Hot Pups

[tot_Ou_tard]

Are hot pups (singles, P90s, 'buckers) hard to keep clean?

I've gotta have great clean tone to start with.

[marnold***]

By definition, yes. The Atomic II humbucker on my Fender is almost impossible to keep clean. The Boutique CL model on my Vox overdrives ever so slightly. I added a coil tap both to cut the heat and to give a little single coil shimmer. As the pup itself is 16.4K, even 8.2K is very hot for a single coil, but it doesn't overdrive the amp.

In general, I'd lean towards getting a lower output pup and using an OD pedal to increase the output and/or give that nice midrange boost. Having said that, I love that Atomic II to death.

[duhvoodooman***]

Harder than lower output p'ups, for sure, particularly humbuckers. For the really hot ceramic ones, it's essentially impossible at any reasonable volume level on the guitar & amp. If you lean to clean, I'd stick with medium output, tops...

[tot_Ou_tard]

That's what I thought. I was just so smitten with that Eastwood Tuxedo, but then I worried about clean tones.

If a had Spudherd or a Dreadherd, I wouldn't worry about it, but I want my next (3rd) guitar to be my number 1.