My Aftermaths arrived!!

[Kiichi]

Hey,
two days ago my Aftermath calibrated set with battleworn covers arrived!
I put them into my maple neck through Les Paul type right away.
I have yet to try them with a really cranked amp (bloody neighbors), but I wanted to post my first impressions.

The axe I got them in is now tuned to drop Bb for In Flames stuff and has a 13-65 set on it.

Firstly I had to back the PUs off way more than I thought...they both donīt stick out that far out of the PU rings (or whatever they are called). I kinda thought those high output things would need to be close to the strings...but that sounded horrid (they seemed to get the unwanted overtones very fast).

Now the sound...all in all, they are so very tech death and djent (not djent sound, but style of play) to me, itīs incredible.
I play through I Tiny Terror Hardwired into a Marshall Cab with 2x Celestion G12H30 speakers.
I had to EQ quite a lot of bass out.

First cleans: the bridge is not exiting in this regard, suprise suprise, but the neck is much better than I expected. Very clear and defined metal like cleans (just like you would expect in a Periphery song), they even have some single coil character. They are way less organic than my Mule neck or even my Liquifire neck, but in a good way too. It is just what you would expect from Periphery, In Flames, KSE, etc.
Very cool in itīs own way.

The distorted sounds  are stranger to me. Iīll start with the neck: There are some nice qualitys in there, no doubt about it. The sustain is great, and it copes rather well with the tuning and the guitar (lots of  base from there). You can get some nice fluid leads, which are again very much modern metal. My problem so far is that I canīt seem to get some of the hairyness out of it. There is too much fizz in there right now that I expect from a bridge, but not from a nice neck PU. Donīt know how I will get that out yet.

The bridge has a different problem (thought it also is a bit too fizzy) right now for me, but Iīll start with the positive things: It is very, very tight and has a nice voicing. I can really go off on the styles I like with rythmic playing.
I immediatly found myself doing early Trivium type riffs. The middy voicing is really great. The palm mutes require different hand positioning than anything I had so far, but they can be real nice.
Only problem is that the sound  is only good on 5 strings.
The low Bb right now just does not work for me. Maybe the string is just too thin for me here, but there is something that I really donīt like about the sound. It just sounds like a flabby bassy mess (to exagerate a bit). The 5th string (tuned to F) is a whole nother beast, while the lowest sound uncontrolled and like from another guitar.
The 7th string on my Dean Vendatta (Crunchlab bridge) sound so much tighter and defined.

All in all I can really see the potential in these pickups, but right now I need to find a way to sort out some of the fizzyness and the low Bb....I think I will need at least a 14-68 set of strings...though I kind of fear that the tuning is just too low (I can imagine they work amazing with drop C though).

Cheers!

[Nephilim]

Your tuning and guage is more than perfect. It may be ur amp since it's not really an all out brutal amp for drop tuned metal. You can also try messing about with the bolts, setting them to different heights, etc :)

[Transcend]

i would definitely say its the amp at fault here for what you are playing. Try sticking a boost in front of it.

Also regarding the cleans on the bridge try it split its amazing.

And the neck also sounds fantastic in Parrallel!

[MDV]

Agreed that the amp isnt the right tool for the job.

But, if youre happier with the crunchlab sound in the same setup, then obviously you've got some sort of guitar/pickup/guitar+pickup problem too.

Try raising the poles on the Bb and any others you arent happy with that are closer to the bridge. This will help it pick up more strongly from the part of the string right over those poles, which being nearer the bridge is a narrower, trebblier and generally more cutting sounding bit of the string. You can rudimentarily EQ each string seperately this way with double screw pole pickups like the AM.

If that fails, try a cold sweat. Its a similar output but kickout less low end and you  may find it better for the low tuning and string gauge as a result.

heavier strings is often a two steps back two forward practice in low tunings were tightness is a priority. You have a tighter string, but its got more mass. Therefore you have a narrower oscilation with less low frequency energy in it, but more mass of the string drives more low frequencies through the pickup and you can end up back where you started. Often you will have better results with thinner strings and a lighter touch. Alternatively you can get thick cored strings from newtone that have more tension without increasing the mass of the string. I use those; 12-56 in drop B. I find that the most preferable solution, personally.

[Kiichi]

Agreed that the amp isnt the right tool for the job.

