Author Topic: Opeth style neck pickup? (Read 2792 times)

Liquid · « **on:** April 09, 2007, 03:04:36 AM »

Which would be the best Neck pickup for a Mahogany bodied guitar to get a kinda Opeth style lead sound and their cleaner clean parts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G2jlXUkJ84

For the lead sound, think the Solo at around 1:54.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Yu8r1T8vs

For the cleans, think something similar to this but warmer with a bit more bass and less treble

Anyone have any Idea of what could get me close to these kinda tones?

MDV · « **Reply #1 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:37:46 AM »

I'm guessing nailbomb or maybe holy diver. Just guesses from clips, though, I havent used those.

Davey · « **Reply #2 on:** April 09, 2007, 09:13:17 AM »

no idea, but once i get the VHII neck, i'll report in

Antag · « **Reply #3 on:** April 09, 2007, 09:46:32 AM »

Quote from: Liquid

Which would be the best Neck pickup

Bear in mind that neither of those clips include much neck pickup:

Quote from: Liquid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G2jlXUkJ84
For the lead sound, think the Solo at around 1:54.

The lead part sounds like a bridge pickup to me rather than a neck. Quite thick sounding though, a Holy Diver bridge would be my choice for this.

Quote from: Liquid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Yu8r1T8vs
For the cleans, think something similar to this but warmer with a bit more bass and less treble

IMO very few (if any) of the cleans in this clip are the neck pickup - the picked verse is bridge pickup & the strummed parts sound like one of the PRS "in between" positions (split bridge + split neck in parallel).

For bridge I doubt you'd go far wrong with either Nailbomb or Holy Diver & either Holy Diver, Nailbomb or Cold Sweat necks could be a good choice for the neck (thinking about some of the Opeth studio albums as well rather than specifically those clips). Guess it depends on your guitar - what neck & fretboard does it have? is it set neck/bolt-on-neck-thru? maple laminate or archtop? (all these have an impact on the tone as much as the body material)

Liquid · « **Reply #4 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:20:08 PM »

^ Yeah I thought the second clip might not have been the neck but It was the best example I could find. I was pretty sure that solo in the first vid was using the neck, though listening to it again it does sound pretty trebley and doesn't quite have the warmth of the neck. In my defence I posted this thread at around 2 in the morning, My entire concentration wasn't really there :P

The guitar btw is Mahogany body with rosewood fretboard and a set mahogany neck, There's already a Miracle Man in the bridge

Thanks for all the help guys, please keep the comments coming. And I'd really appreciate your input on the VHII Davey, I've been considering it for a while.

_tom_ · « **Reply #5 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:24:21 PM »

I'd recommend a Mule for this type of stuff. Heres a clip in the style of Opeth I did a while ago, all the lead (and clean) was done with a neck Mule.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=493678&songID=4951909

The only thing is, I dont know how well it'd balance with a Miracle Man in the bridge.

Antag · « **Reply #6 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:43:19 PM »

Ah, OK, well if you've got a Miracle Man bridge, then the best choice is a Cold Sweat neck.

VHII neck wouldn't be disastrous (I have one, paired with a Nailbomb bridge), but Cold Sweat is a simply awesome neck pickup - enough poke to hold it's own next to any of the high gain BKPs, but with a really sweet clean sound & more than enough clarity for even the thickest, bassiest Les Paul.

FWIW, there are VHII & CS necks in this BKP-fest clip I made a while back, though it might not be much use to you as it's a bit of a mish-mash :)

Antag · « **Reply #7 on:** April 09, 2007, 03:55:09 PM »

Also, I think _tom_ has a good point that some of the lower-output BKP models are perfectly viable for Opeth.

Opeth themselves use Duncan Full Shreds (you can see the FS neck in Peter's PRS on the second clip) - FS is a pretty pokey neck, but the bridge is a bit weedy. Not that I'm saying the Mule is weedy, but a Painkiller it ain't (I don't yet have a Mule BTW) :)

A lot of Opeth's high gain riffs use strummed full chords with no palm muting, so a more open, percussive, dynamic bridge pickup is possibly a better choice than a fire breathing beasty :)

However, you've already got a Miracle Man so it's a moot point... :)

Liquid · « **Reply #8 on:** April 09, 2007, 04:59:20 PM »

Thanks for the clips guys, they both sounded awesome

To be honest, my first thought for these kinda sounds was a Mule but I was always concerned that It wouldn't balance well with the MM.

I've been thinking about a CS for a while as it seems to be THE pickup to pair with a MM. My main concern was always the cleans though I'm leaning towards it now as it sounds like the best thing to balance with the MM.

Thanks for all the help guys, and please keep the comments coming :drink: