Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Alex on August 04, 2012, 06:03:23 PM
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... which pickups should I go for, with still having a tight enough bottom end that won't get all mushy with gain?
Thanks!
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Slash uses vintage output alnico II's, I think a RiffRaff comes close to what you want. It's punchy, pretty tight and oozes classic rock. If you like a tad more mids consider the Black Dog, which is pretty tight too.
Btw, I can get some pretty decent Slash-esque tones from the Mules in my Saint Blues (all mahogany/bolt on), it's classic PAF all the way, though the bridge is pretty tight for a vintageoutput pickup. I believe Nolly recorderd some metalclips with Mules in his Blackmachine.
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I don't really think that the Riff Raffs will do slash very well at all too bitey and not thick enough. If you wanted it close to spec I'd get thd stormy Monday's but they might not be tight enough. In my opinion Emeralds in a LP style guitar going into a Marshall is THE slash sound... Even THE rock n roll sound. Some might say mule or abraxas which should also suffice but I personally wouldn't go for the abraxas... Maybe the mule but the Emerald would definately be my first choice.
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The Emerald-bridge is quite bright too. Personally I wouldn't mind that, I rather have some extra cut on tap and control it with the toneknob, the way you handle a telecaster.
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The Emerald-bridge is quite bright too. Personally I wouldn't mind that, I rather have some extra cut on tap and control it with the toneknob, the way you handle a telecaster.
True, but they have this "thickness" that the RRs dont have. Also, the neck is an amazing match too unlike the RR neck which is very jangly and single-coily... Actually that's a better description of why I wouldn't get the riff Raffs for that on the whole. Too jangly. I agree that too much brightness is better than none too... Although in a les Paul the Enerald wouldn't be to bright anyway.
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I don't know if these ESP's are dark, balanced or bright. The nature of the guitar it's something to keep in mind when recommending and choosing pickups. That said, Mules would work. They're so perfectly balanced, deep, full and crispy at the same time. The bridge can really do some great classic rock and even more.
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The Mule was the first one that sprang to my mind as it has all that vintage tone without any mush.
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Although the Mules will give that smooth, vintage feel/characteristic, I honestly feel that it doesn't have that "slash sound"... Only the general vibe. I absolutely 175% believe that the emerald will be as close as possible to slash's whole sound and vibe. It has this mix of being thick and dark-ish in the lows yet cutting and tight in the highs which is how I'd perfectly describe slash's tone. There's a video on YouTube somewhere playing emerald in a les Paul through a Marshall silver jubilee and it absolutely NAILS slash's tone. I can't explain it but I feel like no pickup in the range will get as close to slash's tone as the emerald. Especially the bridge. The neck may be up for argument and I think that the mule neck and emerald bridge may be a very good combo.
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I've had the Mule, Emerald, Abraxas, Crawler, Warpig, Miracle Man, Nailbomb and Cold Sweat (if I'm not missing any out).
I would normally recommend Abraxas for pretty much anything, but for Slash - nah. Mules? - not enough poke, Stormy Mondays - same problem.
I know where itamar101 is coming from with the Emeralds and I'd be tempted to agree - it's the solid crunch in the low mids while still being a hot-PAF kinda pickup. I'd say Riff Raffs will be too agressive in the top end and not chewy enough in the bass and low mids. Maybe a Rebel Yell could get there too. Depends on the amp.
To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
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I've had the Mule, Emerald, Abraxas, Crawler, Warpig, Miracle Man, Nailbomb and Cold Sweat (if I'm not missing any out).
I would normally recommend Abraxas for pretty much anything, but for Slash - nah. Mules? - not enough poke, Stormy Mondays - same problem.
I know where itamar101 is coming from with the Emeralds and I'd be tempted to agree - it's the solid crunch in the low mids while still being a hot-PAF kinda pickup. I'd say Riff Raffs will be too agressive in the top end and not chewy enough in the bass and low mids. Maybe a Rebel Yell could get there too. Depends on the amp.
