So excited to finally have all these beauties put together!!
RGA121 w/ Bare Knuckle Holydiver set.
RGD2127z w/ Bare Knuckle Black Hawk set. Alnico bridge.
RG2228m w/ Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat bridge & Riff Raff bridge in the neck position.
This is at least the third set of pickups I've had in each guitar. The RGA came with SD Black Winters, which sounded pretty good, though a little over-saturated & not enough chord clarity. The RGD came with SD Blackouts, which were immediately pulled for a DActivator/Air Norton combo. Not bad but not great. Pulled them for a set of Aftermaths. This was a step backward, IMO. Pulled those for a LACE Alumitone/Deathbucker set. They sounded okay, but the bottom was too loose/boomy & I hated the way they looked. The RG came with the typical EMG 808's, which were mushy, boomy nonsense. Pulled them in favor of my DActivator 8 set I had from my old guitar. They sounded alright, but the 8th string wasn't defined enough & everything was a bit too saturated. Pulled those & installed a Miracle Man in the bridge for a while. Sounded WAY better than anything else I'd tried yet, but I thought the clarity could be a bit better still.
So now, we have the current pairings:
Holydivers in RGA - Never leaving this guitar. A match made in versatile heavy music heaven. I was expecting them to sound much tamer than they do & am still pleasantly surprised whenever I play this guitar! I -may- still try an Emerald in the neck just to see what all the fuss is over but only if I come across one at a fantastic price.
Black Hawks in RGD - These are SO CLOSE to being the match I'm looking for in this guitar but I still think that even with the alnico bridge magnet, the high strings are just a tad too sharp. Also, the tightness of the lower strings when palm muting isn't as crisp as I was expecting. If I get tired of these I'm going for a set of Juggernauts.
Cold Sweat / Riff Raff in RG - Again, these are very close but not quite ideal, I don't think. The Cold sweat is much clearer & articulate than the Miracle Man, but at the expense of aggression and harmonics. I very much want to try a Painkiller bridge in this guitar. Surprisingly, the Riff Raff bridge in the neck position sounds fantastic! Sure the pole spacing is a tad too wide but I'm probably the only one that would ever notice!
:hbang:
