Help needed deciding on pick ups!

[Jackskylight]

Hi guys, Im a classic case of guitarist moving on from EMG's in search of a more versatile, dynamically satisfying sound. The guitar i'll be changing the pick ups in is an ESP eclipse, mahogany body, neck and ebony fret board. I've given the matter a lot of thought, I just can't seem to come to a conclusion as to what pick up I should choose. The characteristics I am looking for in my choice are, picking dynamic sensitivity, lovely clean tones, and to be competent in a variety of styles. My main style of playing is chuggy hard rock\metal riffs that are quite 80s influenced, foo fighters, def leppard, skid row and such. I would love the ability to variate my style of playing including the ability to 'djent.' The amp I am running through is a Blackstar HT-5, I dont use any pedals.
Im just sick to my back teeth of the monotonous sounds my 81-60 set up is limiting me too, somebody help! here's a clip of my style if it helps. http://www.soundcloud.com/jackskylight/rock-m

[Mr. Air]

The Holydiver is ideal for 80s hard rock/metal, but might be a bit too dark in your Eclipse all though it isn't as thick bodies as a LP (if my memory serves me right). Have a look at the Rebel Yell. It has a great edgy hard rock tone and can do metal as well. Maybe you should look at the Blackhawk as well as it's was made for people like you who are tired of lifeless active pickups.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

RY should be great for this, but I don't know about the djent part. Could mess things up a bit with your choices.

[pop]

I was in a quite similar situation when I was looking for EMG replacements in my ESP Eclipse. It too wanted to have a more dynamic sounding pickup with great clean tones which was still able to deliver some evil metal riffing.

Tim recommended the Nailbomb (Alnico) set to me which was really a great choise. A huge step up and a big improvement for the guitar.

In the Eclipse it can give you some mindblowing hard rock and metal tones - even though it wouldn't be my first choice for 'djent'

[Jackskylight]

Thanks a lot for your input guys, I forgot to mention the body has a maple top. It's such a careful topic choosing what pick ups you're going to stick into your guitar. In my eyes the samples on here aren't really going to do each pick up justice, the best way is to hear it in person I'm guessing. Ive looked into the black hawk before, I've read somewhere that they have quite an over bearing low end. I was originally drawn to these, but was then thrown off by the fact the covers aren't changeable to suit my guitar, I guess I'm just looking for some decisive guidance, 'this is what you need' instead of me just fannying around. I'm stuck in a rut really on a quest to make my perfect guitar! any more suggestions are welcome :)

[BigB]

The Abomb is known to be more "90s" than "80s" but from experience with a ABomb bridge in my SG it can cover a lot of genres from typically 90s raw aggression to more classic hard-rock, rock and even bluesy stuff, just playing with the volume and eventually tone pots. Tight&fast yet chunky lows, lots of clarity, but rather abrasive. If you're looking for a sweet rounded warm top end then it's not what you want, but it works fine for me for our repertoire (mostly a mix of punk-rock / alternative / grunge / stoner stuff) and I could have used it for the track you posted (which is not far removed from some of our songs).

FWIW, while my Abomb-ed SG is my favorite weapon for our stuff, I can (and have) play(ed) our whole set with both my Vox Custom 24 ('81 MiJ uncle matz, going-thru maple neck, maple sides, Crawler set) or my Hofner Verythin (semi-hollow, RiffRaff set), and no one ever complained about my tone, quite on the contrary - and, sorry to have to say so, but in a thin mahogany body / maple cap guitar, my bet is that just any random BKP 'bucker would sound better (more organic, more alive, and punchier) than what you used on this track  :?

wrt/ "picking dynamic sensitivity", that's part of the BKP trademark. My first BKP set was the Crawlers - which are, by BKP standards, rather compressed - and the guitar they're in does add it's builtin' compression due to maple and neck-thru, and yet everyone who played this guitar (including the guys from the best local guitar shop) is amazed by it's clarity and dynamic. Now I've tried a couple other sets I better understand why they are labelled as "compressed" on this forum - when compared to the Abomb or RR, they _are_ compressed, but in a good (sounding) and helping (for us mere mortals) way. I once found the Crawlers to be very unforgiving, now I learned what "unforgiving" really means - even with a full-cranked SLO-like amp, you still hear each and every single nuance AND mistake.

Ok, I'll try to stop here: the best "decisive guidance" you can get is from Tim (bkp founder and owner), as long as you manage to clearly and truely explain what you're after. The guy really knows it's products, and the only time I sent a pup back was because of me being wrong on what I thought I wanted -  the pup was exactly what Tim described and FWIW it was so good by itself I ordered the full set (RiffRaff) for another guitar. In two occasions, Tim's advices were rather unexpected to me, in both cases I choosed to trust him (heck, 14 days return policy so what), and I finally came to think the guy has some magical mystic mind-reading power (no it's not the case - he just knows his products).

[darkbluemurder]

The characteristics I am looking for in my choice are, picking dynamic sensitivity, lovely clean tones, and to be competent in a variety of styles. My main style of playing is chuggy hard rock\metal riffs that are quite 80s influenced, foo fighters, def leppard, skid row and such. I would love the ability to variate my style of playing including the ability to 'djent.' The amp I am running through is a Blackstar HT-5, I dont use any pedals.

Going by your main style my first thought was Rebel Yell.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

cold sweats or rebel yells