People with Nailbomb and Miracle Man, help pls.

[f.sardis]

Hi guys,

Kinda fresh user here but I have been reading the forums since forever and have emailed Tim a few times for advice, anyway long story short:

Custom ESP on the way and I was planning a set of warpigs but i decided my other custom loaded with EMG is enough so after careful consideration I am between Nailbomb and Miracle Man. Some guy made a few comparison clips of the two including the Mule and I have to admit I prefer the Miracle Man over the nailbomb but I kinda like the Nailbomb in the neck.
Anyone here has a nailbomb/miracle man in neck and bridge respectively? I am curious as to how well they will mix together. Custom is the all famous and perhaps boring Eclipse CTM, mahogany body, ebony board, maple top and maple neck through body.

Any comments will be greately appreciated.

[ericsabbath]

do it  :D

[Antag]

Yes, I have NB & MM sets.  I've not actually tried mixing them in the same guitar, but I reckon the NB neck would be OK with the MM bridge.

FWIW, my thinking is as follows: IMO the Cold Sweat neck is a better match for the MM bridge than the MM neck.  In terms of output, the NB neck is somewhere between the two, & in terms of eq it has less bass than either & slightly more mids.

If it helps, I recorded clean & lead neck shootouts in Players.

The one thing I would avoid at all costs is the other way round: An MM neck would possibly overpower an NB bridge, way too deep & punchy.

[JamesHealey]

I personally think the Nailbomb neck isn't that great im not a fan.

I think the Miracle Man neck is much better for metal it just flows so well for some reason it's effortless to play.
the Cold Sweat neck is also like this but MUCH fatter sounding.

[f.sardis]

Thanks guys,
I am now thinking perhaps a nailbomb isnt the deal for the neck. I am between MM and CS for the neck now. The MM is a bit more bassy and has more edge compared to the CS which sounds a bit smoother and less saturated.
Am i right in my assessment above or is it tottally different than what my ears tell me? (mind you i only got a laptop at the moment and you know how the speakers are in those).
Cool clips by the way, thanks again.

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

$%&#ing hails my friend
check out our bands clip
www.myspace.com/thyresis
nailbomb on the left speaker. the darker one.
nailbobm Bridge
what woods your esp custom will feature?
JP

[f.sardis]

Gonna be an Eclipse with 3 piece maple neck through body. Mahogany wings, 5A quilted maple top and ebony board.
I understand the nailbomb is more on the mid-high side of the eq and the custom is also on the mid-high section of the eq so i would rather get a pickup on the mid-lows to balance out with the wood.

on my existing custom same as above i have EMG 85 and 60A and it is pumping loads of mid-highs despite the alnico pups. Not that i dont like the sound, infact I am aiming to do the same with the new custom but with BKP instead of EMG.

[ericsabbath]

I personally think the Nailbomb neck isn't that great im not a fan.

I think the Miracle Man neck is much better for metal it just flows so well for some reason it's effortless to play.
the Cold Sweat neck is also like this but MUCH fatter sounding.

wat
the miracle man neck has like twice the low end and midrange of the cold sweat neck
and that's why I prefer the cold sweat
the miracle man neck is excessively fat

[Will]

I find the MM neck really quite bright, well, it has a very sharp top end IMO, but also huge sounding

[f.sardis]

the more i listen to MM samples i find here the more i love it. I think its gonna be a set of MM in the end. I really like the lead tone Antag nailed with the MM. I think it will work very well with the custom.

[Antag]

Half the battle is believing you've made the right choice :)

You seem set on the MM bridge from the start - it will slay in that guitar with that combination of woods :twisted:

As for the neck, if I had to come up with one word to describe the MM it would be "fluid".  For smooth, noodly legato lead work under high gain, there's no better pickup in existence.  It's useable clean, but I think there are neck pickups with a much better clean sound (although it is absolutely brilliant coil split...)

[f.sardis]

i will admit i liked the MM clean tone on the neck. I like my cleans a bit compressed and slightly overdriven with that snappy sound (no idea how to describe it better, the sound has a snap to it when you attack) you got in your clip.

The original idea 5 months ago was to get a set of warpigs with push/pull pots and switch between series and parallel on each pickup. the custom will have 2 vol and 2 tone pots but I think I will stick with a set of MM now without any fancy wiring.

Antag am I right in saying the MM has a hint of mid scoop in the sound? your lead clip with the MM sounded like it lacked high mids but had loads of highs or at least enough to give it an edge in the tone.

[Will]

The mids of it are smooth, its not an uber scooped heavy bass+treble pickup.
I know what you mean about the snappy clean, its great. Mine is wired in with two coil tap push pulls.

It is still quite vocal I think though, if anything, it has a lot of very high mids.

[f.sardis]

To me, cleans are all about the snappy/percussive attack sound with a bit of sparkle but not as much to sound like a fender, i prefer a bit darker tone than fender. Anyway those clips were done with an Engl and all I got is a valveking so I am not hoping to nail those tones but at least i will be on the right track for the future.

[ericsabbath]

the valveking clean channel is quite good
the distorted channel is a bit thin compared to the big peaveys, but it can be easily modded
I was checking the valveking, xxx, jsx and rockmaster preamp schematics yesterday and they are all very close

the miracle man neck is not snappy at all
sounds more like a tone zone (very fat and smooth)
I wouldn't recommend it for that