To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
I don't see anything wrong with that suggestion. I generally don't like Seymour Duncan humbuckers because they are muddy and EQd badly but I actually really like the Alnico Pro. Definately one of Seymour's best creations.
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To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
Controversial! :lol:
I can see the argument, of course, but what makes the Alnico II Pro suitable if the Stormy Monday (or Gibson '57 Classic, for that matter) isn't? They're all vintage-wind Alnico II humbuckers.
I'm not trying to be awkward - I agree that (in my experience/opinion), the Stormy Mondays lack the necessary oomph. But maybe the AII Pros do, too......... unless they're in Slash's hands.
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To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
Controversial! :lol:
I can see the argument, of course, but what makes the Alnico II Pro suitable if the Stormy Monday (or Gibson '57 Classic, for that matter) isn't? They're all vintage-wind Alnico II humbuckers.
I'm not trying to be awkward - I agree that (in my experience/opinion), the Stormy Mondays lack the necessary oomph. But maybe the AII Pros do, too......... unless they're in Slash's hands.
I'm quite sure that they've just got that oomph and mid bump. I dont know what Seymour did be he somehow made a vintage output AII pickup sound like a medium output AV pickup... Which leads to emeralds again... Haha :)
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To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
Controversial! :lol:
I can see the argument, of course, but what makes the Alnico II Pro suitable if the Stormy Monday (or Gibson '57 Classic, for that matter) isn't? They're all vintage-wind Alnico II humbuckers.
I'm not trying to be awkward - I agree that (in my experience/opinion), the Stormy Mondays lack the necessary oomph. But maybe the AII Pros do, too......... unless they're in Slash's hands.
Long story short: pickups are just a part of Slash' sound. We're talking ESP here, he's plays a Gibson, then pedals, amp, settings, cabs etc. And as Philly says: the hands of the master.
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That's what I was getting at, really - using the same equipment as someone isn't necessarily going to help you sound like them.
I mean, the Trilogy Suites are nothing like the pickups Yngwie actually uses; the Warpig is nothing like the pickup Iommi used. But perhaps in the hands of us mere mortals, they help to get closer than the "proper" gear would.
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I've had the Mule, Emerald, Abraxas, Crawler, Warpig, Miracle Man, Nailbomb and Cold Sweat (if I'm not missing any out).
I would normally recommend Abraxas for pretty much anything, but for Slash - nah. Mules? - not enough poke, Stormy Mondays - same problem.
I know where itamar101 is coming from with the Emeralds and I'd be tempted to agree - it's the solid crunch in the low mids while still being a hot-PAF kinda pickup. I'd say Riff Raffs will be too agressive in the top end and not chewy enough in the bass and low mids. Maybe a Rebel Yell could get there too. Depends on the amp.
To be fair, and this probably ain't gonna be a popular suggestion, but if you want Slash's tone get some Duncan Alnico Pro's - he's used them for years.
I don't think a RY would work for something like a Slash tone. It's quite funny to me actually that BKP doesn't have an absolute go-to Slash tone pickup when so many people go after Slash tones. Maybe a Rocket Queen, Nightrain, etc. pickup in the BKP line in the future?
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I'm pretty sure mules can get VERY close
at least the neck pickup does that really well
I remember _tom_ had some nice videos years ago playing some old school Guns with a mule loaded Epiphone LP Custom, but I think he pulled those out of youtube
the neck rebel yell is pretty close to the neck cold sweat, according to Tim
and the cold sweat is definitely hotter and tighter sounding than slash's neck tone
didn't play the emerald, but I suppose it's also on the medium hot ballpark
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Sounds to me like an Emerald bridge and Mule neck is the way to go on this one :D
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both riff raff and mule can do this pretty easily through proper amps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOJYtwWq3pA
I wouldn't go hotter than that, unless I had an unboosted stock super lead or 2203
note that his amps have a ton of gain on tap and sometimes he also adds about 16db of clean boost in front of the amp with a mxr custom audio boost/line driver (guess that's mostly for the solos)
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Long story short: pickups are just a part of Slash' sound. We're talking ESP here, he's plays a Gibson, then pedals, amp, settings, cabs etc. And as Philly says: the hands of the master.
