u/Tomato_Town_Massacre

Has anyone here ever put any pickups as hot as the 500T into an SG? I tried searching for demos of an SG with a 500T on YouTube but didn’t find much (maybe there’s a reason for that). I want something hotter than the standard 490T, and am thinking of swapping it out with either a 498T or 500T, but worried it may sound like an ice pick due to the aggressive highs.

Thoughts?

I am trying to improvise in a way that sounds more musical and intentional as opposed to playing scale/mode runs, or simply trying to randomize the order with which I play notes in a scale pattern. I keep hearing that the best way to improvise is to target chord tones and I have two primary questions about that:

What’s the best way to locate/identify specific chord tones around where I’m playing on the neck? Does that come by sheer fretboard memorization, memorizing chord tones locations based on CAGED shapes, or memorizing where chord tones are in various scale/mode shapes?

What exactly does it mean to “target” chord tones? Does that mean my lick should resolve to or end on the tone in question? Does it mean to emphasize that tone by playing it more frequently than other notes in the given key? Trying to nail down what exactly it means to target a particular note.

Thanks in advance, and please let me know if my questions are based on any incorrect premises.