What's the difference between Painkiller bridge and Cold Sweet bridge model?

[Shotgun]

I would like to give some reviews. What is the main difference between the Painkiller bridge model and Cold Sweet bridge model? In heavy wood (koa), for modern djenty, tight metal.

[FELINEGUITARS]

The Painkiller is a lot more mid heavy and has a nice aggressive upper mid peak
The CS doesnt lack in mids but is a more open tone IMO and is less saturated sounding than the PK

It's unlikely that many will have triied these in KOA as we dont get many KOA guitars here in the UK

I suspect that the Painkiller will work better for what you are looking for but taste is an individual thing

[MDV]

I dont know what koa sounds like - I've read generalisations, but never played one, let alone enough to make a composite understanding from experience.

But as a rule, the CS is lower output, less compressed, more organic, less bassy and middy, brighter. Reverse for the PK and add that its got a really strong pick attack in the upper mids, as jonathan says, thats very popular for 'djent'. I personally find that same thing a bit clicky sounding.

Overall the PK is the best bet, likely regardless of woods. I'd only go for the CS for generic djenty sounds if you were tuning VERY low (like G or something) and were using dark sounding woods.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Thanks Mark - you've probably got a better handle on "Djent" than I have

However I find that the Cold Sweat is great for Sykes era Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy (No surprises there then!) but is also awesome for Michael Schenker tones too. I would even favour it for players that liked Metallica's Kirk Hammet  as Kirk is a Schenker obsessive.

The Painkiller on the other hand being a bit "Judas Priesty" does British Steel sounding metal great
Considering that it has a ceramic magnet it is so overwound that Tim has managed to maximise the mids in the pickup and give it a great upper mid peak . It's almost a pickup that bridges the ceramic/alnico divide  as people often feel that ceramic magnet pickups can be a bit hollow or empty sounding (although none of the BKP ceramics seem to suffer that way) but it has the tightness in the bass and the crisp top end response to go with the "fruity" mids

[mattc]

I have a Cold Sweat, Painkiller and Rebel yell.  I did a quick pickup test of each using a recto setting in the POD. The differences I'm sure would be more obvious with a real amp, but they do sound different. One thing I noticed was that the guitar was easier to play with the Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell compared to the Painkiller. Both of the other pickups are a little lower output, so maybe that's the difference?

The clip goes through one of my newer riffs four times, first the Painkiller, then the Rebel Yell, then the Cold Sweat, and finally back to the Painkiller . The playing isn't very clean, but it's good enough to get an idea for each pickup. The bass is from a keyboard, and the drums are DFHS2.0, everything was recorded 16 bit, 44khz.

Here is the clip:


http://www.mattcrooks.com/wav/pickuptest.wav

[ericsabbath]

I don't find the cold sweat to be any less bassy
the painkiller has a lot more low mids, though

I usually describe the cold sweat as the miracle man and painkiller teenage child
not as hot as its parents, but their genes are quite mixed and audible
I guess the overwound cold sweat (AKA ceramic nailbomb) gets closer to the painkiller voicing and output

[Shotgun]

Thanks a lot guys!

This is my band, called AETRIGAN and i think Painkiller is the perfect choice for this music:

http://www.myspace.com/aetrigan

but on this record you can hear a Lundgren M6 and a PRS Tremonti pickup with ENGL Thunder and sometimes Mesa Recto, through Laboga and Marshall V30 cabs.