanted toward the treble. It's kind of like comparing a strat to a JM pickup in that sense (due to similar changes in coil geometry).

That sounds just about how I'd expected... ugh, so many options, so little cash. I need to figure out a way to fit all of these pickup combos into guitars at some point. I've been jonesing for a trisonic jag for a while now, and what you've said has totally rekindled that! Might be my next project, or maybe something for my kid sister. We'll see.

[alkalineHemlock]

I really like the mustang concept. It's different enough, and practical.

Also, as I came in to say and saw that it had been quoted from another thread: Two is the correct number of pickups, and the correct number of pickups is two. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

I know... It's really tempting. But I don't have the tools myself to route for a mustang trem at the moment. If I do that guitar, I'm gonna do it right. This project is more of a "throw it together and rock out" kind of thing.

Also, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that ethos. Where's the fun of confusing controls, cluttered aesthetics, and complete impracticality on a 2 pickup guitar?

[alkalineHemlock]

Top option, except just 2 P90s.

But I could buy that guitar anywhere! I want something complicated and stupid!

In that case, four Jag pickups!

This, I can get behind.

[mackerelmint]

Also, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that ethos. Where's the fun of confusing controls, cluttered aesthetics, and complete impracticality on a 2 pickup guitar?

In the toilet where it belongs?

[alkalineHemlock]

Also, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that ethos. Where's the fun of confusing controls, cluttered aesthetics, and complete impracticality on a 2 pickup guitar?

In the toilet where it belongs?

Well, this topic is called "help me make a dumb decision", so I guess it's fitting?

[SY6655321]

Top option, except just 2 P90s.

Deleted my post after I saw this.

[Embenny]

That sounds just about how I'd expected... ugh, so many options, so little cash. I need to figure out a way to fit all of these pickup combos into guitars at some point. I've been jonesing for a trisonic jag for a while now, and what you've said has totally rekindled that! Might be my next project, or maybe something for my kid sister. We'll see.

I put two Trisonic Minis into my HH Jag Special (using those $3 GFS humbucker-to-strat adapter rings) as an experiment, and it worked amazingly well. Not a huge surprise, I guess, since trisonics plus 24" scale is "THE" Brian May tone. I haven't wired them for series, but with stock Jag wiring (but 500k stock pots since it was an HH), it could honestly be my main guitar. It's that versatile. The strangle switch gets you close enough to standard Jag territory that you can use it for that style of tone, but it's super full yet clangy with the strangle switch off.

[mackerelmint]

Also, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that ethos. Where's the fun of confusing controls, cluttered aesthetics, and complete impracticality on a 2 pickup guitar?

In the toilet where it belongs?

Well, this topic is called "help me make a dumb decision", so I guess it's fitting?

Then why stop at 3 pickups? Go for five, with a sixth behind the bridge!

[alkalineHemlock]

Then why stop at 3 pickups? Go for five, with a sixth behind the bridge!

Don't test me. I'll do it.

I put two Trisonic Minis into my HH Jag Special (using those $3 GFS humbucker-to-strat adapter rings) as an experiment, and it worked amazingly well. Not a huge surprise, I guess, since trisonics plus 24" scale is "THE" Brian May tone. I haven't wired them for series, but with stock Jag wiring (but 500k stock pots since it was an HH), it could honestly be my main guitar. It's that versatile. The strangle switch gets you close enough to standard Jag territory that you can use it for that style of tone, but it's super full yet clangy with the strangle switch off.

Maybe 6 trisonics will be sufficient?