Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: humanfuseben on September 08, 2011, 06:23:49 AM
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I am putting together another Ibanez 7 (tremolo, basswood body, maple board and neck) right now and i'm trying to decide on a bridge pickup! I had been pretty set on using the Cold Sweat 7, but i've been hearing a lot of good things about the Warpig.
I play progressive metal, with a little djenty stuff in there (listen to my band in my signature...). My favorite pickups i've tried are the Dimarzio D Sonic and Crunchlab, and the Bareknuckle Aftermath.
My favorite tones are the Meshuggah NONE EP, Periphery's tone on "Letter Experiment", Fear Factory's Demanufacture album, and good ol' Van Halen I and II. I play a Peavey XXX with somewhat low gain. Halps!
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If you're talking about the Alnico warpig, it's a completely different animal to the Cold Sweat. Completely.
What's your tuning? Out of those two for your purposes, I'd choose the Cold Sweat. Asking djenty stuff and Van Halen from the same pickup call for much :) I'm a little out of my field here, as I don't really have much (listening) experience on meshuggah or periphery.
Maybe Ceramic Nailbomb, if you'd like something else than the aftermath? Painkiller has a voicing that doesn't actually scream VH. And Cold Sweat has perhaps a little too neutral midrange for djent. Well, others might chime in..
-Zaned
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I'm going to make what will seem like a left-field suggestion here - try the Emerald 7. In a 7-string it is an incredible blend of tightness and clarity, while also being a very rich and expressive lead pickup. Although the tone chart has it labelled as being very treble-heavy, it is not as bright as a ceramic pickup like the Aftermath or Cold Sweat.
The benefit of having an alnico pickup is the midrange is so much more open, and the treble is smoothly rolled off at the extreme top end, but because of the wind and output the low end is very direct and focussed, like what you'd expect from a ceramic pickup.
Tim himself has an Emerald 7 in an RG1527, and the sound is absolutely insane. I think you would really appreciate the extra dynamics and rich midrange for the more progressive aspects of your band's stuff.
If you're looking for a neck pickup too, the VHII is the perfect match.
EDIT: I might add that I'll be using the Emerald/VHII combination in my main 7s from this point too
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I guess i was more interested in the C Pig than the alnico version. We usually use drop A tuning, but we have some stuff we're writing in B, too.
Nolly i'd really like to hear that Emerald. On paper it looks a little low on the output, which is my only concern, and i've heard alnico pickups can get a little loose on the low B, right? Looking forward to hearing some clips of it!
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Oh and also, i'm not really looking to get the ol' Brown Sound out of the pickup :) just threw that in because i love the chirpy pick attack and healthy dose of treble Eddie had on there.
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It will definitely feel less compressed than the hotter pickups you're used to, but having seen your playing I don't think you need that compression as a crutch at all. For a good player such as yourself the tonal rewards for moving down in output will be pretty huge - you'll find the pickup so much more dynamically expressive and the midrange character a lot more open, punchy and broader sounding.
Yes, if you compare an alnico magnet against a ceramic with all other factors kept constant, the ceramic will have the more focussed low end. But here the lighter wind and bigger wire gauge of the Emerald means the pickup simply doesn't reproduce as much extreme low end (I mean the real low "woof" frequencies here - there's still plenty of chunk), so it is very tight indeed.
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Hmm, interesting.... and thanks for the kind words about my playing!
The only thing that has me a little wary about the lower output stuff is that i play pretty lightly. i've always used lighter gauge strings and low action (wimp lol), so i learned how to play lightly in order to not crush the strings or get some cruddy buzz going on. I don't play with a lot of gain on my amp, so i like to have a little bit of compression coming from the pickup to kinda boost my pick attach, i guess you could say. i'm concerned that something that low output might give me some trouble!
also, i've noticed you've not reccomended the Cold Sweat at all! Is there a reason for that? Also, i just listened to your Nail Bomb demo you did for BKP and i am LOVING that tone. i hadn't even considered that one!
