Just took the plunge on a Painkiller/Cold Sweat Combo

[lebowski77]

Painkiller (bridge) and Cold Sweat (neck) going into an ESP LTD H401FM. Maple neck thru with mahogany body and rosewood fretboard. Tuned to C standard mostly for metal.

It's replacing the stock EMGs which are OK, but lack the character and punch of passives. Luckily enough due to the mass produced nature of these guitars and their different configurations, the guitar already has the bridge ground wire so it's just a matter of a couple of new pots and a jack.

Here's hoping it works out. Excited  :guitar4:

[jc986]

I'm excited to hear your thoughts.  I'm contemplating the exact same combo.

[antikue]

It might be I have the same combo in my Jackson SL2H. I bought it as a Painkiller set, but obviously the neck humbucker is something else. It reads around 8.3kOhm, has a normal size lighter shade magnet (A5 presumably) and it sounds much like Duncan Jazz. The bridge is definitely Painkiller, at around 15.8kOhm and triple ceramic magnets.

Need more playing and different amps to play through, but so far it seems like a very good combo. I have a Duncan Distortion & Jazz combo in another similar guitar, and they are quite alike actually. The PK is clearer and sounds bigger though.

[ericsabbath]

the neck vhii is 8.3k too, but I think it has a longer magnet, like the bridge model

[lebowski77]

OK they've been installed and tested. Love the PK! Does exactly what I want it too. Nice and tight and crunchy on low tunings. The Cold Sweat neck is great too, but in contrast to the PK bridge it's quite loose and the difference is quite jarring when switching between them. May be I should have just got the PK set, but I heard such great things about the CS neck for leads which is true on its own.

[ericsabbath]

OK they've been installed and tested. Love the PK! Does exactly what I want it too. Nice and tight and crunchy on low tunings. The Cold Sweat neck is great too, but in contrast to the PK bridge it's quite loose and the difference is quite jarring when switching between them. May be I should have just got the PK set, but I heard such great things about the CS neck for leads which is true on its own.

great, lebowski  8)

glad you like them
the cold sweat might feel a little underpowered in comparison, but that only adds to versatility