Pickup advice for somebody new to pickup upgrades

[scotchmist_ken]

Hello everyone,

First post here, looking for advice from people with more experience than myself. I've been looking to upgrade the pickups in my guitar for a while, originally thought about getting a Seymour Duncan Blackout in the Bridge and a Jazz model in the neck.

After speaking to a bloke at my local guitar shop he said that with that combination there would be a big difference in the volume coming from the two pickups he mentioned Bare Knuckle pickups and recommended I take a look at them. He also spoke highly of the fact that they're hand wound.

Well, I've listened to more or less all of the Humbucker samples and can't really make up my mind to be honest. A few of the models that I've narrowed it down to, in no specific order, are: Warpig, Nailbomb and Holydiver.

Some people suggest different combinations of pickups, is this a more popular option than buying a set of the same pickups? I've read about combinations using the pickups I mentioned previously with others such as the Cold Sweats or VH II's is this a more favourable option?

I know it's impossible to narrow down a specific tone through pickups alone, obviously lots of other things need to be taken into account. I just want to try and find a set that will allow me to play a range of rock to metal but also that will be able to play some more clean/bluesy tones. I'm into Sabbath, Led Zep, Maiden, Metallica and Alice in Chains as well as a whole load of others.

http://ibanez.wikia.com/wiki/RGA121H <---- this'll give the specs of the guitar if that helps I notice a lot of people talk about the neck and fretboard materials as well as the body. This is the first guitar that I've decided to change the pickups on so I'm new to all of this in all honesty.

Thanks in Advance !

[BigB]

Hi and welcome.  From the 3 pups you mentionned, I only have experience with the ABomb (Alnico Nailbomb, that is) bridge, and I think it could indeed work for your guitar and the kind of tones you're after. It's a modern-voiced, very agressive pickup, perfect for 90s hi-gain tones, but with the ability to clean up with the volume pot to give more old-school tones. Now there are other, possibly less modern / agressive pups in the range that could work as well like the Rebell Yell or VHII, and of course the HD and possibly the Warpig.

[Telerocker]

Nailbombs will do fine.

[timmy_b]

+1^^^  I have an alnico nailbomb in the bridge of my main guitar, it goes all the way from hot blues tones to all the punch I need in my prog metal band. I personally pair it with a low output neck (actually a Blue note p90 at the moment!) Just for variety of tone and clean options, but thats my personal requirement. The calibrated set it VERY popular and plenty versatile enough for most applications

[ericsabbath]

nailbomb bridge + vhii or cs neck

[scotchmist_ken]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Much appreciated

[darkbluemurder]

nailbomb bridge + vhii or cs neck

Nailbomb bridge and VHII neck match well indeed - never tried the other combination.

Cheers Stephan

[Alex]

The Alnico Nailbomb should work fine. It will give you modern metal sounds, but also very importantly some more old-fashioned sounds. It isn't a super hot pickup and that gives it a lot more versatility over other high-gain pickups.

[scotchmist_ken]

Cheers guys,

The Nailbombs were actually the first samples that I listened to, I really liked what I heard but I didn't wanna jump straight in and order them without listening to some of the others and getting some opinions.

I'll be ordering a set of them shortly

Thanks again!