Which pickup for Jackson KE3? Opinions welcome

[ImpendingDoom]

Greetings!

I have a KE3 with an alder body, a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Has stock dual-humbuckers, a Seymour Duncan SH2N Jazz in the neck position and a Seymour Duncan TB4 JB Model in bridge. The sound right now is a bit weak I'd say - it works ok for some rock but not heavy enough for metal.

I am into Classic rock - Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Pink Floyd, Deep purple, Uriah Heep, Rainbow etc  plus metal -Metallica,megadeth,opeth,iron maiden, children of bodom.

I play through a traynor YCV80Q - tube 80W.

Which pickups would go well for me do you guys think?

Also, my guitar has the Eerie Dess Swirl color - which cover do you guys think would look good on that?

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Dr. Vic]

!

All theses bands to cover with one guitar ? Waou ! what a clue !



More seriously for classic rock + metal versality, go for an Alnico V in the bridge.

As you play a Jackon Kelly, maybe you are more into heavy rock (I mean more playing metallica than Pink floyd !),

...so one first "orientation" could be an HD brige and a VII neck combo,


And welcome to this nice forum !  8)

[Pale Rider]

The Holydiver seems like a good choice for that. You could describe it as a heavy rock pickup. There might be better choices for rock and metal separately but for both I think the Diver fits right in.

I'd choose the black covers for your finish. The burnt chrome might be also cool but I prefer the contrast the black ones will make against the finish.

[ImpendingDoom]

Cool, thanks for the suggestions guys. Yah perhaps it is a bit much to cover all that with just one guitar. Since it is a Jackson, maybe instead of compromising I'll just stick to making it an all metal guitar and cover the classic rock with a Gibson SG.

So if I am going for a heavy, brutal sound ... perhaps the warpigs?

Thanks Nuke, I agree black would look best - maybe the battle worn black though just to add character.

[Telerocker]

Warpig is not the best choice for old Sabbath and Blackmore-stuff. I'd say Holydiver.

[ShredHeadJHJ]

More seriously for classic rock + metal versality, go for an Alnico V in the bridge.

If I wanted brutalz but also want to be able to do some more classic stuff, which Alinico V would I be best going for?

[Pale Rider]

I don't have any experience with other BKPs apart from the Holydiver but I'm going to order a custom guitar which will be my all out metal guitar. After research I'm settled to the Miracle Man b, Cold Sweat n but I'll leave the recomendations to the ones who have first hand experience.

Welcome to the forum btw. ;)

[Dr. Vic]

More seriously for classic rock + metal versality, go for an Alnico V in the bridge.

If I wanted brutalz but also want to be able to do some more classic stuff, which Alinico V would I be best going for?

Well this is a difficult question to answer. Generally speaking what make BKPs sound like they sound is their definition, clarity and precision that are the characteristics all the BKP's have in common. So much so that they can handle heavy distorsion with ease. You will find in this place people using humbuckers in the vintage or hot vintage section for TOTAL BRUTALZ. For instance, the Mule, the Riff Raff, can do that. 

As an example there also a guy here called Roo (a true tele lover like me) who play BRUTALZ (and beleive me this is THE BRUTALZ) with some Black dogs.

So your personnal tastes and rig has alot to do with your specific guitar to make the alchemy you're after.

That said, the most obvious choices will be ANY of the contemporary war machine + Signature humbuckers : NB, HD, WP, CR and the mighty RY.

The Pig are even used to play Jazz (I haven't played them yet, but I know the guy who install them for a French Jazz Band!)

The NB and the CR are known for their enhanced versality due to their vintage winding. One does it from metal to blues while the other one does it from blues to metal.

On the other side there is the HD, which has a more modern sound and design. It has alot of richness and thickness to the tone. Will apparently fits the bolt on Kelly fine.

[Axe Palace]

In alder Jacksons I've found the ceramic Warpigs to be incredible, as well as the Holydiver and in certain situations the Nailbomb as well. There's something about the way the Warpig is voiced that compliments the makeup of USA Jacksons so perfectly. I've installed many of those in my customers Jacksons and the results were always awesome.