Bridge pickup for SG: Black Dog vs Emerald vs ???

[Diamond]

Hi! I'm looking for a new bridge pickup for my Gibson SG. What I'm looking for is 'vintage-hot' type output, so hotter than vintage style PAFs, but no high gain death metal or sounds like that. My current Gibson pickup is lacking bass and has too much treble. What I want is a relatively transparant sound, definitely no mid cut, but I also don't want a big mid boost. I want a BIG sound, with big clear bass response and smooth on the treble side with no fizz.

So far, both the Emerald and the Black Dog seem excellent choices. Does anyone have a preference for on or the other? Maybe someone has experience with either pickup in an SG? Maybe other pickups are more suited that I didn't think of.

Anyway, which pickup would you guys choose in my situation? Thanks!! :)

[AndyR]

Hi, no experience of Black Dog or Emerald from me, sorry... 

I have Riff Raffs in an SG, they're nice "vintage hot" for my late 60s to early 80s blues-rock noodlings... I use it when I want a crisper/tighter humbucker sound than my Mules in a Les Paul-type.

But if you're suffering too much top-end at the moment, I reckon you might need to steer away from Riff Raffs - I ended up changing the SG to suit the pickups! :lol: The old SG, an Epi, has a lot of ring to it, but it's hard and bright acoustically. The newer one, a Gibson Faded Special, is mellower and warm sounding. I picked this one out deliberately from several - the others were variously "bright/hard", "weedy", etc - but this one did what I wanted, and when I put the Riff Raffs in it gave me what I wanted (and I suspect it's the sound you want too - but it'll depend on you guitar).

However, there is something else to consider... There were a lot of posts back when I joined the forum talking about BKP choices for SGs - general agreement seemed to be "low output pups" = good, "high output pups" = good, (depending what you were after), but "medium output pups" could be a bit of a "no-man's-land" area for SGs.

Have you experienced any other BKPs yet? It might be that a "vintage BKP" is plenty hot enough for you - BKPs seem to let more of everything through. You kind of don't notice it in the first flush of "oh wow!" but you have a wider range at your fingertips suddenly - the smooths are smoother, the raunch is raunchier, etc, etc.

Hope that adds a bit :D

We got quite a few SG-ers around, hopefully there are some that use or have tried Black Dog or Emerald in one...

EDIT: And there is always the "e-mail Tim option" to get an opinion from the man himself :)

[roland_rat]

Hi, 
Like Andy I have no experience with Black Dogs or Emeralds.  I have a GIbson faded special with VHII's in it.  I never initially set out  to put these pickups in the guitar.   The stock pickups I found muddy.  They were initially changed to a set of Seymour duncan fatt cats (before I got to know abbout Bare Knuckles).  These never really cut the mustard sounded ok for rhythm but not for lead for me and again sometimes sounded muddy with distortion.
These were subsequently changed for a set of VHII that were between guitars.  They have certainly given the guitar a new lease of life.  I no longer have the problems with the tone sounding muddy.   
If I was buying a new set for the guitar. I think Andy's idea of a set of Riff Raffs would be a very call.  I think Twinfan also use riiff raff's in one of his SG's. 
I would also say ther riff raffs have much more clout than you might initially think.

[Diamond]

Well the Riff Raffs may not be for me, because I didn't find my pickups to be muddy, but bright. Actually, the neck pickup is excellent by itself. I just want a different bridge pickup for a 'bigger' sound and smoother highs.

I also found some old posts saying the low gain or high gain, but not in between thing about pickups in SGs. I didn't really find a reason though. Does anyone know why? And what are the biggest/smoothest options in the high gain or low gain territory?

I don't have prior experience with BKP humbuckers, but people I trust speak highly of them.

[gwEm]

would try a4 mules here. warpigs give a BIG sound, but are definitely not vintage output ;)