I'll play, so long as people remember that this is based on my experience with my guitars. As such I'll include a brief description of the guitars acoustic sound, plus some other notes on performance. Its not all in the EQ curve. I'm going to quite arbitrarily invent T- tightness, S sharpness/sizzle, which in my experience is not the same as shear magintude of treble, and A; attack; the (subjective) initial penetration of each note through your ear drums or in a mix (again, not really composed of any one of the above variables, more an impression in 'real' use), and of course compression, which I'll put as C. AND, of course of course, Hotness, again, a subjective things thats affected by all sorts of stuff that there isnt really a measure for (save perhaps a relative one of when it makes a clean sound start to clip, compared to another pickup). I simply cant resist calling this lot 'THACS' :lol:
Remember peeps - BKs let A LOT of the sound of your guitar through, and even guitars of identical on-paper spec in woods, construction and hardware can sound very different! As such I also expect these numbers to be inconsistent with others experiences (I certainly disagree with a lot of the stuff here so far) but perhaps if we get enough 'results' then the 'wisdom of crowds' thing will let people reading this discern fairly accurate assesments of the pickups (or someone could average the lot; I half expect the EQ ones to all come out as 5-5-5 :lol:).
Use is in Drop B, C#, drop A# and C unless otherwise stated.
Warpig.
Had in -
Jackson DX1; basswood, maple/rosewood, LFR or gotoh at different times. Quite a bit of low mids, balanced top end, not too much in the real low end
Dean Custom shop, Alder, maple/rosewood, LFR. Deeper low end, smoother mids, sweet, singing sort of top end, 'quacky' attack
7/6/5.
T - 5
H - 9
A - 4
C - 7
S - 4
Fat, thick pickup with lots of chunk. Doesnt detune too well, and I wouldnt recommend it past drop C unless youre specifically going for a big fat, but dulled 'doom' sound. Very hot but lacks attack for ultra-fast/high precision stuff (compared to other BKs, it does very well when compared to most pickups, especially other A5s). Does standard thrash type things fine in E/D though.
C-Pig
Had in
Legra MDV602 - swamp ash, mahogany/maple/walnut/maple/mahogany 5pc w/ebony board. Schaller 456 bridge, tusq nut. Very, very tight, deep, percussive low end, smooth mids, sharp, chiming top end.
'Warbird - Warmoth mockingbird, swamp ash, 3pc mahog neck, ebony board, gotoh and jackson LFR at different times. Most similar to the jackson, but less top end and more low enxtension, honkier sounding in the mids.
8/5/6
T - 6
H - 10. No BK is hotter save a couple of customs
A - 6
C - 8
S - 6
Quite a different beast than the A-Pig, it has the most brutal pickup in the range, but has quite a bit of attack and precision to it (though not the most), making it well suited for those that want crushingly heavy sounds that also need a razorblade edge to them. Detunes to at least drop A# well, but starts to struggle past there. Not as sharp as a lot of ceramics since, I guess, its made with such a long piece of wire.
Painkiller.
Had in
Jackson
Legra MDV602
Dean ZX - basswood, maple/rosewood, TM. Tinny sounding guitar, brittle response even acoustically, shallow (but tight) low end; tricked me into not liking nailbombs!
Warbird
6/9/7
T - 7
H - 8
A - 9
C - 5
S - 7
Middy, grindy, ultra-high-attack high mid. A relatively weak wind with 3 big ass ceramic magnets leads to a very hot pickup thats also uncompressed sounding and derives much of its heaviness from preservation of transients and dynamics. A stupidly good detuner that should be a go-to for 7 and 8 string players. Great crunch sounds, surprisingly good cleans - should also be very high on the list for people with one-pickup guitars. Doesnt recieve an ultra-tight rating since, while it can be in the right guitar, in a very bassy guitar it can sound quite tubby.
Miracle man
Had in
The dean custom
Jackson
Epi LP - very balanced for an LP, pretty much had lots of everything, all it lacked was any sort of attack or tightness in its acoustic sound.
