Pickups for Jackson DK2M

[Manachild]

Alright, so recently i bought a jackson DK2M.
Its an alder body, bolt on, maple fretboard, 25.5 scale Axe with a LFR bridge.
I mostly play heavy metal, thrash, some death metal (death, dimmu borgir stuff like that). And need some high output pickups that are going to have adequate crunch that arent thin sounding and have some balls. I drop tune to D standard and use 11-52 guage strings.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[Antag]

Toss-up between Painkiller & Holy Diver IMO.  HD has a ton of midrange "grunt" & sounds sensational in alder.  PK has a little bit more output, is tighter, sounds really aggressive & also has plenty of midrange.

The HD has an A5 magnet & sounds/feels a bit more "organic" - by which I mean that you can roll back the volume or soften your pickstroke on mid gain settings & it will clean up nicely, or you can belt it on a clean sound to introduce some grit :twisted:

The Ceramic PK is a firebreathing metal beast that ought to have a government health warning printed on it :)

The DK2M comes with a Duncan JB bridge right?  If so, do you consider it "thin sounding" with no "balls"?  FWIW I found swapping the JB out of my RR1T for a Holy Diver was a huge improvement.  Not a massive jump in output, but a much fuller fatter midrange, more dynamics, more "life", more "body" to the sound :D

But on reflection, I'm guessing you might go for the PK instead :)

[Manachild]

Toss-up between Painkiller & Holy Diver IMO.  HD has a ton of midrange "grunt" & sounds sensational in alder.  PK has a little bit more output, is tighter, sounds really aggressive & also has plenty of midrange.

The HD has an A5 magnet & sounds/feels a bit more "organic" - by which I mean that you can roll back the volume or soften your pickstroke on mid gain settings & it will clean up nicely, or you can belt it on a clean sound to introduce some grit :twisted:

The Ceramic PK is a firebreathing metal beast that ought to have a government health warning printed on it :)

The DK2M comes with a Duncan JB bridge right?  If so, do you consider it "thin sounding" with no "balls"?  FWIW I found swapping the JB out of my RR1T for a Holy Diver was a huge improvement.  Not a massive jump in output, but a much fuller fatter midrange, more dynamics, more "life", more "body" to the sound :D

But on reflection, I'm guessing you might go for the PK instead :)

Thanks for the info.
And you are correct that the DK2M comes with a JB/Jazz set. and i do think that of the pickup, i also find it a little too bright.
So Miracle Man wouldnt be a good idea?  :?

[Antag]

So Miracle Man wouldnt be a good idea?  :?

I'm guessing that the Dk2M is quite a bright guitar anyway? (never owned one myself, but alder body + maple neck + maple fboard + OFR would seem a recipe for brightness to me :))

MM has plenty of low-end but is also quite bright.  IMO you need a lot more mids than the MM has to really add "chunk"/"grunt" to the sound.  In my experience what really takes the "balls" out of guitars with lightweight alder bodies is the loss of mids.

[Antag]

Either way, the MM would still be an improvement over the JB - I just thing that the PK or HD would be a bigger improvement :)

[Manachild]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1B-si4knxI

been playing that on guitar lately if you wanted a sound example just to be sure.
sorry if i'm seeming over careful. just a little concerned that it might sound a little too nwobhm all the time.

[Davey]

ceramic warpig. you'll thank me later :D

ok, maybe it might be a bit too brutal for you.

then Miracle man

[Manachild]

what does the ceramic mag do to the warpig? make it brighter and tighten it up?