So I recently had a thread about getting some lower output pickups for my ESP Eclipse. I followed the helpful reviews of the people who helped me there and did not go for the Riff Raff or VHII. I bought a used set of Black Dogs for a decent enough price. As you can see in the picture, they don't match the hardware of the guitar. I had planned to remove the covers, but to my surprise the burnt chrome is quite golden and purpleish, so it is in there for now until I make up my mind about the looks.
I had the Black Dog before in the bridge of a Gibson SG and I liked it. To my surprise, it does definitely sound more different than expected in the Eclipse.
So far I am extremely pleased. It replaced a VHII (neck) & Miracle Man (bridge) combo.
The neck pickup
I was especially hesitant about replacing the VHII, as I did like that pickup. In the end, I think the BD suits my taste more. It has a wide range of frequency and the treble is clearer and more defined than the VHII. The low e-string was a bit difficult to dial in, I had to raise the pickup quite a bit on that side to get the E-string to sound clear and defined enough. The VHII probably has the edge slightly there for responsiveness on the lowest notes, but other than that the BD is clearer, more transparent on the top end and its midrange is just perfect. Clean it is a tough call which is "better" (i.e. which one I like more), but with overdrive the fuzzy borders of the BD with the defined core of the notes has a better appeal to me, more character, and more control over playing nuances. It does Slash/Joe Bonamassa sounds very nicely, which was one of my main reasons to get different pickups.
The middle position
The middle position is quite clear and bright with a lot of harmonics. Normally I never bother about it much, but this one has so much character I use it a lot in comparison to the warmer neck pickup sound. It is maybe a bit quieter, so I wonder if the pickups are out-of-phase. If so, the effect would be less pronounced than I would have expected. It works great for clean sounds, but for gained sounds I prefer the neck or bridge pickups.
The bridge pickup
Remembering the SG, I expected a very mid-range focused sound, chewy with great midrange detail. The Eclipse does sound distinctly different in that the whole frequency band is much wider and the sound is bigger. I wasn't expecting this at all, but rather a much more narrow, drier sound. It sounds like a PAF on steroids. While it has less output than the Miracle Man, the sound with gain is huge. But first the cleans. They are better than the Miracle Man, but sadly the mids make them a bit honky, so nothing to rave about. The best results are with a slight overdrive, then they come alive more and make bluesy licks a joy. Adding more gain they do great hard rock sounds, big, raunchy, with good string separation and definition, but still the right amount of sag and chewiness. I like Guns'n'Roses and it does that quite good, but it's really perfect for sounds like Black Spiders, Sentenced etc. Adding more gain makes the sound go bigger and bigger until it surpasses the Miracle Man. By itself is does great heavy rock sounds, with big but still defined bottom end and a clear treble end that's never shrill. Soloing is a joy as well. It reminds me a lot of the good parts of an EMG81, oddly enough, because of the clarity and string separation. Adding an overdrive pedal to boost things and cut the slack out of the bottom end makes the sound get very heavy and great for metal. In some ways, the sound reminds me of bands such as Black Stone Cherry, In Flames, Amon Amarth, Mastodon, Trivium; interestingly, most of these bands use EMGs and double up the tracks on their albums. Odd, but that's how it fits in.
In comparison
So the perfect pickup? Well, I need to point out that the Nailbomb of course has a tighter bottom end and more raspy upper mids, giving it a different character. It also is slightly more compressed and thinner on most frequencies, which does slightly improve definition under gain and gives it a bit more of an "old school metal" character. More Dream Theater/Megadeth so to speak. Then in comparison to the Juggernaut differences are even more pronounced: the Juggernaut has a lot more output, the mid spectrum is shifted a lot to the upper end and the pickup just sounds a lot more "progressive" and "modern." In my small guitar collection, I think every guitar with its pickup now has its clear sound and niche, and that's what I was hoping for.