Yes, the Eclipse is tighter in the low end and has a more focused tone with more/faster attack in general. My amp's pretty flexible; the biggest problem is that the current EMGs don't really allow a Slash sound. I don't want to sound 100% like Slash, but getting closer would be good.
I read an interview from the Donots and the one guitar player swear by ESP Eclipses, but he has put Häussel PAFs in them and said it brings out the wood character more in the guitars and you can hear every string really nicely. As I understand that is something that the Seymour Duncan Alnico Pros excel in too, bringing clarity to each string. From my experience, sometimes SDs can get a bit thin/harsh in the top end, whereas even brighter BKP don't do that, so I am wondering what BKP would fit well.
The Mule sounds like the obvious choice, but I'm worried it might be too bright. I've pretty much ruled out the RiffRaff and Rebel Yell.
I was wondering how the Stormy Mondays and the PG Blues compare to the SD Alnico Pro, and how they fare with gain.
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Can't see the Mules being too bright, seem very nicely balanced. Surely Slash can be coaxed out of them.
PG Blues never get mentioned for this kind of tone. Gary Moore used them in one of his last shows in Dublin, with the guys from Thin Lizzy. Check it out on Youtube.
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I always loved Gary Moore's tone as it had that lovely PAF tone with plenty of articulation, even with good levels of gain so I imagine the PG Blues would be at least worthy of consideration. I have no idea if he's using BKP in this particular clip but I'd never miss an opportunity to celebrate the man's genius :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiuQ1EbrT94&playnext=1&list=PL121326F1988E0112&feature=results_video
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The Mule sounds like the obvious choice, but I'm worried it might be too bright. I've pretty much ruled out the RiffRaff and Rebel Yell.
I was wondering how the Stormy Mondays and the PG Blues compare to the SD Alnico Pro, and how they fare with gain.
I still haven't tried the Mule, but reports vary as to its brightness - some do say it's bright, but looking at it objectively it's a classic PAF with a bit more power than the Stormy Mondays so it really should do what you want. And the AIV magnets will soften the sharper edge you'd find with the Riff Raff.
I really do suspect you'll find the Stormy Mondays (and the similar PG Blues) a little tame for hard rock applications, without the assistance of the huge rigs the likes of Slash and Gary Moore use(d).
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I always loved Gary Moore's tone as it had that lovely PAF tone with plenty of articulation, even with good levels of gain so I imagine the PG Blues would be at least worthy of consideration. I have no idea if he's using BKP in this particular clip but I'd never miss an opportunity to celebrate the man's genius :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiuQ1EbrT94&playnext=1&list=PL121326F1988E0112&feature=results_video
Not sure about your link above, but this show in Dublin is a LP with PG Blues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgJnqAx5N9Y
On the subject of his huge rig, Marshall DSL2000 and modest pedals, even some cheapo Digitech overdrive. :)
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Ironically I really liked the strat in that video.
I think it really would need to be Mules, as they're the most versatile.
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I know what you mean about the Mules as it was my first choice in this thread but a few people don't seem to think it has enough poke for the Slash tone so might the Abraxas be a better option based on the idea that it's a bit of an overwound Mule?
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well.. there's the black dog and vhII
both are also alternative versions of how an overwound mule could be
I don't think the mule would be excessively bright, though
the black dog does a lot of guns stuff, but it sounds meatier than slash
some of his live stuff did sound like something a vhII would do really well
I wouldn't go 43 awg
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I have a pair of standard Alnico IV Mules with 300k pots in my Gibson Les Paul Standard and they're not overly bright at all. That guitar will cover pretty much any style you can throw at it, amp depend obviously.
I really don't understand why people are saying that Mules etc lack poke compared to the A2Ps; they're actually wound hotter and are more neutral in every frequency than the A2Ps are, so in that respect they may still not do what the OP is asking. Every bridge version I've ever used of the standard A2P has sounded really thin and anaemic.
