Okay, this is going to be odd. You've been warned.
I know nothing about pickups. And until about a week ago, had no experience with solid body electric guitars. Now I have two. The first I'm going to leave alone (Eric Clapton model Fender Strat), the second, however, is another story.
This little guitar is a Pignose PGG-200 Deluxe. It's made by Aria for Pignose, whose fame is 40 years of making small practice amps with lots of guts. The signature item on a Pignose is the on/off/volume control in the shape of a pig's snout. For the record, I've had two Pignose amps for nearly 40 years!
So, this little (it's a travel guitar, 32" total length, with a full-size 18" fretboard, 22 frets) solid body has a built-in amp (it also has an earphone jack and a full 1/4" output jack) with the speaker mounted where the soundhole would be on an acoustic guitar. There is one bridge pickup, and only one control: on/off/volume. The pickup is supposedly a single humbucker, but I'm not real sure. I can post a photo if anyone thinks it would help. Even still, the sound I get is quite tinny, and there's a horrible amount of feedback and squealing at low and high volumes. At middle volume it levels out a bit, but the tone is still thin.
I bought a new set of strings for it, a heavier gauge (.11-.48 Ernie Ball Power Slinky) but haven't replaced the stock set. Here's the gist of my post: I'm thinking of replacing the pickup with something a little more high quality. I asked Seymour Duncan and was recommended the "little 59," "JB Jr" or "Hot Rails." These were suggested based on the guitar's specs: basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard.
Watching a video on replacing a pickup makes me think taking it to a luthier is a better choice for me. I'm lousy with soldering irons, and I'd have to buy a bunch of tools I'd only use once. Better to pay someone, in my opinion. My main question then, is what would your pickup recommendations be? I think I've given enough information about the guitar. My playing is less shredding, ear-splitting, wet-your-pants rock than it is "classic" rock, some fingerstyle and a bit of jazz. However, I don't want to limit myself to those, otherwise why buy solid body guitars?
Please be gentle on me. I'm new to the forum, and new to electric-only guitars. If I hadn't fallen in love with this little Pignose, I probably wouldn't be in this area of the site in the first place. :)
Duke Ellington said it best: "If it sounds good, it IS good!"