6/4/8
T - 7
H - 8
A - 8
C - 7
S - 9
Smooth mids, tight low end, fat low mid, very sharp top end (I guess the MM has a reall high resonant peak, which with its abundance of top end and high mid leads to a crunchy high gain tone if your amp is suited to that and you want to dial it in - think 'best BK for Dimebag'), really screams if you want it to, also superb for darker, but very clear fast metal riffing. Doesnt clean up well (most contemporaries do), very much likes to be on full tilt all the time; its low gain and clean sounds are rather sterile. Not the hottest or most aggressive BK, but very much the pure-bred metal pickup of the lineup. Also detunes extremely well.
Nailbomb
Had in
Dean ZX
Epi LP
6/6/5
T - 6
H - 7
A - 6
C - 6
S - 6
A quite balanced pickup, but with a somewhat tailed off high end. Very much a 'metal pickup that can also do _insert more or less whatever you want here_'. Can be coaxed into going very low, but really thrives above drop C, like the pig.
C-Bomb
Had in
Jackson DX1
Legra MDV602
Legra Aurora - similar to the 602, but not as deep in the lows, more low mids, similar chime and attack in the top end, more midrange cut.
7/5/6
T - 8
H - 8
A - 8
C - 7
S - 7
Actaully to my ears closer to the miracle man than the nailbomb; you can look at it as a sharpened, deepened, smoothed, tightened nailbomb on steroids or a miracle man with more mids and less top end, more or less (cleans up much better than a MM and I find its crunch and cleans unremarkable but acceptable). Great detuner and generally superb 'modern metal' pickup; very percussive, lots of attack but not as sharp as one might expect of a ceramic pickup.
Cold Sweat
Had in
Warbird (only one! Never!....wait, did I not put this in my jackson for a bit? Not sure, dont remember now, ah well, carrying on)
5/7/8
T - 8
H - 6
A - 8
C - 5
S - 9
Apparently an underwound ceramic nailbomb (or a ceramic nailbomb in an overwound cold sweat) and the family sound is there, but there are significant differences - the CS breathes much more, is less compressed and a lot toppier - its rather like you took the spectrum of the C-Bomb and shifted it up, while making it less hot and less compressed. Very versatile, can do death metal if you so desire, but is best left to rock to metal sounds. Detunes very, very, very well and is also recommended for 7 and 8 players, even if it isnt that hot (you'll get the heaviness out of it with the tuning and string gauge, but it will still be very clear).
Crawler
Had in
Epi LP
5/8/4
T - 6
H - 5
A - 5
C - 4
S - 4
This is very much a rock pickup thats probably best explained with the conversation with tim when I got it
Me "I want a blues pickup for a blues guitar for mucking about with blues"
Tim "Crawlers"
Me "Why"
Tim "Because they do great blues and rock, but they have the power there on tap for heavier players like you, for when you want to open it up, which lets face it, you will"
Me "Good call"
And so they do. They dont sound much like them, but they're sort of the opposite of the nailbomb; they're a rock/blues pickup that can also do metal. Tailed off high end gets in the way of detuning them too much or doing anything really aggressive, but they'll take you from paul kossoff to kerry king without any trouble.
I think that covers the bridge pickups I've used
I'll leave the neck and single coils for another time, bored now :P
Summary
EQ T H A C S
Warpig 7/6/5 5 9 4 7 4
C-Pig 8/5/6 6 10 6 8 6
Painkiller 6/9/7 7 8 9 5 7
Miracle Man 6/4/8 7 8 8 7 9
Nailbomb 6/6/5 6 7 6 6 6
C-Bomb 7/5/6 8 8 8 7 7
Cold Sweat 5/7/8 8 6 8 5 9
Crawler 5/8/4 6 5 5 4 4
As a result of the length of this post, which I didnt expect, I will not be making any more pickup recommendations for at least 6 months :lol:
