Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: AndreasRJ on August 07, 2011, 01:16:50 PM
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If you want to give me your 2 cents, please read my post thoroughly first - I don't mean to be rude, but the advice I seek is a little specific
Hi everybody
Backstory(quick summary, just wrote a novel, and then i hit "close" by accident): I play death metal with a focus on heaviness and some Behemoth/Nile-ish epic parts mixed in.
Got an RG7620 some time back with an AM bridge and MM. Love the AM, tight, agressive, pissed of, heavy palm mutes, awesome! Don't really love the MM, sound is to round, needs character, sizzle, something special. For lead sounds, I really dig the searing kinda sound, like the first bend in Still got the blues or the sound you can get if you pull of a low note, hammer on the note and make a fluid slide to a high note. Just sounds awesome.
Now: I have another RG7620 that I want to get BKPs for. And I want to ask you if you could describe how some of the contemporary BKPs sound and what they can do for me?
Most of the time I hear about clarity and tightness of different BKPs, so if instead of talking about these to things in regards to pickups you could maybe just rate clarity and tightness for a given pickup on a 1-10 scale and have the focus be on the other characteristics of the pickups(of course some pickups, like the Aftermath, you have to mention the exceptional tightness, but there is much more to it)
Also, the typical bass, lo/hi mid, treble description does not do me much good when it gets to detailed(and nerdy... sorry :P). Maybe also a 1-10 rating
The pickups that are most on my mind are Coldsweat(it seems like everyone thinks it just sounds "good), Warpig(often described as "massive", I like massive), Holydiver neck(described as best lead pickup ever, since that is what I use my neck pickup for it sounds tempting), Nailbomb(not sure why, and I am a bit cautious since I have also heard bad things about it, like it sounding like there is a pillow over the amp(gasp)) and Miracle man bridge(described as perfect for basswood, does not know a lot other than that)
I hope you can help me out, advice on specific pickups to buy is great too, but I prefer to get as much info as possible and then base my decision on that
Cheers
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Hey Andreas. Din miracle man skal have alle skruerne drejet en hel omgang op af. Derefter skal du indstille den så skruerne er ca 4 mm fra strengene, dvs så tæt på at de nærmest rører skruerne når du trykker ned.
Det her giver en nærmest dæmonisk tone. Sådan er det sat på op min Mockingbird.
red. Det her er for bridge modellen. Vær en mand og fjern neck pickuppen. De tjener intet godt.
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(Just discussing pickup height in danish :P)
Det vil jeg prøve, men kan bridge pickuppen ikke tåle at blive sat meget højere end neck pickuppen kan?
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Jo men jeg læste ikke hele dit oplæg igemmen. Jeg troede at du havde aftermath i den ene og miracle man i den anden. men gå for miracle man'en i den anden, så kan du også passende smide neck modellen i den.
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Not trying to be rude or anything, but if the information was in English maybe it would be useful to the rest of users.
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Right, I'll translate.
Mads adviced me to raise all the screws on the pickup a turn, and then get them to be about 4 mm from the strings, for a really demonic tone, which he had done with his bridge MM.
Then I asked if the neck MM wouldn't take the close proximity to the screws differently.
Then he wrote that he thought I had a MM bridge in one guitar and an AM in the other
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Right, I'll translate.
Mads adviced me to raise all the screws on the pickup a turn, and then get them to be about 4 mm from the strings, for a really demonic tone, which he had done with his bridge MM.
Then I asked if the neck MM wouldn't take the close proximity to the screws differently.
Then he wrote that he thought I had a MM bridge in one guitar and an AM in the other
Thanks :)
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nåø æntendi pørra neimhümma
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nåø æntendi pørra neimhümma
LOL! who learned you that? :D
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Anyone?