Slash actually has his own custom version of the A2Ps now that are wound slightly hotter as he finds the bridge pickup a bit lacking and thin. These new versions are meant to get closer to the tone he gets from the Derrig (sp?) Les Paul.
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Slash actually has his own custom version of the A2Ps now that are wound slightly hotter as he finds the bridge pickup a bit lacking and thin. These new versions are meant to get closer to the tone he gets from the Derrig (sp?) Les Paul.
That reminds me of how thin the Gibson 490T, another AII bridge pickup, sounded in a couple of SGs I've owned. I think it's definitely better to go with something just that little bit hotter, and with AIV or AV (especially for the bridge pickup)
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I wouldn't go 43 awg
Why not?
I'm not saying you're wrong because I don't understand the technicalities of it but I'd like to understand a bit more. I can see on the website that some pickups use 42AWG while others use 43AWG but I have no idea what that means in terms of how it affects tone. Could anyone enlighten me?
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simply because they sound and feel different from 42 awg wound pickups
43 awg pickups with medium 10k-13k tend to sound bright and thin and going over 14k makes everything NOT paf sounding
the black dog and neck cold sweat are 42.5 polysol and they already feel different from 42 awg enamel models
technically, the only difference between the neck cold sweat and the bridge riff raff is the wire
same dc resistance, short alnico 5 magnet, symmetrical coils
in the bridge, they share a lot in common, but the riff raff sounds vintagey and the cold sweat simply doesn't
and going up to 43 awg makes a lot of diference, specially considering you have to get the dc up to tame the top end and fill the mids back (thinner wire = bigger resistance = less turns = less bass and mids and more treble)
and the hotter they're wound, further they get from the PAF ballpark
using softer sounding magnets like alnico 2, 3, 4, "isotropic" unoriented alnico 5 will tame things down but still won't make a hot wound pickup sound like a paf wound model
a bridge abraxas surely has a lot in common with a mule, but just can't sound the same
the nailbomb also has something in common with both riff raff and VHII... it's a different sound, but you can tell where it came from
and that's why we have so many options
if hotter wound pickups could sound like a paf model just by rolling off the knobs, we wouldn't be limiting our guitars to low output models, as we could have a lot more versatile guitars with hotter pickups that could do anything
and obviously, there's a reason slash prefers the alnico 2 pros
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^
Very interesting post! :)
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simply because they sound and feel different from 42 awg wound pickups
43 awg pickups with medium 10k-13k tend to sound bright and thin and going over 14k makes everything NOT paf sounding
the black dog and neck cold sweat are 42.5 polysol and they already feel different from 42 awg enamel models
technically, the only difference between the neck cold sweat and the bridge riff raff is the wire
same dc resistance, short alnico 5 magnet, symmetrical coils
in the bridge, they share a lot in common, but the riff raff sounds vintagey and the cold sweat simply doesn't
and going up to 43 awg makes a lot of diference, specially considering you have to get the dc up to tame the top end and fill the mids back (thinner wire = bigger resistance = less turns = less bass and mids and more treble)
and the hotter they're wound, further they get from the PAF ballpark
using softer sounding magnets like alnico 2, 3, 4, "isotropic" unoriented alnico 5 will tame things down but still won't make a hot wound pickup sound like a paf wound model
a bridge abraxas surely has a lot in common with a mule, but just can't sound the same
the nailbomb also has something in common with both riff raff and VHII... it's a different sound, but you can tell where it came from
and that's why we have so many options
if hotter wound pickups could sound like a paf model just by rolling off the knobs, we wouldn't be limiting our guitars to low output models, as we could have a lot more versatile guitars with hotter pickups that could do anything
and obviously, there's a reason slash prefers the alnico 2 pros
Good informative post!
I've never really gone into in that much detail so I'm always happy to learn something when someone else does :lol:
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Thanks Eric, that's really interesting :D
So if I have this right, thinner wire like 42AWG creates more resistance, which naturally has more bass and mids than 43AWG wire and equally, the hotter the wind, the more bass and mids you get.
