Differences between Nailbomb and Duncan JB? + speculative pickup query

[darkbluemurder]

Every Nailbomb I have ever fitted has been v dark and gruff sounding - lots of low mid focus, and whilst it had real top end the focus being in the low mids rather than the high mids (like on JB or HD or PK) makes it still sound too dark and brooding for my own personal tastes.

finally someone agrees with me!  :D
same impression I had since the first time I played the bomb (had it for 6 months)
it had a very sharp high end and THICK low mids, but always lacked upper mids, which is the opposite of what I expected
tonewise, it was more like a miracle man bridge x miracle man neck crossover than like a holy diver or JB

the holy diver in the same les paul was quite brighter due to the ton of upper mids, although it has less high end
no near as hot and edgy, but quite snappy sounding

Well - I do, too! The Nailbomb sounds quite dark in my Single Cut. But the guitar is a dark sounding one to begin with, even though acoustically it has a brittle high end on top of a rather dark midrange color. It sounds very good though. As soon as I got a bit time on my hands I will swap the NB for my white HD bridge which at the moment is on the bench doing nothing. Seems like it could be a better fit for the Single Cut.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

As soon as I got a bit time on my hands I will swap the NB for my white HD bridge which at the moment is on the bench doing nothing. Seems like it could be a better fit for the Single Cut.

I did this swap just to see and it confirmed almost everything Eric said. The Diver sounds fatter with more high midrange than the Nailbomb. Indeed it turned out to be a better fit for the guitar - it sounds way bigger now. The only thing I do not agree with is that the Nailbomb is more powerful - to me they are about equal.

So now the Nailbomb is relegated to the substitution bench. I could imagine it being well suited to balance an overly bright guitar with lots of high midrange.

Cheers Stephan

[metalmaniac93]

Well I will have to see how the Nailbomb A5 bridge sounds in the ESPNTII whenever it gets finished.  I will not have the opportunity to hear what the JB sounds like in since it will be removed once the guitar is received from the dealer!!!!  I have JBs in two other guitars and it sounds good in my cheap Dean Z (Mahagony neck/body with a so called maple top) and one in my Ibanez RG3120 (Mahogany body/maple top with maple neck) and it sounds ok, but has that mid-spike that is even more apparent than with the Dean Z.  I will be swapping it out with a Suhr DSH+ and if I do not like that, I will be exploring BKPs for the bridge PUP.