Contemporary A5 neck pickups on the bridge postion?

[Emperoff]

Hey guys! I've been trying to gather as much information as possible on this but  haven't found much... Anyone tried the A5 neck models of the Miracle Man and the Aftermath on the bridge? The lack of "metal oriented" A5 pickups is making me interested on those, as I don't like ceramics...

So, Any input?  :D

[asianaxeman]

yeah i tried the neck miracle man in the bridge. more output than a holy diver, smoother mids, less cut. I found it too 'polite' for what I wanted, lacked less crunch than the holy diver too. Not as aggressive as the normal bridge ceramic miracle man but more slightly more organic and less compressed, but still more compressed than the holy diver or nailbomb bridge pickups. Might sound bigger and more punchy in a bright alder type guitar for instance. I wouldn't try it again in the brigde  I don't think (in mahogany anyway).

[darkbluemurder]

The lack of "metal oriented" A5 pickups is making me interested on those, as I don't like ceramics...

So, Any input?  :D

The Holydiver, Alnico Nailbomb and Rebel Yell should all be suitable for metal, maybe not for the extreme metal styles. My LP Custom with the Rebel Yells can do John Sykes and Ozzy stuff (RR and ZW) perfectly - the tonal elements missing are due to my playing skills (or lack thereof).

Did you try one of the BKP Ceramics? I have the Miracle Man and the Cold Sweat, and none of them has the harshness usually associated with ceramic magnet equipped pickups.

Cheers Stephan

[Mr. Air]

I think Nolly has made some really good clips showing that A5 pickups like the RY and even the Mule can do metal really well with the right equipment and settings. Might be worth checking out or seending him a PM. He might drop by this thread soon, though  :D

[Nolly]

I wouldn't recommend experimenting with the neck models for the bridge position - if they worked well, they'd be in the range as dedicated bridge pickups.
I'm not sure it's correct to say there's a lack of metal-oriented A5 models - it's just that those tend to be more versatile than to be pigeonholed as pure metal machines. Any A5 pickup in the range will be capable of great metal tones in the correct applications. The Emerald and Rebel Yell would be great places to start if you're after an A5 pickup with the punch and tightness of a ceramic, but bear in mind they will not hit the front end of your amp as hard, so a boost would be well worth considering if you don't use one.

[lyonk55]

I accidently had a neck Cold Sweat in the bridge of my Tanglewood Les Paul for a while. Sounded good actually, but it was more of an Opeth type metal sound than the higher outputs.

[Keven]

i have a black dog bridge and a riff raff bridge both on a 7 and 8 string respectively and i wouldn't pick anything else for these guitars. with the right settings they can do brutal metal, and when you take the pedals off the signal chain they're great versatile pickups!

[Emperoff]

I wouldn't recommend experimenting with the neck models for the bridge position - if they worked well, they'd be in the range as dedicated bridge pickups.
I'm not sure it's correct to say there's a lack of metal-oriented A5 models - it's just that those tend to be more versatile than to be pigeonholed as pure metal machines. Any A5 pickup in the range will be capable of great metal tones in the correct applications. The Emerald and Rebel Yell would be great places to start if you're after an A5 pickup with the punch and tightness of a ceramic, but bear in mind they will not hit the front end of your amp as hard, so a boost would be well worth considering if you don't use one.

Hhmm... I don't think the pickups you mention are really metal oriented... Maybe just happen to work well for it. There is no Alnico Painkiller, Aftermath or miracle Man so I don't think is that incorrect to say that there aren't many A5 high-output models.

The problem I see with the lower output A5 pickups that you mention is that to achieve that clarity they sacrifice beef in the low end, as opposite to other ceramics like the C-Bomb or Miracle Man. The Rebel Yell and the Emerald are very bright sounding pickups and may not work well with bright guitars. IIRC your 7-string Daemoness is set neck with korina body, which could translate as a warm guitar so they will certainly work well on it. Not so sure on bright superstrats, though.

The other problem is that with an Axe-Fx you can use the gain you want at lower volumes and is always going to sound good, but with a real tube amp you may not be able to achieve that amount of distortion without cranking it out to deafening levels (unless you have something like a 5150 or a Powerball), and even though you could boost them, that would make them even brighter.

[Nolly]

We're not in disagreement. By "metal-oriented" I do not mean "high output".