Assuming my understanding is correct, that is why the vintage pickups all use 42AWG on very light winds and consequently they are all reasonably bright. If 43AWG was used with the same level of wind, the pickup would end up very bright indeed. On the Abraxas, we start with the same AIV magnet as the Mule but the hotter wind would have made it a far darker pickup so 43AWG is used to compensate and give it some highs back. I can see this logic with the VHII and Black Dog so I'd guess that both use 42AWG (the website only mentions it on the VHII) and the hotter wind is giving them more low end than the vintage range. Would I therefore be correct in thinking that the Emerald uses 43AWG because that's an even hotter wind but is considerably brighter than either the VHII or Black Dog?
I assume this means that when we talk about hotter pickups like Abraxas and Crawler etc. being 'PAF-like' it can only ever be in a very vague sense because they're inherently not PAF's. Going further, I would guess that all this must make the Abraxas a VERY versatile pickup indeed and must be why HTH AMPS likes them so much. The AIV magnet will soften the edges and keep things sweet to give it at least a PAF 'feel' while the hot wind would also give it quite a contemporary feel so I'm guessing it should be very good at everything from Blues to at least Classic Rock and maybe further.
Would all that be reasonably accurate or have I gone wrong somewhere?
Sorry if this is hijacking the thread a little but it just seemed a really interesting question that had arisen as a result of this thread.
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Good info and contributions here by Brow and Eric. I can just testify that the Mule and the Crawler are two different worlds, althought the Crawler has some PAF-pedigree. The Mule provides a genuine late fifties PAF-tone with more depth, balance and tonal richness then the Crawler, which has his own strong points. Once more: the Mule doesn't sound thin and is NOT too bright.
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So if I have this right, thinner wire like 42AWG creates more resistance, which naturally has more bass and mids than 43AWG wire and equally, the hotter the wind, the more bass and mids you get.
42 awg = thicker gauge = less resistance
43 awg = thinner wire = more resistance
to reach 10k, for example, a 42 awg humbucker must be overwound as f*** to the point the wire wouldn't fit in regular sized bobbins, and tonewise, it would sound very dark and bassy
a 10k humbucker with 43 awg wire, (I suppose that's what the neck nailbomb is) would have a lot less turns and should be bright as $%&#
the miracle man is 45 awg poly, that's why it's wound up to 18k and still has a ton of high end
the nailbomb is 43 awg enamel and has a lot of treble as well, but must be very asymetrical to retain that kind of top end
the black dog is 42.5 awg polysol, like the neck cold sweat, and unlike the VHII, which is 42 awg enamel, but as it's heavily overwound the high end rolls back nicely
the vhII is even more overwound, but the coil offset holds the mids back a bit and boosts the top and low end
also, the vhII has the long magnet, like the nailbomb and mule (black dog is short magnet, like the riff raff and the neck cold sweat)
not sure how big is the tonal difference between a short magnet pickup to a long magnet pickup, but I suppose the long magnet makes things slightly punchier
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MMmmm, clearly I got that a little wrong but then technical stuff isn't really my thing. I had assumed that the smaller number meant a thinner gauge (seemed logical) but it seems it's the other way around. Nevertheless, it's been really interesting reading about this and it's given me a great deal of food for thought. I've been saving steadily to get a Holydiver bridge and Emerald neck in my PRS but this thread has got me thinking about other possibilities. I know the Holydiver will fit my musical style really well as I've already owned one but reading this thread has also made me think about pushing it a bit more in a Blues direction as some of my favourite tones are Slash, Gary Moore and Santana. I'm starting to think that the Abraxas might be a good option for the bridge but having never been down as far as AIV I'm a touch concerned that the bass may be too soft for the Rockier stuff and as I also like a saturated tone at times (Orianthi) it would perhaps be a bit too open. Still, all interesting stuff and it's given me lots to think about. Great thread.
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MMmmm, clearly I got that a little wrong but then technical stuff isn't really my thing.
