Cold Sweats or Warpigs? Mahogany body, metal music.

[robokid]

Hey guys, it's my first post here.

I've gotten opinions from lots of people, Tim and Nolly included. I'm having a Strictly 7 7-string guitar built and it will have BKPs. I'm used to playing an ESP Eclipse II with EMG 81/60 combo in Drop A, and I need this guitar to achieve similar tones. I need it to handle gain really well for chugs, but still be clear and articulate.

Differing opinions though... Tim recommended Cold Sweats, Nolly (who has played the entire line of pickups and plays metal like I do) recommended Ceramic Warpigs, and Nick at Axe Palace recommended Miracle Man pickups.

In other words, I have no idea what to go for! Help???

Thanks!

T

[WhiteRam]

From my experience with BKP you'll want to try all three eventually.  However for Drop A / 7 string / mahogany, along with the rest of your requirements, I'm with Tim on this one, Cold Sweats.  :)

WR

[Doadman]

All three would no doubt do the job well. If you want a really huge and fat sound then the Warpig is the one. The Miracle Man has a much tighter tone. Somewhere on the forum there's a clip of Tim playing the song 'Miracle Man' on those pickups and it sounds just like Zakk Wylde. I'm not surprised it was suggested as it's a bit of a 'go-to' pickup but I don't think it has the versatility of the other two. The Cold Sweat seems to be somewhere inbetween the two others. It's quite a bright pickup with plenty of cut and works really well in a mahogany guitar. I always found it made quite a Gibson-like tone, very much like John Sykes. If Tim suggested that one I'd guess the guitar you're getting made is going to be made of mahogany.

[Nolly]

Just to clarify my recommendation - in the messages we exchanged you put a lot of emphasis on wanting a thick and powerful sound, and linked some rather huge and saturated tones. On top of that you wanted to be able to achieve some mild "djent" sounds.
In my opinion, the former would not be best served by the Cold Sweat (though it is extremely clear and articulate, and still capable of some serious brutality so it's not a bad suggestion by any means). The Miracle Man is the least "djenty" of the contemporary range, so that would be my argument against choosing them, though it is a very big and aggressive sound.
The ceramic Warpig is as tight (if not tighter) than the Miracle Man in my opinion and fulfills the criteria you've given, so I stand by my suggestion :)

As a footnote - the new website (which goes live at the beginning of January) features a great deal of clips designed to make it much easier to compare the sonic qualities of each pickup in the range. If you're not in a rush to buy, I'd highly recommend waiting until that comes out so you can make your own judgement!

[robokid]

Awesome everyone's opinions helped a lot, and I'm surprised you remember our conversation Nolly, thanks again for more input! I guess I'll wait until early January to hear the clips and such. I've heard most of you and Misha's clips that are on youtube for BKP, are those the ones going on the site or are there more?

[Nolly]

I did new clips for the entire range for the site - nearly 200 in total  :)