Nailbombs -> Les Paul, Emeralds -> Explorer

[Dave Sloven]

I've offered a friend to swap my Nailbomb set for his Emerald set.

I installed the Emeralds into his Les Paul Studio but he's never been 100% happy with them, he feels they lack the output of the JB/Jazz combo in the other guitarist's Les Paul.  They both play through Laney 20W Lionheart heads and 2x12 cabs, and his mate's guitar definitely pushes the amp harder.

My Nailbomb set is currently in an Epiphone Explorer and even though it is a big improvement over the Warpig set I had in that guitar I feel I could go brighter.  The Explorer is a very dark guitar and has tonnes of bass, so I don't think I'd be missing out on bottom end.  My amp is a Peavey 6534+, a high-gain monster with heaps of bass, mids, and high end that doesn't need much of a push.  I play through an Orange PPC412.

He plays 'contemporary rock' (I call it 'dad rock') and I play thrash metal and hardcore punk.  While the pickup switch might seem counter-intuitive according to pickup clips etc on the BKP site I am thinking swapping pickup sets might work better for our respective guitars and amps.

What do you think of this idea?

[Kiichi]

Putting Emeralds into a big chunk of mahagony seems to be a recipe for succes, so I think you will be great in that explorer. Add the gain reserve of the amp and I can see brilliant tones.
Your mate, if he needs more push and such will also be happy with the nailbomb.

So yeah, win win I recon.

[ericsabbath]

do it

FOR SCIENCE

[Dave Sloven]

He's open to the idea; I tend to think though that he might still be dissatisfied unless I can convince him to at least install 500K volume pots as well.  Pretty sure his Studio came with the 300Ks

[darkbluemurder]

In that case the 500ks will only make the guitar brighter but not louder.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

well... NAILBOMBS should make it louder, then 

[Telerocker]

Just turn up the mastervolume 

[Dave Sloven]

The Lionheart is 20W Class A amp ... it doesn't have a pre and post like my Peavey, just a master volume, but I think they have it cranked up pretty well live.  The other guitarist is band leader and a bit of a douche when it comes to wanting to be the centre of attention.  Last time I saw them he drowned my friend out pretty much.  Almost drowned the vocalist and bassist out too. If anything he needs to back off on his master volume a bit so that the whole band sounds more balanced.  But my friend just feels that with the higher output from the guitar pushes the amp more.