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Author Topic: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)  (Read 2260 times)

fr33man1

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lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« on: January 24, 2010, 05:42:46 PM »


just bought this curvy gibson lady from a friend. Sounds ok but emgs arent my cup of tea. The 60 is nice and clean but the 81 on bridge is unorganic, dry and boring to my tastes.

It sounds like a fat lp, not as fat or honky as a standard with a thick maple top but defo les paulish.

I'd like to turn it into a rock/metal axe with modern sounding pickups, but modern that can be dialed into vintage rock sounds aswell. Versatile to sum up.

I had a riff raff on a sg and tough its low output it was big sounding, dynamic and full of good rock sound. So I was thinking about a black dog or crawler set or maybe a cold sweat one for some extra power. Ill play through an engl blackmore head so I wont lack fat mids , just want to get rid of the sterile emg sound.

ericsabbath

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2010, 06:20:01 AM »
is it mahogany only like the studio vintage mahogany or has some kind of exotic mahogany lookalike wood top?

Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2010, 07:31:57 AM »
It indeed has an exotic mahogany like top. Its a bit brighter than the full mahogany studio I played. So I'm hesitating with some of the modern range. I had a riff raff on an sg , it was nice but lacked a bit of juice to go mayhem on distorted sounds and I want to try out some of the contemporary range pickups.

I know that full mahogany guitars dont cope that well with A5 high output pickups so I'm  not sure about crawler or nailbomb, dont want it to be that dark. I thought a cold sweat combo or even a miracle man bridge with a cold sweat neck could fit the bill.

ericsabbath

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2010, 08:40:40 AM »
yeah, the ceramic models might work
but what exactly are you playing and what's your amp/distortion source?
Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2010, 11:53:58 AM »
oh sorry forgot to mention..

Im playing through an engl blackmore mainly metal (kse, machine head, old thrash stuff) and some rock and sometimes some clean chords stuff. So a nice warm round clean sound is more than welcome and some tasty midrangey push on distorted sounds. I love fat crunchy mids :D.

ericsabbath

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2010, 03:12:29 PM »
miracle man then
at least for the bridge
Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2010, 07:09:21 PM »
the miracle man and cold sweat are indeed tempting me alot ^^. ( painkiller seems to djenty and dry for my tastes, killer thrash or tight tones but I want it more dense and fat but I may be wrong. )

I really want pickup with enough juice to go on downtuned metal territory but that can sound sweet too on less gainy and clean settings tuned to E. Want it dense, tasty, middy, tight enough to go metal but still sweet enough to play some classic rock stuff. Saying all that I think I described a cold sweat set no ?

ericsabbath

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2010, 02:50:24 AM »
the miracle man and cold sweat are indeed tempting me alot ^^. ( painkiller seems to djenty and dry for my tastes, killer thrash or tight tones but I want it more dense and fat but I may be wrong. )

I really want pickup with enough juice to go on downtuned metal territory but that can sound sweet too on less gainy and clean settings tuned to E. Want it dense, tasty, middy, tight enough to go metal but still sweet enough to play some classic rock stuff. Saying all that I think I described a cold sweat set no ?

the miracle man is definitely the best for kse and especially machine head
my ex-band played a lot of covers of those bands
but it's not a middy pickup, neither is the cold sweat  :?
do you use a boost or something?
I love how the sweat sounds with some midrange boost before the amp
Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2010, 07:00:06 AM »
No I'm not really using any boost before my amp.

Im considering painkillers but are they harsh ? I got this feeling on each clip Im listening to. But it seems to have a tight low end with good low and hi mids .

As for the neck, I know csweat is a great all rounder for warm, fluid modern leads and cleans. What about vhII neck, antag once told me it is a good partner as well with a good chime for clean sound, less modern than CS but around same output with a nice thick sound for leads.

dheim

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2010, 11:19:51 AM »
i wouldn't choose a MM... it sounds a bit like an 81, in my opinion. if you roughly like the 81 and just want something that sounds a bit more natural then it's a good choice, but i'd rather buy a nailbomb in that axe.
Mule, MQ, Stockholm, CS, RY, MM, PK, ANB, CNB, AWP, CWP, PiG90...

too many? ;)

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2010, 11:39:34 AM »
Thanks for the input, Im really not fond of the emg 81, thin to my ears and its tight active sound is too sterile for my liking. The former owner had a set of nailbombs on it and from this day he fell in love with those pickups.

From what i heard the cold sweat neck is great for modern lead and clean stuff so i'll give it a go. As for the bridge I'm hesitating, this axe is full mahogany ( the thin top is some exotic mahogany but still dark sounding)  so I believe standard high output A5 pickups will not match perfectly.

A c-bomb  or a painkiller maybe ?

dheim

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2010, 12:08:59 PM »
c-bomb! never tried it (yet...) but i suspect it would be perfect in that guitar... and i don't agree too much with the usual prejudice against A5 pickups in mahogany... i've got a warpig in a les paul studio and it sounds killer!
Mule, MQ, Stockholm, CS, RY, MM, PK, ANB, CNB, AWP, CWP, PiG90...

too many? ;)

fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2010, 12:16:26 PM »
I want it killer for metal but useable for other things aswell, I don't know much about high output bkps on softer sounds. Im sure the a5 nailbomb is cool for soft stuff, what about the ceramic one or the pkiller ?

Zaned

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2010, 12:17:13 PM »
c-bomb! never tried it (yet...) but i suspect it would be perfect in that guitar... and i don't agree too much with the usual prejudice against A5 pickups in mahogany... i've got a warpig in a les paul studio and it sounds killer!

Warpig gets recommended for all-mahogany (at least for SGs), it's higher output than for example the Nailbomb that might get lost there.

Cold Sweat would probably work very nice, or if you want more mids and less highs..the C-bomb.

-Zaned
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fr33man1

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Re: lp smartwood trade emg for bkp ;)
« Reply #14 on: January 26, 2010, 12:57:40 PM »
I think ill go for a cbomb . Could someone tell me the difference with a painkiller ? More tightness, more upper mid than a cbomb ?