Nailbomb?

[darkandrew]

I'm sure i've seen that the guys from Paradise Lost use/have used aftermaths and black hawks and fields of nefilim used nailbombs.

Ever played actives though and like them?

I know that Andy James who's been playing guitar with Fields of the Nephilim for a year or so now uses an EMG 57/66 set, which I happen to have in one my Eclipses. They're pretty good - quite balanced (the bridge isn't overly tight and has some nice warm mid range while the neck is pretty bright and very useable), medium hot (on a par with a Crawler or Rebel Yell) and can be quite aggressive if you want them to be but I'm still trying to find the right pickups for this Showmaster. It's a far better guitar than it probably should be for a Korean Fender and definitely worth keeping hold of but the tonal characteristics of the basswood body and maple neck just overpower all the lower frequencies.

I've always fancied a Nailbomb set, and still do, but I share the same concerns as some of the advice given on here that it wouldn't have enough low end for this particular guitar. As a reference point, can anyone give a direct comparison of the bottom end (lows and low mids) of an alnico Nailbomb and a Crawler bridge pickup?

[Yellowjacket]

Maybe you should get an explorer and drop a Nailbomb in it?

[Dave Sloven]

A-bomb is sweet in my Explorer. 

[darkandrew]

Maybe you should get an explorer and drop a Nailbomb in it?

I have another Korean Fender that doesn't get much use these days - a Telecaster Custom FMT, which is basically a twin humbucker equipped guitar with a solid mahogany body (with a figured maple vaneer), a mahogany set neck, rosewood fretboard (25.5" scale) and fixed bridge. Spec-wise not a million miles away from an Explorer, the main difference is the string-through-body setup instead of Gibson's TOM bridge and tailstop. Tone-wise it's very full, deep and very warm. So far the only pickups that I've found to work in it are the original Fender Atomics which are in themselves the brightest, harshest pickups I have and totally unusable in anything else. Do you think this guitar is better suited to a Nailbomb set than the basswood Showmaster?

[Dave Sloven]

That guitar might even be better suited to a Rebel Yell or Painkiller set.

Not sure on the Nailbomb.  I have an A-Bomb with matching neck in a Epiphone Korina Explorer with the black poly finish; it is quite a dark sounding guitar acoustically and the extra mids of the A-Bomb lift it a bit.  It was too dark for the A-Pig I had in it before.  Sounds fine now but I only play metal and hardcore on it.  It doesn't have a maple top obviously but I'd say it's probably on balance similar to your guitar with the korina being maybe slightly brighter than mahogany.  It also has a metal pickguard, which might have brightened it a bit compared to how it was with the Warpigs.

[Yellowjacket]

Maybe you should get an explorer and drop a Nailbomb in it?

I have another Korean Fender that doesn't get much use these days - a Telecaster Custom FMT, which is basically a twin humbucker equipped guitar with a solid mahogany body (with a figured maple vaneer), a mahogany set neck, rosewood fretboard (25.5" scale) and fixed bridge. Spec-wise not a million miles away from an Explorer, the main difference is the string-through-body setup instead of Gibson's TOM bridge and tailstop. Tone-wise it's very full, deep and very warm. So far the only pickups that I've found to work in it are the original Fender Atomics which are in themselves the brightest, harshest pickups I have and totally unusable in anything else. Do you think this guitar is better suited to a Nailbomb set than the basswood Showmaster?

Far better.  Like Agent Orange said, the Rebel Yell and Painkiller are also great options and possibly even more appropriate, depending on what you're going for.

[Tom2k]

Is Korina darker than mahohny?

I have a Abomb in my Jackson RR and it is no way dark, but i dont mind actually. :)

[Dave Sloven]

People say that korina is a bit brighter than mahogany but from what I can tell they are roughly the same.

Korina is a bit lighter apparently, but again my Explorer seems to be very heavy anyway

[darkandrew]

Well, I've just ordered my Nailbombs - not 100% sure yet which guitar they're going in, most likely one of the Eclipses but I might give them a go in the Showmaster as well at some point just to see if they work in there.

[darkandrew]

Well my Nailbombs arrived and I installed them in one of my Eclipses and here are my first impressions after an hour or two of playing them;

My first thoughts were that they weren't as aggressive and in your face as I was expecting, so I raised the bridge pickup to within 3mm or so of the bottom E and tried playing it again. This brought the volume up a bit but still left the pickup sounding less full than I had anticipated, in fact I would rate my Rebel Yells as sounding fuller and louder. After playing a bit more I realised that they are extremely dynamic and by far the least compressed pickup that I have, meaning that if I want that mean aggressive tone that I was expecting then that's how I need to play -mean and aggressive, really laying into the guitar.

