walnut body

[Enormous]

Howdy,

Looking for pickup recs. I'm building a guitar with a walnut body, maple/rosewood 25.5 scale neck and wondering which pickup would sound good in it. I'm looking at the vintage hot or contemporary humbuckers. My band plays metal, we tune down a whole step and play sort of a stoner/doom/90's hybrid style of music. I don't like a super scooped eq and I don't play with a ton of gain.

I guess I'm looking for low-end chunk, mids to cut through the mix and something that will compliment the walnut body.

The Black Dog has an all around good sound to me as does the Warpig.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

[Kiichi]

Hi and welcome!

If I recall corretly walnut is somewhat balanced and best of both worlds kinda thing. One I really one have a guitar made out of one day for sure. That will probably leave the field wide open.

If you say you play stoner/doom/90s hybrid my first impule is Nailbomb bridge. That one is always described to have 90s agression, a lot of versatility and should be one of the first one to come to mind when talking stoner, while handeling doom nicely too.

Dunno if I could recommend the NB neck though as it is often cited as being the only BKP that really feels scooped.
There are many options to go along with the NB bridge, like for example the Cold Sweat neck, but you would have to give us a bit more info on the tone you want from the neck.

With the WP you always gotta beware of too much bottom end. If that is not a big danger for you (amps and cabs play a big role here) that might work brilliantly too, but you gotta be a bit more carefull with that one.

As for the BD, it should have the sound profile you want but might be too vintage I recon. Again, amp and cab play a big role.

[Telerocker]

Not an expert in these styles, though I think the Nailbomb sounds organic and has enough bass and mids to complement the maple-neck.

[GuitarIv]

For Doom/Stoner, I would go Alnico Warpig. Played it in a mates axe and that thing has loads of nice low end chunk. As Kiichi pointed out, just beware of your amp/cab, as it can be a bit too much. If you want a recorded example (the Axe FX was used), this is my mates band, the sound is all the Alnico Warpig (the guitar is an ESP LTD with a mahogany body, a maple cap, maple neck and rosewood fretboard):

Bury the Sun - Emerald

Hope that helps, cheers

[Enormous]

Hmmmmmm tone. That's difficult. Sometimes you think you want something but when you hear it, you really don't. I play through a Soldano Avenger and a Laney head. speakers for Soldano are EVM's and Celestions. Laney goes through a cab loaded with Eminence Delta Pro-12a's.  I used to have a D-Activator in the bridge position of my Schecter. While it was a nice well-rounded clear pickup, it lacked low-end chunk. i bought a relatively cheap pickup from a dealer on ebay on a whim, replaced the D activator and ended up liking the new p'up better. Can't remember the name of the dude who makes it though. It filled in the missing chunkiness but I gave up a little clarity.

I like clarity cuz sometimes we play some extended chords or chords with close intervals and I don't want them to turn to mush (like they did when I tried out a DiMarzio Super Distortion-sounded like dogsh*t).

Matt Pike is my personal guitar hero, I've always liked his tone so if I could, I would take that tone, give it some tighter low end, more chunk and some overall clarity.

[Kiichi]

Well for clarity you certainly are at the right adress. Most people will agree that clarity is the trademark quality of BKPs.
Itīs why I came here in the first place too. The clarity is so nice that most people percieve BKPs to be lower output then they are because they feel gain lacking.

[Telerocker]

Well for clarity you certainly are at the right adress. Most people will agree that clarity is the trademark quality of BKPs.
Itīs why I came here in the first place too. The clarity is so nice that most people percieve BKPs to be lower output then they are because they feel gain lacking.

Exactly. If you want mud, look elsewhere.

[Enormous]

How about dynamic? I like a pickup to be able to respond to light or heavy picking.

[Telerocker]

How about dynamic? I like a pickup to be able to respond to light or heavy picking.

Dynamics are one of the BKP-trademarks. So are clarity and tremendous noteseparation, even with much highgain.

[Kiichi]

Yep, telerocker said it. This also leads to incredible versatility in most PUs. The BKP vintage range, which is really vintage spec stuff, can go incredibly high gain for what they are really. The mule, a 59 PAF style HB, very original sound can go play metal (Ozzy and the likes). The riff raff can go even higher gain. And with the vintage hot range you have PUs that can go as high as anyone should need them. And those are just the vintage ones.

[GuitarIv]

It's incredible how high gain the Mule can go. Here's a Thrash Metal clip with it:

https://soundcloud.com/vicol-1/vicol-skervesen-raptor-bkp

And here's a video with a VIK loaded with a Mule in the Bridge and a Manhattan in the Neck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edW2hah1ALs

Cheers