Tightest Pickup?

[braintheory]

What's the tightest pickup you've ever played?  I'm not actually looking for such a pickup, I just wanted to know out of curiosity.  For me it would be the Aftermath and the Sinner, but  I also remember the Bill Lawrence 500XL that came stock in my dean was also super tight.  I also heard that the new Black Hawk is supposed to be tighter than the aftermath and the clips of the Lundgren M6 that I've heard sound ridiculously tight too.

[richard]

I started a thread on a similar subject recently so I'm curious - what exactly does 'tight' mean to you ? I have Rebel Yells that some describe as tight - have you heard them and would you agree ?

[Transcend]

From bkp probably the AM or MM

but overall winner on tightness goes to the emg81 by a long shot shame it doesnt have the dynamics etc of the above listed bkps

[MDV]

EMG 81.

Aftermath from BK. Not played a blackhawk or M6/7/8. Have played most other candidates for 'ultra tight pickup' though, inc L500XL, and have generally been unimpressed. I loves me a tight tone: my main guitars have aftermaths and 81s in their bridges (2 of each).

[Alex]

EMG81.

The second tightest would be the DiMarzio D-Sonic with the blade to the bridge.

[braintheory]

What about the seymour duncan blackout, dimebucker, or dimarzio x2n?

[MDV]

ABH1 is no tighter than an aftermath. About on a par, maybe even a little looser. The dimebucker is a poor mans 500xl, and the x2n isnt so much tight as it is just incredibly bright; dial up the low end and its quite unremarkable in the tightness department (though similar can be said of the dime pickups).

[braintheory]

what about the EMTY blackout (mick thompson model)

[Slartibartfarst42]

'Tight' is something I used to think I wanted until I realised that what I really wanted was articulation. The tightest pickup I've ever played would have to be an EMG 81 - it just wasn't for me at all. The tightest pickup I've ever owned would be the A-Bomb, albeit I didn't own it for long. Both of these pickups were just too tight and too aggressive for me whereas pickups like the Holydiver, Miracle Man and Cold Sweat were more acceptable.

[Dr.Pain]

An EMG 81 is tighter than a Blackout 1.  I think both work well when tuning low.  The 81 is a great pick up.

[Toe-Knee]

Id also like to add the Entwistle HDN to this list.

Super cheap. Sounds great and is the tighest passive pickup i've played to date.

[braintheory]

That Entwhistle sounds very intriguing and at that price I should probably try it one of my guitars.  The only other pickup I know about with a neodymium magnet is the q tuner pickups, which I'm also very curious about.

Also, in case anyone is curious, I now have guitars loaded with black hawks and lundgren m6 and another with an emg 81.  Like everyone said the emg 81 is definitely the tightest pickup I've ever played (tighter than the aftermath), the black hawk is similarly tight to the miracle man, and the lundgren is considerably looser, but still sufficiently tight and very articulate.  Also, the sinner is definitely not as tight as the aftermath (like I said earlier) or even the miracle man.

I guess the only other contenders are the EMTY blackouts and possibly something with neodymium magnets.  I've only tried the regular blackouts and they were looser than the emg 81 and also darker, smoother, less aggressive, and IMO not as good.

[Toe-Knee]

  I've only tried the regular blackouts and they were looser than the emg 81 and also darker, smoother, less aggressive, and IMO not as good.

This was pretty much my finding with the AHB1 blackouts. The mustaine livewires are almost as tight as emg 81. So is the HDN. However theyre both thicker in the lower mids.

I've also found recently that the EMG JH set is pretty much as tight as the 81/60 but has a bit more bite and midrange aggression. Snarlier so to speak.

Oh and another one worth mentioning is the SD distortion. I'd say it's somewhere inbetween the aftermath and EMGs but it has this weirdness going on in the high end that is bugging me.

[drawnacrol]

I found the Alnico Nailbomb to be one of the tightest pickups I've tried. Its very clean so that might be a big factor.

[braintheory]

  I've only tried the regular blackouts and they were looser than the emg 81 and also darker, smoother, less aggressive, and IMO not as good.

This was pretty much my finding with the AHB1 blackouts. The mustaine livewires are almost as tight as emg 81. So is the HDN. However theyre both thicker in the lower mids.

I've also found recently that the EMG JH set is pretty much as tight as the 81/60 but has a bit more bite and midrange aggression. Snarlier so to speak.

Oh and another one worth mentioning is the SD distortion. I'd say it's somewhere inbetween the aftermath and EMGs but it has this weirdness going on in the high end that is bugging me.

I'm surprised that you found the live wires to be so tight.  I've never tried them, but they have alnico V magnets rather ceramics, and everything I've read about them suggest that they sound like a hotter JB and not that tight.  Also, the EMTY blackout has alnico V as well, but they were designed to be tighter than the regular blackouts, which are ceramic, so it would be interesting to find out how they compare to emg's.