About pickups

[tonberry_king]

I'm new to buying pickups and while I've been doing as much research on it as I can, I'm still not sure on some things. From what I hear, Bare Knuckle pickups are the (nail) bomb (see what I did there?  :P) and I'm considering getting a pair, though I'm not sure on which ones.

I like the idea of the Warpig a lot but I don't know whether it would be best to have a caliberated set or have a Nailbomb or Miracle Man in the neck. What would be the difference in sound? I mean, how much of a difference is there in replacing stock pickups and what would be the differences between these combinations? (I'm not sure on what the difference is when people describe sound as 'bright' or 'full', so could somebody try and put it into simpler terms  :D I did say I was new at this!)

Ooh, and I play an Epiphone Les Paul Standard. If you needed to know.

Thanks ^__^

[TwilightOdyssey]

Welcome! Great screen name, too, btw. :)

I'm not a LP guy, so I can't say which would be best for you. What style of music do you play?

Someone will be along shortly to advise, tho.

[Bainzy]

What would be the difference in sound? I mean, how much of a difference is there in replacing stock pickups and what would be the differences between these combinations?

itd be like night and day replacing those stock pickups with BKP's, they'll make your old pickups sound terrible even when they're not that bad  :lol:

[_tom_]

I really like my Mule set in my Epi LP Custom. They are pretty versatile, they can even do metal which is cool seeing as they're a lowish output pickup  :D It seems like you may want a more higher output pickup than the Mule though seeing as you're asking about the Warpigs etc..

[Tim]

Welcome to the boards :D !
Assumming you're after a high gain set, the Warpig humbuckers will sound terrifying in your Epi.The Warpig neck is a superb pickup in it's own right and balances really well with the bridge.It's a high output model too although the wind is calibrated to balance properly with the bridge.Playing Warpigs is..........effortless.Serious silly grin time :D .

[willo]

yes, changing your pickups will make a huge difference. I replaced the pickups in my gibbo les paul with BKP's, wihtout knowing what kind of difference it would make. Before; i was satisfied with my guitar. With the new pickups in, i was in love!

Its kind of like dusting off a shiny gold trophy thats covered under layers of murky cr@p that stops it truly shining (if you see what i mean  :? ). Anyway, you'll know what i mean if you change - the difference is greater than you would probably think.

[Ratrod]

Even Duncans would make huge difference. You won't know what hit you when you change to BKP's. For high gain you can get Nailbombs, Warpigs, Miracle Man, Cold Sweat etc.

It depends on your style. What particular sound are tou after? Just name some songs/bands.

[tonberry_king]

Now I really want to get some new ones! Heh, I honestly didn't think it would make that much of a difference, I thought it would be too subtle to notice unless you really know your sounds  :P

I like many different styles, the heaviest being something like In Flames but my favourite bands are Tool and A Perfect Circle, I'd like to get something that can have a great distortion but can also play cleaner, more atmospheric parts. I think that the Warpig's would suit me, am I right?

[Tim]

Next to the actual initial construction of the guitar, pickups make the single most important contribution to the tone after the player themselves.

The tones you're talking about are all classic LP tones and generally come from lower output humbuckers rather than high gain ones.You're after an open grinding tone as opposed to a super saturated one.
I would recommend something lower in output than the Warpig.As great as they are I feel they may well be a sledge hammer to crack a nut in this case :D My choice would be either a Riff Raff or Mule set for classic LP grind, alternatively if you feel you want more power then a Crawler will provide a similar tone with more output.
As usual have a listen to the clips in the players room.

[_tom_]

if you do get the Mules, be sure to work harder, because the stock Epi pickups dont have as much defenition, they hide any mistakes! Its worth it though for the tone  :D

[tonberry_king]

Aww, and I really wanted a Warpig, they look so cool!  :P  The thing is with the other pickups you recommended is that they're all ones that I wouldn't look twice at normally, mainly because they say things like 'old school mentality' and 'british blues tone', heh, they just don't seem like the kind of thing I'm after. Though I think I'd always drool over something like the Warpig or Nailbomb because they sound or look cool, probably not the best way to look at things =/

But you think that to get the Tool-ish sound I should get those ones? And should I get caliberated sets or try pairing them up, say a Riff Raff in the bridge and a Mule in the neck? Maybe?

I'm still useless with all of this  :oops:

But thanks all the same! You guys are being amazingly helpful! I'm so glad I found out about this place ^__^

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

The Riff raff would be a good choice for Tool and a perfect circle. It has a more agressive edge to it than the Mule.

You can even have the Nailbomb covers on them too!

[PhilKing]

I have the Riff Raff bridge paired with a Stormy Monday neck.  I have the Emerald in the bridge with the Mule neck.  Both in lLes Pauls.  I love both of these set ups, and they are not as stereotyped as you would think.  I have a demo of the Riff Raff in the bridge in the Payers section.  I you listen to the dirty sounds you can see how much it can push the sound.

btw,  welcome to the forum!

[tonberry_king]

What exactly is the difference between high and lower output pickups? As far as I can tell, they're louder, but why? Couldn't you just turn up the volume to get the same thing? Or am I way off the mark here?  :P  

One thing I heard from a few places is that they're less forgiving in that they (high output pups) show your mistakes more. So they might not be a great idea if your not a brilliant guitarist?

So many things that make my head spin! Heh, I didn't think this would be so hard!

One more thing. Is there anywhere that has pictures of the range of the different humbucker covers you can have? It's just that I keep coming across ones that I didn't think you could, like the burnt blue ones in a different thread and some variations on the Nailbomb camo covers. It'd make it easier to decide on something a little more customised than what's on display in the shop if I knew what the limitations were, i.e. changing the colour of the screws or something.

Sorry if it's hard to make sense of what I've written, I try to put things down the best I can but sometimes I just confuse people!

[PhilKing]

A higher output pickup drives the amp more and has more effect on the overall sound.  It affects the gain and the tones much more, but Tim can explain this better than me :)

There are lots of pictures of the pickups in the gallery, but since you can pretty much order what you like it must be hard to show everything.  I have a couple of unusual finishes, like gold screws and black slugs in a zebra set for a PRS artist.