Pickups for ESP Eclipse I

[ztevie]

Hi!
So I've got an ESP Eclipse CTM 1 coming  this week. It's the normal thickness eclipse,  not the FT. It's made in 2005 and is of course all mahogany with ebony fretboard. It's equipped with EMG's 81/60 and i will give em a chance but earlier experience tells me I'm more of a passive pickup fan.  I like the organic feeling of passives.
I play everything between rock to hardrock and touches metal territory occasionally.
I want the bridge pickup to be tight,  articulate and with a decent amount of mids and string separation going on. Used primarily for rhythm work, and some soloing.
The neck pickup is used mostly for solos. Keywords are creamy but responsive to pick attack so fast runs don't mush together. Not too bassy altough neck pickups always are naturally bassier than the bridge. Think petrucci and sfogli solo tone.
I hate muddy and icepicky pickups.  Growl,  crunch and articulate with plenty of mids is my cup of tea.

So anyone with an eclipse who'd like to comment on this? An eclipse should be very LesPauly tonewise but maybe a tad brighter.
I've been eyeing those Rebel Yells. Clips sound very good so maybe that's a good choice?

One last question: isn't it possible to get BK pickups in Black/White? The guitar is black gloss with white binding everywhere plus gold hardware. Black/White zebras with gold screws would look amazing!

[darkbluemurder]

I play everything between rock to hardrock and touches metal territory occasionally.
I want the bridge pickup to be tight,  articulate and with a decent amount of mids and string separation going on. Used primarily for rhythm work, and some soloing.
The neck pickup is used mostly for solos. Keywords are creamy but responsive to pick attack so fast runs don't mush together. Not too bassy altough neck pickups always are naturally bassier than the bridge. Think petrucci and sfogli solo tone.

I've been eyeing those Rebel Yells.

That would be an excellent choice for what you want to do.

One last question: isn't it possible to get BK pickups in Black/White? The guitar is black gloss with white binding everywhere plus gold hardware. Black/White zebras with gold screws would look amazing!

If it is not already listed in the options on the BKP website, it's best to ask Tim or Ben directly.

Cheers Stephan

[darrenw5094]

I was thinking Painkiller for more hotness than the RY.

[ztevie]

Painkiller you say? Hm,  never thought of that one. Clarity is another important thing i forgot to mention. The problem is I mix open airy full chords with tight palm muting, almost djenty at times altough the music is not.  Of course I can't get everything so compromises has to be made one way or the other.
Why Rebel Yell came into my sights was that it seems to be on the trebley side and is said to fit particularly well in LP type mahogany guitars?
I've also been checking out the Juggernaut, but i don't really play Misha Mansoor style stuff.  But it may be great anyway.
One thing I've learned thru the years is that sometimes you can have great tone from gear you'd never expect to deliver.

My favourite pickups for the bridge right now is Tom Anderson HN3 and Dimarzio D-Activator, but they both sit in super-strat style guitars and they're not 100% what I'd like them to but still sound great.  And for the neck an unexpected one: Dimarzio Injector neck in another strat....

[darkandrew]

I've got a couple of eclipses. In one I've got an 81/60 pairing, this is my "metal" guitar and I wanted a bit of contrast in my other eclipse so I installed a Mule pair in that one. Originally it had a Crawler set in it, which although they sound great and really roar in a basswood superstrat, had no bite at all in the eclipse and I would not recommend them or anything similar for it.

The Mules sound really good in the eclipse and are not as low volume as you would think, and so handle overdrive/distortion very well. If I didn't have two eclipses and had to have only one, with a set of pickups that could do pretty much everything, I'd probably go for pickups with a bit more presence such as RiffRaffs (or Rebel Yells for something a little hotter). However, I would be a little worried that both those neck pickups could be a bit bright, so thinking about it further I'd probably go Mule neck with Riff Raff bridge. Oh, and don't forget, if you swap out the EMGs you'll also need to change all your pots as well.

[darrenw5094]

Check out the open chords at around 1:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68EFY0I-SxE

[ztevie]

Thanks for the advice guys!
There's a lot of things to consider, and it's hard to predict how a pickup will behave in different guitars. But theoretically one can always make qualified guesses.  I've also contacted BKP support for their opinion. We'll see what they'll have to say.

It's interesting about supposedly weaker vs hipower pickups. The older i got the weaker the pickups. In the beginning of my guitar playing days i was into really high power stuff a'la X2N, EMG 81 and so on. Now I've started to appreciate more medium-high powered pups. But it's still a fine line when like me, i want the organic tone of the pickup to come out while still being able to cope with higher gain in a good way and retain clarity and tightness.
I think i need to spend some more time browsing for clips...