Me either, i just focus on playing the guitar. 8)
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MMmmm, clearly I got that a little wrong but then technical stuff isn't really my thing. I had assumed that the smaller number meant a thinner gauge (seemed logical) but it seems it's the other way around. Nevertheless, it's been really interesting reading about this and it's given me a great deal of food for thought. I've been saving steadily to get a Holydiver bridge and Emerald neck in my PRS but this thread has got me thinking about other possibilities. I know the Holydiver will fit my musical style really well as I've already owned one but reading this thread has also made me think about pushing it a bit more in a Blues direction as some of my favourite tones are Slash, Gary Moore and Santana. I'm starting to think that the Abraxas might be a good option for the bridge but having never been down as far as AIV I'm a touch concerned that the bass may be too soft for the Rockier stuff and as I also like a saturated tone at times (Orianthi) it would perhaps be a bit too open. Still, all interesting stuff and it's given me lots to think about. Great thread.
When you say 'Rockier Stuff' what sort of stuff do you mean? It's a broad term.
I have a pair of Abraxas in my CU22 and it'll do pretty much anything apart from the heaviest of metal with relative ease. It seems a tad too loose for the really heavy stuff, but that could just be that it's not really my forte' and I don't know what I'm doing! :lol:
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MMmmm, clearly I got that a little wrong but then technical stuff isn't really my thing. I had assumed that the smaller number meant a thinner gauge (seemed logical) but it seems it's the other way around. Nevertheless, it's been really interesting reading about this and it's given me a great deal of food for thought. I've been saving steadily to get a Holydiver bridge and Emerald neck in my PRS but this thread has got me thinking about other possibilities. I know the Holydiver will fit my musical style really well as I've already owned one but reading this thread has also made me think about pushing it a bit more in a Blues direction as some of my favourite tones are Slash, Gary Moore and Santana. I'm starting to think that the Abraxas might be a good option for the bridge but having never been down as far as AIV I'm a touch concerned that the bass may be too soft for the Rockier stuff and as I also like a saturated tone at times (Orianthi) it would perhaps be a bit too open. Still, all interesting stuff and it's given me lots to think about. Great thread.
Having tried a few AIV pickups ive pretty much convinced myself that I'm never going to put one in the bridge unless its very low output (the mule for example) because if I want to play heavy rock I want a tight bass and reasonably cutting highs for chord clarity. If I wanted to play softer music than hard rock then the Abraxas seems too high output for me for that and I see no reason that the mule couldn't handle it. But on the other hand, maybe I'm a bit biased because the abraxas has never really appealed to me in the first place.
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didn't try alnico 4 in the bridge, but I don't find the neck mule to be too soft
it has a lower dc than the cold sweat and the motor city 2nd degree black belt I had, so it's expected to be cleaner
it doesn't push the solos like the cold sweat, but it doesn't get muddy under high gain, like gibson burstbucker pros (alnico 5) or 57 classics (alnico 2)
then again, comparing to the bridge abraxas, it's 42 awg/low dc x 43 awg/medium high dc, so, different animals
the abraxas must be more compressed, and I don't know how the clarity keeps up with the gain, considering the "softer" magnet, but coming from Tim, I wouldn't expect anything less than amazing :D
but, as you might have noticed, I've been preferring the extra clarity of the lower output models
I just abuse my boost pedals a bit more than I already did with the contemporary models
anyway, I got an alnico warpig on the way :D
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didn't try alnico 4 in the bridge, but I don't find the neck mule to be too soft
it has a lower dc than the cold sweat and the motor city 2nd degree black belt I had, so it's expected to be cleaner
it doesn't push the solos like the cold sweat, but it doesn't get muddy under high gain, like gibson burstbucker pros (alnico 5) or 57 classics (alnico 2)
then again, comparing to the bridge abraxas, it's 42 awg/low dc x 43 awg/medium high dc, so, different animals
the abraxas must be more compressed, and I don't know how the clarity keeps up with the gain, considering the "softer" magnet, but coming from Tim, I wouldn't expect anything less than amazing :D
but, as you might have noticed, I've been preferring the extra clarity of the lower output models
I just abuse my boost pedals a bit more than I already did with the contemporary models
anyway, I got an alnico warpig on the way :D
Congrats :)
Ive always had a liking for the warpig. I'm not a death metal person or anything but I LOVE it's massive, riffing tone!
