Comapre A-Hawk to Impulse?

[djpatb]

Can anyone compare the A-Hawk bridge to the Impulse bridge?
Which is tighter/looser? Warmer/sharper?
Does either one really show off the Alnico V character?
I'm thinking about trying one of them out in an old Epiphone G400, mahogany body/rosewood board SG style guitar.
I have A-Pigs in my Gibsons, but I wanna check out something for variety that will have a little less bass, a little more treble, and still get some midrange grind.
I'm just curious to try one of the blade style buckers. Tuned to Drop-C mainly and playing heavy rock. Thanks!
(for reference...I tried a Miracle Man bridge in this guitar and it kinda sounded lifeless. Probably because I'm mainly an Alnico guy. I had good results in this guitar with the EMG 85 years ago, and also with a Rio Grange BBQ Bucker, so even in mahogany, pickups with some mids have worked.)

[silence2-38554]

I would also LOVE to hear a first-hand comparison between these two.  I find it strange how little attention the Impulse seems to have gotten since its release.   That being said, I did own a couple A-Hawk sets a couple years ago & from your request: "I wanna check out something for variety that will have a little less bass, a little more treble, and still get some midrange grind" That very much sounds like the A-Hawk.  From what I can tell, the Impulse will have a little less treble and a little more bass.

[djpatb]

Cool, thanks for sharing your experience with the A-Hawks!
What kinda guitars were they in?

[silence2-38554]

I had one set in an RGD2127z tuned to drop Ab and another set in an RGA121 tuned to drop C.  Now that I know a lot more about pickup selection than I did then, I would not have chosen those pickups for either guitar.  The RGD is an extended scale at 26.5, so playing leads way up on the bridge pickup sounded too sharp / strident even with the Alnico magnet option.  The RGA, despite having a mahogany body, had a pretty thick maple cap that really made that an incredibly bright guitar.  Really, now that I think about it, Impulses probably would have been much better in both guitars haha. 

For your application, since you'd like to stick with Alnico, maybe A-Bomb bridge?  From what I understand the SG can have a lot of low-mids going on and the A-Bomb is more upper mid focused.  Might also check out the Black Dogs.

[Dave Sloven]

The A-bomb can be real hit-and-miss in SGs.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless I had heard that particular SG first.

[djpatb]

Yeah I've read a buncha posts saying to stay away from A-Bomb in an SG.