moving on from the alnico warpig bridge.. (ceramic?)

[gwEm]

i hesitate to post this, since its been addressed before, but on the other hand i'm not really satisfied with whats been posted in this area.

reading comments one would think the ceramic and alnico versions are poles apart. the ceramic super surgical and the alnico practically defining the word organic.

in fact i never really considered this until recently but i might be in the market for a ceramic warpig. so i listened to the clips and in fact the alnico and ceramic version don't actually sound *soo* very different.

so what shall i do? bear in mind i don't play modern metal - its hard rock and NWOBHM style all in standard tuning.

what i like about the alnico warpig:
* versatile - good clean
* huge sounding chunky distortion
* silly amounts of gain
* friendly mids

what i don't like about the alnico warpig:
* bass end just a little bit woolly. ideally i'd like it to be 10-20% tighter
* i'd like more aggressive sounding and present treble and upper mids - get some of that ceramic-ish tone

clearly, i'm prepared to make sacrifices here. i still want a pickup with silly gain and huge sounding distortion. i don't mind loosing some clean and some mids to achieve that. however, i don't want anything "surgical" or "sterile".

i like the alnico warpig alot, and will move it elsewhere probably, but its not quite right for this particular guitar.

would love to hear what you all think

[PhilKing]

Miracle Man.  I think that will make you smile if you haven't tried it.  Also changing the Allen bolts to screws will balance the bottom end of the tone a bit.

[gwEm]

Hi Phil,

thanks for the reply. yes, I've tried the Miracle Man in this particular guitar and its also not quite there, sounds slightly fragile.

my warpig has the screw pole pieces also. i've set them up to bring out a bit more treble.

the guitar in question is a steinberger GP with a carbon fibre neck and a hard maple body - so a bit unusual.


edit - side note:

i'm playing a bit of pickup merry-go-round.

i had the miracle men in my red all maple steinberger where they sounded absolutely brilliant. i want to put them back there.

the miracle men are currently in my white carbon/maple steinberger. the neck sounds really good, but the bridge misses some thickness compared to when it was in the red guitar.

the alnico warpig is in my black carbon/maple steinberger. it is really good there but misses a bit of "shizzle". i want to put the warpigs in the white guitar which is more classy looking and i think it will be perfect. i want something like the warpig but more aggressive in the black steinberger as it is more rough and ready feeling.

this will leave a set of cold sweats (currently in the red steinberger) to do something with.

[Dave Sloven]

Painkiller for a more aggressive sounding pickup?  Are you downtuning?

[gwEm]

Painkiller for a more aggressive sounding pickup?  Are you downtuning?

tried that first actually, too much attack with the carbon neck. standard tuning - no br00talz here ;)

[Dave Sloven]

Someone recommended a 'wound G' for my downtuned Explorer the other day.  He said that when he switched to a wound G all of his tuning problems disappeared.  Then I asked what tuning he was using.  Turns out it is G# standard.

There's downtuning and then there's br00tz. He was going for the br00tz.  I just wanted a set of strings that would let me play Iommi leads in C# standard ;)

[gwEm]

There's downtuning and then there's br00tz.

I believe thats true, and it works the other way. i realised recently alot of the earlier Rammstein stuff was in E standard or drop D, even though its super thick.

Anyway, my tone is more of your NWOBHM E-standard JCM800 type of thing :)

[Dave Sloven]

I'd be tempted to go Holy Diver, Rebel Yell, or Cold Sweat for that kind of thing.  I guess out of the three the RY is the most 'aggressive' sounding.  Otherwise an A-Bomb, but that's getting out of NWOBHM territory altogether.

[gwEm]

traditionally, i would surely agree. the carbon neck seems to change things though. the cold sweats have been tried, but weren't powerful/low-endy enough. they sound very iron maiden in the all maple one though.

thats why i thought it might be better to talk about where i want to go from the alnico warpig, which is the best attempt so far. the alnico warpig does have the thickness and push i am looking for at least.

the holy diver or indeed nailbomb (a pickup i don't usually like) could work though. i've got an open mind, but don't want to buy a bunch of pickups if you know what i mean ;) tim recommended the holy diver in fact for this application, a while ago. i worry it won't have enough push.

[PhilKing]

Have you spoken to Tim about it?  The only other pickups that come to mind for what you're asking for are the Aftermath and Juggernaut, however I haven't played either of them.

[wolfenstein]

Get C-pig mate...It will get you there you want...Tighter low end,more bark in center mids and sharper and agressive highs...I went exactly oposite route from C pig to A pig and itīs still there but more usable and of course more versatile...

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Holydiver makes sense actually as it has the smoothness of the A-Pig and is certainly ideal for NWOBHM. It won't sound as fat, bassy or brutal as an A-Pig but does still tick a lot of your boxes. GuitarIV once told me that he was sure I'd love an A-Pig because I love the Holydiver and Crawler so much. He described the A-Pig as the next step beyond those pickups along with the Miracle Man. The only thing that makes me doubt the Holydiver was that you seemed to think that the Miracle Man wasn't 'enough' and to me, that's what sits between the Holydiver and A-Pig. The A-Bomb is the only other one that leaps to mind, though I normally only think of that one working in guitars with lots of mahogany.

[ericsabbath]

I'd say it's between the nailbomb and the new juggernaut
both should provide all the qualities you listed and fix what you're not liking about the warpig

[GuitarIv]

The Holydiver makes sense actually as it has the smoothness of the A-Pig and is certainly ideal for NWOBHM. It won't sound as fat, bassy or brutal as an A-Pig but does still tick a lot of your boxes. GuitarIV once told me that he was sure I'd love an A-Pig because I love the Holydiver and Crawler so much. He described the A-Pig as the next step beyond those pickups along with the Miracle Man. The only thing that makes me doubt the Holydiver was that you seemed to think that the Miracle Man wasn't 'enough' and to me, that's what sits between the Holydiver and A-Pig. The A-Bomb is the only other one that leaps to mind, though I normally only think of that one working in guitars with lots of mahogany.

The A-Pig in deed shares a lot of characteristics with the Holydiver, just having "more" of everything if that makes sense. I really enjoyed the one I played as much as I enjoy the HD. If you're looking for more aggressiveness in your sound though, you might look somewhere else. The A- or C-Bomb might suit you better, but that's just a presumption of mine.

edit: hooray I get to quote myself:

I played both the Ceramic and the Alnico Warpig, the A-Pig sounded great from Standard tuning to Drop C (that's the lowest I played it so far), very warm, fat and chunky with that "wall of sound" thing going on. It basically reminded me of a Holydiver on steroids, however I'm not sure how well it performs in lower tunings such as Standard-C and B.

The C-Pig sounded harsh and abrasive compared to the A-Pig, played that one in Drop-B, and to be honest I didn't like it at all, at least not for the style of music I play. Very well suited to Death Metal but the lows would get a bit too much and lose some detail with the highs being a bit unpleasant. However the pickup was freshly installed into an ESP Horizon with an Alder Body, Maple Neck and Ebony Fretboard and I didn't tinker too much with the height, so I don't wanna give you any false presumptions.

[gwEm]

I'd say it's between the nailbomb and the new juggernaut
both should provide all the qualities you listed and fix what you're not liking about the warpig

thanks for this Eric, and also the other view points.

i hadn't considered the Juggernaut, and had assumed it was a djent-only thing.