hey Ed Rafalko

[Marshallhead]

if i remember correctly you have a duncan distortion loaded in one of your lp ri's-how is the tone and what type of amp are you using?i'm looking to buy another r9 or an r8 and want to load one of these in it-i'll probably use it for the modern rock band i'm in and i was curious in the event i use it with the blues band if it is workable for a gary moore type tone-any help would be great
thanks

 

[Robert Sherman]

I have a pair of SD distortions in a 95 LP std. I play it through a JCM 800 and a Mesa rack. It's probably a little hot for Gary Moore, but you could make it work. Definately does the modern rock thing in spades. You might want to try a SD Custom and slap an alnico V magnet in it. That would be much better suited to Moores rock/blues tone, and will still give you the modern rock tones as well.

 

[Ed Rafalko]

I run most of the time through two Marshall ELad 12 solid state amps- I plug the single end of a Y cable into the guitar and the ends into the two amps. It seesm to work well and I get lots of fullness at very very low volume. When I'm not doing that I'm plugging into the plexi 50-watt reissue with a master mod and gain-increasing mods, also with a litle revoicing of the tone stack.

OFr some things, the DD through the plexi is too much gain- to get a decent Gary moore tone I think I'd have to turn the gain on the plexi down quite a bit. On the LKead 12's, I haven't tried but I suspect that turnign teh gain down will help somewhat- but i won't get the sustain I'm thinking you'll want.
Overall, the DD is a great pickup though. I'm not currently playing the LP r9- it's had its hardware removed and I am blueprinting the wood. Eventually it will be back together, and I migh try the Seth in the bridge again to see if it works at all in my situation for what I'm looking for. I do think, though, thati will end up putting the DD back in unless myKorina Dean ML ends up with a zebra DD in the bridge.
The R9 is a very bright guitar, and the DD just screams through anything with it. The Seth is a bit more mellow but not a whole lot. I've noted that the DD adds distrtion to teh amp, ewhile the Seth lets the amp add more of its voice to the signal. I think both sound really good.