Help with pickup selection for metal and shred.

[ShredHead]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum but have been browsing through for a while now.

I am an active musician and my favorite type of music is metal and shred. I recently bought a custom made carvin guitar which is a neck through, and i'm very happy with it. The only thing that isn't perfect i believe are the pickups. While they are good pickups and are very versitile i'm looking for something that is more focused for the music i do.

I have been looking through the pickups and really love the sound of the mule in the neck. But in the bridge i am undecided. I was thinking about the miricle man because it seems to have tons of power and tight bass, which appeals to me, but i'm not sure if it will complement my instrument well. Also i'm not sure if it has much tone besides the power.

What i'm looking for out of the bridge pickup is a real heavy and chunky sound from the bottom strings, like the sound of an emg 81. But then a soaring and presency soloing tone on the top strings that is clear.

I also like tons of pick attack to come through.

Could anyone help me out with my dilema.

Oh and for reference the neck of the guitar is a 5 piece with 3 koa and two maple stripes with flame maple covering the wings which are alder.

Its a special guitar and it deserves the best pickups.

Thank you

[Johnny Mac]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum but have been browsing through for a while now.

I am an active musician and my favorite type of music is metal and shred. I recently bought a custom made carvin guitar which is a neck through, and i'm very happy with it. The only thing that isn't perfect i believe are the pickups. While they are good pickups and are very versitile i'm looking for something that is more focused for the music i do.

I have been looking through the pickups and really love the sound of the mule in the neck. But in the bridge i am undecided. I was thinking about the miricle man because it seems to have tons of power and tight bass, which appeals to me, but i'm not sure if it will complement my instrument well. Also i'm not sure if it has much tone besides the power.

What i'm looking for out of the bridge pickup is a real heavy and chunky sound from the bottom strings, like the sound of an emg 81. But then a soaring and presency soloing tone on the top strings that is clear.

I also like tons of pick attack to come through.

Could anyone help me out with my dilema.

Oh and for reference the neck of the guitar is a 5 piece with 3 koa and two maple stripes with flame maple covering the wings which are alder.

Its a special guitar and it deserves the best pickups.

Thank you

Get a Miracle Man! I've got one and I 'ffing love baby! You can get some nice tones too if you back off the gain and volume knob on your guitar.
Shredding works well with this pup cos' it's attack and bass is wicked innit!!!

[Peterku]

Maybe a Miracle Man with Alnico V?

[Joe Dorcia]

IF your looking for an EMG-81 but better (like an EMG-81 with character) You could go for the Warpig. they are designed to be its competitor i believe, and they will knock ur socks off. Check out the players section for some sound clips

Joe

[PhilKing]

The Miracle Man set comes with a ceramic bridge and alnico V neck.  It is a great combination.

[Ratrod]

Miracle Man or a ceramic Warpig if you want to keep the bass tight.

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Yeah, Miracle Man and The Mule . the same set i´m looking for.
i play extreme Metal(black/death/thrash/fusion metal)
BUT PLEASE, POST SOME PICS OF YOUR MAGNIFICENT GUITAR
ahahahahahahahha GUITAR PORN NOW!
ahAHhaAHAHah
Hails!
J.P

[TwilightOdyssey]

I also like tons of pick attack to come through.

The only thing that makes me not unilaterally recommend the Miracle Man is the 'pick attack' issue; I know that DiMarzios have a really exaggerated pick attack sound. However, The MM, while being really open in the top end, doesn't necessarily have a spike at 5kHz which would give that Paul Gilbert kind of pick attack sound. Just my .02, folks.

[_tom_]

Firstly, It might not be high enough output for your styles but maybe a Riff Raff has the attack you want? Well I remember reading something to do with "attack" in its description anyway  :lol:

However, The MM, while being really open in the top end, doesn't necessarily have a spike at 5kHz which would that Paul Gilbert kind of pick attack sound. Just my .02, folks.

Secondly, off topic, but I $%&#ing LOVE the Paul Gilbert pick attack sound, in the Total Guitar school of shred things his tone is amazing, but it never says what guitar etc he uses  :?

[Tim]

Paul mainly is seen playing Ibanez but he has LOADS of cool axes in his collection.Part of his tone, particularly in his early days, was his use of parallel tone....running his bridge humbucker in parallel rather that series.
To get a Miracle Man to do that I'd simply make it with an ALnico V to bring the mid in a again.

[_tom_]

Paul mainly is seen playing Ibanez but he has LOADS of cool axes in his collection.Part of his tone, particularly in his early days, was his use of parallel tone....running his bridge humbucker in parallel rather that series.
To get a Miracle Man to do that I'd simply make it with an ALnico V to bring the mid in a again.

yeah most of the pics of him in TG are with this Ibanez Vee that I want so bad haha

[ShredHead]

thank you so much for your replies everyone i really do appreciate it.

Tim is it possible to make the miricle man with an alnico v magnet and exactly what would it change in the tone?(would the bass stay tight?)

also on my guitar i have 3 mini toggle switches mounted. 2 are for coil tapping each humbucker and the other is for out of phase. I like having the coil taps there and i commonly use them, but i don't use the phase switch much.

Would it be possible to wire the mini toggle for parralel/ series switching?

[Tim]

Hi again and welcome to the forum(apologies, didn't realise this was your first time on :oops: )
Making a Miracle Man with Alnico V has the effect of making the tone more gritty................ceramic is hyper efficient and really smooths down the mids, brings up the bass(but really tight) and pushes the highs very aggressively.You could argue that Alnico V is better balanced in that it pushes all the frequencies relatively evenly although the bass isn't as tight-it's not flabby but not 'surgically tight'. I must admit I like both versions of the MM although I tend to put the AV version in the neck for presicely the reason we've been talking about, to put an edge on the pick attack.

Finally, I don't see why you couldn't run one of you mini toggles as a series /parallel...........should work quite well.You can actually wire in an on/on/on mini toggle for series, split, parallel which is a great all rounder. 8)

[ShredHead]

As for those pictures i will try to upload them to my computer. How do you post them though?

I'm sure that you will like what you see, it is a truly beautiful guitar.