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Well it really is up to you dude! The Emerald isn't exactly vintage output at all - it's not like a Stormy Monday or PG Blues or something, so it does still have some degree of compression, just not as much as the triple ceramic/45AWG monsters like the Aftermath/Warpig etc.
The Cold Sweat is great. In a 7-string format it is a lot fatter sounding than the 6-string pickup (to my ears anyway) and would work great in an Ibanez RG 7. I'd probably recommend the Nailbomb (alnico) to you over the Cold Sweat if you decide you don't want to risk the Emerald, just because the Nailbomb has a more earthy midrange character that I prefer for lead work over the Cold Sweat. The Nailbomb will be a little looser than the Cold Sweat but since you are using fairly light strings on a superstrat style guitar with a floating trem, I don't think you have much to worry about as far as flub goes.
If you are interested in the Nailbomb, check out this direct comparison I did of the Nailbomb to the Aftermath in the same guitar. They're the 6-string versions but I think you'd find the differences consistent to that in the 7-string models:
http://soundcloud.com/nolly/nailbomb-vs-aftermath
P.S. which Nailbomb demo of mine were you referring to? The old ceramic NB demo clip on the BKP youtube or the ones on the actual site?
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This is the video i was talking about, i reckon its the Ceramic magnet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCVMIDp8jt4
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Yeah, that is the ceramic Nailbomb. Definitely a cool pickup!
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Okay, right on.... so you wouldn't even think i should consider a C Pig, then?
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It's certainly not out of the question or a silly choice or anything, but I feel like if you're interested in a wide breadth of tones you get more out of a lower output unit.
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Okay, right on.... so you wouldn't even think i should consider a C Pig, then?
Well, I'm a die-hard fanboy of the Pigs and would recommend them to people playing Indie Rock if I could get away with it, but still.. I think nolly is right here, as usual.
The C-pig is a viable option, and can do a lot more than you'd think a roaring, vicious spawn of Satan would be able to. It even pull off a good djent, if need be. But even though you say you use moderate gain, I still think the C-pig would be a bit too "noisy" and angry-sounding for that sort of stuff.
tl;dr: I'd go with Nolly's suggestion if I were you :lol:
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Hmm interesting stuff indeed! Does anyone have clips of the Emerald doing some heavier stuff?
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I'll do a short clip for you if you like, I've had an Emerald in my Dæmoness 7-string for about 24 hours now (sounds insane).
Do you have a reamp box? If so I'll send you a DI so you can hear it through your own rig!
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Never thought about the Emerald 7 myself. The tone charts definetly make it look like a bright $%&#er so It would be interesting to hear hi-gain or reamped clips.
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this sounds like an interesting idea Nolly, trying some of the medium hot series.. According to your opinion does the emerald 7 still retain 'body' while being bright? cause looking at the chart, i'd say it would be thin as a final result..
here's my thing- I used to have a painkiller 7 in my guitar which used to sound great with some amps, but i found it too shrill with a piercing upper mid spike and with my boogie mk5, it just did not sound pleasing and had that terrible quack on upper strings..
then i switched over to a holydiver7 which made a better result and instantly gave me a push in the lows and 'body' but not in those FQs i was thinking it would.. the deal is that even with the bass side of the pickup being lower than the treble side, there's still too much bass and less definition as if it was trying to fight with my guitar's natural voice :) if i leave it too low, the sound looses compression and becomes rounder, which just sounds weird with staccatos and with the whole PUP being too high the bass gets even more present and does not allow higher pitched strings to sound even once i reach out for comples chords..
so at least I know that I should be looking for something with alnico 5 which sounds less shrill than the ceramic painkiller but with a simlar sound in terms of compression and tightness but with less quack, less harsh spike and more 'chug'.. so my idea would be- A-bomb or Emerald7 or VHII7
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Well, you're certainly not going to get anywhere near the same level of compression as a Painkiller from the Emerald, but I think you'll find the Emerald has a noticeably smoother extreme treble despite the high rating on the tone chart. That said, I think if you were to be going for something along those lines the Rebel Yell might be a better choice - a little hotter and fuller sounding