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I can give you some impressions on the contemporary models that I have which are the Holydiver, Crawler, A-Nailbomb, Miracle Man and Cold Sweat. In terms of clarity and tightness I would rank the bridge Models from tightest/clearest to least tight clear as follows:
1. Cold Sweat
2. Miracle Man
3. A-Nailbomb
4. Holydiver
5. Crawler
Keep in mind however that these comparisons are somewhat isolated since I only had the Miracle Man and the Cold Sweat in the same guitar. And I also have not yet tested the models described as super-tight (Painkiller, Aftermath).
Neck pickups: I know the Cold Sweat, VHII and Crawler. They are all relatively low output (PAF territory). The VHII would be the clearest and tightest of those three.
So if clarity and tightness is what you are after, and you want something a bit different from the Aftermath, I would look at Cold Sweat bridge and VHII neck.
Cheers Stephan
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Thanks for your response. I do want clarity and tightness, but I did not mean that that is the nr. 1 thing I'm looking for. What I meant was that I am less interested in hearing about tightness and clarity(as I hear that all BKPs are pretty tight and clear) and much more interested in the tonal characteristics of the pickups.
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Ok, I'll try!
Black Dog: Very muscular tone, with a distinct clarity on the upper end. Single note are round and clear, even with gain. The low end and mids have a thick character. Very balanced, it feels more powerful than its output suggest and doesn't mush out with gain.
Nailbomb: Rather aggressive in its nature. Lows are sufficiently tight - it still has a bit of the typical Alnico sag to it - the mids feel a bit old-school. The top end is rather warm and dark, but very articulate, it works very well with thinner strings/standard tuning, as it thickens single notes a bit. I personally prefer the "vintage" side of the pickup more than its modern side, which you get when you boost it. I wouldn't call it a very "fat" sounding pickup, its sound is more narrow and mid-focused.
Miracle Man: Awesome low end and low mids; hard and bright top end - really pumped out a lot of clarity into my amp's preamp. On standard tunings the treble strings could sound a bit thin. The rhythm sounds never disappoint.
Holy Diver: Fatter than the Nailbomb, balanced with a very 80s touch to it. The low end is big and warm. IMO it is more 80s Hard Rock than modern metal. Using a boost can bring out a more modern nature with it. The best part here is the lead sound: fluid and lots of harmonics; my gripe: the low end could have more clarity and presence.
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Crawler: in a swampash strat: beefy, growling when pushed, emphasized mids, but still a good balance, tight enough for anything but metal, hot-PAF-character, little compressed therefore great, thick, creamy solotones, never harsh but enough bite in an bolt-on guitar.
VHII: in an ash strat: punchy, ballsy, superb vocal qualities in singlenotes, cleans up great and the cleantones are happening, quite some highs but balanced, when you dig in overtones jump out, great classic rock- to 80's metal-tones, a humbucker that loves to be controlled by the guitarvol.knob.
For both: handle ampgain and pedals very well. Quiet.
I guess you are interested in humbuckers, not in sc's?
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Thanks for your replies people! Anyone got a take on the Cold Sweat? Neck and bridge, but mostly curious about the bridge, as I know nothing about it in that position, but people say that it is great in basswood.
I think I'm on a Holydiver neck!
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I have the Cold Sweat set in a mahogany body/carved maple top Soloist style guitar. The CS bridge is the definite hard rock pickup: bright, clear but not harsh at all, very tight in the bass but not unforgiving, lots of growl and power but not overpowering. Harmonics jump out of it. The CS neck is warm, round and clear, maybe a bit too warm compared to the bridge but this makes for a distinct voicing when both pickups are selected. Especially the CS bridge has made this guitar my favorite.
I have only had one basswood guitar in my life. It had a maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard, a Floyd Rose, two PJ Marx humcancelling single coils and a DiMarzio PAF Pro (later a FRED). That was a nice guitar. I believe the CS would have made it even nicer better ("nice" is not the appropriate word for a pickup with that much cut and bite as the CS bridge).
Cheers Stephan