Help me find the right pickup, please!

[Aeosoth]

I'm currently waiting for a friend of mine to get his Gibson back so I can buy his BC Rich Mockingbird ST. However, I already know that the stock Rockfield pickups aren't what I'm looking for, and I've had my Bare Knuckles for awhile. I'm now planning what I need to buy for the guitar, and I need help deciding what pickups to buy. I'd prefer if I could just get a calibrated set, since it's a bit cheaper and less hassle.  :lol:
So, the guitar is as mentioned before a Mockingbird ST, which is made out of mahogany with a maple veneer. It also has a Floyd Rose trem.
I play stuff like BFMV, Avenged Sevenfold, Miss May I, As I Lay Dying, Periphery (atleast their 6-string songs) but also a bit more "poppy" stuff like A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men etc. I guess I'm a bit of a scene kid when it comes to music. :D
I know a lot of these bands use EMGs, and I was originally thinking of buying the Het Set even though I don't really like Metallica, but it'd be fun to have passives and be able to use all of the coil-splitting functions and such that the Mockingbird has. Also, I already have an EMG-loaded guitar if I really need that sound, so something a bit different would be quite fun as long as it can still get the right sound for the previously mentioned bands' music, provided I have an amp to match.
It'd be nice if the pups could provide nice, chunky rhythms (a la A7X and the Duncan Invader) aswell as nice leads. Cleans would be a plus too, although it's not a priority.

Sorry if I missed out on any vital information you might need, a bit tired when I wrote this. Tell me if you need more info and I'll try to help out! And don't bother asking what amp I currently have, it's a cr@ppy Peavey Vypyr one, going to change that out before the pickups probably, just planning ahead a bit here.  :P

[Dave Sloven]

How dark sounding is it acoustically (i.e., unplugged)?  For darker guitars something like a Rebel Yell or Emerald set can be a good bet.  I would seriously wait though until you have it in your hands before ordering anything

[Aeosoth]

How dark sounding is it acoustically (i.e., unplugged)?  For darker guitars something like a Rebel Yell or Emerald set can be a good bet.  I would seriously wait though until you have it in your hands before ordering anything

As I don't have it yet I can't answer that. But yes, I'm not buying anything until I've had it for awhile.

[darkandrew]

I tried an EMG Het set in one of my ESP Eclipses and quickly moved them on. The neck was nice enough, very chimey and bell-like clean but not a lot of use for anything else and the bridge was so tight that it had a complete absence of lows and low-mids. I've gone back to the 81/60 combination in that guitar, it's much more useable.

[Aeosoth]

I tried an EMG Het set in one of my ESP Eclipses and quickly moved them on. The neck was nice enough, very chimey and bell-like clean but not a lot of use for anything else and the bridge was so tight that it had a complete absence of lows and low-mids. I've gone back to the 81/60 combination in that guitar, it's much more useable.

Really? Pretty much everything I've read about them indicates that they are the "better" set. How odd.

Anyways, from what I've gathered from a couple of Google searches, it seems like the Painkillers would be a good fit for the guitar wood-wise. Would they be able to play listed bands?

And also, this is a bit OT, but if anybody can recommend a good metal amp for around 500-600 USD/EUR max, that'd be swish. I live in Sweden, but to make things simple I'll just set that budget limit and work with it. :D

[darkandrew]

Pretty much everything I've read about them indicates that they are the "better" set. How odd.

I know, that's why I bought them! I suppose it all depends what your idea of "better" is. If you play in a band with another guitarist who plays an 81/81 combination then "better" would probably be something that distinguishes your sound from his, if however there's only one guitar then "better" probably means fuller or maybe more versatile? I also tried the new EMG 57/66 set as well and didn't like those either I'm afraid - too much of a high mid emphasis on the bridge pickup, and although the neck was fairly neutral it lacked the sparkle that I like in neck pickup.

By way of comparison, I have a set of Crawlers in my other Eclipse which give quite a smooth sound with a slight emphasis in the low mid frequencies for the bridge pickup and an almost scooped quality for the neck pickup which has lots of smooth lows but also a hint of that sparkle at the top that I mentioned earlier. It's quite an interesting combination with quite a modern sounding bridge and a vintage sounding neck that when used together in varying amounts can give a wide palette of sounds covering most genres apart from, perhaps, the more aggressive types of metal - which going back to where we started, is why I also have the EMG 81/60 combination in my other Eclipse.