gibson fly Vee gothic pickups (severe downtuning involved drop Z!)

[fr33man1]

Yo guys, ended my quest with a first lover and went back to a good old flying V.

i'm torn between several choices. Playing it in drop B/Bb mainly machine head and inflames and a touch of Amott Brothers (arch enemy).

I had a painkiller in a gothic explorer and found it dry and a bit dark. I'dl like the low mids push, tightness (without excess) and good mid cut. the miracle man seems quite to be the one but I'd like something more middy. So c-bomb, aftermath, piggies ?

Asking for holy diver mids +miracle man lows and highs ?  :lol:

[MDV]

PK was dark?

Then more or less your only options are the miracle man and cold sweat. If the MM doesnt have the mids for you, try the cold sweat.

The C-Bomb is darker than the PK. The AM has a pretty comparable high end to the PK in magnitude, but I think that because of the PKs forward high mid spike its a brighter pickup than the aftermath

If a PK was too dark then warpigs of any kinds are pretty much a non-starter.

[Roobubba]

I didn't have a problem dialing in enough mids with the miracle man, I never found it scooped.

And drop B isn't ridiculously low by any stretch of the imagination :)

[MDV]

It could well come across as scooped in a V, roo. Its probably the most guitar-sensitive pickup I've ever used.

In an Epi LP it was pure black album type scooped and dark. Sounded awesome to me, actually, I like that sort of tone.
In an alder/maple superstrat it had a huge midrange crunch that wasnt there in the LP, same again in basswood/maple (with some difference, obviously, but that was the vibe of it)
in a plywood body unknown wood neck cheapo guitar is was....filth, worst guitar sound I've ever had :lol:

This is all the exact same pickup.

[ericsabbath]

cold sweat

[Madsakre]

Ceramic Pig90 ^^ in a humbucker casing ofc! ;D All V's need one of those ;D
Btw mine got mailed to me today. Expect clips soon ^^

[fr33man1]

I must add i played through a diezel einstein and it was dark on my explorer . Maybe more involved the amp rather than guitar and pickup.

I have a MM set on my esp eclipse and its not really scooped but its not as middy as others BKP. I guess I'll go miracle man or painkiller. I was just tempted by a c-pig as its the only Modern BKP I never had in any guitar.

the Vee currently has a massive A5 pickup, its nor dark or thin but just nothing like BKP clarity and richness of sound. tough its less hot the MM on my ESP¨feels way more percussive, clear and rich sounding than this pickup.

[Alex]

The MM isn't scooped in the mids, it is just doesn't have a mid bump as so many other pickups.

[ericsabbath]

The MM isn't scooped in the mids, it is just doesn't have a mid bump as so many other pickups.

that's relative
the nailbomb is shown as a very mid heavy pickup on the website, and I felt like it lacked as much upper mids as the miracle man lacks
it has a lot more center mids, though, while the miracle man has a fair amount of low mids
the cold sweat is also shown as a mid scooped pup, but in the same guitar, it has a lot more upper mids than the supposedly mid heavy nailbomb, but less low and center mids
I though I must be crazy or confused with other elements, but the clips just confirm that to my ears

[fr33man1]

To me the nailbomb is middy but not Holy diver middy. It has a midrange push that makes it very percussive and loud but I find it rather fat and punchy than middy and cutting. Adding I'm a mahogany player so I tried it only once on an alder guitar where it was indeed more cutting and trebly.

For the MM in a les paul custom it was smooth and very middy, almost a rock pickup feel to it. I was surprised it was not  mean at all. In my eclipse its just so focused and gets a very deep and tight huge palm muted sound. The low end is very present so are the highs. I also like the single note thickness it provides, on the high B string its just so thick when playing random single notes. Also it starts to roar when downtuned to B and lower imo.

The pk was very tight, middy on the low and high side. It was very megadeth thrash focused sounding wise in E but when i downtuned to C std and started some arch enemy riffs it was just so tight and rich sounding at same time. the diezel amp was just too dark and lacked mids and some taste in its sound that I surely had the feel the pk was dark, it could not cut through the amps trademark sound I guess.


