Miracle Man not that hot actually?

[hunter]

It's strange, but the SG with the Miracle Man feels lower output than the LP with the VHII or the Epi with Black Dogs. It's weird cause they measure high resistance.

I don't mind so much, it sounds pretty good, but I put the pickup quite close to the strings to get more output, then dialed it back down a tad as I found it too ice picky.

So anyone else got a MM bridge and feels it ain't that hawt after all?

[fr33man1]

I had the feeling its thin in E tuning. On my lp custom it was smooth, fat and tame in the high end. I was amazed as it was a cool punchy rock pickup, it was far less focused than a nailbomb and less agressive too in this guitar. I'll put one on my historic reissue too, I'll tell you if its same there. If so I guess it starts to roar in low tunings.

[dave_mc]

i don't have any other bridge BKPs to compare to, but my MM is pretty hot. I mean it's not brootaldjentdjentbrootzcookiemonster hot, but it's pretty hot. Also it's not all that compressed, which I think also makes it seem not as hot.

But playing with a boost (which i've started to do a lot now) it easily hot enough for me, and the boost compresses things a bit more.

I mean I'd say it's a little hotter than my JB, but much less compressed.

[Philly Q]

It's strange, but the SG with the Miracle Man feels lower output than the LP with the VHII or the Epi with Black Dogs. It's weird cause they measure high resistance.

Off topic, but what's in the McCarty nowadays?  Still Emerald?  And how does that compare?

[ericsabbath]

a les paul has a lot more body to push the pickup, so that's not quite a far comparison
the riff raff I had in a PRS McCarty sounded much louder and felt higher output than the miracle man in a Cort Katana (set neck, all "mahogany")
but the PRS is a fatter and much more resonant guitar with real honduran mahogany, so the comparison becomes a bit useless in that aspect

[gwEm]

i 100% agree hunter. sounds good though, all the same!

[hunter]

It's strange, but the SG with the Miracle Man feels lower output than the LP with the VHII or the Epi with Black Dogs. It's weird cause they measure high resistance.

Off topic, but what's in the McCarty nowadays?  Still Emerald?  And how does that compare?

The Emerald is without a home right now as I put the VHII bridge back in the Edwards. The McCarty nowadays carries the stock duncans that came in the Edwards LP. The bridge I think is an SH/5, pretty hot, feels much hotter than the MM. And indeed I agree with the other posters, MMan doesnt compress much which makes it seem less hot. It has an interesting tone and gels nicely with the SGs qualities actually.

I was expecting more boooomph from it, but actually I prefer it this way, rather give more on the booster or the amp than having a too strong signal from the guitar that I cant get clean if needed.

[dave_mc]

yeah. i mean, I think i've heard a lot of people say that the MM is the least versatile BKP, and to me it's not particularly versatile, i don't like its lower gain overdrive tones, they're too thin (though its cleans are actually not bad for a hot ceramic pickup)- but what it does do, it does really, really well.

[Alex]

The MM is hot, but the mids usually drive an amp into overdrive and some pickups have much more of that, like the Black Dog.

To be honest I wouldn't worry about it; and yes, I had the same feeling that the MM wasn't that hot overall.

[Telerocker]

I think it's a question of frequencies. I mean, what we hear/ feel as being loud. The Crawler in my strat does not really sound like an highoutput-pu. Sometimes I have the feeling lower output-pu sounds more huge, bec of the open tonal spectrum. Like Mules do.

[ericsabbath]

the miracle isn't any less versatile than a painkiller or aftermath

[dave_mc]

i might have heard that before the PK and AM were released :lol:

[Transcend]

the miracle isn't any less versatile than a painkiller or aftermath

I agree 100% on that.

I would actually say the MM is more versatile than the AM

[Davey]

to my ears, it's hotter than an A5 warpig. i have both in pretty 'similar' guitars and the MM drives the front of my laney much harder than the WP

[darkbluemurder]

I just installed a Miracle Man in one of my guitars which has a strong midrange to it. The MM to me is hot but not over the top, has a strong but tight bottom end and very clear midrange. First thing that came to mind was Zakk Wylde indeed but it does a good John Sykes tone as well. And as one poster before stated it sounded better to my ears when I backed it a bit down on the treble string side. The highs became smoother and clearer.

The MM replaced a Wilde by Lawrence L-500 XL. Output of both pickups are about the same. Tonal colour is similar but the very noticeable thing is the clarity of the BKP over the L-500 XL. There is a lot less of those unmusical trash frequencies in the tone (turn up the presence on any Marshall-style amp and you'll know what I mean - do the same thing with a BKP and it will not happen). Yet it has all the harmonics one could wish for. I can imagine that the clarity makes the pickup appear to have less output than it really has. It makes it also a bit more difficult to play because there is nothing to hide behind. But I think that is a good thing actually :)

As regards versatility I am yet to test it more in depth but so far I really like what I heard.

Cheers Stephan