two guitars - one amp - tone match...

[Niilz]

Hey there, big hello to everyone here at the forum!!! :D

I'm new here and: Although I have some BKNs since a few days and although I am very happy with them, I'd just like to ask you all for some advice.

I own a 7-String PRS Custom 24 (very bright, somehow scooped sounding guitar, mahogany neck, rw fretboard, mahogany body, thick maple top - tuned CGCFA#DG) with A-Bombs in it. (That set calibrated A-Bombs was THE PERFECT MATCH for this one) . This guitar is now easily eating the Blackmachine B2 (w/ CS/PK set) of my band's other guitar player for breakfast... so far, so good....

...and let's say I've got some kind of midrange pronounced SG (it is a another PRS infact - a Starla X, but it sounds somehow comparable to a good, balanced SG, although it has a limba body (think basswood with a hint of korina) which is tuned a whole note higher (DADGBE).

Which set of BKP humbuckers would you advice me to check out for similar results on both guitars? (I do not want to fiddle knobs on my Diezel VH4S when I change guitars during the set...) Both guitars are to sound very similar (similar bass/mid/treble/output) with the same settings of my amp.

The sounds I am after are comparable to Tool, Alter Bridge, Pocupine Tree, U2, Opeth, Karnivool etc. - Prog-Rock-Metal-90's-influenced...

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance for your knowledge and time!

[Kiichi]

Hi and welcome.

That is an interesting question and I wonder what the others will have to say about this. I would have two initial ideas, but I am not sure about either really. Will still put them out here though.

One would be Cold Sweat. As you say the guitar is somewhat middy the CS might work as it is slightly scooped, so you can get something similar perhaps. Also said to work well in SG types. Tight, agressive and donīt let the ceramic fool you, it is organic still. I could see that as a fit.

The other one that came to my mind actually is not a humbucker, but a P90. The Stockholm (or very similar but one step down the Supermassive) could also work. Our own Agent Orange uses one in a SG to great effect. It is less middy than a A bomb and as a P90 extends more in the high and low end, but this one is not scooped. This and the very clear midrange character with a lot of nastyness and growl could make for a wonderful match for Abomb in the other guitar.

[Dave Sloven]

I have a Cold Sweat set in an SG Standard, a Stockholm P-90 in an SG Junior, and a Nailbomb set in an Explorer.

I tune the SG Standard to E standard and the other two to D standard.  The SG Standard covers rock and most forms of metal, but can also do other stuff.  Pretty much it covers most of what I would want to do in standard tuning.  I'm sure I could tune it down but I have kept it for playing other stuff.  I use it for anything from Pink Floyd to Celtic Frost.

When I ordered the Stockholm - which is actually a custom job, a Stockholm wind in a standard P-90 housing - I said to Ben that I was going to use it and the Nailbomb guitars as backups for each other, so he may have had it wound a little hotter than spec.  Both of them are around 15.9K.  The do work very well with one another, both are very throaty and used for '80s style hardcore (the style of stuff I play is I guess somewhere between Doom, Heresy, R.D.P., and S.O.B., and they both cover all those bases - I don't play the more recent metalcore type stuff, more '80s 'crossover', but I think these could cover those styles as well, together with all of your Tool and Muse type stuff, whatever you call that kind of thing).

I would strongly recommend avoiding putting an A-Bomb in your middy guitar as I had one in the SG Standard and it was too middy.  Eventually I swapped out the Warpigs from my Explorer (because they were too dark in it) and installed the Nailbombs there, where they really brightened the guitar up.  The Explorer is the brighter of the two guitars (SG Junior and Explorer) now, but I would recommend a Stockholm if you are going to pair it up with a nice Nailbomb guitar.  They are different enough from each other but can back each other up if need be.

Neither the Cold Sweat nor the Stockholm sound scooped in an SG.  The middiness of the guitar fills out any scoop.

[darkbluemurder]

Since you want to balance out a midrange heavy guitar and want something close in output to a guitar with an Alnico Nailbomb the answer is either Cold Sweat, Miracle Man or Ceramic Nailbomb (since I never played that one I cannot really comment on it though). Cold Sweat is brighter than the Miracle Man and would be my choice.
 
Cheers Stephan

[Alex]

Naturally, I think the Miracle Man could work with this; to my ears it's not much hotter than the Nailbomb, and its tonality balances really well with the middy character of an SG-voiced guitar.

How similar they will sound though is very difficult to predict. I've used the Miracle Man in no less then four different guitars now - it's been in every humbucker guitar I've owned in the last years - and it did sound different in each, with small nuances making a difference in feel.

[Dave Sloven]

Well the most similar option would be a Nailbomb with the ceramic magnet option, but I haven't tried that myself.  It should be less middy than an alnico magnet but otherwise with a similar tonality, and the mids of the guitar should reduce the scoop in the pickup