Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Nephilim on December 12, 2014, 02:14:50 PM
-
Just got a Floyd-loaded maple neck-thru guitar, with alder wings and ebony fingerboard.
Looking for a set of pickups for Power/Neo-Classic/Shred Metal style music.
Neck wise, I want a a cutting lead tone for lightning fast shred, sweep picking, the usual high speed solos. I know going for something high output would be great for this tone, but like to not sacrifice clarity. The Liquifire I'm using at the moment is too smooth, rounded and muddy. Fluid yes, but doesn't seem to cut it for me.
Bridge wise, I of course want something tight, but I don't want it to be dry and lifeless. I'm after something which I can only best describe as musical and juicy. I like my leads to cut through, but have a nice weight and juice to them. I'm not after a Van Halen scream, but I'm not after a PAF style smoothness either. Aggressive, but in a growling way, not a rip you to pieces way. The reason I'm not looking for aggressiveness is to nail earlier style shred music like Yngwie Malmsteen, and Vinnie Moore.
Hopefull I can come to a decision with your help.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
-
I am not that sure about this one tbh, but I will throw something into the ring: Holydiver bridge. For power metal bridges the RY usually rules it all for me, but in that guitar that would most likely be too bright. The HD however has that musically rounded highend that does not get dull, which should balance out the guitar nicely and have you end up with a strong organic low mid section and an overall open character caught somewhere between modern and vintage (hot rodded PAF after all) allowing you amp and playing to dictate which way it goes. In your guitar it should have a present high end still, so do not worry, but it will tame it a bit, keeping it from being harsh. Up front, but musical.
For the neck I am not as sure, but I would throw in the Emerald neck and the Holydiver neck. The former is a brilliant combination of modern cut from the wire and organicly smooth vintage character from the magnet, while the later is more vintage, but also brighter. I would go towards the EM neck which is proven to work extremly well with the HD bridge and can do anything from Gary Moore to modern shred easily as it is fluid but has cut. And again, your guitar sounds very bright, so the fact that it is slighly darker than the HD neck should be great for balance. I replaced a Liquifire with it and the EM neck is more open, natural, cutting, and has a broader frequency range. It seems to display more of what is there. When you add the gain it can fully keep up for shred though, no problem. You have to play better though cause it really shows more, both in terms of tone and of errors....but also when you do it right.
IŽd right away use it for Guthry Govan stuff with a slightly more vintage character for example.
-
Bridge wise, I of course want something tight, but I don't want it to be dry and lifeless. I'm after something which I can only best describe as musical and juicy. I like my leads to cut through, but have a nice weight and juice to them. I'm not after a Van Halen scream, but I'm not after a PAF style smoothness either. Aggressive, but in a growling way, not a rip you to pieces way. The reason I'm not looking for aggressiveness is to nail earlier style shred music like Yngwie Malmsteen, and Vinnie Moore.
for what you are describing with regard to some parts, the Holy Diver does sound like a reasonable option.