A suggestion for a Jackson sl2h ?

[aris17561]

 The Distortion is all about upper mids and treble with not much bottom end, super high output and really harsh sounding ( people mistake that for "aggressive" )
[/quote]

Hey man you really have a great knowledge... I just check seymour duncan site and i saw that distortion has lots of mids and treble like you said , but then I realized that even with the exsessive mid-tre tone specs that duncan distortion has ,  the sound of my sl2h is still not bright...

According to that ,  my needs changed . I want a sound with big low end and brightness ? Do your recomandation now are changing ?

Thank you for your comments because I did that researsh .

[darkbluemurder]

Big low end AND brightness in the BKP range would lead me to the Cold Sweat or Miracle Man (the first one being brighter).

I am still not sure what you actually seek. You have a bright alder body guitar and did not like many pickups you tried in it. Of those I only played two - the JB and the EMG 81 - both very thin sounding pickups to me despite of their high output. But that just goes to show that you don't need high output to get a fat tone - it's the right balance of frequencies what makes a tone fat.

You also mentioned that the pickup you liked most so far was the DD but you want a clearer more articulate tone than that. This makes it a bit difficult for me since I am not familiar with the DD. But after what I have read I believe the Miracle Man would be a good choice, combining high output and clarity.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

Big low end AND brightness in the BKP range would lead me to the Cold Sweat or Miracle Man (the first one being brighter).

I am still not sure what you actually seek. You have a bright alder body guitar and did not like many pickups you tried in it. Of those I only played two - the JB and the EMG 81 - both very thin sounding pickups to me despite of their high output. But that just goes to show that you don't need high output to get a fat tone - it's the right balance of frequencies what makes a tone fat.

You also mentioned that the pickup you liked most so far was the DD but you want a clearer more articulate tone than that. This makes it a bit difficult for me since I am not familiar with the DD. But after what I have read I believe the Miracle Man would be a good choice, combining high output and clarity.

Cheers Stephan

the painkiller is the closest to the sh-6 specs and voicing, but his description sounds like a MM or CNB

[antikue]

The problem here is (in my case at least), that the specs don't really describe the tone here. The bridge pickup in this guitar *should* be bright and snappy with the Floyd and the maple neck & ebony fboard, but it really isn't - the neck pickup OTOH is. My guess is, that the bridge pickup sits relatively far away from the bridge, thus resulting in a darker tone. I've had an ESP M-II with almost the same specs, and *that* guitar was bright and lively. The pickup was much closer to the string cutoff point as well. So it may not be quite as easy to recommend a bright and cutting pickup for this particular guitar. As mentioned before, I'd like to get it right the first time  :)

[danger5oh]

I had a set of C-Pigs in my SL2H and it sounded absolutely massive.  IMHO the overall brightness of the guitar counterbalanced it perfectly.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Firstly, your guitar may have alder wings but it's a maple neck-thru so it's the maple that will dominate the tone rather than the alder so it tends to be rather more middy than something like a Stratocaster that has a true alder body. I have an SL3 so fortunately I have some experience of some of the pickups you're considering:

Nailbomb - VERY tight and VERY aggressive when I tried it in mine. If you want a really hairy and aggressive sound, it's great but otherwise - no. I sent mine back and mine was Alnico V!!

Holydiver - Awesome. Warm and smooth and is actually a lot more balanced than the EQ chart suggests. Screams 80's Metal but is actually extremely versatile. It's my 'go to' pickup for most songs I play. I loved it in my SL3, though I've now moved it to a PRS.

Miracle Man - Contrary to what you might think, this is actually remarkably close to the Holydiver. It has that same '80's Metal' vibe about it and retains a lot of the warmth and smoothness of the Holydiver but is that little bit more punchy in the bass and screaming in the highs.

For the neck pickup, the Cold Sweat is an awesome choice but personally, ever since I got an Emerald, I can't see past it at all.

