Voodoo Explorer - what pickups

[marauder]

It's time for the EMGs in my Voodoo Explorer to go, and I'm gonna get some BKPs in red/black to give it the stock look.

This thing is swamp ash, with mahogany neck, and ebony fretboard.  It's bright.

The stock Gibson ceramic pickups were totally unsuitable for this body, and were piercing in the bridge and mud in the neck, an EMG 81/85 combo was too bright in the bridge, ok in the neck.  Finally it got a 85 bridge, 60A neck, which is OK, but I'm kinda tiring of the sound, and I've got EMGs in two other guitars, which suit those much better than the Explorer.

I'm after a late 80s thrash sound, with a tight bass.  Thinking of a Miracle Man bridge, maybe a Painkiller, but that may be too bright.  Give your suggestions.

Regarding neck pickup, I prefer a fluid creamy sound, so I'm not bothered if its low output, just so I can get some balance with the bridge. 

[fr33man1]

h diver bridge got one in my explorer similar to yours and even brighter. it smokes ;).

[AndyR]

Can't help too much with the bridge, but you could consider a Mississippi Queen in the neck.

My Explorer is all mahogany with rosewood board, and has MQ in both. I get nice creamy neck stuff out of it with the right amp settings. I think in the bridge on yours, an MQ would be well bright, but in the neck I reckon it could quite cute.

MQs are quite pokey as well, I understand they compete well with the higher powered humbuckers.

I use my Explorer exclusively for blues and 70s-80s rock stuff, but there are folks on here with MQ necks to balance a bridge humbucker and I imagine they play somewhat more metal than I do :D

[Transcend]

I had a mississippi Queen neck in my RG along with the Miracle man in the bridge and it was the perfect combo for me for quite some time.

Changing the MQ for a cold sweat though as it was  a tad to thick for my new project great pickup though.

I believe the MM & MQ combo would work well in your guitar for what you want.

[MDV]

I have always errrd on the side of brighter pickups with an explorer, except when they've been made from unconventional (i.e. brighter than mahogany) woods.

But

If you think the 500 is piercing, where I think its woolly, perhaps holy diver is the right call - I'd like to be able to say so one way or the other for sure, but the best I have to go on is clips and what people say, which generally agree that its a darker, smoother pickup.

From what I know well I'd say nailbomb.

[fr33man1]

my explorer is bubinga maple ebony so its brighter than yours. I had 500t, shalks on blackboard, nailbomb , ,nice and punchy but bright , had to go further drop B to start getting a mad balanced tone. Now i got the diver and im playing it in E for thrash riffs and it slays for metallica ish stuff.

So since yours has a mahogany neck i'd go either with nailbomb or diver indeed.  8)

[Philly Q]

Crawlers might be interesting in swamp ash if you didn't want to metal it up too much.

[gwEm]

if the 500t was too piercing, the painkiller will be too much by far.

[Alex]

Well.... it is difficult. Ideally you would want a pickup with a tight bottom end and a smooth treblem, but you won't find that a lot.

The Holy Diver did not work in mine, it just was neither aggressive nor "clean" enough. Either somethin hotter or something weaker. The Miracle Man worked really well in it, I could recommend that a lot  for thrashy sounds. Personally, I would try the Nailbomb or Black Dog next time though, or the Seymour Duncan SH-12; that is a tight pickup, but it works in the very bright George Lynch models.

[DimeZakk]

I would generally stay away from ceramic pickups, I have never heard anyone getting good results from ceramic pickups in either of the voodoo series. The Holy Diver or the Nailbomb should work in the bridge and for the Neck you can't go wrong with the Cold Sweat Neck.

[Ratrod]

I saw this post yesterday but I had to sleep on this one.

I'm thinking Cold Sweat (maybe with an alnico magnet) and work with the tone knob a little bit.

[gwEm]

Miracle Men can can work well in 'difficult' guitars. I might be tempted to fit something low output though myself though i don't play too extremely.

does the bass dominate in the guitar? a Warpig may work actually. the top end is good and sweet.

[PhilKing]

My Explorer is all mahogany, and I have a Warpig bridge with MQ neck (which I got as a matched set).  They sound great and always have me wanting to play heavier stuff.  To tighten the sound a bit I have a series/parallel switch on the Warpig.  With your swamp ash and ebony fingerboard, I would think this might give you the sound you are after.

[marauder]

LOL.  It looks as if every hotter BKP has been recommended apart from the Painkiller.

If someone could give me around 10 sets of strings so I can swap and change I've got a Black Dog, Holy Diver, Cold Sweat, Juansolo has a Miracle Man which we could experiment with!  No, that wouldn't be a lot of fun.

I'm no nearer to a decision...

[Ratrod]

Drop Tim a mail or phone call.