Alternatively you can get thick cored strings from newtone that have more tension without increasing the mass of the string. I use those; 12-56 in drop B. I find that the most preferable solution, personally.

yeah I know the amp is not the best tool for modern metal^^ Yet I saw that In Flames have it in their studio too, so there kinda must be something to it. Plus my 7 string axe sounds great through it, also very much the sound I want, as I am not after imitating the In Flames sound but rather taking a nice classic heavy metal sound and turning it up to 11, which works great on the 7 string.

I will try to raise the pole pieces.
And sometime Iīll try some split wiring too...probably not Petrucci style on this one but rather a push pull pot, though I have never used one before.

For the boost I have a MXR Supercomp and a MXR 10band EQ...not more right now. Still looking for a real boost I like.

Thing that annoyes me is that every string exept the lowest on the bridge PU basecally sounds good and I really like the qualitys it gives me, it really is just that the lowest does for some reason not sound like the rest, not having any of the qualitys of the others.
And the fizz is probably a minor issue that I can fix, so far rolling down the volume helps (these thing clean up very well), I think most people would not even take that much of an issue, I just like my gain structure to be chunky and not fizzy if you know what I mean. I want a chopper and not a vespa.

Also I have not found one guitar where I donīt end up taking out bass to fit my taste, I basecally alway do a frown on my 10band eq, they very in form a bit from guitar to guitar though. Though the Dean Vendatta with the CL and Liquifire needs the least EQing.

And I will definetly try those strings you recommend...when they do what I hope they do I will probably put them in all my guitars, cause I love high tension (got a 11-56 in drop D right now) but I donīt like thick strings...which sucks. But high tension is more important to me.
I hope I can get some in germany.

[Transcend]

Good luck in getting it sorted.

I got so annoyed with my first AM that i sold it and went through 3-4 different pickups and then came back to the AM.

it took a bit of tweaking but it was the ideal pickup for my baritone.

I do only play in Eb or D standard though

[Kiichi]

I really think that I will at one later point also get an AM for normal or dropped d tuning, I can really see it working well there.

I also believe that with tweaking (and mainly getting the Bb string to work) this can be exactly what I wanted.

[Nephilim]

Try gettin DR DDt strings. There's something about them were the strings have really high tension, even if they're thin :)

[MDV]

Just because you saw the amp in the studio doesnt mean that it was used for a main sound on any recording. It could have been layered to augment the sound of another amp, used for a small section or specific tone or part, crunch sounds, leads, cleans, whatever, it could have been cut from the final mixes or simply tested and not used at all. Its even been known for studio vids and gear lists to be a bit of a troll, intentionally misleading, to hide how the sounds were actually made, or for amusement value.

That said, AFAIK In flames use 5150s, thats what I saw them use live and as I understand it (from what amounts to hearsay) thats the core of their studio sound.

[MDV]

Try gettin DR DDt strings. There's something about them were the strings have really high tension, even if they're thin :)

I tried those. They sound mushy and arent especially high tension for the gauges.

[Kiichi]

I know that IF did not use the Tiny a lot or even as their main sound, but at least for some. Plus remember that I do not want their sound.
Forget that I even mentioned that.
I just know that it works with the 7 string and therefore I think should also work a half step down.
I know that it can give me the sound I want.

About the DDTs...guess what I am using right now! Yes, correct, the fattest set of DR DDTs on the market, and yet they are too flabby for me (plus too thick xD).
So I gotta get those with the thicker core.

Update: Looks like my usual store does not have that perticular kind of newtones...well, Iīll continue to look.

[Nephilim]

Mine sound pretty damn tight lol. But then again, upgrading from D'addarios to DRs, you're deffo gonna feel a difference, lol. I'll have to try them ones you mntioned :)

[Transcend]

for DRs i would go with Tite Fits.

If not Kerly kues

[Nephilim]

Well that's great! Newtone don't do my gauge, grrrr

[Kiichi]

The DR tight fits work very well on my 7 string, although I need a Dīaddario 7th, cause only they make good strings in the gauge I prefer there...68.

For my ibbie S with RY, IT and Mule in drop D I just really prefer the DR Pure Blues.

I donīt even know if the newtones would be enough for me, as in normal tuning I use at least 10 13 17 30 44 52....minimum.

Right now I got 13 17 22 42 56 65 for the Drop Bb and they would feel good one half step up tension whise (only the Bb could use even more and feels too thick...so I really could use like at least a 60 with more core I guess)