What Pickup For Heavier Rock

[Samth3mancgp]

That sounds just like the nailbomb to me... Maybe the painkiller.
BTW, either replace the pots and caps or completely chuck them out because they will make ANY pickup sound like farts.

I plan to ditch ALL of the pots entirely and possibly keep the pickup switcher.  Maybe not even that!  I'm not going to use the neck pickup anyway ;-). Similar to other pro audio gear, a good rule to live by is "the less components in the signal chain, the more "pure" the tone is."  That's exactly what I am going for. I want a badass bridge humbucker rhythm guitar tone that suits any heavy genre from alternative to hardcore and I don't want it to be hindered by cr@ppy pots (any kind of pot really!). I'm really looking forward to this project. I think the only other part of the Epi special that hurts the tone is the tuners on it. I will definitely replace them with Grover or better!  I can't wait to see the look on guitarists faces when they pick up a guitar thats ALWAYS on. It's a chore to get some guitarists to keep the settings right!  "Did you switch the pickup on that last take".

"......"

[ericsabbath]

I think that's too much of an investment, despite of the guitar value
won't discuss "tonewoods" influence, but the bolt-on neck construction combined with the plywood body tends to limit the sustain a lot compared to a set neck mahogany guitar
you can find a used g400 model for pretty cheap
there's a gothic g400 on ebay UK right now and the auction is still around 60 pounds with 1 hour left
I'm pretty sure you can grab one around 100 and do all the mods you want
I understand that the cr@ppiest the guitar model is, the coolest will be peoples reactions when they play it, but I wouldn't force it to the point where it compromises the sound

(still vote for the ceramic nailbomb)

[LiveWire]

All I care about is the sound of the pickup. I am going to try out the "stick a ridiculously nice pup in a cheap guitar" approach.  Most of the tone in a solid body guitar is coming from the strings, pickups, and most of all, the player. Of course the wood can affect the way the strings ring out, but the physical design of a pickup requires metal strings in order to pick up the sound energy and turn it into electricity, not wood right?  If the wood mattered that much, how could FYS have gotten such tones out of a <$150 guitar?

You can definitely get a good sound out of a cheap guitar with a good pickup. But you will get a much better sound out of a great guitar with a good pickup.
When I swapped a pickup through three guitars of the same brand it was bassy sounding in the first, harsh in the second and balaced in the third.