Looking for a Pickup to suit a Gibson Explorer

[Anyxyl3230]

I recently purchased the Bill Kelliher Signature Gibson Explorer, which comes stock with LACE Nitro Hemis in both positions. The guitar itself is wonderful, it's gorgeous and plays great but in my band, I play a lead role, and the pickups lend themselves to a more rhythm oriented role. They, when combined with the mahogany body, are very warm and tend to "mud up" if I try to get too dirty with things. Their mids aren't anything to die for and their highs are equally underwhelming. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of them.

I'm looking for a new set of pickups to try out. Mostly, I play a very thrashy metal, though my band has been known to go for a more old school vibe. What I want most out of my new pickups is something that can handle a heavily distorted tone while still maintaining some clarity. I'm not a huge fan of scooped mids, so I'd prefer to avoid anything that comes with that descriptor.

I'm not really familiar with Bareknuckle. I have a few friends who love them to death and I do have a Piledriver in my Telecaster, which I adore, but for humbuckers and for this tone, I'm not sure where to go.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks!

[JCN1218]

I think Nailbombs would suit your needs well.

[Dave Sloven]

I have a Nailbomb set in my Epiphone '58 Korina Explorer (with the alnico bridge option) and it works really well there.  Depends on what you want.  The Rebel Yell, Emerald, and Riff Raff sets are also known to work extremely well in Explorers.

I had a Warpig set and that was way too dark.  Bright pickups with tight bass work best in Explorers.

[PhilKing]

Interesting that you found Warpigs too dark.  I have a Warpig/MQ set in my Explorer and really ,like it.  I fitted a push/pull series/parallel switch to the tone and really like that sound for rhythm.  The MQ is a great pickup for lead tones too.

[Dave Sloven]

Well, it's always been a dark guitar until the Nailbombs went in.

The Warpigs weren't as dark as the Mighty Mites they replaced, but I do think that the MQ would be better for the neck than the WP neck was ... I found that to be not so useful for cleans.  I also found that brightening the volume pots did brighten the guitar anywhere as much as installing the Nailbombs.

I do like a more abrasive sound for this application.  It is pretty much used exclusively for '80s UKHC type sounds, through a rather raucous amp.  Different amp and style of music and it might be fine.  I found the WP set to be okay for playing Masters of Reality era Black Sabbath in C# standard, where a warm clean and a dark overdriven sound fits the bill.  I still think an SG with WPs would do a better job of that though

[littleredguitars2]

the juggernaut would probably work really well for you. i just put one in a les paul, which isnt worlds away from an explorer and the thing is a monster. great rhythms, great leads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vee0MJO0PE

here are some 7 string juggernauts in an explorer

i also meant to say that they seem to be quite good for a lot of overdriven tones too. cleans are good too but any rock/metal situation would be best for them

[Anyxyl3230]

A few of my more BKP savvy friends have suggested the Nailbomb before, and what I've read about it has largely been positive. So it's definitely a strong contender.

However, littleredguitars, this is the first I'm hearing someone suggest the Juggernaut.

Finding this new pickup has been a challenge for me, as I'm so used to using Strats and Teles which are considerably brighter than the Explorer, so I do appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks a lot, guys!

[darrenw5094]

Ceramic Nailbomb or the Cold Sweat are the obvious 2, but the Nailbomb is fit for the thrash.  :)

[Anyxyl3230]

In general, I prefer Alnico to Ceramic in just about all applications. But I do believe I'll be going with the Nailbomb, it's what most people have recommended to me and the sound clips on BKPs main site show that it's a pretty versatile pup that will suit my needs nicely. Thanks for the help, guys!

[Dave Sloven]

The alnico version works well in my Epiphone Explorer and I've heard clips of it working well in other guitars.  In general I'd probably suggest the alnico version just because you really don't need the extra bass and the extra mids of the alnico magnet works well in these guitars

[darrenw5094]

The alnico version works well in my Epiphone Explorer and I've heard clips of it working well in other guitars.  In general I'd probably suggest the alnico version just because you really don't need the extra bass and the extra mids of the alnico magnet works well in these guitars

Does the ceramic mag smooth the mids and increases the highs a bit?

[Dave Sloven]

If you look at the pickups which have a choice between alnico and ceramic (Nailbomb, Black Hawk, Warpig) you'll see that's the case.  Their graphs are more 'scooped'.  The same is true of other ceramic pickups such as the Miracle Man and Cold Sweat.  This does tend to be an effect of the ceramic magnet, but ceramics also have other qualities, such as tightness.  The Aftermath and Painkiller both use ceramic magnets but have a LOT of mids, because other aspects of the pickups enhance those.

As a general rule though if you simply take a pickup that has an alnico magnet and put a ceramic magnet in it you will find that it adds a mid scoop to the EQ

Out of the ceramic pickups for your application the Painkiller is probably the best bet.  The alnico Nailbomb though is a very tight pickup even though it is alnico and it has some of the best cleans in its output category

[johnenla]

The MQ is a great pickup for lead tones too.




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[Dave Sloven]

Also, I've heard great things (mainly from death metal guys) regarding those Lace Nitro Hemis in Flying Vs, so it you are looking to sell them on that might be your best market ...

[Anyxyl3230]

They're good pickups and a lot of people seem to like them, just not personally my thing. I don't know if I'll be selling them or not, though. If I end up wanting to trade or sell the Explorer later on, I'd like to be able to put the original pickups back in it in case whoever I'm dealing with is picky about that sort of thing.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.