Best BKP for Engl Blackmore

[aethyria]

regardless of rock or metal...anyone out there have one of these Engl Blackmore amps?

What is the best sounding BKP plugged into one?
Mahogany neck through body guitar...

I am concerned with TONE...best Tone in the blackmore...

[hunter]

Humbucker or Single Coil or P90?

Which type of tone are you after, can you name some bands?

[Antag]

It's far too open a question, "best tone" is subjective & you make no mention of what sounds you use most from the Blackmore (FWIW, I've played a Blackmore, but currently own a Savage 120).

However, taking this

Mahogany neck through body guitar...

then assuming 2 humbuckers & generalising somewhat:

Miracle Man would work well - tight, defined, powerful, clear.  Choose either a calibrated set, or match the MM bridge with a Cold Sweat neck depending on how much you play clean.

Warpig - either Alnico or Ceramic for way over the top saturated brutality :twisted: match with either Warpig neck (which is surprisingly useable clean) or Cold Sweat again (CS is a favourite & matches really well with any of the high output BKP bridges).

Looking at this thread (admittedy this is about set-neck SGs), the general rule for all-mahogany seems to be to avoid the "vintage hot"/mid output pickups...

But to give you any sort of helpful answer we need more detail...

[hunter]

Ah I remember you spoke about Opeth and stuff ...

_tom_ achieved some great results with Mules on an all mahogany LP style, check out his clips, they sound through the line amazing.

[Zaned]

Like I said in your other thread, I use an ENGL Blackmore with BKPs. Both single coil (No. 1 set) and humbucker (CS set).

But the question 'best pickup with ENGL blackmore' is impossible to answer  :lol:

It's a combination of the pickup, the guitar and the needs of the player that define the 'best' sound..FOR him.

-Zaned

[Adam.M]

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle.

You match your pickups to your guitar and playing style, and for the amp you match your valves for your amp and playing style.

The only time i could ever think the other method of thinking would work is when you want a guitar to work at its optimum with digital modellers, i was sure Duncan did something for this a few years ago but i can't remember what they were named.

I think Cold Sweats would definitely be what you're after though.

[aethyria]

I knew by the way I started this thread I would get lots of reply's about how it is subjective etc. and the needs of the player..etc...

I think great tone transcends the specifics of genre but certainly I can see where you guys are coming from. I still think that if I had a row of identical guitars and each were loaded with a different set of pickups after an hour or two of guitar hopping I would settle on one more then any other and one would sound best regardless if I am going for extreme of death metal or more vintage metal from the 70's...one always out shines the rest. I just wish I could order about 5 sets and do such a thing but these things are expensive.

I also know that different amps sound better with different guitars, different pickups etc. and some work better for different tones then others especially when a tube amp is involved. I have 3 digital modelers and they show very little difference in tone from pickup to pickup...there is a difference but relatively small compared to when i do the same tests on the tube amp.

I'll give you one example of tone verses genre specific gear. On time I walked into a store and plugged my X2N loaded guitar ( a death metal set up) into a modded Marshall JCM900 and i thought it sounded nasty. I then picked up a strat that was sitting there and the combination of the 2 pieces of gear was a perfect match. The tone was incredible and although it was not the tone you would normally associate with death metal if I had had the money I would have bought both on spot and used them for such because it just sounded so damn good.

My main guitar right now is a Carvin DC727 7 string guitar with mahogany neck through mahogany body loaded with dimarzio D-activators. Last week I ordered another guitar identical to it, so I am looking for pickups for it.

At core I am a metal guy, death metal, black metal, thrash metal, 70's metal ( sometimes called rock) , doom, metal etc... I love compressed metal as much as I like broken vintage sounding metal.

I figure if I am going to have 2 identical guitars I should have one that works for the most extreme of death metal and one that has the ultimate vintage tone....but I intend on using both under hi-gain.

As for Humbuckers, p-90's oversized single coils...I am open to them all because I have no idea which magnet is going to be the grail combination for this amplifier.

When I wrote Tim he suggested I get the nailbombs because they are so versatile and that they are very organic. However all of the samples I have heard sound extremely modern and I already have a few guitars that sound like that. I may end up getting a pair of nailbombs as well but I keep looking at the vintage pickups like the mule, black dog and abraxas.

I also heard some incredible clips of Sleep and I am not sure what combination was used on that but damn if that was spot on sleep tone and great sounding!!!!

I could name millions of bands I like from black metal to death metal etc... but on this guitar I really want a vintage tone that is usable for extreme metal.

If I could Nail the tone that Primordial is getting then that would be it. They seem to use stock gibson equipment...

I would also be pleased with the same tone that OPTHALAMIA got on their album VIA DOLOROSA.

I have posted clips from the above before but no body offered up any suggestions....

I rarely use the clean channel. I stay on the lo-gain and hi-gain channel and I want a very vintage 70's tone lots of character very organic...I already have guitars that sound like your everyday death metal...

sorry for the long post...

