Nailbomb to mahogany/maple V

[IzirAtig]

Hey
I'm planning to buy  C version of Nailbomb to my ESP flying V. She has mahogany body and set through maple neck. What kind of tone I can expect from this kind of combination?

IA

[Kiichi]

Well the Nailbomb is a very agressive PU, in the way that is is abrasive. That is the defining quality I think. The sound tends to be more in the 90s metal style.
What I expect from your guitar tone whise is that the maple is definetly the dominating wood here as it is neck through. That usually also makes the bass a little deeper.
I assume the fretboard it rosewood?
Anyhow I think it should work nicely with the Cbomb for a tight and very agressive metal sound.

Might be easier to tell us what you got and what you want so we can tell you if you are on the right path imho.

[IzirAtig]

Yep. And rosewood fingerboard. I just bought the V and it has EMG 81s in it. I'm looking for best (after Black Hawk :) mic for Black and Death metal. Brutal and still transparent and clear mic. I already have Black Hawk in my BC Rich and it's damn good. I just want some other mic to this gitar.

[Kiichi]

I am no expert on those styles as the only death metal I like is "Six Feet Under - Bringer of Blood" which is great album on vinyl and black metal whise I loved the Dimmu Borgir performance with orchestra I saw last year at Wacken Open Air.

However from what I understand about the sound for those two there are two PUs I would think to work nicely, counting out the BH: Cbomb and Painkiller
Those two in my mind can do those styles nicely.

I already said something about the cbomb, so on the PK, from what I know it has big and brutal chugs, agression and a quality that is sometimes desbribed as icepicky (or something similar), which should just play into black metal in my mind. Plus it is certainly brutal enough for death metal and has been used for that to great effect too.

I would recommend to look into the PK too while checking out the Cbomb. The Review Collection Thread I made recently (sticky here) might help a bit.

[Dave Sloven]

What kind of death metal are we talking about?

It's a pretty diverse genre.

A lot of the '90s style stuff like Nile and Cryptopsy is very EMG sounding, and favours dry pickups.

My local guitar shop is owned by a death metal guitarist who tunes down to A, and I asked him the other day about his sound, which is based on EMGs 81/85, and he said that it was important that the rig had a lot of mids so that it sounded tight and his guitar did not end up sounding like a bass in that tuning, hence the V30s, TS-9, etc etc. I think a dry pickup is also a part of the effort to go to low tunings without a muddy sound.

If you want to hear what tuning to B with normal '80s string gauges and bassy rigs sounds like listen to Bolt Thrower's Realm of Chaos.  After that album they switched to C# standard.  A few bands used to play with floppy strings like that back in the day though.  The B-side of Napalm Death's first album is the same tuning, only they play faster.  The first Carcass album, notorious for its bad production, has the same issue of low tuning on regular '80s strings and gear.

A lot of the '80s death metal bands used Dimarzios or something like that.  They had a 'juicier' sound than the '90s guys, and tuned to C (Autopsy) or higher.  Asphyx was in D standard or even drop D I think

I am happy with my A-pig for death metal stuff but I don't go for the super-tight sound, not sure how it stacks up playing that stuff.  A C-pig might be a better choice for some of it.  On the other hand if one balances really low tuning with a brighter setup maybe something like a Rebel Yell would work.

[IzirAtig]

I'm not stuck in one specific sound. I like to explore all the time. One thing is that I want to hear what I play so muddyness is bad thing. And I like soul in gitar sound too. EMGs don't have it. I really don't like EMG's sound. Tuning I use is from B to B with 60-~12 strings. I think the ESP sounds acoustic quite mid rangey. I'm pretty sure that pickup is gonna have ceramic magnets because I like how they sound more clear than alnicos.

[Dave Sloven]

Have you considered the Miracle Man?

On alnicos, I've found the BKP alnico pickups I have to be VERY clear and articulate compared to the standard Gibson 490R/498T set I had in my Gibson, and certainly more lively than the Mighty Mite set that was in my Explorer when I bought it.  I try to avoid compressed sounding pickups, of which the Mighty Mite MBs were an especially bad example.  None of the BKP clips I've heard have that character.  Out of the ceramic BKPs the ones I find appealing are the C-Bomb, Miracle Man, and Cold Sweat.  I haven't heard enough of the C-Pig to make up my mind.  I've heard clips where the Painkiller sounded very good.  The Aftermath and Blackhawk aren't my cup of tea.  I'm sure they have their applications but it seems to be in styles of music I don't like.

[IzirAtig]

What I found from youtube it's maybe C Nailbomb or Painkiller. In some clips NB is better and sometimes it's PK. Is there better EQ curves of BKP pickups anywhere. Those three bars don't tell lot. Nailbomb sounded to have too much ~2500hz in some comparison video I listened yesterday.

[Dave Sloven]

Are you sure it was the ceramic version?

[IzirAtig]

Are you sure it was the ceramic version?

Actually not. I asked it from uploader but haven't got answer yet.

[Dave Sloven]

Did you see this comparison of C-Bomb and Painkiller?

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=28022.0

Personally in these videos I prefer the C-Bomb.

In my own Gibson SG I have a Cold Sweat in the neck like the second video but an A-Bomb in the bridge.  The A-Bomb is very aggressive in the mids and took me a good while to get the pickup and pole-piece height right, but now it sounds really good.  On an SG (or any guitar with a big neck angle) bringing the pole pieces up in the bridge position really helps give a more articulate tone without getting woofy from having the front slug coil too close to the strings.

[IzirAtig]

Shame that the clips are again played with different gitars. Nailbomb lacks bit mids and Painkiller has it too much. Sounds almost like Painkiller was played through Marshall and Nailbomb through Engl. Still Nailbomb sounds more evil for Black Metal riffs and Painkiller is more violent for Death Metal riffs. Damn. Painkiller otherwise could be better for raw UG Black Metal and Nailbomb for Cannibal Corpse style stuff. Can't buy them both :D

[Dave Sloven]

Maybe this Slayer demo on youtube somewhere with a Les Paul and a C-Bomb will help you make up your mind?  This one is definitely played through an Engl!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp8bYUWMBSE

[Kiichi]

You should also factor in how you guitar sounds acousticly (we can only guess). Does it have a lot of mids or not?
You amp? Middy thing or a bit of a scooped metal machine?

[IzirAtig]

You should also factor in how you guitar sounds acousticly (we can only guess). Does it have a lot of mids or not?
You amp? Middy thing or a bit of a scooped metal machine?

Acoustic sound has lot of mid. Pickup suppose to to work with Orange Dark Terror, Bugera 333 and different amp sims. Well. With all amps :o