Wood Experts Pickup Recommendation Please...

[higain_guitar]

Hey guys,

I am looking for humbucker recommendations for a Jackson Flying V Randy Rhoads guitar that I am building from different ebay parts, which I already purchased.

Neck: This guitar has a Bolt-on rock maple neck and rosewood fingerboard made in Japan; it is string through body--no floyd rose. It will be tuned to drop C: C,G,C,F,A,D

Body: The body of this guitar is made from Indian Cedro wood, which is not cedar, but belongs instead to the mahogany family (Meliaceae). However, I have searched many message boards and the consensus is that Indian Cedro sounds most like Alder wood, however Cedro is a little brighter than Alder (more high frequencies).

Bridge Pickup: I want massive, bone-crushing, warm distortion, with tight palm mutes, and so I was thinking of a Ceramic Warpig. I believe they do well in alder (And cedro is close to alder).

What do you guys think about this choice? Any other recommendations for the bridge?

Neck Pickup: I want something that will be good for lead guitar and with a good clean sound for single note arpeggios. The clean sound I am going for would be similar to the opening of Metallica's song sanitarium. I was thinking of a Cold Sweat neck pickup. But perhaps a Nailbomb neck pickup would be better for leads and match the volume of the ceramic warpig better?

What do you guys recommend for the neck?

Thanks so much for your help!

[Telerocker]

Warpig is a good choiche, so is the CS for the neck.

[higain_guitar]

Thanks Telerocker.

Anyone else want to weigh in, please?

[Transcend]

if it sounds close to alder the painkiller should work exceptionally well in the bridge for a tighter sound without as huge amount of bass but still enough for any kind of metal

[higain_guitar]

Toe-knee, won't the PK be too lacking in bass for the kind of warm distortion and palm muting chugg I want?

[Transcend]

Toe-knee, won't the PK be too lacking in bass for the kind of warm distortion and palm muting chugg I want?

Definitely not. It still has a decent amount of very well defined bass that is tight with lots of attack.

I personally always found the warpigs to be a bit too bassy for a lot of stuff.

One thing is im not sure i would describe the PK as warm though

[Telerocker]

I drop C the Warpigs could be bassheavy, depending on how much bass the guitar has from itself. It's bonecrushing nevertheless, but the PK or Aftermath would tighten up things.

[ericsabbath]

if indian cedro is cedrela odorata (spanish cedar/west indian cedar/brazilian cedar) or anything like that, then it's not brighter than alder
it just happens to deliver a lot more upper mids and overall midrange than alder
very resonant and middy wood, just not bass heavy like mahogany

I'd take a c-bomb or miracle man over the painkiller

[higain_guitar]

if indian cedro is cedrela odorata (spanish cedar/west indian cedar/brazilian cedar) or anything like that, then it's not brighter than alder
it just happens to deliver a lot more upper mids and overall midrange than alder
very resonant and middy wood, just not bass heavy like mahogany

Indian Cedro is actually the Toona ciliata species, not the Cedrela odorata species. Both are part of the mahogany family (Meliaceae). I have been told that they sound differently.

[higain_guitar]

An update: I tried a duncan JB in the bridge and it was not bad at all. Based on this Tim recommended an alnico nailbomb calibrated set, which I got. They are finally in and sound great. This Indian Cedro wood is very resonant and highly under-rated imho.  Cheers.