Poll: Warpig or Miracle Man in Basswood RG for Metal

[Rocco Ruthless]

I have heard two different responses from knowledgeable sources as to whether or not a CWarpig is suitable for an Ibanez RG (basswood)(brutal metal, dropped, fast as hell.. so decent tightness of the pickup required.).

One is that the Miracle Man, being a bit brighter but still a hot enough pickup for my style of play would be the ideal choice. Also that basswood is a somewhat darker sounding tone wood.. thus, a Warpig will still sound alright, but wooley and maybe a little too dark/muddy in comparison.

The second is that basswood is actually kind of a neutral tone wood and the neck and pickups decide the sound more than anything. That a Warpig actually does a fairly decent job of warming up the tone of basswood, and all around sounds AMAZING in these guitars.

So I ask for a simple vote as I have read COUNTLESS arguments going either way. And please, only vote if you have had personal experience with both of these pickups or have intimate knowledge of tonewoods. I'm curious if I can get a definitive answer to this question as I personally haven't experienced either pickup and have only once changed out the pickups in this axe.

Thanks guys!

[BigK]

Ive got a MM in my RG570ex in drop B and its tight as hell, the treble cuts really well but isnt OTT and has got that brutal low mid growl going on.

I had a C-Pig but in a mahogany ec-1000 and it was just to OTT for me the bass was a little boomy although tight and i didnt get on with it. If it helps the ec-1000 no has a miracle man in it and I play through an Engl Powerball & marshall JVM.

You might want to look at a painkiller or C-Bomb too.

Thats my 2p anyway...

As soon as MDV sees this i'd expect him to recommend a ceramic Nailbomb straight away.  :P :lol:

[dheim]

I've got alnico WPs in an RG. They sound tight, aggressive and huge in E, but they're too boomy (and even muddy, at Times...) in B. I wouldn't choose WPs in basswood for low tunings unless that dark and ridiculously heavy tone is what you're after... Given your genre references i'd say not...

[Ribboz]

I wanna say a PK. Basswood can be to soft, and creates a smooth soft tone. NOT something that should be used for metal. (my opinion) well for lower tuning the PK is a +, and the PK is very aggressive, and will even out with the smoothness of the basswood. So for tight aggressive down tuned metal, a Painkiller is my recommendation.

[kartar]

Couple of years ago I had two RG550s: White with maple fretboard and black with rosewood fretboard. White was thinner sounding than black. I tried many pickups (BKP, DM, SD) in them and C-pig in white RG and Painkiller in black RG sounded best. Both of them says clear in low tunings.

[Monsterhulk]

As i for my self have no experience with this pups i have had a nice conversation with mdv in this topic

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=19820.0

maybe this could quite help a little

i have ordered an a-bomb and an c-pig meanwhile and am still waiting now ... impatiently biting fingernails

[MDV]

Facts are that so long as the basswood in question is decent there are a slew of pickups that work well in it, and the neck wood is more important anyway. And the second school of thought is correct - basswood is pretty neutral, most pickups can cut through it easily and it doesnt colour the sound much.

Assuming its paired with maple in the neck the only contemporary that I would warn away from by default is the cold sweat, unless you explicitly want a bright tone or are detuning a lot.

And yes, one of my c-bombs is in a basswood/maple/rosewood LFR jackson DX1 and it slays (in drop A#)

[Rocco Ruthless]

Wow, Thanks for the responses guys. I think I'm going to end up taking full advantage of Nick's (axepalace.com) return policy and give the c-bomb and c-pig a try.

I love forums where people are so helpful. Especially members like MDV who seem to answer just about every post they can. Excellent.

-Richard

[MDV]

Who me?

Never.

Quite welcome.

[gwEm]

many people have posted positive thoughts about alinco warpigs in basswood - do a search :)

edit: looks like you have done already :)