[Dave Sloven]

Painkiller in an Eclipse (mind you I think the 5150 has a bigger influence on the sound than the guitar!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cECru2W24w4

[darrenw5094]

Painkiller in an Eclipse (mind you I think the 5150 has a bigger influence on the sound than the guitar!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cECru2W24w4

Hmm......my clip was better  :lol:

[RosettaStoned]

Ive got an ESP, and your "wanted sound"is very similiar to what i wanted. Only difference is that i wanted something hot, since i personally seems it easier to have more gain and adjust it down, instead of having a weaker pickup and add gain. its probably gear dependant though. I dont play through a high gain modern amp, i play on a marshall. But anyhow, Tim recommended me a Miracle Man in bridge. i dont know if it is to hot for you, but if u had EMG before, it shouldnt be to hot though. Sadly, i cant give u any review yet, since i ordered them 2 days ago(but they are already shipped!! thats impressive! also ordered with a customcover=)).. But ive heard a MM in my friends CTM, and that sounds really awesome. but its a while since.  And ive heard that BKP arent so hot that you think due to DC resistance. is that true? anywhow, i think om gonna be very satisfied. cant wait to get rid of my shitety and muddy JB.

[darkandrew]

"cant wait to get rid of my shiteety and muddy JB" - RosettaStoned

Oddly enough it was my experience with JBs that made me go for Mules; I hated the upper mid spike in the JB's tone so much that it's scared me off anything that's described as sounding remotely similar.

[darkbluemurder]

And ive heard that BKP arent so hot that you think due to DC resistance. is that true?

Don't be afraid - the contemporary models are hot, even though not as hot as an EMG 81 or the DiMarzio SD or TZ. What makes them appear less hot is their clarity.

And BTW: the Miracle Man does not remotely sound similar to a JB.

Cheers Stephan

[ztevie]

Ive got an ESP, and your "wanted sound"is very similiar to what i wanted. Only difference is that i wanted something hot, since i personally seems it easier to have more gain and adjust it down, instead of having a weaker pickup and add gain. its probably gear dependant though. I dont play through a high gain modern amp, i play on a marshall. But anyhow, Tim recommended me a Miracle Man in bridge. i dont know if it is to hot for you, but if u had EMG before, it shouldnt be to hot though. Sadly, i cant give u any review yet, since i ordered them 2 days ago(but they are already shipped!! thats impressive! also ordered with a customcover=)).. But ive heard a MM in my friends CTM, and that sounds really awesome. but its a while since.  And ive heard that BKP arent so hot that you think due to DC resistance. is that true? anywhow, i think om gonna be very satisfied. cant wait to get rid of my shiteety and muddy JB.

I know what you mean. I definitely need something that's hot enough but still with the character of a medium power pup.
I got an answer from Ben at BKP. I sent him the link to this thread and he strongly recommended Rebel Yells. He mentioned they are very versatile and can do everything from blues to progressive metal.
Well, I'll test drive this guitar for a while to get a feeling for it and then I'll decide where I wanna go.

[RosettaStoned]

Thats what did. When i got my ESP, it had bill lawrence 500r in neck and JB in bridge. i thouth that it sound very good, but i didnt have any guitars around me to compare with.. i like the 500r best. sounds amazing. but i have 250k ohm pots for some wierd reason(prev owner thing), so i think i will hear a very good difference when the BKP MM with 500 ohm arrives. If he recommended you that pickup, it would be the right thing to try

[Alex]

Ive got an ESP, and your "wanted sound"is very similiar to what i wanted. Only difference is that i wanted something hot, since i personally seems it easier to have more gain and adjust it down, instead of having a weaker pickup and add gain. its probably gear dependant though. I dont play through a high gain modern amp, i play on a marshall. But anyhow, Tim recommended me a Miracle Man in bridge. i dont know if it is to hot for you, but if u had EMG before, it shouldnt be to hot though. Sadly, i cant give u any review yet, since i ordered them 2 days ago(but they are already shipped!! thats impressive! also ordered with a customcover=)).. But ive heard a MM in my friends CTM, and that sounds really awesome. but its a while since.  And ive heard that BKP arent so hot that you think due to DC resistance. is that true? anywhow, i think om gonna be very satisfied. cant wait to get rid of my shiteety and muddy JB.

I have a MM as well now in my Eclipse (with a VHII in the neck) and it sounds awesome.
My Eclipse is a model with an ebony fretboard.
It's hot, but not super-hot. Let's call it "medium hot", like in Nandos. :-)