Pickup advice and opinions

[stevelightning]

Hi all I am in search of a new pickup for my Ltd ec1000. I have my eye on the bk range having heard such good things about them. I play in a fast paced skate punk band and I'm basically wondering what advice and opinions  you good folk can give me as to what pickup to go for. Also should I go ceramic or alnico. I've checked out the sound clips on this site and the pickups all sound pretty good but without trying them myself I am stuck on what to go for. Thanks for your help.

( the type of bands I listen to are bigwig, no trigger, curbside, pennywise, good riddance to name a few).

[Dave Sloven]

Pickups - especially BKPs - tend to be sensitive to the guitar they are placed in so we would need to know more about your guitar.  There are thinner and thicker Eclipses, some have an ebony board, etc.

Without considering all of that though some good ones for punk are the alnico Nailbomb, Rebel Yell, and Stockholm.

[stevelightning]

Hi thanks for the reply. The ec1000 vb spec is emg 81/60 pick ups with a set mahogany neck and mahogany 3 pc body with a 24 fret ebony fretboard. I have also been put onto the black hawk pick ups too but not sure about the ceramics or alnico.

Thanks

[Dave Sloven]

Generally for the kind of thing you are talking about the stronger mids of the alnico 5 pickups would be good.

If you were to go for a Black Hawk I would suggest the alnico version.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'd have to go with Agent Orange on this one as the first two that came to my mind were the A-Bomb and Stockholm. I know that in the Eclipse the natural choice would be to go for the A-Bomb as it's a humbucker but for the style of music you reference, a P90 can be incredible.

[stevelightning]

OK thanks for both of your replys. What did you mean by the alnico 5 pickups. Woukd the black hawk suit over the nailbomb.

I will look into the p-90 as I haven't yet. Are these made by Gibson and are they hamburgers? will they fit straight into the ec1000 if I decided to go with them?

As you probably know I am not massively up on the tech side of things ha ha I just fancy swapping the emgs for something else. I have an ibanez with active blackouts which sound awesome but I just want something new in my Ltd.

Thanks for all the help.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Sorry if you know any of this already.

While active pickups like EMG use battery power, passives like BKP don't need that power source. Active EMG pickups are used extensively in Metal because they are powerful and retain a very tight bass even under loads of gain but they can also be a bit sterile. In passive pickups you could get a lot of that tightness from a ceramic magnet but they can still be a little cold and tend to be more scooped in their natural EQ. Alnico 5 magnets will give you more mids, which works well with your music, and also offer more versatility and a warmer, richer and more organic tone. The A-Bomb would be a good choice because it's very tight, is aggressive and has loads of mids, especially the aggressive and raw sounding upper mids.

P90 pickups were originally done by Gibson and you can get them either in a traditional P90 size or the same size as a humbucker so they can fit into your guitar without any difficulties. The pickup itself is not a humbucker (I assume you meant that rather than 'hamburger'  ). It's actually a singlecoil but please DON'T confuse it with what you find in a Stratocaster as it's VERY different. A P90 pickup produces a fat and raw, aggressive sound like a humbucker you might consider but with the extended frequency response and articulation of a singlecoil. They really can be the best of all possible worlds and the Stockholm suits your music very well indeed. Kiichi is always on at me to get some and I'd really like to as a P90 pickup has never failed to impress me but at the moment I just don't have the space. They really are good though and well worth looking into. There isn't much in the way of clips on the website but you may find some if you search the forum or look on YouTube and there's always the excellent review thread that's stickied at the top of the page.

[stevelightning]

Ha ha ha hamburgers!!! I just read that back. Yeah I meant humbuckers. Thanks for the info and yeah your bang on about the emgs. I'll have a look around and the p90 and Stockholm too then. Do you play the same style of music then or are you just clued up on this sort of thing? Would you choose the pickups you mentioned over the nailbomb and black hawk then to achieve a thrashy skate punk sound.

Thanks loads for the insight.

[Telerocker]

When you post in the night, your mind is telling you: fooooodddd.

For your guitar I would at look the alnico Nailbomb, or more modern, alnico Blackhawk. They're tight enough for your style.

[Kiichi]

Yep, a Stockholm humbucker sized P90 would be a great choice here I recon. Iīd take it over Blackhawk and A-bomb. It is not unsimilar to the A-bomb, but more raw, hardcore, and just straight up more punk.

As Slarti, who indeed should get P90s, already said they are a best of both worlds thing. Power of a humbucker, low end definition and opennes of a single coil, and a raw roar in the midrange you really canīt get anywhere else. Brutal in a more ferocious way. Yet when you roll the controlls down they can also sing in a lovely way, better than most HBs imho, since the added openness and definition of the SC kicks in.