[the prince of shred]

firstly.... trust in tim, im sure others will agree with me on this...

2nd, all bkp have 'great tone', it depends what great tone u want..... ;)

3rdly, (im no expert but) how about a coldsweat set for vintage vibes but more modern twist to them? great for hi gain stuff as well i feel....(bridge and neck are very tonally different , bridge is kinda scooped and dark while neck is alot brighter..... (correct me if im wrong guys)

4. u say compressed modern metal, what kinda stuff? (c-pigs for ultra saturated hi gain tight stuff with a shed loada bass) (miracle man , sound good on mahogany, big tight bass, and screaming highs , with smoothe subtler mids....brighter than a c-pig i think in this guitar?...) painkiller, (tight as a tiger, upper mid push to it ) or even holy divers? or nailbombs as tim suggested, dheim loves nb's i beleive and feels they work for metal.... maybe others can help? and correct all my errors>?

[aethyria]

The Cold Sweats must be really amazing because everyone at this forum sure does love them.

I am still very indecisive...and I wish I knew what would be perfect for Primordial tone.

I basically have it narrowed down to black dogs, mule, cold sweats or nailbombs.

For some reason I think the Abraxas might be like a better version of what they put stock in most gibsons these days...so that might be a good choice as well.

I didn't really say it before but I would love for my 7 string to sound as much like a gibson as possible.

[aethyria]

check out this song at the Primordial my space page...
Song titled  " Sons of the Morrigan"
I know they are playing Gibson SG's and they look stock.....
They do alot of distorted droning which can get muddy at times..I have been doing alot of riffs like that for many years but I always had trouble with clarity. My D-activators have gotten me much closer then my X2N because they are so open sounding. The X2N sounds cr@ppy for those kind of riffs.

[aethyria]

http://www.myspace.com/primordialofficial

[Zaned]

3rdly, (im no expert but) how about a coldsweat set for vintage vibes but more modern twist to them? great for hi gain stuff as well i feel....(bridge and neck are very tonally different , bridge is kinda scooped and dark while neck is alot brighter..... (correct me if im wrong guys)

I wouldn't quite describe them like that..the bridge is NOT dark. On the contrary, it's bright, but not harsh (well in the wrong guitar it might well be). It has a tight bass, a balanced midrange (not pokey!), and a cutting high end. With a guitar that has a warm but clear tone, and puts out a lot of midrange, they sound absolutely amazing. Full, tight and cutting, but still with a vintage vibe. And you can do wonders with the tone controls on your guitar.

Back to aethyrias link to the myspace page..well others might want to chime in too but I hear a strong resemblance to the Nailbomb there. Listen to Tim's Nailbomb clip and then to that Primordial song. Of course, in Tim's clip you're hearing them in a Basswood-maple-rosewood-with-Floyd Ibanez. Put the Nailbombs in a mahogany guitar and I think it's gonna be pretty close to that Primordial tone.

And aethyria, don't be put off by that strong output of the Nailbombs. They have a sweet tone nonetheless. My brothers Amfisound custom strat arrived yesterday with a Nailbomb set and they are excellent. Unfortunately, that guitar is a lefty and I can't really play it :lol:

One more thing about the 'moderness' of the Nailbomb..when I was asking for pickups for my upcoming custom strat, this was Tim's suggestion:

"Holydiver and 2 x Trilogy Suite single coils-this one will be hot, punchy
and have an excellent clean and driven tone with overall contemporary voice
Nailbomb and 2 x Irish Tour single coils-slightly more older school tone
with more of a vintage edge and not quite so much output overall."

The Blackmore is a very natural sounding amp, and if a guitar sounds good, it's gonna sound good through that amp. Pretty much guaranteed..I love that amp btw.

The moral of the story..go with the Nailbombs. IMO, of course 

-Zaned

[aethyria]

Well if anything the NailBombs seem to be the 7 string choice above all else. So I might still order them. If anything they will probably blow away my Dimarzio D-Activators and I would then turn around and order something else for my other 7 string and at that point I could get the more vintage pickups to see the difference.

Regardless of what I get I will be putting them into a guitar that is identical to a guitar that I already have that will have D-activators in it....so I will be playing them back and forth for comparison...and it will be a great comparison since the 2 guitars will be identical in build. One will most likely smoke the other and that is my hope...lol

Yeah I got the Blackmore because it sounded so natural and more organic then the other higher gain amps...it has a really nice voicing and it doesn't have that popular fuzz that you hear in alot of modern hi-gain amps....plus distorted chords are very clear in it.

Thanks for the help and thoughts on this

[Zaned]

Well, you also mentioned vintage pickups mule, black dog and abraxas.

As I notice that you play music a fair bit on the harder side, I'd take a pickup that maintains the bottom tighter.

It has been said that with mahogany, you should probably stay away from the middle output pickups.
That would pretty much rule out the Abraxas..and leave the Black dog (although it approaches middle output too)  and the Mule. However, I have no experience with either of those.

-Zaned