special guitar needs special humbucker...

[Orpheo]

Hi guys,

I have a special guitar coming up. its a les paul with a rosewood back, padouk (maple-like) top, a pau ferro neck with ebony fingerboard. I want a humbucker which covers these sounds: everything from the darkness to the scorpions and from thin lizzy to iron maiden and from metallica to zakk wylde, and black sabbath too, but it should also do 80ies hairmetal ok to some extent.

I know, these are very different pickups:
JB, EMG's, PAFs, superdistortions, but what BKP can cover this? I like my sound to be tight with high gain, and a bit 'loose' with low gain. I like pinch harmonics (I use them even more than zakk wylde). I have a rio grande BBQ in a les paul, and that pickup is too warm for my taste. the JB is too shrill. the superdistortion is too muddy.

for the neckpickup I want something that is very warm, but not muddy. it should give me a nice, fat lead when I play heavy metal, but a more open sound when I play blues and/or jazz (with ofcourse, less gain).

The amp I use is a marshall jcm800.

i was thinking as a bridgepickup:
1: miracle man
2: warpig ceramic
3:painkiller
4: cold sweat.

I've had the nailbomb, and that pickup is way too warm with not nearly enough pinches; it just wouldn't deliver the goods!

for the neck:
1: mule
2: cold sweat(?)
3: warpig Alnico V.

what do you guys think?

[Ratrod]

I'm not entirely shure what the tonal charcteristcs are of the woods you mentioned. Some of the luthiers will chime in, no doubt.

Have you considdered the Rebel Yell?

[Orpheo]

I'm not entirely shure what the tonal charcteristcs are of the woods you mentioned. Some of the luthiers will chime in, no doubt.

Have you considdered the Rebel Yell?

the woods itself will give me a guitar comparable with a les paul made in the 1970ies; heavy with a lot of mids; agressive mids, tight lows and screaming highs (imho). think of customs used by peter frampton, zakk wylde, thin lizzy, slash, ace frehley.

I've considered the rebel yell, and I've heard the pickup, and for some strange reason, I dont like it. too 'nasal' sounding...

Oh, I forgot: I want output! I like my pickups to be as hot as possible. In my opinion, there can never be too much output. if theres 'too much' you can roll off the volume. if theres not enough, you've got to use stompboxes, etc etc. I dont like that....  :oops:

[Twinfan]

I'm thinking a pair of Cold Sweats sound perfect for you...

[Orpheo]

I'm thinking a pair of Cold Sweats sound perfect for you...

I heard they are voiced like the gibson dirty fingers. those pickups, the DF, are too flat-sounding. not enough texture, the pinches are not really that good and when played with a lot of gain and palmmuted they start to mush out. and; the dont have enough output.

I've tried the JB today again, and I want to have more output than the JB (but with that 'feel' and tonal range) and better pinches. I've got a motherbucker (27k, 2 ceramic magnets) and that comes close to the output I want...

[Roobubba]

my stock answer:  e-mail Tim!

He will give you far more objective answers than any of us here can (no offense to you guys who have sampled many more BKPs than me, but I hope I'm not far off the mark with this statement!).

I was confused when you said you wanted warmth, then listed all the high gain ceramic pups. If a Nailbomb is too warm in a padouk guitar, well I'd certainly be surprised! The first thing that sprung to mind was an AlNiCo V warpig, but don't take my comments without seriously large pinches of salt.

I say it again: e-mail Tim for his suggestions :)

Roo

[Orpheo]

my stock answer:  e-mail Tim!

He will give you far more objective answers than any of us here can (no offense to you guys who have sampled many more BKPs than me, but I hope I'm not far off the mark with this statement!).

I was confused when you said you wanted warmth, then listed all the high gain ceramic pups. If a Nailbomb is too warm in a padouk guitar, well I'd certainly be surprised! The first thing that sprung to mind was an AlNiCo V warpig, but don't take my comments without seriously large pinches of salt.

I say it again: e-mail Tim for his suggestions :)

Roo

well... perhaps warmth is not the right description. I dont want 'harshness'. the padouk will only be the topwood. padouk is like maple, rosewood back is like mahogany, so, all in all, its like a regular les paul, haha.

I prefer a pickup that screams and is scorchingly hot and burns like a madman so I can tame it with volume+tone than that I have nothing left.

but: not more bright than a JB....

