Advice wanted on neck pickup Millenium DC Limited Edition

[BBKeef]

Hello,

My name is John living Amsterdam the Netherlands. I recently bought a brand new Millenium Double Cut Limited Edition. Did not need the guitar, had to trade other pretty guitars for it but the minute I held it I wanted it. It sounds wonderful and feels wonderful and looks wonderful.

Having said that, I have one thing that I am not 100% satisfied with and that is the neck pick up, a SD Seth Lover. It's a wonderful balanced PU, but it is has a tad to much bass for my liking. I like a bit more bite and transparancy in the neck position. In the bridge position I have a SD'59 which I find great.

It is kind of hard to state in understandable terms what I am looking for. As I said earlier, the SD Seth Lover has too much bass for me. I like it a bit more crisp; for example like the Super 58 that I have in my Ibanez John Scofield Model. Maybe a SD'59 would work in the neck position? As I said, it is hard to put exactly into words what I am looking for, but maybe some of you experts can give me a few useful pointers based on experience. Thanks!

[PunkKitty]

Hello and welcome! That's a beautiful guitar.

The Seth Lover has an Alnico 2 magnet. Alnico 2 is generally darker sounding than the Alnico 5 magnet the '59 has. Rather than change the pickup, I would change the magnet. It's fairly easy to do, but you have to be careful. If in doubt, have a guitar repair person do it. There are several YouTube videos about how to do it. Be careful removing the covers and protect the finish if you attempt to do the work yourself. There are several dealers of replacement magnets in the USA. I suspect that it won't be too difficult to find a dealer in Europe.

You might decide to replace the pickup. If so, I would put in a '59 to match the bridge.

[FredZepp]

Have you experimented with pickup height and pole piece height?   That's the first thing I'd do.   

BTW .. that is a stunning Heritage.  Congrats on finding that one! 

[Yooper]

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd think about swapping positions. Seth's are nice at the bridge, and the '59 would tighten up at the neck.

[DetroitBlues]

I stopped trying to swap pickups to match a sound in my head, instead I like to experiment with the tone/volume controls to find that sound I'm looking for.

Being a semi-hollow body user with Seth Lovers, I find those pickups to be my perfect combination.  Usually the Seth Lover neck position will be a bit more on the darker/woodier/muddier tone, which when paired on high-gain amps, can be absolutely marvelous, sort of a Slash tone.  If you play Jazz, roll back the tone knob on the same neck pickup and you're in prime jazz tone area.

Instead of messing with pickup swap, my favorite position is the middle.  I roll the volume down on the neck pickup and the sound is fabulous.  I get a little bite from the bridge and a tad bit of warmth from the neck.  When I'm ready for a more bite in the solo, I jump down to the bridge.  If the middle position is too mellow, decrease the neck volume a small amount, if it is too bright, increase the neck volume.

I get what you're trying to do, but I'd try that first.  So often, we jump from Neck to Middle, but forget there is a middle position.  Using that middle and the adjusting of tone controls, you just might find your happy place....

[Gianluca]

Congrats on that great Millennium :-)

[Millennium Maestro]

You did well!  The Millennium DC is the model most have not played but those who do appreciate greatly and won't sell.

 

Congrats

[CJTopes]

As a Millie owner I’d suggest a Pearly Gates in the neck. It’s not muddy and it has a good bite to it. I use the neck pup 80% of the time mixing it with the bridge pup. I’m using coil splits if I want a thinner tone with more clarity. 

Sweet looking Millie BTW. 

[BBKeef]

Thanks for your reactions, very helpful. I will digest it and let you know what I tried and how it played out, thanks again!

[chico]

nice diamond inlay in that headstock, mine came plain on my DC. But my H155 has the diamond. go figure. every Heritage different. Oh, and mine have the HRWs that were installed in them as standard before they started putting in the Seth Lovers, etc.

 

what's the color and serial? mine are Q (2000) and S (2002)   Translucent Red and Old Style burst.

 

beautiful axe go play it!

[tulk1]

11 hours ago, chico said:

nice diamond inlay in that headstock, mine came plain on my DC. But my H155 has the diamond. go figure. every Heritage different. Oh, and mine have the HRWs that were installed in them as standard before they started putting in the Seth Lovers, etc.

 

what's the color and serial? mine are Q (2000) and S (2002)   Translucent Red and Old Style burst.

 

beautiful axe go play it!

@chico Dude!! Nice of you to drop in. 

@BBKeef Stunning Millie DC. 

 

 

[BBKeef]

After some fiddling around with the original pickups I decided to go for something else and ended up with Lollar Imperial Low Winds both in the neck and bridge position. The really brought the guitar to life for me. Not the cheapest pickups, but worth every dime really excellent combination with this guitar. It realy fits the semi-acoustic sound of it.

BTW It turned out that the neck pickup was not a SD Seth Lover as it was supposed to be according to most specs that I found, but a Seymour Duncan SH1N which I simply did not like.

Anyway, very happy now, thanks for all the advice.

 

[golferwave]

The Lollar's are fantastic pickups,  Enjoy!

[MichYank]

That is a beautiful guitar! I hope you enjoy that for many years.

I don't have a pick up recommendation but would instead recommend you visit the pick up manufacturers websites and read the forum postings.  That might give you better direction.  Again, great guitar!

[High Flying Bird]

I have Imperials in one of my guitars.  They breath nicely.  The SD's I have had seemed too muddy.