Pickups for a Yamaha SG700s

[durden1408]

Hey guys! I have a good question for you: I've got a Yamaha SG700s with mahogany body (lightweight), mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. I want to upgrade the stock alnico V pickups because they lack bite and bottom end for me. I mostly play metal (Megadeth, Slayer, Gojira, Judas Priest) but sometimes I like to play clean (think of Mogwai and Explosions in the sky).

I want a versatile bridge pickup that can handle metal gain with clarity, definition and punch (not too much saturation) and with good sound in the cleans, coil taps etc.

My guitar has a strong midrange and treble, so I'm considering the Nailbomb (the ceramic magnet seems to be a good option because it's a little mid-scooped).

Would the nailbomb Ceramic give me a good clean sound too? Also, another bridge pickup suggestion? What neck pickup would be the best match?

Thanks!!

[Dave Sloven]

Given all of what you have said regarding your guitar and what uou want to do with it (cleans, metal, etc) I would recommend the Cold Sweat bridge pickup

[ericsabbath]

the c-bomb is an amazing option for metal, but the cleans are somewhat dull (but not bad)
you could consider the alnico nailbomb, miracle man or cold sweat
those bands more into painkiller territory, but that's a very midrange focused pickup

[Slartibartfarst42]

Holydiver - good cleans, great for Metal and fairly versatile.  My second choice would be a Cold Sweat.

[durden1408]

Holydiver - good cleans, great for Metal and fairly versatile.  My second choice would be a Cold Sweat.

The Holydiver is a great pickup for sure, but it has a powerful midrange (see the tone chart). I think the strong midrange in the mahogany and the pickup midrange will be too much , but I'm not sure...

The cold sweat is an option I'm considering

[dani]

second the cold sweat. had it in my weddington custom and it does rock to metal easily. a good option for cleans is an emerald neck.

[Slartibartfarst42]

The midrange on the Holydiver is actually quite evenly spread so although it's certainly a middy pickup, it's nothing like as pronounced as the tone chart suggests, in just the same way that the Miracle Man isn't excessively scooped and the Cold Sweat isn't as bright as you might think. I used a Holydiver in a PRS SE Custom 24 which is mahogany body and neck and it was a superb option. There's also this clip of a Holydiver set in a Les Paul and it sounds superb there too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T26RqvH3YBA

The Cold Sweat is a bit tighter, certainly brighter and is a bit more towards Rock. Excellent pickup but I think the leads are better on the Holydiver and the cleans are certainly better.

[durden1408]

the c-bomb is an amazing option for metal, but the cleans are somewhat dull (but not bad)
you could consider the alnico nailbomb, miracle man or cold sweat
those bands more into painkiller territory, but that's a very midrange focused pickup

Right now I'm between the nailbomb and the cold sweat. I' ve got a strong midrange guitar, so in my opinion I can do two things: balance the tone of the guitar with a slightly mid-scooped pickup, or get a pickup with near flat eq and with more bass response.

In the tone chart, the alnico bomb eq seems to be near flat, and the ceramic one seems to be slightly mid-scooped. The cold sweat is mid-scooped too, but with more treble content. That said, I'm liking more the alnico-bomb than the cold sweat IN YOUTUBE DEMOS and other guitars. I don't know what would be the best for my guitar.

[durden1408]

second the cold sweat. had it in my weddington custom and it does rock to metal easily. a good option for cleans is an emerald neck.

Do you think it would match the bridge cold sweat? Does it get messy for hi-gain leads?

[Slartibartfarst42]

In the tone chart, the alnico bomb eq seems to be near flat

The A-Bomb is quite definitely not flat. It has a very pronounced spike in the upper mids and it's all those upper mids that make it so very aggressive sounding. I tried an A-Bomb in a maple neck-thru guitar, which is supposedly a middy guitar, and the upper mids in the A-Bomb completely dominated everything so I had to send it back and exchanged it for a Holydiver (my first one) which was much better.

[durden1408]

In the tone chart, the alnico bomb eq seems to be near flat

The A-Bomb is quite definitely not flat. It has a very pronounced spike in the upper mids and it's all those upper mids that make it so very aggressive sounding.

Well, I'll take a look at the holydivers. The clean sound is really good in the demos. The tone charts are driving me crazy... hahaha

If the alnico nailbomb is upper-mids focused, would you say it is similar to a Seymour Duncan JB?