Anybody got any specific Nailbomb tips?

[Dave Sloven]

This might also be a function of sustain.

I find the Nailbombs aren't quite as dependent on playing style as you describe, but that might be due to the big, dark sustain in my Explorer with the Tonepros bridge and all that wood.  The metal pickguard might also have some effect.

I don't remember it sounding at all laid back in my SG though.  In fact it sounded so aggressive in the mids that I had to swap it out because it was a one-trick pony.

I think the Nailbombs just sound really different in different guitars

[darkandrew]

This might also be a function of sustain.

I find the Nailbombs aren't quite as dependent on playing style as you describe, but that might be due to the big, dark sustain in my Explorer with the Tonepros bridge and all that wood.  The metal pickguard might also have some effect.

I don't remember it sounding at all laid back in my SG though.  In fact it sounded so aggressive in the mids that I had to swap it out because it was a one-trick pony.

I think the Nailbombs just sound really different in different guitars

I suppose the RY's enhanced mids and presence help flesh it out in a way that the NB's frequency curve doesn't, however they do make up for it with a fairly unique top end which on high gain gives the tone that characteristic "hairyness" and at low gain gives it an unexpectedly funky edge. I would also add that from the quick test recording I put together yesterday, the NB seems to sit better in the mix for rhythm parts than the Rebel Yell.

[Yellowjacket]

Well my Nailbombs arrived and I installed them in one of my Eclipses and here are my first impressions after an hour or two of playing them;

My first thoughts were that they weren't as aggressive and in your face as I was expecting, so I raised the bridge pickup to within 3mm or so of the bottom E and tried playing it again. This brought the volume up a bit but still left the pickup sounding less full than I had anticipated, in fact I would rate my Rebel Yells as sounding fuller and louder. After playing a bit more I realised that they are extremely dynamic and by far the least compressed pickup that I have, meaning that if I want that mean aggressive tone that I was expecting then that's how I need to play -mean and aggressive, really laying into the guitar.

Anybody got any specific Nailbomb tips?

Heh.  I replace the Rebel Yell bridge in my LP with an A-Bomb in the same guitar so I can comment on this.

Rebel Yell = more upper mid impact, more presence, clearer / less present bottom end, noticeably less output.  The tone is more 'consonant' and clearer overall.  Sounds like a crunchy chainsaw with a delicious bite in the extreme highs.

A-Bomb = Warmer, fuller, with surprisingly more output.  About 20% more, I would say.  The sound is more raw, dissonant, and pissed off.  More saturated too.  There is more impact in the treble with less in the upper mids and harmonics, which is part of the reason it is warmer.  The A-Bomb, like with every BKP, does actually require some force from the player to sound aggressive.  This is what is meant by 'dynamic' and it is a good thing.  Any high end instrument benefits from a multiplicity of colours that a player can use at his / her own discretion.  If you want a heavy sound, make one. 

[darkandrew]

I have come full-circle on this one today;

On first playing the Nailbombs I thought "Yeah, that sounds really good. Just what I wanted!", then playing with them a bit more I began to question whether they really were "Just what I wanted" (hence the doubtful tone of my previous post) then I moved the bridge pickup one turn closer to the strings and it all suddenly filled out. Next, to be really sure, I even did some side-by-side recording with the Rebel Yells in my other Eclipse so that I could do a proper comparison. OK, so what's the verdict? Output wise (in terms of peak volume) there's nothing in it but the NB bridge sounds fuller in the bottom end and has that trademark raspy attack where as the RY is busier in the upper mids. Which do I prefer? For 90% of the stuff I play, the Nailbomb will be the better choice. Now, as for the neck - this is a bit trickier. I remember reading that the RY neck was designed to be something of a compromise between a VHii neck and Cold Sweat neck, possessing the best bits of both - which it pretty much does, making it a great pickup for cleans and strat-like leads. The NB neck on the other hand, is harsh, aggressive and better suited for crunching rhythm than leads, however it does also clean up quite nicely (especially when coil split) for something a bit more funky.

So, in last 24 hours  I started off loving the Nailbombs, then had doubts about them and then went back to loving them again (especially the bridge) - the turning point came with that one extra turn of the screw. The question now is that since I have the Nailbombs will I still use the Rebel Yells? Only time will tell.

[Dave Sloven]

I find that the Nailbomb neck is well suited to noisy metallic lead playing rather than the more fluid leads that sound better on the Cold Sweat.  The NB bridge is really a rhythm pickup, and the NB neck covers some of the ground that might otherwise be covered by playing leads on the bridge pickup.

This is just my take on it based on the limited attempts I've made at playing leads on my Explorer and comparisons to my SG.  I'm not a good lead player so I don't do it too often