Ibanez RGIF8 BKP choices

[icyoung]

Hi there guys, I recently acquired an Ibanez RG IF8.  For those of you not familiar it is an extended range 8 string guitar with a swamp ash body, fanned frets from 25.5" on the high e to a 27.2" on the low F#.  The guitar comes with EMG 909X pickups but they don't wow me.  I love EMG particularly the pair of 57/66's I have in a PRS Tremonti SE project guitar I have (I think they really are stunning pickups) but these just don't have "that magic" in this guitar.

http://www.ibanez.com/products/u_eg_detail.php?year=2016&cat_id=1&series_id=1&data_id=336&color=CL01

My favourite ever pickup combination is a Bill and Becky L500XL with a Dimarzio Chopper in the neck that I have in a 1993 exotic wood USA custom shop Ibanez with a mahogany body, huge maple cap and super wizard neck.  I have plenty of friends who have BKP in their guitars so I know they're great and that they build staggered/slanted pickups.  However below is an example of the kind of voicing I like like for my pickups.

- note definition
- no bassy flub
- flutey oval neck sounds for sweeping, legato lines and solos around the 12th fret (think slash's solo tone and Yngwie's neck tone)
- super tight and percussive with a c--ked wah sort of tone on the bridge

I really like the textures of his bridge and neck pickups in this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOM172Ngfqk

Players I really like:
Nuno Bettencourt (love his bridge and neck tone but a 59's low e bass/mid response is god awful)
Yngwie Malmsteen (neck tone)
Jason Becker (amazing sounding hands)
Ron Thal (neck tone)

My current favourite band that use BKP are Haken with Charlie Griffiths who I know uses the Aftermath set

In the worst case scenario I'll get the Aftermath set but I am trepidatious about calibrated sets.  I really like a bridge pickup and a neck pickup to be very different, not a darker or brighter version of each other I just don't see the point.  A friend of mine had a Cold Sweat set but the neck wasn't radically different from the bridge and ended up never really going to his neck pickup because the cold sweat could do everything without sounding harsh in the bridge.  If I had a one pickup guitar I would very most likely go for a Cold Sweat, insanely well balanced bridge pickup.

Any ways, ramble ramble ramble.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Ian

[ericsabbath]

my first thought was cold sweats
I wouldn't say the neck model sounds similar to the bridge cold sweat, though (the neck nailbomb kinda does)
you could pair it with a different neck model, anyway

impulses would work well, apparently, but I don't think they're making 8 strings versions yet

and there's the rebel yell set

[Chargrilled]

Really interested to know what BKP have to say, they've put a 9 string PU in there so what would actually work. I'm in the market for an 8 but was really unsure about this for the PU reason.

[icyoung]

Really interested to know what BKP have to say, they've put a 9 string PU in there so what would actually work. I'm in the market for an 8 but was really unsure about this for the PU reason.

They make the pickups staggered. So they would look like these:





In the second picture it looks like it was the same deal as my guitar but now has staggered pickups, most likely BKP because it's Charlie Griffiths from Haken

[icyoung]

my first thought was cold sweats
I wouldn't say the neck model sounds similar to the bridge cold sweat, though (the neck nailbomb kinda does)
you could pair it with a different neck model, anyway

impulses would work well, apparently, but I don't think they're making 8 strings versions yet

and there's the rebel yell set

Impulses don't come in 8 string variants from what I can see

For my purposes are you saying that the CS bridge or neck is most appropriate? ie a Nuno percussive bridge sound or a vocal oval neck sound?

[Dave Sloven]

I think he was referring to the CS bridge

[Jackalicious]

Does BKP even stagger their pickups? As stated earlier, the EMGs are actually 9-string pickups slanted but I have never seen (that I can think of) a set of BKP's that were slanted like that.

[icyoung]

Does BKP even stagger their pickups? As stated earlier, the EMGs are actually 9-string pickups slanted but I have never seen (that I can think of) a set of BKP's that were slanted like that.

The picture of Charlie Griffiths of Haken there is a set of staggered Aftermaths.  They've already told me they can stagger them and have done for various people.  They just need the precise angle the guitar has the route done in relation to the string.  They also offered to put them in a housing for me so if I wanted you could eliminate all gaps.  However I love the idea of having an open pickup with the bright green plastic they do.

[icyoung]

From what I can tell listening to as many clips as I can the Nailbomb has the kind of c--ked wah kind of lead sound I really like and really makes chords roar (I love a lot of what I hear from the Marc Holcomb bridge pickup for it's texture on making chords roar).  However finding good clips of the cold sweat in the neck not sounding compressed is proving a little hard...... I am leaning to that the most atm as there are textures I do like...... but it's really hard.

[northlane.josh]

surprised nobody suggested painkillers yet, they are king for an exaggerated upper midrange. Big and tight lows.

[icyoung]

surprised nobody suggested painkillers yet, they are king for an exaggerated upper midrange. Big and tight lows.

I am now tempted by the painkiller and mule neck models.  The Nailbomb as far as I can tell really hits it on the head for me in regards to voicing of chords and that c--ked wah sounding lead.  I don't know if the Mule can match the nailbomb for volume though......... I am going to try and find more clips.  Apparently Chris Broderick ended up having the mule as his favourite neck pickup on his 7 string