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Westone Thunder II

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12/2/1997 11:49 AM

Westone Thunder II

Hi all,
I have a Westone Thunder II. (Don't laugh, it is one of the early models, so it plays pretty well. I put in the hands of many label snobs and they are pretty impressed.) Anyway, I think it is made of maple. Except for being heavy, my only gripe has been the low notes which are kind of muddy. I had a set of Carvin H22 pickups, but thought they were too hot modern sounding. I kinda think the maple seems to cancel the mids a bit. I have played SD 59s and really didn't think much of the bridge pick up. So, anyone have a pick up combo in mind for blues/classic rock sound for such a guiar?
Thanks

12/3/1997 2:42 PM

John:
The quickest way to tell which pickups you'll like is if you could hear them in a similar guitar. Otherwise, you'll probably get many opinions which may help you or at least force you to do more homework until you make a good decision.

Most guitars I fool with use single coil pickups, so a humbucker expert I'm not. I do have two LP style guitars with aftermarket pickups. One is a Hamer Studio that came with a SD JB in the bridge and a SD 59 in the neck. I thought the 59 sounded rather "blurry", lacked clarity, and I don't know why. So I replaced it wth a SD Pearly Gates (with alnico II magnets) and now I like the guitar much better. It's a fairly high output setup, compared to standard PAF's.
The other guitar has a DiMarzio Fred in the bridge and a PAF-Pro in the neck. This is also a hot but tame setup and sounds pretty good.

Pick up both catalogs, Duncan & DiMarzio, and just keep readin' and thinkin'. Keep referring to the charts at the back of the book for some visualization of output levels and tonal balance.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Doc

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