Great, another one of -those- threads.

[Infiniti]

Yes, that's right, another topic by some new guy asking for pickup recommendations. I've gone around like mad checking out pretty much every pickup, but I still haven't concretely decided what I'm going to drop in my guitar.

I have a Schecter C-7 Hellraiser, and for those unfamiliar with such a guitar it's basically all mahogany(I have the gloss black version, that lacks the quilted maple top of the black cherry version). I absolutely cannot stand the stock EMG pickups that come with it - they have absolutely no life to them, plus they're far less capable of cutting through a mix than normal pickups; as such I have to turn my amp up to a gross volume level to be heard, at which point it doesn't sound too good with other instruments at all.

Said amp is an old, discontinued Vox Valvetronix AC60VTX(I believe that was the name...), in case you're curious.

In any case, my playing style gravitates towards the sort of progressive rock/metal genre, in which I play about 70 percent of my music distorted, 30 percent clean, give or take ten percent either way. Think in the vein of bands like Dream Theater and the like. Therefore, I'm looking for a pickup (in both neck and bridge, of course) that can balance both clean and distorted tones, both having rather rich sound to them, and can even sound well when using coil splitting. I -do not- like pickups that have a scooped midrange, of course. I've had the Nailbomb recommended to me before(and the Cold Sweat), and I've heard a lot of good things about it in this regard, but I'm curious as to what others think.

... Additionally, I'm a bit concerned that if I drop a different pickup in other than these EMGs, they won't exactly fit. Here's a picture of the pickups: http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af94/sxInfiniti/IMGP2319.jpg I'm very aware that it needs a cleaning, by the way...

... Anyways, yeah.

[ratspeak]

Sounds to me like Nailbomb bridge/Cold Sweat neck is what you're looking for. I'm most likely getting a Painkiller/Cold Sweat combo for my C-7 Blackjack. If you rely on your neck pickup more for cleans that might be something to consider too, because the PK sounds much tighter than the NB, although it's ceramic magnet might not give you the clean tone you like. Depends on a lot of things.

Oh, and also. I'm really digging the battle-worn black covers right now. Probably the covers I'll order. They'd look great in your guitar.

[Infiniti]

With my Hellraiser I tend to rely more on the neck pickup for clean tones, yes. I should have noted that I'm not looking for super-melt-your-face-off sort of tone, but not the opposite either. Kind of in the middle... buut gravitating a little bit more towards the former than the latter.

[ratspeak]

Yeah, I'm probably putting in an order soon-ish. 99% sure it'll be a Painkiller bridge/Cold Sweat neck combo with Battleworn Black covers, but I've been 99% sure of things before.

Honestly I don't go for a super melt-your-face-off-ish tone all the time either, yet I have a C-Pig on the way for a 6 string. If you mean you don't want something with insane high-end, that might be something else to consider, although the choice to order such a hot pickup was difficult. I want the PK for my Blackjack because it's so tight.

FYI, I haven't had much experience other than soundclips and listening to others talking + hearing artists who use the specific pickups, so don't take my word for anything.

[Roobubba]

I'm going to throw another idea into the mix. How about a medium output humbucker, like the VHII or Black Dog?
It might sound a bit contradictory for me to say it, but it seems that everyone is getting recommended high output/highly aggressive humbuckers these days, and it's not always best suited to what they're asking for...

Roo

[ratspeak]

True. John Pettruci's signature pickups (I own the older "D-Sonic") aren't particularly hot. I currently use a D-Sonic in the bridge of my ESP with Joe Satriani's old signature bridge pickup, the FRED, in the neck.

In comparison, the stock Seymour Duncan JB in my C-7 Blackjack is pretty good output wise for my needs, which are similar to Infiniti's. Not so great in EQ, the lows can't really handle anything below B standard. It's not overly thick with the gain on my H&K Switchblade at a little past noon on the Ultra channel. Just enough to get Djent. Not that it's good practice to compare pickups from different brands by their DC resistance, the JB is a little over 16 I believe.

If you have a lot of gain on tap, I definitely agree. It's worth your while to take a look at less aggressive pups. On the other hand, I'm personally quite set on the Painkiller/CS for my very similar guitar and musical taste, and the Switchblade certainly has kick.

I didn't think of this before, but if you do go the contemporary route, I strongly suggest you check out the Nailbomb (quite a different EQ than it's bridge counterpart) in the neck position or even the VHII. You said you don't like scooped mids, but you might feel differently about a neck PU with a bit of scoop to it depending on the bridge model you choose.

[Infiniti]

I generally dial down the gain a bit, because I tend to let the pickup... pick up where the gain leaves off, I guess you could say. I have a custom guitar with a SD Dimebucker in the bridge and I can get rather gain-y lead sounds and some good cleans if I turn on the acoustic simulator, however the lead tone sounds like cr@p.

Most likely I'll be going for either a Cold Sweat or Nailbomb in the neck since I've heard some rather wonderful clean and lead tones of them... not sure which one I'll choose, though for the bridge I'm a bit more conflicted. I could just go the way of a calibrated set, that is another CS in the bridge, or I could go with a bit of a less higher-output pickup, in which case I'd be torn between the VHII and the Emerald(You don't see too many people around here with those, I guess...). Or I could even just drop a Nailbomb in there, but I've heard kind of conflicting reports - that is, some people will say that the Nailbomb has rather good mids, and other people say it kind of cuts them out.

For those of you wondering, I set my Gain at around 2 o'clock so that I can get a good and ballsy palm-muted sound out of my Vox as well - anything less than that starts to go the way of the castrato.

EDIT: Additionally, erm, would anyone be able to tell if the 7-string humbuckers would fit in the slots where the EMGs are? They look like they're a bit larger than normal pickup cavities, so would that be a problem?

[ratspeak]

The main differences I can see between the Cold Sweat and Nailbomb neck are that the CS is balanced with a bit more high-end, whereas the NB has similar highs and lows with the mids scooped out a bit. The contradiction you're getting between people on the NB's mids is probably because some are talking about the bridge version and some the neck. The bridge does have good mids from what I hear.

If you like to dial back the gain and let the heat of the pickup carry the intensity you'd probably do better to go with something more powerful, especially if you're using EMGs for that purpose right now (however sterile and dull they may be, the output is way over the top).

Also, EMGs screw-holes are a part of the cover, whereas BKPs (like most other pickups) will have feet that stick out from the baseplate with screw holes. The basic distance should be the same, however I don't know that mounting rings will fit on the guitar. You might have to directly mount the pickup into the wood. Don't hold me to that though. I've never owned a wood-mount guitar before.