[WezV]

padouk is like maple, rosewood back is like mahogany, so, all in all, its like a regular les paul, haha..

personally i dont see that
 :?
you can certainly expect the rosewood to give a nice warm tone, similar spectrum to mahogany but it does have a sound all of its own.

paduak is similar to maple... but not as bright.. it has much richer mids than maple

the pau ferro neck is a good choice for sustain and the ebony fretboard will bring a bit of extra attack to the mix

its a very nice mix of woods but i wouldnt expect it to sound just like a les paul... might be in the upper regions of a les pauls weight as well.  i would be considering lower to mid powered pickups for a guitar like that and using a pedal to get the higher gain sounds you want

either way.. sounds like its going to be a great guitar

[il˙ti]

Bridge pup process of elimination: (you sound fairly picky so I'm gonna be blunt here )
Holy Diver: too warm
Cold Sweat: not hot enough
Miracle Man: too scooped, doesn't work well for low-gain (I said I'd be blunt)
Nailbomb: too warm
Warpig: AV too warm, ceramic not versatile enough
Painkiller: possibly too bright, but I'd say it's a candidate
Crawler: too warm
 
The best bet is to email Tim. From all that is said, I'm left thinking of the ceramic Nailbomb. Tighter and brighter than the AV version, doesn't lack in the mids, and does certainly have huge sounding pinches. Nolly left some clips that you might wanna check out.
For neck I'd say your options are fairly open. Have you tried the Nailbomb neck? If not, that'd be the obvious choice. The crawler and Abraxas neck pickups are more in the vintage direction for those open blues sounds, but they can handle high gain too.

[Jonny]

I'm thinking a pair of Cold Sweats sound perfect for you...

...the pinches are not really that good...

BLASPHEMOUS! :o

[il˙ti]

...the pinches are not really that good...

BLASPHEMOUS! :o

That was about the Gibson dirty fingers. I'd still say I agree with you, Jonny. John Sykes has the best sounding pinches of anyone. Ever. But I assume that lies in the fingers.

[Will]

I think the part you will have trouble with is

I like my sound to be tight with high gain, and a bit 'loose' with low gain.

I am no expert, but you are asking for two different properties in a pickup that are completely contrary. Personally, I would have two guitars with seperate purposes.
I am not faulting your technique, but it sounds a little bit like you want the pickup to actually do the pinch for you :P I get them as often and easy on my HD Les Paul with a JMP 2204.

[Orpheo]

I think the part you will have trouble with is

I like my sound to be tight with high gain, and a bit 'loose' with low gain.

I am no expert, but you are asking for two different properties in a pickup that are completely contrary. Personally, I would have two guitars with seperate purposes.
I am not faulting your technique, but it sounds a little bit like you want the pickup to actually do the pinch for you :P I get them as often and easy on my HD Les Paul with a JMP 2204.

the air norton I had, and the nailbomb too by the way, had what I wanted, looking at tightness with high gain and 'looseness'at low gain.

about the rosewood back: I've already tried a guitar with rosewood as a bodywood, and that was very much like mahogany. bit more upperrange, bit more mids and more crunchy lows, but the padouk will surely add more brightness. I'm sure the body will work.

and indeed, the (new!) dirty fingers lack the pinches I like. Sykes can make pinches like a madman, but as far as I know (and tried), older Dirty fingers can make nicer tones (and pinches) than the new ones. they're just a bit dull...

@ilyti: thanks for your comments! the nailbomb-neck is indeed great! exactly the way I like it. I will email Tim about my questions. we'll see what comes out of this :)

[Orpheo]

I think the part you will have trouble with is

I like my sound to be tight with high gain, and a bit 'loose' with low gain.

I am no expert, but you are asking for two different properties in a pickup that are completely contrary. Personally, I would have two guitars with seperate purposes.
I am not faulting your technique, but it sounds a little bit like you want the pickup to actually do the pinch for you :P I get them as often and easy on my HD Les Paul with a JMP 2204.

Its not my technique, I know that. Its just that with some pickups I get nice pinches than on others. its just the sound of the pinch some pickups give me. the JB, for one. the rio grande BBQ has a nice pinch-tone too, but when playing, its just too warm and not hot enough. the air norton is too shrill (but with the pinch-sound I like though!), the burstbuckers are too nasal, the bluesbucker (dimarzio) is too shrill too. motherbuckers are very much what I want, but preferbly with more output and more highs...

[WezV]

about the rosewood back: I've already tried a guitar with rosewood as a bodywood, and that was very much like mahogany. bit more upperrange, bit more mids and more crunchy lows, but the padouk will surely add more brightness. I'm sure the body will work.

i definately wasnt saying it wouldnt work, i just dont see it as sounding that much like a les paul.. maybe slightly closer to the 70's ones you mentioned above but actually i think it will sound a whole lot more complex than that

hard to say without actually being the person choosing the individual pieces of wood and construction techniques but i would expect powerfull mids, quite a bit of warmth and a nice attack from this mix...

its a bit like cooking.. lots of ways to make something spicy but it doesnt mean they taste the same