Good pickup for playing hardcore with a Tele

[telecore]

Hi, newbie here to the BKP family. I own a Blacktop telecaster, and am looking for a good pickup for playing hardcore. In our songs I need to do a fair bit of chugging, and my current pickups (Blacktop standards) don't really pack enough low-end.

Here's an example of the kind of sound I'm looking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qhYPVnpUQs

From what I've read the Nailbombs are great for hardcore, so I'm quite set on those, but was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions. My one concern is that the Nailbomb might not work too well with my Tele (alder body). My current tone is quite bright, and I don't want to make it any brighter than it already is. I do play in C Standard tuning though. Like I say I mainly just want to add some more low-end and some more bite for chuggy riffing and so forth.

Also not sure if I should get the alnico or the ceramic if I do go with a Nailbomb. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[Dave Sloven]

Although this is totally not the kind of hardcore I play in terms of guitar sounds it does sound like something the Nailbomb would work well for.  If you are worried your guitar might be too bright I would go for the ceramic version.

Otherwise I would look at the Miracle Man, but I'm not sure how it goes with hardcore because I've never played a MM.

I'm not sure how an Aftermath would interact with your guitar's woods but that would be a third option to look at.  It has a tight, dry, and quite abrasive sound that might work well for you.

So the three I would suggest the C-bomb.  I've read reports on it where people say Nailbombs work best in bright guitars. I found an A-bomb brightened up my very dark guitar.  The only place where there are real issues with Nailbombs are in overly middy guitars like my SG, where it didn't sound great.  It could do a Poison Idea or Exploited sound and that was about it.

Another one to think about is a Stockholm set.  Personally I would go that way

If you had a normal Telecaster I would recommend a Piledriver, no doubt about it

[telecore]

I thought the C-bomb has a brighter high end than the A-bomb though? I have given a good listen to those two and to the Aftermath, and I definitely like the throaty sound of the A-bomb the most.. I'm a big fan of natural sounding tone, rather than something that sounds too modern or processed. The A-bomb just sounds like more of an untamed beast which I love, compared to the C-bomb and Aftermath which are tighter.

Also for the most part I play power chords and basic hardcore riffing, along with some melodic picking parts.. no real leads or solos or anything like that. Not sure if that makes a difference in your recommendation :)

Yea I have seen quite a few people suggesting the Stockholm for hardcore as well, but to be honest I'm not that familiar with P-90's so I'd probably rather stick with a humbucker for now at least.

[Dave Sloven]

The A-Bomb is certainly one of the best pickups for hardcore of all kinds, the other being the Stockholm.  I have both, and I only recommended the Stockholm because it tends to be more forgiving relative to what guitar you put it in, but the A-bomb also works in a lot of guitars.  I just doesn't work well in most SGs. What I would do is write to Ben at BKP and ask if the A-Bomb would work well in your guitar, remembering to specify the woods in it.  If he says that it will work fine in your guitar I would go for that.

The only real issue I ever encountered with A-Bomb is the interaction between its strong mids and low-mids and the strong mid focus of the SG, which makes for overbearing mids.  If your guitar is not overly middy acoustically (I've never considered Telecasters to have a strong mid focus like an SG, but your opinion might differ) then it's probably fine.  I wouldn't worry about it being too 'bright' or 'dark' ... it seems to work well in both situations.  It's really only in very middy guitars that there's an issue.

I don't think though that the difference between alnico and ceramic is one of 'organic' or 'natural' vs 'artificial' or 'processed' - on the whole BKP ceramic pickups are very nice, and at least one of them (the Cold Sweat) even has cleans that surpass some alnico pickups.  They do sound 'tighter'  though in terms of their response, and tend to be more 'scooped' (this might be what you are hearing in terms of the highs).

[telecore]

Ok awesome I'll check with Ben. Yea I wouldn't say my Tele has strong mids, if anything it just has those bright twangy highs which I think are typical for a Tele. Although with my guitar tone in general I am normally quite mid focussed.. on my amp I always have my mids set high and my bass and treble set about half way.

