PRS Mushok Baritone PU concerns

[Hapijoel]

Hi all, first post here,

I brought a second hand PRS Mushok baritone recently and it came with BKP Painkillers installed,

They were my first experience with BK's and they've blown me away - fantastic definition. Unfortunately after some time with them, I've decided they're just not what I want and am looking to replace them with another model. My main issues were the very sterile cleans and lower chords sounding not quite right, almost like the notes weren't meshing well together. That said, high gain distortion sounds awesome!

I've had a good read through the forum, and the most popular suggestion seems to be a Black Dog in the bridge and an Emerald in the neck. However a friend has recommended Nail bombs, and other people on here seem to have gone with Holy Divers and other.

I'm looking for something pretty versatile and slightly less contemporary, so the Black Dog/Emerald combo sounds good, but I'm concerned they will lack the note definition and amazing sustain of the Painkillers? Which makes the Nailbombs sound like a compromise, but perhaps too much in the other direction?

Any opinions hugely welcome

thanks guys!

Joel

[ericsabbath]

the holy diver sounds like a safe bet for you
close specs to the painiller, but alnico 5
it's a lot like the dog, but plenty of sustain and more compression

[Alex]

The Holy Diver didn't work at all in my baritone.

My choice was between the Black Dog and the Juggernaut (which was super new then). I went with the Juggernaut and it's great, but sometimes I wish I'd taken the Black Dog again (because mainly it is just an awesome pickup). The bridge Juggernaut is an awesome metal pickup though. It has a fairly stiff feeling, however, and is not the most dynamic pickup; I find it very sterile for clean sounds and even crunch sounds. As my baritone has a single-coil sized humbucker in the neck, the Juggernaut is never used clean.

One thing you shouldn't worry too much about is the pickup's output. In a baritone, the longer scale and the thick strings will up the power quite a bit.

[Kiichi]

I am not as sure abou the neck, but given a high gain amp the Black Dog can very much crush in baritone guitars. Its character has great synergy with the baritone qualities. That has you end up with a low and mid gain sound full of character, and when you pile on the gain you still get that extra warmth and growl, but also the defintion. Low chords should just roar like a bear on crack pretty much. It will definetly be more organic than the Painkiller and smoother too, though possibly not a lot darker (hard ones to compare).

As I mentioned I do not know that much about baritones necks by comparison, but the EM neck can just about do it all, but the BD neck is also worth a look, for one as it will be more vintage and bright than the roundly fluid yet modernly cutting EM neck. You might like that or you might not.

[Hapijoel]

Hi guys,

cheers for the advice,

Alex you pretty much answered my main worry about output, so thanks, pretty much makes the bridge a guaranteed Black Dog,

Kiichi, I'll have a look for some Black Dog neck samples!

thanks again

Joel

[Hapijoel]

Hi all, sorry for reviving a dead thread...

just need a little more convincing on the Black Dogs;

Would they be suitable for high gain, Type O Negative style stuff? As well as being less sterile on cleans than the Painkillers I've currently got.

I know Kenny Hickey only really used a Seymore Duncan JB bridge PU and didn't think they were that high gain, so my initial feeling is it would be fine. But starting to get accustomed to my Painkillers, starting to wonder if I would be trading too much of the awesome gain tones for something weaker, just for a bit more versatility.

Any thoughts hugely welcome.

Thanks!

[Alex]

I recently bought a Black Dog set for another guitar I have (an ESP Eclipse). It sounds great.
I'm vaguely remember Type O Negative and that they had some rather horrid guitar sound (October Rust and the previous album are the ones I know). Good songs though. Did their guitar sound massively improve in the later years? 

[Hapijoel]

Ah ha...well I'm a fan of the guitar sound on the last two albums, especially the last, but in all honesty I'm probably too big a fan to give an unbiased opinion 

Think I'm probably over thinking it and should just go ahead with the Black Dogs - thanks for your input though