opinion on a neck pickup to play blues

Hey guys, i have posted before asking about pickups for my PRS se, sorry to bug you guys again but i really need help. i already know and am happy with the bridge pickup. but i seriously want a bluesy sound coming out of the neck pickup. anyone have much experience with a blues pickup and whats good. i have a PRS se Tremonti. i know his real american built guitar has a bluesy style in the neck and agressive in the bridge i am kind of looking for the same thing. shoot us what you recommend and ill do some research if thats cool. thanks again

Well, blues is often down to how you play and your frame of mind than the equipment, but almost all the classic '60s and early '70s blues albums where the player was using a Gibson would have had PAF (or very similar) pickups in. So I'd first suggest a PAF style pickup. depends on your budget but at the lower end there are the Tonerider AC2 and Irongear Blues Engine, which are both PAF style pickups with Alnico II magnets. Moving up in price there's the Seymour Duncan 59. I fitted a used 59 set into a friends copy LP and it sounded fantastic. There are numerous other SD pickups that would also be suitable - the Alnico II pro, the Seth Lover (though this is unpotted so may be a bit more microphonic than you want if you use a lot of gain).

Obviously there are many other manufacturers out there, but I'd certainly be looking at anything based on a classic PAF, or just slightly overwound. I'd avoid anything too hot or with ceramic magnets or you'll be back where you started.

The other option is to fit a humbucker-sized P90 pickup. These sound great for blues - both beefy and clear, and I think let a lot more playing nuances come through than with humbuckers. I haven't fitted any to any guitars (just true P90s) so don't know exactly how they sound compared to true P90s, put they shouldn't be that far off. Here you've got the Tonerider Rebel 90, the Iron gear Alchemist 90, SD Phat Cats etc. The only drawback with these is that you won't get uncovered versions, so unless you've got a covered pickup in the bridge, it's going to look a bit odd.

Which leads me on to probably the most versatile - if not cheap - option. I have got a Seymour Duncan P-Rails neck pickup fitted to an Ibanez RG. This is a P90 coupled with a rail single coil in one pickup.

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So with the right switching, you can get full humbucker, P90 and a single coil sound from it. SD do a matching pickup ring with a couple of small switches to allow you to select the various options without otherwise affecting the wiring of your guitar. This makes it easy to remove and replace the original pickup if you ever want to sell the guitar on but keep the P-rails - but again, the switched ring isn't cheap. However it does give you a very versatile guitar.

Two push/pulls will give a P-Rail all 4 options too: series humbucker, parallel humbucker, P90, or Rail.

It will, but it's a bit more wiring and not that much cheaper to do. But if you then put the original pickup back, you could re-use the push-pull switches for coil taps or series/parallel wiring on the original pickups. All depends on your level of soldering and wiring confidence.

thanks heaps guys. i did notice the rebel 90 nickel humbucker size pickup and wasnt sure if that would be a good option. but with the info you have given ill definately look into what you mentioned. thanks once again. 😊

Just found out that TV Jones do a humbucker-sized P90 with a black plastic cover - though it certainly in the 'expensive' class.

ok ill have a look. thanks again Simon