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Joined: October 2003 Posts: 4
Location: Ireland | Hi y'all. Still thinking of buying a solidbody viper. There's these 2 on eBay right now that I'm trying to complare but don't know enough about these guitars. One has p/u's replaced with EMG's, how would this affect tone ? Also has a coil tap on the bridge p/u. What's this ? Any info would be appreciated. Many thanks.
The 2nd one looks like all the hardware is stock. Which is the better buy in your opinion?
eBay item 2
eBay item 1 |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | EMG's are fine pickups, but it's a bit like putting humbuckers on a Tele & expecting it to still sound like a Tele. The EMG's will change the character of the guitar completely, it'll be a good sound but it won't be a Viper sound. The coil tap shuts off one of the two coils in the pickup, which will make the EMG humbucker sound a little more like the original Ovation single-coil pickups. Which one is best depends on your needs & the asking price. If you need a Viper and prefer single coils go for the guitar that is stock. If you just need a decent electric guitar either will be fine, but I'd want to pay less than the going rate for the modified guitar. |
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Joined: December 2001 Posts: 7211
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I agree with Paul about the sound. As far as "best buy" I normally stick with a stock guitar and modify it myself if I want to. That way I can always convert it back to original if I decide to sell it someday. For some reason the first link isn't working at the moment, but the EMG powered guitar also has other modifications.
For what it's worth, I think the original Viper pickups give you more variety in sound than the EMG's. The EMG's have a particular sound which I also like, but the Viper pickups can also emulate many other sounds with use of tone, selection. vol and amp settings. |
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Joined: October 2003 Posts: 4
Location: Ireland | OK guys thanks for the info.
:) |
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Joined: May 2002 Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | As a happy original Viper owner, I might point out that a Viper with non standard pickups might also have been carved up as very few pickups fit the Viper design other than Viper pickups. |
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