Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: capac on May 03, 2017, 09:49:41 PM

Title: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: capac on May 03, 2017, 09:49:41 PM
HI, I recieved my Afetrmath (bridge) today. I put it in my les paul without any hesitation. After setting up the guitar and messing around with the pickup height, I was impressed. My guitar was tuned to drop C with 11-56 strings, but I also tried it in drop D, played thru Orange OR15.

It's really bright (which I kinda like, especially for playing metal). Really dig the midrange push. It also has prominent low-mids, which gives it nice lead tone - it seems it would cut through the mix like a champ, but it is really bright. It is super tight, not that far off from an 81 (obviously not as tight, but has to be the tightest passive I've tried).

The pickup is actually fairly low output (lower than I expected), not a lot more output than a PAF. The clairity it has is insane. Cleans were also a lot better than expected, and what I like to do, roll off the volume to get cleaner tones was no problem for the aftermath. I had gain fairly high (2 o'clock - this amp actually has a lot of gain on tap), and it cleaned up really nice, despite having a lot of mids dialed in.

I would recommend it for more metal oriented styles.

Now that I've tried aftermath, I'm really interested in black hawks for another (mahogony) guitar. How are they compared to the aftermath? Do they have more of that bite that  is usually associated with active pickups? Help would be appreciated!

Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: capac on May 04, 2017, 06:05:59 PM
After playing it for a couple of hours today, I gotta say, it is really dry. May not be the pickup for everyone. Also, it is true what people say about aftermath being a noise supressor (if you have a proper technique).
Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: Kiichi on May 04, 2017, 06:40:32 PM
Thanks for giving me something to add to the Review Collection sticky. Been a while. =)
Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: capac on May 04, 2017, 06:45:08 PM
No problem, glad to help.
Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: ericsabbath on May 05, 2017, 06:16:10 PM
The pickup is actually fairly low output (lower than I expected), not a lot more output than a PAF.

perhaps you don't have it set close enough to the strings
mine was pretty hot, on par with the nailbombs in loudness
definitely hotter in output than the miracle man or alnico warpig
Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: capac on May 05, 2017, 07:30:19 PM
I had it on high gain most of the time so didn't notice right away, but yeah, it's a bit higher output, but I believe JB is hotter.
Title: Re: Aftermath (review) vs. Black Hawk
Post by: capac on May 08, 2017, 05:59:59 PM
I was dying to know how black hawks are... so I ordered a set...  Will report when they come in.