I own a lot of bkps in the vintage output range, but for my caparison i'm thinking it's time for something hotter. I've never really liked hot pups, I feel they choke the dynamics and the overtones seem less natural. But even though I'm very biased towards low output pups even I have to admit there are certain qualities high output pups have that I would want to have in at least one of my guitars: the ease of playing and a tone with both heaviness and crisp tightness.
The guitar is a Caparison Horus, a 6 string H-S guitar with a mahogany body and maple neck/rosewood fretboard. It's natural acoustic tone is somewhere between a strat and an sg.
Now, my experience with higher output pups have mostly been negative. The only one I've ever come close to liking is the EMG 81 with the 18 volt mod, I like that it both had clarity, bite, upper mid focus and a lot of body to the tone, but as always it was far too sterile and lacked any picking dynamics.
From listening to a lot of clips and reading a lot of posts I feel like I've narrowed it down to either the aftermath or the miracle man. The aftermath seem to have tone crisp tone and clarity I'm looking for, but may not have enough body and maybe a too sterile bass for my liking. The miracle man seem to have great weight and body to the tone, but seem to have a lower-mid focus and not enough upper mids. The bass may also be a tad big for me.
For the neck pickup I want to have one that can handle both clean and distorted playing and cut through the mix well. The consensus here seem to be a trilogy neck, so I'm just wondering whether I should consider getting one with a base plate or not?
Are there other vintage pickup enthusiasts that have dabbled in high gain pups and can share their experience out there?