Should work well here and set you apart in that the other people suddenly sound really dull. =)

Guessing you are looking for a bridge pickup only? If not the Supermassive neck goes wonderfully with the Stockholm (as it is a slightly weaker SH neck which is a bit heavy on everything I find). Or, if you like the neck a tad lower output and brighter, the Mississipi Queen. Can still hold up, but gives a naturally clearer neck sound. Both good combos.


Oh and donīt forget that when you switch from actives to passives that you also need to change the pots to 500k or 550k ones. Important!

[Slartibartfarst42]

Rather like Kiichi, my first choice would probably be the Stockholm for the bridge because it offers you so much. It will give you all the tightness you need, it's fat like a humbucker, aggressive and raw like an A-Bomb and cuts through like no humbucker ever will as well as giving you a tone that stands out not just because of its quality but because you won't sound quite the same as the herd. A P90 really can be a revelation. You don't forget the first time you heard a P90 at full tilt!

For the neck, I'd also go with a P90 and I wouldn't disagree with Kiichi at all because he knows P90s very well but I'd also throw a third option into the ring. For a more vintage neck tone that has a slightly better chance of keeping up, consider a Mississippi Queen bridge model installed in the neck position. A mate of mine uses this setup and the results are incredible.

To answer your question, I'm too modest to describe myself as 'clued up' and I'm sadly too old to listen to the same kind of music as you, however, Punk formed a major part of my youth and really got me interested in music so I do appreciate the raw aggression you're after. Punk should be an angry and edgy tone; it should have balls and attitude and it should do things differently, challenging what other people do and maybe making them uneasy. It should be almost shocking in its brutality and attitude and dare to break the mould. A Stockholm will do that in a way a humbucker won't. The A-Bomb has a similar feel, which is why I say it's an option but it's not as unique as the Stockholm. The Black Hawk will do the job but it's not got the Punk attitude that you really need to me. A Black Hawk will probably make you happy but it's not the Punk that I grew up with - it's too conventional and 'safe'.

[stevelightning]

Wow some great responses and I'll definitely be spending some time this weekend listening to some of the pickups mentioned. especially the p90. My only concern is that when you mentioned the punk you grew up with did you mean 70s-80s punk as that isn't the sound I'm looking for. I'm more into the 90s-2000 style. I mainly listen to American bands from that era. Can the p90 achieve these kind of tones. I'm after something with high gain and something that makes my fast palm mutes cut through like a freight train if you get me.

Thanks for your comments guys and I'll go give them a listen.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yes, I grew up with the Sex Pistols and Stiff Little Fingers etc. and lots of Punk bands you've probably never heard of (proper Punk  ) but honestly, that changes nothing about my suggestion. The stuff you listen to uses a lot more gain largely because the amps back then couldn't achieve such levels of distortion but the core Punk characteristics don't change that much (or shouldn't) because Punk is as much about attitude and aggression as anything else. To be honest, in many ways I find the American Punk of the 90s and 2000s to be surprisingly tame compared to some of the stuff I used to listen to. Rest assured, the Stockholm will easily handle anything at all you're likely to throw at it.

[Kiichi]

I can understand your hesitaiton stevenlightning. Thing is that punk anything of any era has that certain something. Now, if you would aim to recreate the original punk the SH would not work. MQ maybe. Probably RR.

Thing is that the Stockholm is not vintage. In a way that, for me, is the biggest let down. Cause I grew up on 70s hard rock.

The Stockholm can give you the kind of tones your are asking for, I feel as confiedent in that as I can be, but what you will get is not exactly the same. You want the record and you will get the best kind of live version.

The MQ does span 50s till the early 2000s for me with the right amp. The SH does late 80s till today.


All you say is P90 to me.

[Dave Sloven]

A couple of points on the Stockholm.

1. It might not be 'vintage' but you can get tones like early Discharge out of it, which you would also get out of a Nantucket but without the option of dialing in some more bass.  I use a Stockholm in an SG Junior in a d-beat punk band tuned DGFCAD and it works very well. The amp is a big part of that of course but there's nothing vintage about my amp.  It's a Peavey 6534+

2. If you are used to EMGs the noise that a Stockholm can put out (especially in certain rooms with bad wiring) will come as a shock.  You would need to fully shield the pickup and control cavities and do a full rewire.  I used mil-spec wire.

With regard to (2) you might find the A-Bomb to be the safer option. It just depends on how the guitar reacts to them.  Mine is fine now with the shielding and actually the last time I had problems it was with my Warpig SG, not the Junior.  But you need to be prepared to spend a little time and money setting it up.  As you don't know much about the tech side of things I suggest asking around the scene and finding the name of a good reliable tech.  Ask more than one person.