Metal pickups for LP Studio

[ericsabbath]

in my experience, no bkp humbucker is too much anything for a les paul
they all sound pretty good in les pauls

the miracle man and nailbomb are in the darker side indeed, but they do sound great in les pauls, and both do tool, mastodon and metallica amazingly well
and they are NOT too gainy, specially compared to most of the pickups those bands use
one of Mastodon's guitarists has a bk holy diver in a heavily downtuned les paul custom, by the way

[V-volant]

Hello, I'm new to the forum here but a long time BKP user. Hopefully this hasn't come too late.

I've used a MM set in all mahogany Jackson KV2T (neck through 24 3/4 scale) for a while now, and I also had a A-bomb set in there in the past. From my experience, the neck MM will be able to excel at the 'flamethrower' type of single note picking, but it's not all it can do. I particularly like the middle position and the neck position of the guitar for cleans into an amp that has plenty of bite and sparkle to it. As Eric has mentioned, the MM is a dark-ish voiced pickup, but it can get convincing neck/middle cleans with the right amp (cut the bass, add in sparkle and chime). Once you get into the distorted realm both the bridge and neck will deliver pure metal flavoured awesomeness. If you are looking for something with less push and more prettiness to the sound, I would definitely pair the bridge with a lower output pickup like the Cold sweat, or go with a lower output set. The sound of the MM is compressed for BKPs, but not in the modern pickup sense of some other manufacturers. Sometimes I think that the sound of the guitar could be opened a little bit more and less dark, but I play a lot of Opeth/Megadeth/sweep picking on that guitar and those thoughts quickly go away once I start playing. If that style of heavy metal is what you're after, the MM will deliver in spades. I think what makes the MM particularly adept at capturing that 80s+ overdriven/metal sound is it's eq: it has plenty of juicy bass, mids that can be controlled well through an amp, and a nice bite to it.

[Kiichi]

Hello, I'm new to the forum here but a long time BKP user. Hopefully this hasn't come too late.

I've used a MM set in all mahogany Jackson KV2T (neck through 24 3/4 scale) for a while now, and I also had a A-bomb set in there in the past. From my experience, the neck MM will be able to excel at the 'flamethrower' type of single note picking, but it's not all it can do. I particularly like the middle position and the neck position of the guitar for cleans into an amp that has plenty of bite and sparkle to it. As Eric has mentioned, the MM is a dark-ish voiced pickup, but it can get convincing neck/middle cleans with the right amp (cut the bass, add in sparkle and chime). Once you get into the distorted realm both the bridge and neck will deliver pure metal flavoured awesomeness. If you are looking for something with less push and more prettiness to the sound, I would definitely pair the bridge with a lower output pickup like the Cold sweat, or go with a lower output set. The sound of the MM is compressed for BKPs, but not in the modern pickup sense of some other manufacturers. Sometimes I think that the sound of the guitar could be opened a little bit more and less dark, but I play a lot of Opeth/Megadeth/sweep picking on that guitar and those thoughts quickly go away once I start playing. If that style of heavy metal is what you're after, the MM will deliver in spades. I think what makes the MM particularly adept at capturing that 80s+ overdriven/metal sound is it's eq: it has plenty of juicy bass, mids that can be controlled well through an amp, and a nice bite to it.

That is a lovely and informative description. Especially since it also adresses the neck MM. If you have the time and energy to extend this into a full review for me to add to our library of reviews in the sticky here that would be amazing. I feel like you have an accurate take on the MM bridge we are missing and an even rarer one on the neck. Please do consider it. You already made me want the MM more than before.

[V-volant]

Posted a review of the MM set. Hope it gives you the urge to try mahogany+MM=win :)