Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Venomboy on March 24, 2012, 08:10:11 PM
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I put a set of calibrated Aftermaths in my BC Rich handmade beast. It's either Alder or Mahogany. It's a super loud guitar, well balanced in terms of tone. I replaced the stock DiMarzio SuperD and PAF combo. I liked those but wanted something with tighter bass and the PAF is really deep in the neck.
The Aftermaths have a 500k volume and 250k tone. They are way too bright. I'm playing through a Framus Cobra, which is a bright amp to begin with. My speakers are Greenbacks. The low end is nice, tight, sharp, and percussive, not boomy at all. The mids are good. But the high mids and treble are far too sharp, almost ice-picky. It hurts my ears. Even with the treble and presence on the amp way down, I'm not digging it. The neck pickup is more tame but doesn't give me that Dave Murray bubbly tone I like; both the bridge and the neck pickups feel a bit thin in the high end. I have a DiMarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire in my Moser which sound really good. I really like the Liquifire in the neck. I had a DiMarzio Super 2 in the bridge of my Moser which was ungodly bright. The high end of the Aftermath reminds me of this a bit but the Aftermath has better mids and more low end than the Super 2.
The Aftermaths are super clear and responsive but I'm not loving them. I'm thinking they would work better in a really dark guitar or an amp with lots of low mids. I'm considering replacing them with Warpigs. One thing I'm not too crazy about is these pickups just seem so "on" all the time, a bit too in your face. I play metal (Megadeth, Maiden, Slayer, etc) if that helps at all. Tim recommended the Aftermaths and told me to try a lower value (like 300k) tone pot. I went with a 250k from the start, I'd hate to think what a 300-500k sounds like in my guitar.
Anyone else have this experience?
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Height adjustments have already taken place? But yes, the SuperD is really quite dark, so the difference can be quite large.
BTW just because a pot says 500k or 250K doesn't mean it will be spot on. Some have really big tolerances; chances are you have two very bright ones.
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Makes me wonder...
Did you listen to any clips of the aftermath? You pretty much described exactly why people like it or are drawn to it in the first place :/
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I listened to tons of clips. None of them had as much high end as I'm experiencing. I was able to dial a lot of the bite out with my treble and presence controls. It's not a bad pickup but I'm not in love with it. Believe me, I research this stuff to death and this is the one time that my experience isn't exactly in line with the prior reviews.
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It could just be that this is one case where it just does not work. There are combinations of guitar, pu and amp that just donīt go too well together.
I know my Ibby S with RY bridge, OD into an Orange TT into a Marshall cab, while great is very borderline for a lot of people. Looooadss of high mids and treble. Same foes for my AM set (in a very dark sounding axe).
I like my sound, but a lot of peeps find it to be very bright (though not thin).
Even the best PU wonīt sound great in every axe and setup (actually since the best react strongly to the guitar it is more likely).
You probably need different PUs for this guitar, a different axe for AMs (they are amazing PU in a fitting setting) or a different amp or maybe even just a different cab. My point being the problem is not the PU, it is the sum of the parts in the chain and you got many options to attack this issue further, although the PU might be the easiest (and cheapest ;))
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Well if you can exchange them for Warpigs I'd go with that then.
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the cobra is already a very tight and dry sounding amp
what you need is a holy diver
best combo I had with the cobra
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Eric, tell me more about the Holy Diver and Cobra. Do you remember your typical presence and treble settings? Any experience with the Warpig and Cobra?
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if your guitar's the red one in your avatar it looks great 8)
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Thanks! That's my Widow, which has the stock DiMarzios.
My Beast pre BK's is here:
(http://farm1.staticflickr.com/148/399968480_9628849fb2.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/venomboy/399968480/)
2000 B.C. Rich Beast (http://www.flickr.com/photos/venomboy/399968480/) by Venomboy (http://www.flickr.com/people/venomboy/), on Flickr
Better Widow shot:
(http://farm1.staticflickr.com/158/400108098_c54d7e5c6b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/venomboy/400108098/)
B.C. Rich Widow (http://www.flickr.com/photos/venomboy/400108098/) by Venomboy (http://www.flickr.com/people/venomboy/), on Flickr
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Eric, tell me more about the Holy Diver and Cobra. Do you remember your typical presence and treble settings? Any experience with the Warpig and Cobra?
I used mostly the crunch channel boosted with a zakk wylde overdrive (gain 0, level 10, tone 6)
the diver voicing has pretty much the same as the aftermath, but it sounds deeper and much more organic, without the scratchy edge
top end is smooth and leads are very fluid, but the low end is still tight enough for metal
had short experience with the warpig (alnico)
it's bassier and not as middy as the the diver, and also the mids sound more grainy in the center and low mids
a bit more compressed and slightly less articulated, but doesn't feel that high output
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Hmmm...Holy Diver.
Most of the reviews say 80's In A Box! ;) I'm not sure what that means. There's some great 80's tones and some very cr@ppy ones as well.
I'm assuming it has the clarity and mid punch of the Aftermath?
I like the low end and mids of the Aftermath but that top end...feels like glass rods rubbing against a chrome plate ;)
I don't want another Super Distortion...I want it a little more towards the modern end of things.
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this guy has a bunch of nice non-80ish clips with both diver and warpig
http://tonefinder.com/?section=user&value=christeraser@hotmail.com
mine sounded very modern through most amps high gain amps
unlike the cold sweat, for example
here's an old low quality video I recorded, but I wasn't using the cobra (which was way louder, way bassier and waaaay tighter sounding than the rig used)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1RafxMYU5w
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Cool. Thanks!!!!