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Well, I'm in a covers band that is broadly Rock based so we do a range of material. At one end of the spectrum we do 'Long Train Running', 'Bad Moon Rising', 'Many of Horror' and 'Drops of Jupiter' while at the other end it's 'Paranoid' and 'Rebel Yell' (CoB version). Most of our material lies somewhere in between those two points, though it's worth pointing out that I invariably use more gain than the original version of a song. My default dirty channel is with the gain set to 6-7 and a lot of what I do with distortion also uses an overdrive with the level maxed out and gain set to zero. The Jackson can take care of anything that is even vaguely 'Metal'. With the gain levels I like, my crossover point at the moment is 'Alright Now' as I currently use the PRS for that but the Jackson could do it just as effectively.
If, having changed the pickups, the PRS is no longer great at Metal, it's no really big deal for me. As long as it can get to things like Free, I'm pretty happy but I'd love to have a better tone for Blues based material. Following reading this thread I listened to a bit of Santana (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACdwCIld3kE) and that is such a beautiful tone that would lend itself to our softer material and my Blues noodling so well. The trouble is, I'm afraid of it being a bit too soft in the bass as, like itamar101, I also like a pickup to have great articulation, which I hear a bit more with Gary Moore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiuQ1EbrT94&playnext=1&list=PL121326F1988E0112&feature=results_video).
I suppose I'm wanting something that can blend both of those tones and I'm not sure the Abraxas would do the latter. The Holydiver is a safe option for me because I already know the pickup and I love it but I also wonder if I did that, I'd just end up with a guitar that wouldn't be drastically different from my Jackson anyway. The Bluesy feel of an AIV appeals and I'm drawn to the higher output, thinking it will be more versatile for when I use more gain but Eric's concern of 'I don't know how the clarity keeps up with the gain, considering the softer magnet' really resonates with me.
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didn't try alnico 4 in the bridge, but I don't find the neck mule to be too soft
it has a lower dc than the cold sweat and the motor city 2nd degree black belt I had, so it's expected to be cleaner
it doesn't push the solos like the cold sweat, but it doesn't get muddy under high gain, like gibson burstbucker pros (alnico 5) or 57 classics (alnico 2)
The Mule-neck is awesome and keeps thing tidy with a lot of gain, but the tremendous clarity is the forte of BKP's anyway.
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Out on a limb here but if you 'invariably use more gain than the original version of a song' don't discount the RYs. I think they sit on the fence between classic rock and metal perfectly. I can get some great Moore-ish blues sounds by backing off the guitar volume a bit.
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Out on a limb here but if you 'invariably use more gain than the original version of a song' don't discount the RYs. I think they sit on the fence between classic rock and metal perfectly. I can get some great Moore-ish blues sounds by backing off the guitar volume a bit.
Another +1 from me on this 1!
I find all BKPs to be very good on cleaning up on the volume control if you need to.
The RYs have a bit more of a modern edge to them imo, so would fit well with your heavier versions of the cover tunes you mentioned.
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EDIT: Sorry folks, deleting this post as it suddenly struck me that my questions were rather hijacking this thread so it would be more appropriate to start a thread of my own.
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I'm a les paul guy, but original PRS's are hard to beat when it comes to openness and clarity
had a couple mccarties and also an SE Custom 22
the SE's don't sound pretty much like a PRS as they have quite different construction and woods
more like schecters, that usually sound heavier and more dense, instead of bright and open
US made PRS guitars revealed a whole new perception of what an "open sounding" mahogany guitar is to me...
getting lower output models helps to open up the tone a lot
I'd even go lower with a riff raff or mule set, but a vhII should sound great
and trying new BKP's is always a great experience, even when you don't bond with them
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LOL, you responded just as I deleted my post due to my concerns about hijacking this particular thread. I'll start my own thread on this as it doesn't seem fair to be taking over this one.