Possible neck pickup on LP studio for cleans?!

[CommonCourtesy]

I'm not that much of a clean channel user in my band, and I'm rarely on the neck pickup. However it could be possible in the future there'll be some required, I usually have 2 sounds live, clean with a hint of crunch and dirty, so if I hit the chord hard enough on the 'clean' sound you get a bit of breakup and grit. If in the studio say, sometimes I will go full clean, which usually means using the neck pickup or at least, both (I have a Les Paul Studio by the way).

Style is kinda pop punk with a metalcore influence, mostly play 5th chords and prefer a modern sound if that's any help.

I already have a cermanic Nailbomb in the bridge which is awesome for all the high gain dirty stuff, but on clean its a bit too high output.

So are there any suggestions as to what neck pickup I could look at? We employ drop c tuning by the way so nothing too bassey.

[Dave Sloven]

If you want something modern sounding without too much output I would probably go for a Rebel Yell neck pickup.  Emerald might be too vintage sounding.  Alternatively a left-field suggestion would be one of the new humbucker-sized Supermassive P-90 neck pickups.

[darkbluemurder]

Holydiver neck would work well for that. The obvious choice may be the Nailbomb neck but I have no direct experience with this one.

Cheers Stephan

[CommonCourtesy]

Thanks for the suggestions, will certainly look into them.

Going in to the studio sometime in 2015 hopefully, don't envisage needing my neck pickup for now but you never know. Have seen some high gain sounding bands use neck for some of their recording stuff.

Would the matching N'bomb neck be a good call? Coming from any users obviously.

[littleredguitars2]

the rebel yell neck pup is really great. you should definitely consider one of the humbucker sized p90s too. maybe the MQ? i dont know about the nailbomb neck but the bridges had surprisingly amazing cleans so the neck probably does as well. the vhII neck was good too and if you're only really using it for cleans, its certainly something worth considering. i hear a lot of great things about the juggernaut neck too and i bet it would match the NB well.

[Dave Sloven]

I have the neck NB pickup but like you I rarely play the neck pickup.

I generally find neck pickups to be dark and kind of woofy with gain, and only cool for stoner doom or clean.

The NB neck is a bit hotter than the Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell necks but much less so than the Warpig neck.  You can get a good clean from it.  It is quite distinctive compared to the CS, a more angular sound compared the rounded sound of the CS, if that makes sense at all

[Lucas]

Style is kinda pop punk with a metalcore influence, mostly play 5th chords and prefer a modern sound if that's any help.

I already have a cermanic Nailbomb in the bridge which is awesome for all the high gain dirty stuff, but on clean its a bit too high output.

So are there any suggestions as to what neck pickup I could look at? We employ drop c tuning by the way so nothing too bassey.

CS neck is certainly not for you then. I have CBomb/CS combo in similar guitar and have to say although CS has great cleans, it has quite a lot bass as well. I`s also quite vintage sounding too.

How does CBomb cope with Drop C tuning? Sometimes in my band I play in drop C# and have a funny feeling that Cbomb doesn`t keep ip well and gets a little bit muddy and gets lost in the mix.

Don`t get me wrong it`s great pickups, love it a lot especially for rhythm playing, even with overdrive (it gives me great overdriven kind of vintage sound with agressive modern twist-love it) but only with standard/Eb tunings.

[CommonCourtesy]

the rebel yell neck pup is really great. you should definitely consider one of the humbucker sized p90s too. maybe the MQ? i dont know about the nailbomb neck but the bridges had surprisingly amazing cleans so the neck probably does as well. the vhII neck was good too and if you're only really using it for cleans, its certainly something worth considering. i hear a lot of great things about the juggernaut neck too and i bet it would match the NB well.

A P90 is something I've not considered, would the pick up fit into a studio LP neck slot cos its a slightly different size? I don't want sparkly clean just something less aggressive so I can roll back the high end if needed, but still have some grit in there.

[CommonCourtesy]

I have the neck NB pickup but like you I rarely play the neck pickup.

I generally find neck pickups to be dark and kind of woofy with gain, and only cool for stoner doom or clean.

The NB neck is a bit hotter than the Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell necks but much less so than the Warpig neck.  You can get a good clean from it.  It is quite distinctive compared to the CS, a more angular sound compared the rounded sound of the CS, if that makes sense at all

Hmm well it wouldn't be for any dirty riffing that's for sure! It'd be for ambient kinda quieter sections where the dynamics change, so strummed out half note chords, as opposed to eighth notes.

[CommonCourtesy]

Style is kinda pop punk with a metalcore influence, mostly play 5th chords and prefer a modern sound if that's any help.

I already have a cermanic Nailbomb in the bridge which is awesome for all the high gain dirty stuff, but on clean its a bit too high output.

So are there any suggestions as to what neck pickup I could look at? We employ drop c tuning by the way so nothing too bassey.

CS neck is certainly not for you then. I have CBomb/CS combo in similar guitar and have to say although CS has great cleans, it has quite a lot bass as well. I`s also quite vintage sounding too.

How does CBomb cope with Drop C tuning? Sometimes in my band I play in drop C# and have a funny feeling that Cbomb doesn`t keep ip well and gets a little bit muddy and gets lost in the mix.

Don`t get me wrong it`s great pickups, love it a lot especially for rhythm playing, even with overdrive (it gives me great overdriven kind of vintage sound with agressive modern twist-love it) but only with standard/Eb tunings.

Yeah I originally had an Aftermath in the bridge but found it too mid heavy and muddy, and I missed the low end grunt when I palm muted chords. So I switched it out and its better for it I feel. It copes well with the drop tuning for me, its a mahogany guitar which is pretty light in weight, so wanted something to give it some power. I drive my 6505+ with a tubescreamer and its sounding good, only used it for one show so far, but it sounded good!

[Lucas]

I`m not a big fan of Aftermath judged by BKP site and YT clips. Never had one, but it`s not my thing.

Coming back to CBomb maybe it`s the gear that I use, at home I play Orange Dual Terror and in the practice room I use Marshall JCM 900 combo but with lower drop C# tuning (for majority of songs I use Eb tuning) CBomb vanishes and gets lost. Other guitar player uses EMG 81/85, maybe that`s another reason.

[CommonCourtesy]

I wouldn't say its a bad pickup but the AM didn't really suit what I was doing as its for ridiculous low tunings (lower than B). I just found it too muddy.

Maybe its the settings as well, I have to be careful how much mids I use, and also back off the gain too. I use a pretty heavy string gauge too (12-56's) which holds the tuning well and doesn't get too muddy with the low end. Maybe you need some kind of boost, or just turn up haha.

[Lucas]

I would say, turning everything up, it`s an option 

Basically I use drop C# only for 2 songs so it`s nothing major  anyway. Little bit more highs and a bit of presence for those songs solve the problem.