New Cold Sweats! But now I miss the Painkillers...

[Ivan]

So I had some Painkillers in my Gibson Explorer (a naturally dark sounding guitar) and I thought they were too dark.
After coming to the forum for help I realized that the Painkillers weren't dark, I just disliked the pronounced low mids.


I was after a Dave Mustaine type riffing sound. So I wanted something which would give me a great crunch, keep the bass super tight, mids smooth, and generally articulate. With the exception of the mids, The Painkillers did that.


I asked Tim for suggestions (but only mentioned that I wanted something for the Mustaine sound in a dark Explorer), he recommended the Cold Sweats.


I just got the Cold Sweats and I have to say they are great!
There are no bad points, but Im not sure if I prefer them over the Painkillers for my needs... the tightness has gone.
I see the Cold Sweats as amazing pickups for playing anything up to old heavy metal.... but not for machine gun style riffs.


I've been adjusting pickup height and amp settings all day and Im not sure what I should do.
The choice is whether I should go back to the Painkillers or just forget about trying to make the Cold Sweats something they're not.


I'd love to hear people's experiences of both the Cold Sweats and the Painkillers. I really can't make up my mind and need a push...



Note: Im talking about the bridge pickup in both cases. The Cold Sweat neck wins and will stay in the guitar no matter what.

[MDV]

The other pickups in the machine-gun tightness race are the miracle man and the c-pig. Neither are terribly good if you just want megadeth, but both will work well in an explorer.

Maybe try a C-Bomb?

[ericsabbath]

Maybe try a C-Bomb?

+1

in the regular model options, the closest one the painkiller bass response is still the cold sweat
the miracle man and ceramic are so much bassier and less "tchank tchank" sounding

or maybe extra side magnet bars would fix what you're missing in the cold sweat
it's an easy mod

[sebby123]

I found the cold sweat to be very tight?

[Ivan]

I found the cold sweat to be very tight?

It actually is.
But Im comparing it to the Painkillers.

[MDV]

I found the cold sweat to be very tight?

It actually is.
But Im comparing it to the Painkillers.

:lol::lol::lol:

Well put!

[ericsabbath]

the extra magnets (replacing the side spacers/shims) will probably give that extra sizzle on the fast pickings

[Ivan]

Eric, is this something i could do easily or do i need to send them back to Tim?

[MDV]

Eric, is this something i could do easily or do i need to send them back to Tim?

Its really easy to do

BUT

I would ask tim about it first. Only he really knows what its gonna do to his pickup. Or he'll have the most educated guess.

[sebby123]

Well if it helps every thread ive joined in on has pointed me more and more towards a painkiller for my next guitar

[ericsabbath]

if you're in UK, you better send it to him
but that's something I wouldn't do here from brazil, for example
the shipping would be hella expensive (like 3x the GB->BRA shipping, plus another shipping to get it back and the risk of being charged in a 60% import tax again)

but yes, it's a very easy mod, but you'll probably lose the warranty

you just need to unscrew the baseplate, then  remove the side spacers (they may be plastic or wood), then you put the thin ceramic magnets there
don't remember where you can buy those bars, but if you still have the stock 500t pickup, its side magnets will probably fit well

[Zaned]

Hi,

I'm gonna give another possible solution. Well, try anyway 8) I have the CS set, but have never tried the Painkillers.  But based on the clips and what I've read, they have more mids when compared to Cold Sweats, a similar(ish) bottom. My view is that a big part of their tightness is the ceramic magnet AND the fact that they push a lot of mids, the mids get more distorted than the bass.

Here it comes. If you really like the Cold Sweats for many applications, BUT need more tightness for certain applications, consider an overdrive pedal such as a tube screamer. This will boost the mids, cut the lows a little and up the output. Very generally speaking, make the output and frequency response closer to the painkillers. But it probably won't boost the low mids, which you said you didn't like.

My 0.02 dollaaaas

-Zaned

[Dr. Vic]

Maybe try a C-Bomb?

+1 !

Yeah, I think that is the best advice here.

you'll find lot of info on this forum about the C-bomb. One on the most recent topic is this one :
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16628.0

It is said here that it's a darker muscular CS. Rather attracting, isn't it ?

I wouldn't go to modify yourself your CS because I think Tim designed his range at its best. And unless you are looking for something very very particular (which is not the case here) this range can match all the needs.

Indeed I rembember him telling me that there is so MANY customers wanting to join BKP especially to nail the Megadeth sound. And this mainly because one of the particularities of this sound is it's clarity, which is also one of the main BKP's features. As a result I think there should be the answer for you in the modern range, without making particular extra custom work.


Yes, if you are in between the CS and the PK for your guitar, I think the C-NB would be the clever choice !


 PDT_003

[ericsabbath]

mustaine used to have a handwound duncan distortion "juarez" in his classic black jackson kv1, which is less tight than a lot of ALNICO pickups, and no near as tight as a cold sweat
then he swapped it for a JB, that is not tight at all
then his active model, that is not really tight neither
I think he's looking for alder tone on mahogany and that will (happily) never happen  :lol:
I don't think a ceramic nailbomb or an overwound cold sweat would sound really less middy than a painkiller
actually, I think they would be VERY middy
I only think he got used to the extra CLEAN midrange hump of the painkiller, not extra midrange distortion like Zaned suggested
that's why the painkiller sounds tighter than the other models
it's got a huge clean push
like more headroom or something

[Ivan]

Ok so here's an update on my situation.

I read up on the C-Bomb but wasn't too convinced it was for me.

I thought about doing the extra side magnet mod on the CS, but at the same time I don't really want to do anything like that because they're brilliant pickups in their own right.

Zaned, I was thinking along the same lines as you!
Its funny you talked about using a pedal like a tubescreamer because I borrowed one today. Im using a Maxon OD9 and its getting me closer! With some tweaking of the amp, I prefer the mid hump of the tubescreamer than the mids of the painkiller; however the overall sound is a bit to thin and bright now. Getting close with the CS though!

Im also hoping to get a MXR 10 band eq to see what it can do with both the CS and Painkillers.... I've come to the conclusion that as great as BKP are, I shouldn't expect them to do EVERYTHING!

Oh and at the end of the day either the CS or Painkiller won't be used in a guitar... but selling them is not an option!
This tone quest has made me more of a BKP fan! I've decided to never sell a BKP because they may come in handy one day in another guitar!