Here is my review for the bridge Aftermath in E standard (sometimes drop D). The guitar is a Jackson PC-1: mahogany body, maple bolt on, maple fret board, Floyd, strung with 10-46s. Original bridge pickup was a Dimarzio Super 3. Killer guitar, but moving on… I didn’t see too many reviews regarding the Aftermath in E standard, especially reviews outside of the djentisphere, so here is my two cents!
First off, I read somewhere someone saying their AM sounded like it had a built in noise gate… and I would almost have to agree to some extent. Obviously it’s not like a real ass noise gate, but this pickup (and my Ceramic nailbomb too for that matter) is obscenely quiet and you can silence it instantly with good technique. Which brings me to my next point… The pickup is insanely tight, but if you are a sloppy player, you are really going to hear it. You can hear every little nuance of your playing. Anyways, there are lots of reviews about how tight it is, etc. I’m sure everyone knows that already.
On to the tone. I was skeptical, at best, about these in E standard for non djent/core, etc music. I like my metal a little more old school and don’t downtune, so I wasn’t sure if these were the right fit for me. After being thoroughly amazed by nailbombs (both alnico and ceramic), holy divers and rebel yells, I wanted to try something new and after much deliberation, chose the aftermath. On first impression, it was kind of “scratchy”… almost a weird pseudo distortion kind of to it, and sounds like an angry metal pickup. However, after setting it up properly and playing with it a few times there is no way I’m taking it out of this guitar, it sounds absolutely amazing. The spirit of this humbucker is certainly angrier and more pissed off sounding than a holy diver or nailbomb but it never creates anything unmusical. The tone is really nice and balanced, and also cuts through really nicely in E standard. Solos are great, reminiscent of a Holy diver in some ways, in that it kind of has a little bump in the mids, but rhythm playing is tight and chunky and very heavy sounding. A really well designed pickup, the tone sits exactly where it should for a distorted guitar. Less bass and mids than a super 3, but the output seemed almost similar and it certainly had more highs.
Bottom line is that these absolutely rule for metal. Yea they can make some clean or low gain tones, but other pickups got the AM beat in that department. If you use distortion, try these out. You’ll like them!
I give these pickups somewhere between a 9/10 and a 10/10 for both rhythm and lead playing (depends on my mood and what I'm playing) but only a 7.5/10 for clean.
Set phasers to Kill with this pickup... :shock:
