Author Topic: Help with some recomendations (Read 1801 times)

kent · « **on:** March 21, 2008, 12:40:06 AM »

Ok, so I am finally ready to get a set of BK's for my guitar. The PU that I will be replacing is a JB that I have in the bridge. Like many others that have bought BK's before, I am having a hard time picking out what I think will work best for my style.

The guitar that the new PU will be going into is an ESP Eclipse II (note: a "real" ESP, and not an LTD) that is made from a mahogany body, mahogany neck, and an ebony fret board. My model ( the vintage black) does not have a maple top. Basically I want a PU that has tight and responsive bass, I dont want "ear bleeding" highs, and a somewhat neutral mid range. Well it doesn't have to be totally neutral, I just dont like the "scooped" sound that some pickups have. Alot of the stuff I play has a very percussive picking patern (think Jon Schafer from Iced Earth) so I need something that has a tight pick attack. I have a few picked out out allready, but maybe some people can help me and tell me if I'm going in the right direction at all, or name something that I havent thought of yet. SO heres my list so far:

Black Dog
VHII
Riff Raff
Rebel Yell

I'm REALLY liking all the clips that I have heard of the VHII, but I'm still a little worried that it might color the sound of the amp a little too much, and not be a tight sounding as I need. So anyone have an ideas or comments that could help me on my quest? Thanks!

Scotty477 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2008, 12:52:49 AM »

Welcome Kent.

I'm basically just saying hello here as I have little experience in all mahogany body guitars.

kent · « **Reply #2 on:** March 21, 2008, 01:34:16 AM »

Thanks! Ive lurked on the forum for a while not but never registered so I figgured I was time to do so.

ericsabbath · « **Reply #3 on:** March 21, 2008, 01:51:13 AM »

the riff raff is very percussive but has the scooped thing to my ears (but it would be my first choice in the vintage line)

schafer loves the riff raff and the blag dog, but his main live les paul seems to have purple zebra rebel yells

kent · « **Reply #4 on:** March 21, 2008, 07:30:30 AM »

Quote from: Eric Hellstyle

the riff raff is very percussive but has the scooped thing to my ears (but it would be my first choice in the vintage line)

schafer loves the riff raff and the blag dog, but his main live les paul seems to have purple zebra rebel yells

I dont actually know of any recordings of Iced Earth, or anything that schaffer has done where he was using anything by BK. I know that he used them before from what Ive read on their website, but as far as I know, Jon is using Jim Wagner pickups. He's even got a signature pickup set called the Icebucker. He said that he used a bunch of different Jim Wagner pickups on framing Armageddon, but nothing about BK. So I would imagine every live show played after framing Armageddon came out would have been with a Wagner pickup. So I'm guessing. There's a couple videos ob youtube where some thought he was using a rebel yell, but Im pretty sure that its a Wagner. But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

Hansi · « **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2008, 09:51:37 AM »

I was looking for the same kind of pickups and Tim recommended me that I try either a calibrated set of Black Dogs or Riff Raffs. So I'm currently waiting to get the set of Black Dogs... 8)

You can check out this gear talk with Jon article for some stuff that he uses. Tim also told that when he was doing some recording for IE he used the Mule and VHII while Schaffer mostly used the Black Dogs.