[aris17561]

Firstly, your guitar may have alder wings but it's a maple neck-thru so it's the maple that will dominate the tone rather than the alder so it tends to be rather more middy than something like a Stratocaster that has a true alder body. I have an SL3 so fortunately I have some experience of some of the pickups you're considering:

Nailbomb - VERY tight and VERY aggressive when I tried it in mine. If you want a really hairy and aggressive sound, it's great but otherwise - no. I sent mine back and mine was Alnico V!!

Holydiver - Awesome. Warm and smooth and is actually a lot more balanced than the EQ chart suggests. Screams 80's Metal but is actually extremely versatile. It's my 'go to' pickup for most songs I play. I loved it in my SL3, though I've now moved it to a PRS.

Miracle Man - Contrary to what you might think, this is actually remarkably close to the Holydiver. It has that same '80's Metal' vibe about it and retains a lot of the warmth and smoothness of the Holydiver but is that little bit more punchy in the bass and screaming in the highs.

For the neck pickup, the Cold Sweat is an awesome choice but personally, ever since I got an Emerald, I can't see past it at all.

Hey man are you sure about those you said about woods . Because here it says that it is alder body

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/jackson-sl2h-custom-usa-guitar

Even if my soloist has a maple body , it is too dark . Cause maple is very very bright . I want to play progressive metal . So you believe that a holy diver is for me ? I don't know why but even with Duncan distortion the guitar is still dark . My fender is way way brighter with a lil 59 in bridge position . Don't forget , big fat low end , and brightness . So simple ha ha ...

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yep, I'm sure.

http://www.jacksonguitars.com/en-GB/products/search.php?partno=2803071875

Because the guitar is a neck-thru design, the pickups are mounted onto the maple of the neck as it runs through the body, hence 'neck-thru-body' construction. When it refers to an 'alder body' it's actually referring to the bits of the body that are mounted either side of the pickups, on the maple neck-thru, hence the term alder wings. You'll see on the specification section that the 'neck-thru-body' is specified as 'quartersawn maple' and no mention is made there of the alder body. Because the pickups are mounted onto the maple of the neck, it's the maple that has the most influence on the sound of the guitar and maple is often characterised as being quite middy. Your Fender will be brighter because it's an all-alder body and the pickups are mounted onto alder which is a naturally brighter wood than maple.

Although maple is described as 'middy', I find that it's a difficult wood to get pickups to cut through. The Holydiver and the Miracle Man have been fantastic in my Jackson but the Holydiver still cuts through better in my PRS and that's mahogany! You'll find that an EQ pedal will make a big difference to your sound when using the Jackson.

[aris17561]

Yep, I'm sure.

http://www.jacksonguitars.com/en-GB/products/search.php?partno=2803071875

Because the guitar is a neck-thru design, the pickups are mounted onto the maple of the neck as it runs through the body, hence 'neck-thru-body' construction. When it refers to an 'alder body' it's actually referring to the bits of the body that are mounted either side of the pickups, on the maple neck-thru, hence the term alder wings. You'll see on the specification section that the 'neck-thru-body' is specified as 'quartersawn maple' and no mention is made there of the alder body. Because the pickups are mounted onto the maple of the neck, it's the maple that has the most influence on the sound of the guitar and maple is often characterised as being quite middy. Your Fender will be brighter because it's an all-alder body and the pickups are mounted onto alder which is a naturally brighter wood than maple.

Although maple is described as 'middy', I find that it's a difficult wood to get pickups to cut through. The Holydiver and the Miracle Man have been fantastic in my Jackson but the Holydiver still cuts through better in my PRS and that's mahogany! You'll find that an EQ pedal will make a big difference to your sound when using the Jackson.

Oh I hate every pedal exists in the market m8 . Mmmm ok I love only the Maxon od808 to tight the dual rectifier . Ha ha a big thank you for all these information . I  ll give a try to holy diver but I have in mind the black dog too .. Have you tried ? To be honest I am not sure that I need a high output pickup because evh 5150iii which I have has plenty of distortion and dual recto is dual recto , so I am thinking of getting advantage of the clearness of mid output pups . What do you think ?