C-Nailbomb vs Miracle Man

[dheim]

these are the facts:

1) i love A-Nailbombs

2) i'm reading great things about the C-NB and i'm getting curious

3) i like very much my MM bridge but the stupid smile is not there when i play it. i don't think it depends on the wrong wood/pickup combination, there's nothing wrong indeed... at least nothing i can define precisely. maybe MM tone is just not completely my thing.

so, this is the question... should i send back my bridge MM to have it rewound to C-NB standard?
guitar is made of mahogany with bolt on maple neck and rosewood fingerboard... an Ibanez RGA. it sounds middy and fat, acoustically quite resonant...

what tonal difference should i expect?

[K.Dee]

I dont know about a C NB but my experience with an Alnico one on a mahogany body,ebony fretboard guitar wasnt that nice.. Way too sweet for my taste,lack of growl mids and attitude.
Not too tight on the lower freqs also.

Anyway tone is such a personal thing  :? Who knows,it might be just the right one for you

[MDV]

I can sympathise with k.dee. Ive heard the nailbomb be loose and grating and tight and grinding in different guitars. I hated it for quite a while, and now I like the NB and LOVE the c-bomb *in the right guitar*.

I currently have c-bombs in a jackson DX1 and the Legra MDV602. There they're both tight, punchy, growly, clear and precise but not with the really sharp in your face high end of the MM (which it has to be noted I havent had in the same guitars...quite; I had a 23k double screw pole MM in the jackson which is far from the same thing!).

Being that I havent had them in the same guitars, but I have had the c-bomb in guitars not a million miles from yours wood wise (maple neck and basswood, and mahogany with maple strips and swamp ash body) I predict a fairly hefty but overall balanced low end, more mids, that are quite even and more open, less sizzle in the top end, and a sweeter sound with a blunter more percussive attack in the top.

That said, the guitar that I first heard the NB in was a maple neck basswood body dean zx: acoustically thin and gutless compared to the identical wooded jackson (which is even FR to the ZX's TM to boot), and it sounded like pots and pans with no definition in the low end.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - BKs dont agree well with cr@p guitars. They agree very well indeed with good ones. Acoustically speaking that is. If you think its a good guitar, with decent resonance across its range, I believe thats what the NB (to a greater degree than other BKs, in my experience) needs and you should go for it.

[K.Dee]

If you think its a good guitar, with decent resonance across its range, I believe thats what the NB (to a greater degree than other BKs, in my experience) needs and you should go for it.

Agreed,Nailbomb is very transparent,meaning that you need that "one" particular guitar to appreciate its characteristics.

PS I love MM..i've just installed one on a maple bodied old Kramer(yes maple!!) and it sounds amazing,super tight,super smooth with plenty of attitude highs and just the right amount of mids.For me is the perfect pickup,for my style,for hands maybe?

Tone is something really personal as i wrote above Give it a shot

[MDV]

If you think its a good guitar, with decent resonance across its range, I believe thats what the NB (to a greater degree than other BKs, in my experience) needs and you should go for it.

Agreed,Nailbomb is very transparent,meaning that you need that "one" particular guitar to appreciate its characteristics.

PS I love MM..i've just installed one on a maple bodied old Kramer(yes maple!!) and it sounds amazing,super tight,super smooth with plenty of attitude highs and just the right amount of mids.For me is the perfect pickup,for my style,for hands maybe?

Tone is something really personal as i wrote above Give it a shot

DnM (Denim n' leather, our main mod) swears by a miracle man in all maple guitars. Or did, last I checked: that was some time ago. I personally like it best in a fairly bright les paul (as in bright for a les paul!). Like you say, personal thing.

Oh, and I havent seen you round before and you have a single digit post count, so welcome!

[Alex]

Funny that you say that, I like the Miracle Man a lot in my Voodoo LesPaul, and that is a bright guitar as well.

[pagan7]

I recently fitted a set of C-Bombs to an Ibanez RGT (mahogany/walnut  rosewood board through neck and mahogany wings - locking nut and floyd) to replace a set of A-Bombs which over emphasised the natural "middyness" of this guitar. The result - in the bridge particularly - is a tone somewhere between and A-Bomb and a Painkiller, still quite breathy and organic but tighter with more fizz and bite to the highs and upper mids and plenty of tight bottom end grunt.

[choucas09]

"I've said it before, I'll say it again - BKs dont agree well with cr@p guitars. They agree very well indeed with good ones. "

Absolutely. Some years ago I suggested to my nephew that he should put some BK's into his LP. He was hesitant, but as it happened his band played support to Tim's band one night and Tim suggested the same thing. So he ordered some and I put them in for him. So his LP which had never impressed me in the slightest stock turned into the best Les Paul I'd ever heard. A couple of years later I bought an almost Identical LP and Muled it up. It turned out to be a bag of Sh*te. I sold the guitar and put the Mules into my V and it was like night and day. My one trick pony V became a versatile tone monster. BKP's are revealing in all sorts of ways.

[dheim]

"I've said it before, I'll say it again - BKs dont agree well with cr@p guitars. They agree very well indeed with good ones. "

Absolutely. Some years ago I suggested to my nephew that he should put some BK's into his LP. He was hesitant, but as it happened his band played support to Tim's band one night and Tim suggested the same thing. So he ordered some and I put them in for him. So his LP which had never impressed me in the slightest stock turned into the best Les Paul I'd ever heard. A couple of years later I bought an almost Identical LP and Muled it up. It turned out to be a bag of Sh*te. I sold the guitar and put the Mules into my V and it was like night and day. My one trick pony V became a versatile tone monster. BKP's are revealing in all sorts of ways.

i don't agree completely. i've got BKPs in good guitars and in some cheap one too... ok, cheap doesn't always mean cr@p, and costly isn't a synonym for good. my Ibanez s320 sounds good acoustically (very resonant, very middy, but lacks a bit of definition on lower frequencies, maybe... i had A-nailbombs in it and they sounded GREAT (maybe even better than in my excellent SA2020 prestige). now i have Holy Divers and it kills. tight, aggressive and very definite. but ok, it's cheap but sounds good acoustically.

well, my Epi LP gothic sounds like cork. on treble strings it's quite bright but still dull, "not much" resonant and generally unpleasant on low strings. a lot of very "compressed" low mids. well, mysteriously enough, amplified it always sounded much better than unplugged. with stock pickups and with duncans (well, to be honest the alternative 8 was less than stellar, and was the reason why i discovered BKPs!). now the warpig and the pig90 it has into sound incredibly good. plug it off and it's the same old park bench...

[dheim]

If you think its a good guitar, with decent resonance across its range, I believe thats what the NB (to a greater degree than other BKs, in my experience) needs and you should go for it.

Agreed,Nailbomb is very transparent,meaning that you need that "one" particular guitar to appreciate its characteristics.

PS I love MM..i've just installed one on a maple bodied old Kramer(yes maple!!) and it sounds amazing,super tight,super smooth with plenty of attitude highs and just the right amount of mids.For me is the perfect pickup,for my style,for hands maybe?

Tone is something really personal as i wrote above Give it a shot

i agree... it's a matter of playing style. what works for me won't necessairly work for you too! and yes, it's very resonant with a good midrange. i love the neck MM, but the bridge sounds "just" good to my ears. and i'm sure i can get something more from that RGA...

[dheim]

I predict a fairly hefty but overall balanced low end, more mids, that are quite even and more open, less sizzle in the top end, and a sweeter sound with a blunter more percussive attack in the top.

that's what i hoped to hear! :)