no more painkiller love? :(
I was gonna say the Painkiller is the go to "djent" humbucker. I even think better than the Aftermath, if you are aiming for that metallic "djent" 4 note power chord. The Painkiller can sound pretty bright in basswood, and other similar stuff but alder is not extremely bright. It's supposed to be a balanced wood so it will take to either bright or dark sounding pickups. Meshuggah sounds more like Meshuggah with a Painkiller then the Aftermath, but I mean this is a close difference.
I have C-bombs and would say that's a great pick. You are clearly looking for a ceramic magnet sound. I use a C-bomb in a JEM77FP to mimic a Vai 'ish tone; to have outstanding leads, powerful tight rythym, and solid note definition. It saturates well and has good compression without loosing an organic voicing that is naturally dark. It's an amazing pickup for progressive metal, lead based playing, and lower tunings. Of course it sounds great in standard as well.
Tim suggested a Painkiller to replace the DiMarzio EVOs, and after some back and forth we settled on a C-Bomb and eventually a Painkiller neck. This combo is $%&#ing tits. Very hot, powerful sound with a lot of soul and snarl out of both pickups. I place the C-Bomb pretty high to the strings and turned the bolts up a tad, and it is metal as hell. I can back the screw heads down a bit to lesson the output a little and it cleans up really well that way too.
So my clear pick is the C-Bomb for the bridge, but the Painkiller may be a great second option too. Neither will sound poorly or far from what you want tone wise in that wood.
