ibanez j custom...Iron maiden tone wanted

[nightflame159]

Hi guys!
Im new here but i come and read very often so i decided to create an account.
Im a french candian so please, excuse my english if i do any mistake.
I have an ibanez j custom with a mahogany/maple top body and a maple/rosewood fretboard neck
Acousticaly the tone is balanced,punchy and on the warm side whitout being dark.
It a H-S-H config and right now i have dimarzio -air norton neck -velvet whatever midle - tonezone bridge
The tonezone is the worst pickup i ever played,i find it bassy,muddy no tone or punch and no clarity,pinched harmonics dont come easy. I dont like emgs..and so far my favorite pickup i tried was a duncan JB but....

Bridge--What i want is a clearer and balanced pickup with good and punchy mids that stay crunchy with gain witout sounding too modern and that still have enough warmth for leads. Think recent IRON MAIDEN,Stratovarius,racer x...power and neo classial shred and metal.

Midle-- Yngwie Malmseen single coil lead tone

Neck--warm and smooth but clear enough to play lead and shred a la petrucci, iron maiden,paul gilbert

[James C]

Welcome to the forum,

for an iron maiden/yngwie/gilbert tone i would recommended a Nailbomb/Trilogy Suite/Nailbomb combo.

However my experience of this was in a basswood ibanez, so you would need to bear in mind that there will be a stronger  midrange emphasis from the mahogany, however the maple top and neck will brighten that up, so i think it should work very well.

if you wanted something different in the neck, the cold sweat would be another option balances well with the nailbomb and stays precise for sweeping, legato and alternate picking (the NB does this too, but with a more PAF-like quality)

hope that makes sense.

If in doubt though....ask Tim (he's never made anything but a perfect suggestion for my guitars)

[gwEm]

i'd be tempted to get a cold sweat set with a trilogy middle.

the trilogy middle is a no-brainer anyway ;)

i have a cold sweat set in a maple through neck and always think it sounds very maiden.

[nightflame159]

hey thx for the reply! :D
I forgot to say that ill have a custom guitar with nailbombs already so i want  diferent pickups for the ibanez lol But yeah the nailbomb was the first set i wanted to try afer watching youtube videos of a guy with a lespaul loaded with nailbombs (coolsonsam) his tone is amazing 8),it seems like a very good and versatile pickup.

[DimeZakk]

If you liked the JB and judging from the tone of your J.Custom (I have the same thing as a 7 String version) I would say Holy Diver but maybe with a Cold Sweat neck with all those shreddy solo stuff.

[ericsabbath]

rebel yell or holy diver

[nightflame159]

ok then ill get the diver bridge...how is the holydiver neck?

[Dazza1004]

Go with the HD bridge and CS neck, the CS is THE fluid shreddy neck pickup (imo)