[Dave Sloven]

The thing is that you want to make sure that mids are present but still controllable.  You don't want to always be trying to cut them out.  Sounds like an A-bomb might work well for you.  I recently installed the matching neck as well and I'm liking it so far, a better match for the A-bomb than the Cold Sweat I paired with it in the SG

I'm assuming you have a high gain amp like the guys in that clip too.

Also, is that forum member littleredguitars2 playing bass in that clip? :lol:

[telecore]

Ok well I spoke to Tim and he recommends I go with the A-bomb, as he says the C-bomb is much brighter in comparison.

Yea I do play with quite a lot of gain.. currently just have a Laney Lionheart but will probably be getting an Orange Dual Terror very soon.

Not sure about littleredguitars2 but if he's German then maybe it is him  :P

[Dave Sloven]

Ok well I spoke to Tim and he recommends I go with the A-bomb, as he says the C-bomb is much brighter in comparison.

Yea I do play with quite a lot of gain.. currently just have a Laney Lionheart but will probably be getting an Orange Dual Terror very soon.

Not sure about littleredguitars2 but if he's German then maybe it is him  :P

A Laney Lionheart??  Really??  A friend of mine has one, it sounds really nice, but I can't imagine playing that kind of stuff on it.  It sounds wonderful for blues rock, Thin Lizzy, that kind of stuff.  I would have thought you'd be running something like an Ironheart, a Mesa Recto, or a Peavey 5150/6505 series amp.

[telecore]

Hehe yea I know, the Lionheart is definitely not meant for hardcore, but I really like the tone it gives. I'm not a fan of amps like the Ironheart at all, too processed for my liking. Like I said, I'm much more a fan of natural or vintage tone.

Here's my band, you can hear how the Lionheart sounds (I just use the amp's natural gain, no pedals), although this was recorded using a Krank cab as well to give the Lionheart a bit of a boost:

http://takehand.bandcamp.com/track/against-the-grain

But yea I'm planning on getting a Orange Dual Terror (and Orange 4 x 12 cab) very soon!

[littleredguitars2]

sometimes those amps that arent meant for certain genres can really surprise you. a friend of mine gets some of the best heavy tones from a tiny peavey delta blues and it blows me away

[Dave Sloven]

Hey, is that you in that video above playing bass? ;)

[Dave Sloven]

Here's my band, you can hear how the Lionheart sounds (I just use the amp's natural gain, no pedals), although this was recorded using a Krank cab as well to give the Lionheart a bit of a boost:

http://takehand.bandcamp.com/track/against-the-grain

But yea I'm planning on getting a Orange Dual Terror (and Orange 4 x 12 cab) very soon!

I actually like your song a lot more than the one in the video above - except maybe the breakdown bit, I don't really like those at all in any song - and was a surprised that it was a Lionheart. Do you use a distortion pedal?  I only use one - a Mooer Black Secret - on my Classic 30, but I'm not a fan of it.  On my 6534+ I don't use a distortion pedal at all, only a screamer type pedal (with drive on zero) and another boost if I need a bit more.

[telecore]

I actually like your song a lot more than the one in the video above - except maybe the breakdown bit, I don't really like those at all in any song - and was a surprised that it was a Lionheart. Do you use a distortion pedal?  I only use one - a Mooer Black Secret - on my Classic 30, but I'm not a fan of it.  On my 6534+ I don't use a distortion pedal at all, only a screamer type pedal (with drive on zero) and another boost if I need a bit more.

Hehe thanks, nope I don't use any pedals, just plug straight into the amp. It really has quite a lot of gain, and that recording is probably with the gain set at about 8. I really prefer to keep things as simple as possible.. was thinking of getting a MXR Boost or something like that, but now that I'm getting the Dual Terror (and of course the Nailbomb) I shouldn't need anything else  :D

[telecore]

Oh I just noticed in your signature, you have the exact same Orange cab that I'm getting :) How do you find it?

[BigB]

Seems I'm a bit late but anyway... If you like a raw, throaty and abrasive tone, straight-into-the-amp and have enough gain on your amp then the ABombs should make you happy.  Now beware it's a really unforgiving pickup.