Now you see why its so hard for me to choose.  :lol:     

Cold sweat and rebell yell never did it for me, only bkp bridge pickups I never could be satisfied with.

I just love the miracle man tone, Eric youre right, it just catches MHead modern tones, IFlames and such bands tones aswell.

For the PK I'm fond of Erocks tones with his PRS guitars. Its so deep and rich sounding but keeps the PK tightness.

Hard choice, I'll go for both pickups then.  :lol:

[ericsabbath]

agree with pretty much everything, except on the nailbomb being middy :lol:
not scooped as well, though
it just has that PAF hollow midrange feel
the mids are there, but they're smooth and not cutting like its aggressive high end, so it doesn't feel middy
maybe it would sound middier in another guitar, like my '96 mccarty (had it in my '73 les paul custom)

Erock was also a big influence to me when I bought a miracle man (and I had a Framus Cobra half stack I bought from him)
I really admire his playing, composition style and recorded tones
reminds me of my bandmate/amp tech Zambelli, but one step ahead

I had a Machine Head/Killswitch Engage influenced band and the miracle man really worked for that stuff
I loved the holy diver as well, but it has more of that bouncy, clear and thick tone with huge pinch harmonics instead of that low mid grind of the miracle man
ended up with the cold sweat  :lol:
my amps and my main les paul are quite bass heavy, so its sparkly top and reduced low midrange really help
but after hearing the new clips, I'm leaning towards the aftermath  :?

tried the PK for a couple times, but for some reason, it just wasn't for me

did you try the cold sweat in lower tunings?
it may sound thin in some standard tuned guitars, compared to other thicker sounding BKPs, but it gets a lot growlier

[fr33man1]

The PK and aftermath seem to 'djent' oriented for me even if I kinda liked the PK in lower tunings.

I had the CS bridge on a bass heavy les paul custom and it was quite grinding and cutting in Standard tuning but it was more transparent and clear, it had not the focused sound I like on some others BKPickups.

I dunno if I should give the PK another try (since it was more the amp's fault than the pickups one) or go extreme with a C-pig (never tried those), be logical and go for a MM or give the C bomb a shot as MDV has one in a downtuned slsmg jackson and its not dark sounding. I had this guitar too and was the most dark axe I ever had, the neck thru made of mahogany made it really dark, far more than a flying V imo so the C bomb might work there.  PDT_027

[MDV]

Fwiw the best pickup in that guitar was an aftermath.

It had the cut and aggression to drive through the guitars dark sound, while the lows growled out you, but were ballanced and knew their place.

I swapped it out because the c-bomb also worked in that guitar, but the AM worked even better in one of my legras.

Niether the PK or AM are innately 'djenty' pickups, and I dont believe tim as ever made a pickup with that as its main goal. The PK was made to have a 'jcm 800 in a pickup' (my words and interpretation) grind and crunch, and the AM for "Modern Thrash" (tims words) fast palm muted riffs with lots of tightness and definition.

Basically, if you 'djent' aspects of their voicing can help you do it, but if you dont, they wont.

[Madsakre]

IHMO then you havent tried a true bkp before you have tried a Cpig. This is a very special pickup. It has all the grind you wish for. It can even make dull amps like laney scream.

The only thing i'd wish that the cpig should have would be a little less bass and a slightly altered mid section.
I think the Cpig90 will do this trick for me :) Dont you think so too? :D

[fr33man1]

It might be a bit too much for me even if I admit that I kinda like pig powered sound clips. The covered one looks like it was made in Saurons mountain with same steel as the ring.  :lol: Would be purely evil on my full black V.

MDV I get your point but I'm sure I'm misguided by the PK's tone on my ex diezel amp. I really think it sucked away all the interest of this pickup. I might order some AM and PK to clarify my tastes and maybe go for the return policy in case of huge disapointment.  :lol: