Need help deciding which pickups to get.

[Bastyn99]

Hi everyone.
Next week Im buying some new guitar gear as an early christmas present for myself, and so far, Ive decided to get an Ibanez RG1570 and an Engl Thunder E320 combo amp. So, now I just need pickups.
The sound Im looking for is an agressive, warm metal sound, for awesome palm mute and power chord riffage. Lotsa gain and bass. Things I want to avoid is muddy sounding chords and shrill/cold sounding highs.
Bands I like are Disturbed, COB, Shadows Fall, Trivium, off the top of my head. Something like Disturbed's Stricken has a great warm powerfull sound, but gets noisy at points, whereas something like Pantera's Im Broken and Cemetary Gates sound awesomely aggressive and articulate, but too cold a shallow. Lamb of God's Laid to Rest and Shadows Fall's Redemption I really like.

So, what BKP's would you recommend for me ? And also, could I skip buying a singlecoil for the middle position and then just not connect the stock middle PU and not use it ?

Thank you in advance

[James_B_K_P]

I would recommend a miracle man pickup for your bridge! Pretty much the all rounder for metal pickups. Really nice tight bass response but still allowing highs to cut through nicely. As for your neck, it depends how much you want to use cleans. For a really pure clean tone and a really smooth distorted solo tone I would say a cold sweat. If your not going to be using an awful lot of cleans (still really nice sounding however) then get the calibrated set of miracle mans! Also, it's possible to just cut the wires from your mid single coil pickup but pretty pointless if you ask me. However cr@ppy it may sound, It won't affect the sound of the pickups in bridge and neck position and will give you loads more options tone wise in combination with your BKP's!

[Bastyn99]

The Miracle Man description says thats its well suited for LP type guitars you want to give a brighter sound. Isnt that the opposite of what I want ? The Warpig says the complete opposite, a PU to give a superstrat a warmer more aggressive sound.

[darkbluemurder]

The sound Im looking for is an agressive, warm metal sound, for awesome palm mute and power chord riffage. Lotsa gain and bass. Things I want to avoid is muddy sounding chords and shrill/cold sounding highs.

The Miracle Man would definitely fit the bill unless your guitar is very bright - then the Warpig appears to be the better choice. But that is difficult to judge without having the guitar at hand.

And also, could I skip buying a singlecoil for the middle position and then just not connect the stock middle PU and not use it ?

Of course you can but why not try the stock single coil with the BKP pickups? That would give you the popular #2 and #4 strat type clean tones with the RG1570's switching scheme. If you don't connect the middle pickup in the stock wiring you would get (starting from the neck position as #1) the split bridge HB in #4, the split neck HB in #2 and no sound in #3 - not very useful IMHO. You could then replace the stock 5-way-switch with a 5-way-4-pole type to come up with different wiring options but then we are talking about a complete rewiring of the guitar.

Cheers Stephan

[Bastyn99]

Well its your standard RG with a basswood body and maple/wallnut neck with rosewood fretboard. Not sure how bright that is. Ive read that the Miracle Man is less "aggressive" than the other metal oriented BKPs but that the Warpigs can get muddy in a too dark guitar/amp setup. But I believe that RGs generally are pretty neutral or a bit bright, and Engl amps are pretty bright. With Warpigs, theres also the choice between Ceramic and AlnicoV. Which do you think would be better in my case `?

[MAJ Meadows SF]

I'm all about using your ear to nail this decision down. Listen to some quality clips like the ones on the BKP mainsite, or in this forum, narrow it down to three, take the advice on woods vs. pickups (and consider the amp too; nice choice IMO love ENGL), and go for it. Remember there is a 14 day return policy with BKP, so you should be fine.

The bands you listed have a lot of tone differences and equipment differences (SF use EMGs, LoG uses Duncans, etc). But if you are looking for a warm tone, stick with an Alnico V pup. I'll go against that and cast a vote for the Miracle Man set, which works well in basswood IMO, sounds huge, and is not super cold though it is a ceramic. Some other good considerations for bridge would be A-Pig, Rebel Yell, and even the Nailbomb. For neck pickup go either with a Cold Sweat or a calibrated pair of whatever bridge model you choose.

[Bastyn99]

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated.

I actually just contacted Tim and got a recommendation from him, a set of Holy Divers. Said he has used those in two pairs of Basswood RGs and that they should fit my taste nicely. Listened to some sound clips on youtube and they do sound awesome.

Another thing I noticed while looking through this forum is that people say you should also make sure you have the right pots and caps in you guitar. Im not sure which ones the RG1570Z has, but which ones do you think I should use. Ive heard 550K BKP bots and 0.022µfd caps should get the best results. Thoughts ?

[witeter]

Yes definitely get the pots and capacitor, in my view it allows the pickups to sound the best they can.

[Bastyn99]

how hard is it, changing the pots and cap, when you have no experience ?

[darkbluemurder]

how hard is it, changing the pots and cap, when you have no experience ?

If you know how to solder it is not hard at all. Just take your time and make drawings of which wire goes where. If you want to be really cautious replace one part at a time.

Cheers Stephan

[Roobubba]

I've used a miracle man in a basswood ibanez extensively (with a 5150-II), and found it perfect for what I wanted. If anything it might be a bit too aggressive for you, Disturbed is pretty light to my ears. From your description, a holy diver or nailbomb may be more appropriate, something AlNiCo but still with contemporary voicing.

Have you asked Tim?

[Bastyn99]

I've used a miracle man in a basswood ibanez extensively (with a 5150-II), and found it perfect for what I wanted. If anything it might be a bit too aggressive for you, Disturbed is pretty light to my ears. From your description, a holy diver or nailbomb may be more appropriate, something AlNiCo but still with contemporary voicing.

Have you asked Tim?

Read a few posts up, he said Holy Divers :)