[Dave Sloven]

Mids in the A-Bomb are definitely NOT flat.

I had one in my 2011 Gibson SG Standard and found the mids to be obnoxiously hairy and raspy.

I replaced it with a Cold Sweat.  With a Cold Sweat you will get a balanced sounding guitar when used in a guitar with strong mids.  The mids of the guitar fill out the scoop of the pickup.  As far as I am aware the C-Bomb has less of a scoop than the Cold Sweat and Miracle Man, and will still sound pretty hairy in your guitar but not as raspy as an A-Bomb.

The Cold Sweat will do a better job of leads than either Nailbomb and has better cleans than a Miracle Man or C-Bomb.  I would actually place the cleans of the Cold Sweat on a par with my A-Bomb (which is now i my Explorer) but to be honest I have always used the neck pickup for cleans on both guitars.

I would actually recommend the Holy Diver neck to pair with the Cold Sweat if you don't like the Cold Sweat neck, which is rounded and bassy sounding.  The HD neck is brighter, and likely to be less of a contrast to the CS bridge.  A lot of the BKP sets have a strong contrast between bridge and neck. Depends on what you want.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Well, I'll take a look at the holydivers. The clean sound is really good in the demos. The tone charts are driving me crazy... hahaha

If the alnico nailbomb is upper-mids focused, would you say it is similar to a Seymour Duncan JB?

I stopped looking too closely at the tone charts a couple of years ago as they can be massively misleading. Knowing the magnet, wire and DC resistance allows me a reasonable idea of what a pickup will sound like and then the tone chart simply refines that impression. The tone charts are also just for the bridge version, which makes choosing a neck pickup even more confusing!

In comparison to the JB, the A-Bomb is significantly more hairy and aggressive, a lot tighter and has a lot more upper mids. If anything, the JB is closer to the Holydiver. I think there are three pickups in the range that you'd like and would work in your guitar.

Holydiver

Although it's a middy pickup, the mids are evenly spread so you tend not to notice the mid-hump as much as you might expect. It's also a very smooth sounding pickup, strongly reminiscent of 80s Metal but with a slightly more modern feel due to the 44AWG wire. It has the best cleans of the three pickups I'm suggesting and the best lead tone. Pretty versatile pickup.

Cold Sweat

Less compressed than the other two so whereas the Holydiver is based right in the heart of 80s Metal, the Cold Sweat is more a late 70s and early 80s Metal pickup. It's versatile and is good at bridging the gap between Rock and Metal thanks to its more open tone. It has the second best cleans and for rhythm and lead, it's a bit of an all-rounder.

Miracle Man

This is another one where you need to largely ignore the tone chart. This pickup is actually very closely related to the Holydiver as its smooth tone is strongly reminiscent of 80s Metal but in this case, the ceramic magnet, hotter wind and slightly scooped nature means it's more late 80s and early 90s Metal. There are mids here but where the Holydiver's mids are evenly spread, the Miracle Man is more towards the lower mids. Think of it as a Holydiver with a bigger bottom end and more screaming highs for solos as well as being tighter overall. It's also a pickup that sits well in a mahogany guitar like yours. The cleans are the weakest of these three but it really shines in other areas. This isn't the pickup you might be expecting. I would suggest you read the reviews on all three in the review thread.

[ericsabbath]

I disagree about the a-bomb having a mid spike
I had it in my main 73 les paul custom and it was no near as middy as the holy diver and black dog in the same guitar
The riff raff also feels middier
I actually expected the nailbomb to be much middier and was disappointed
It does have raspy and aggressive mids, but it's quite well balanced, with a lot of bass and treble as well
It's just that it is very aggressive for an alnico 5 pickup, but it sounds nothing like a JB
It's more like a PAF with some sort of compressor/signal booster, so it has more of everything
Also had the ceramic nailbomb in the same les paul
It wasn't scooped, but has a bit less mids than the alnico version
It felt slightly more balanced and more compressed instead of more aggressive
It had more lower and center mids than the cold sweat but less upper mids, and it was a lot darker, but not really in a bad way
All of them sounded great in this same 1973 les paul custom

[durden1408]

I think that the Miracle Man isn't for me. Love the clean sound in the holy diver more than the cold sweat. Maybe the Holy Diver is the answer to add some body, bottom end and bite to my guitar. Has the holy diver a good bass response for palm mutting and can be agressive at the same time?