An alnico magnet will not stay tight in the low end once the DC resistance ramps up, hence why the Painkiller/MM etc are ceramic (which tracks the low end far more efficiently). If you want the tightness of a ceramic magnet but from an alnico pickup, it can only be achieved at the expense of the quantity of low end.
By contrast, a ceramic pickup generally requires a fairly hot wind in order to counter their extreme treble response.
Given those facts, you can see why the range is structured as it is.

My Dæmoness 7 is a fairly bright guitar. Ceramic pickups will reproduce more extreme high end than an alnico pickup, Rebel Yell and Emerald included, hence why I have no issue with using pickups like the RY in a bright guitar. Boosting does not necessarily yield more treble. My experiences are based on extensive testing and R&D with real amps as well as modellers.

[Emperoff]

We're not in disagreement. By "metal-oriented" I do not mean "high output".

An alnico magnet will not stay tight in the low end once the DC resistance ramps up, hence why the Painkiller/MM etc are ceramic (which tracks the low end far more efficiently). If you want the tightness of a ceramic magnet but from an alnico pickup, it can only be achieved at the expense of the quantity of low end.
By contrast, a ceramic pickup generally requires a fairly hot wind in order to counter their extreme treble response.
Given those facts, you can see why the range is structured as it is.

My Dæmoness 7 is a fairly bright guitar. Ceramic pickups will reproduce more extreme high end than an alnico pickup, Rebel Yell and Emerald included, hence why I have no issue with using pickups like the RY in a bright guitar. Boosting does not necessarily yield more treble. My experiences are based on extensive testing and R&D with real amps as well as modellers.

Well, boosters don't necessarily yield more trebel but they do remove a significant amount of bass and low-mids, which gives the impression of them being brighter. This could also lead to a perception of a "thin" sound. Listening to the guitar tracks of your album I can sey they sound awesome but every guitar is a different world.

So, would you classify the Emerald and Rebel Yell warmer or fuller sounding than the higher output ceramic models? The EQ charts on the website clearly lead to confusion as they don't have any relationship with other pickups. How would you compare the Emerald to the Rebel Yell?

[ViggoPower]

Use a clean boost, not a tube screamer or similar. A clean boost will not take out any low end, only hit the preamp harder.

[mongey]

have you tried the A5 nailbomb ? I have a set and I'd say they're plenty metal orinated

[darkbluemurder]

The Rebel Yell and the Emerald are very bright sounding pickups and may not work well with bright guitars.

The LP Custom I mentioned in my post above is a very bright guitar - the brightest humbucker axe I have, and the Rebel Yell works extremely well with it. That axe is downright brutal but in a very good way. For softer tones you definitely have to use the tone controls but that's what they're there for.

Cheers Stephan

[Nolly]

Well, boosters don't necessarily yield more trebel but they do remove a significant amount of bass and low-mids, which gives the impression of them being brighter. This could also lead to a perception of a "thin" sound. Listening to the guitar tracks of your album I can sey they sound awesome but every guitar is a different world.

So, would you classify the Emerald and Rebel Yell warmer or fuller sounding than the higher output ceramic models? The EQ charts on the website clearly lead to confusion as they don't have any relationship with other pickups. How would you compare the Emerald to the Rebel Yell?

What boost pedal do you use? I'd recommend checking out the MXR GT-OD, Maxon OD9 Pro+, or Amptweaker Tight Drive for very tweakable boosts that will not leave your tone sounding thin or overly bright.

I wouldn't call the Emerald or Rebel Yell fuller or warmer, but their extreme top end is smoother. In general, the hotter the wind, the lower the resonant peak of the pickup, so the hotter ceramic pickups are quite full in the low mids but still have the characteristic ceramic glassiness to the top end. By contrast, the mid output alnico pickups have higher resonant peaks that give them their punchy upper midrange and lean low end character.

The Emerald is a brighter and tighter sound than the Rebel Yell, with a more open dynamic. I would generally reserve the Emerald for 7 and 8 string usage, moving to the Rebel Yell for 6-string if you want a very similar character with more chunk to keep the higher tuning sounding powerful.

Yes, the EQ charts can be confusing; Tim was reluctant to include them on the website, but it was one of the biggest user requests so they were put up.