As promised, pic.
I hopes you guys like! 
Anybody in the central Michigan area looking to jam?
What kind of sound are you going for? I have Vintage Noiseless in my neck and bridge, and they sound ok, but for a more modern sound, the SCN pickups are amazing.
Lace sensors, I donāt have much experience with, but the guitar players in my area that use them use gold.
Iāve been thinking about upgrading my pickups as well. . .Iām still stuck with the MIM stock ones I have on my Strat. Iām just afraid that replacing them wonāt actually improve the tone very muchāI replaced the crappy Chinese tubes on my amp with decent ones, and it still sounded the same to me. I have an undiscerning ear, perhaps.
Anyways, Iāve been looking at the Bill Lawrence Keystone pickups seen here, and people generally seem to like his pickups. Plus, an entire Strat set is only like $75, which is a really great price.
Iām just leery of going back into my Stratās wiring, since I re-wired the entire thing a few months ago when I was doing the whole star grounding thing to elminate the 60-cycle hum. I donāt want to do that all over again.
Hey m0urning, do you know anything about the Peavey 5150 series? Iāve been listening to August Burns Red lately, and I think they use those heads on their newest album. I know youāre a VH fan, so I figured you would probably know a bit about them. Decent heads? Is the Peavey 6505 technically the same line?
so what are some good passive pickups? Iām starting to think on what my next setup will be, more like an upgrade from my emgās 6 string and practice amp. I know for sure Iām getting a halfstack from Electric Amps. My guitar teacher is leaning towards a mid range ibanez but I wonder if the stock passives will be enough for heavy/stoner rock sound.
Iāve been playing guitar for 6 years, and just recently started messing with the piano, and Iāve just gotta say that Piano is so much easier now than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Mainly because guitar is more complicated that just pressing the memorized keys on a piano. Chord fingering on guitar is a lot harder than on piano. All it takes is getting to know and getting use to your piano. But eh, guitar is badass.
āchord fingeringā errrā¦playing piano is alot harder since you play with both hands.
im sure basic music theory will help you get started with piano but to be good is a total different thing. 
Dimarzio. Go for a Tone Zone in the bridge and Air Norton in the neck, youāll love it.
Yes, same exact amps. These amps have mountains of gain and thats why a lot of newer core bands like them. Very saturated, high gain, super loud.
Zach Kim, Stanley Jordan, Andy McKee, and Justin King beg to differ. :rolleyes:
What about VHT? Iām looking for a gain that isnāt super saturated. Iām looking for something really really tight sounding. With a heavy, but dry distortion.
Getting that two handed coordination needed for piano is rediculous. Iāve decided to lay off of it until I can get a teacher. Until then, itās mah bass.
Edit: Also, I just ordered a book to help with my sight reading. Who here can read music proficiently?
I personally donāt know anything about VHT, but what youāre looking for these amps come to mind: Carvin Legacy, Carvin V3, Peavey JSX, Laney GH/VH/TT, Peavy Ultra. You can pull off what you want with the 6150 just keep the gain down and probably stay away from EMGs while using it. Use a medium gain passive pickup or even high gain passive pickups.
Honestly you can pull this kind of sound off with about any full tube amp that has at least 3 pre tubes in itā¦ it pretty much comes down to how you like how it sounds. You usually get the saturated sounds when you have 5 or more pre tubes. 2 power tubes with 3 pre tubes is gold because you can get that tight gain sound and you donāt have to sacrifice your hearing lol. :rock:
Which Legacy model? I was looking at the original Legacy because itās currently going for a decent price new.
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=VL412&cid=199
?
edit: The more reading Iām doing, the more Iām beginning to think that the Peavey 6505 is more along the lines of what Iām looking for.
theyāre tapping, that is not the same thing. :wtf:
again, playing the piano is harder than playing the guitar. that is a fact and every ārealā musician will tell you that.
I can read pretty well for the most part. Granted I have to slow most pieces down drastically while I read then eventually play them to speed. Bass isnāt always the best instrument for sight reading. It requires a ton of practice. Honestly, 6 string bass is the best IMO for sight reading since it doesnāt require too many position shifts as opposed to 4 string.
Itās kind of the same thing. The physical response is different, but itās technically the same thing- having coordination to play separate lines with both left and right hands. The best example is like Victor Wooten on bass, playing a walking bass line on his left hand, and either chord comping or soloing in the upper register with his right hand, of course tapping. The same concept applies to piano, granted piano is harder since itās not a linear instrument like bass or guitar.
But Stanley Jordan and Zach Kim are also both guitar players that used to play piano but switched to guitar because they thought Piano was ātoo easy.ā
Iām thinking of all the techniques you can do on the guitar that you canāt do on the piano right now. Quite a few come to mindā¦ and theyāre all pretty hard.
Wtf is a āRealā musician? A piano player? :nono:
Look at how the keys are arranged compared to the strings. If someone is going to call the guitar a linear instrument, look at the piano. Theyāre both linear, but the guitar at least has six-seven parallel lines in its arrangement, as opposed to the piano which has one long line of keys. While I do think Piano is very difficult to play, I just donāt buy the notion that it requires more technical proficiency than the guitar.
Plus, you say tapping isnāt the same thing, as if it invalidates my argument. Why isnāt tapping the same thing? Because it makes you wrong? Putting one or two hands on the guitar, pushing down strings, and making notes come out is playing the guitar, regardless of how you spin it.
Edit: @Grim: after re-reading this I realize I came off as a little too aggressive. I get really bothered by musicians that claim piano is harder than guitar, and I really jumped the gun on you. Sorry bud.
In terms of linear, I specifically meant not just in how the instruments are made, but linear in terms of how things are played visually. For example, you play a 12 note phrase in E flat somewhere on your neck on your guitar then move it down to C. Depending on what youāre playing, the notes might change, but basically you can play the same pattern without knowing the notes because of the instrument being linear.
Piano doesnāt work that way. When you move a phrase up or down, thereās no pattern or easy way of moving things around other than knowing 100% for sure what youāre playing.
Doesnāt having basic music theory knowledge kind of mitigate that?
Depends on how you look at moving the phrase around.
You *could *do it based on numeric pattern based around the scale degrees. If you didnāt know the exact notes in another key.
Iām basing it around improvisation though; in a situation where quick thinking is required.
I donāt have personal experience with them, but DiMarzioās 36th anniversary PAFs have a pants-creamingly good sound. And Seymour Duncan makes some great stuff. I have their Custom Custom in the bridge of my Agile, and I have another guitar with a Duncan-designed pickup thatās basically a budget-line JB humbucker. And I have (or used to have, since I just sold it yesterday) a modified Kramer Strat with a Hot Rails. All nice ass pickups.
Yeah, itās the 5150 II under a new name, since Ed and Peavey parted ways. Itās worth mentioning that Ed is making new 5150s under his own brand name.