What pickups should I get?

[kanamvar32]

Hi all. I want to get a Carvin CT6M (mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard, OFR, 2 humbuckers w/ coil tap) and put in some BK pups. I want the guitar to be primarily for heavier stuff. I'm thinking of having it set up either in C or D standard but may change it back to E standard/Drop D later on. So what pickups do you think I should get? I have a mesa mark iv as an amp and I like artists/bands such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden/Bruce Dickinson, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Judas Priest, Satriani, Eric Johnson, Vai, Tool, and others. I love heavy chugging riffs so high output pickups are necessary but I'd like something that cleans up well, especially when coil tapped. I don't shred so the pickups dont need to be able to handle absurdly fast passages but it would be nice if they could. I think a calibrated set of warpigs would be good for me but what do you all think? Thanks.

[carlaz]

I dunno, I think Warpigs might be too much for the bands you mention. :)  My first suggestions would be something like ... mmm, Painkillers, maybe Crawlers.  Holydiver, maybe?

[Antag]

Hello & welcome.

This kind of question comes up almost daily - often as somebody's first post :)

The short answer is that there is no right answer, based on your description we could recommend any out of Crawler, Nailbomb, Painkiller, Holy Diver, Miracle Man.  Perhaps even Cold Sweat (especially as a neck pickup - NB or MM bridge with CS neck is a very popular combination).  Like Carlaz I'm not sure that Warpig would not be too much.

A few questions:
Will you ever need/want to play cleans on the bridge humbucker? (or will you only play clean on the neck or with coil splitting?)
When you say "high output", what do you use at the moment (I noticed that you haven't yet got the Carvin)?

[kanamvar32]

I have a strat with single coils right now which I use for bluesy, jazzy, and clean stuff. I want to get a carvin w/ BK pickups  (most likely) primarily for metal since my strat cannot handle a lot of gain. It really sounds like cr@p when I turn the gain halfway or higher.

I dont need incredible cleans but would like good ones. If I play clean on the carvin w/ bks itll probably be with the neck pickup or with coil splitting.

I guess the bands I listed were not much help. I don't expect to get a pickup that will handle all those styles. I would like the pickups to handle heavy metal, death metal and progressive metal styles. So I'll make a revised list of what I want the pickups to handle instead of everything I listen to:

Symphony X
Necrophagist
Opeth
Slayer
Black Sabbath
Bruce Dickinson solo stuff
Tool
Dream Theater
and I even like the songs from the show Metalocalypse haha

I think this might be a more accurate description of what I want. Thanks for the replies so far. -K

[Transcend]

I have a strat with single coils right now which I use for bluesy, jazzy, and clean stuff. I want to get a carvin w/ BK pickups  (most likely) primarily for metal since my strat cannot handle a lot of gain. It really sounds like cr@p when I turn the gain halfway or higher.

I dont need incredible cleans but would like good ones. If I play clean on the carvin w/ bks itll probably be with the neck pickup or with coil splitting.

I guess the bands I listed were not much help. I don't expect to get a pickup that will handle all those styles. I would like the pickups to handle heavy metal, death metal and progressive metal styles. So I'll make a revised list of what I want the pickups to handle instead of everything I listen to:

Symphony X
Necrophagist
Opeth
Slayer
Black Sabbath
Bruce Dickinson solo stuff
Tool
Dream Theater
and I even like the songs from the show Metalocalypse haha

I think this might be a more accurate description of what I want. Thanks for the replies so far. -K

The miracleman and nailbomb can do the metalocalypse type tones really well because well im sad and i sit there with my mate and jam on them.