Is the Aftermath the right pickup for me?

[Dudley]

Hi everyone

Hoping for a bit of advice here.  After about 12 years of playing just EMG's I bought a few sets of passives and I'm giving my guitars a bit of an overhaul.  Next on the chopping block is my ESP superstrat.  It's maple neck-through, alder wings, ebony fretboard, Floyd Rose bridge and 25.5 inch scale length.  I play through a variety of amp sims on my AxeFX, but primarily the ENGL and 5150 ones.  I've got a few other guitars for more versatile tones, this one is just for straight out death metal and a bit of black metal.  Lots of palm muting and tram picking.  I'll be tuning to Bb using .013 - .064 gauge strings.  My ideal tone would be nice and tight with a lot of top-end cut but also a thick low end and lots of harmonic character and grind in the mids.  Big big fan of mids.  A little bit of juice and organicness so it's not too totally sterile.  I know I know... I want it all, haha. 

I know the Warpig is the default recommendation for alder/maple neck-thru, and I've never tried one, but honestly it just doesn't seem like it would do what I want.  It seems way too 'old-school' in clips I've heard to pull off the tones I have in mind (older Decapitated, newer Cannibal Corpse, Aborted, Fear Factory) and wouldn't cut enough.  Between that, the relatively thick strings and the fact my guitar already sounds surprisingly deep/thick given the woods in it I just think it might be the wrong choice and the Aftermath is calling out to me.

My concerns are that it might be too scratchy (or worse yet djenty in this particular axe) or too tight and not musical enough, particularly with my choice of amp sims.  I'm a little concerned that it might be a bit too dry and not saturate just enough, haha.  I'm kind of tempted to just stick with the EMG 81's in it as they really do excel for what I'm after for this particular guitar and I don't think I've ever heard any pickups do death metal tones better than the trusty old EMG's, but feel like it's worth investigating at the very least!

Really appreciate any help!

Cheers

[Telerocker]

The Aftermath is extreme tight, yet does have the mids you want. It's a little drysounding compared to other BKP's. If you're afraid of scratchiness I would look at the Miracle Man. which does a great job in neck-thru guitars. It's a litte more polite compared to the Aftermath.

[ericsabbath]

the aftermath doesn't have a thick low end at all
it's a very middy pickup with a very lean bass and strong picking response
I'd take a c-pig, miracle man or c-bomb over it any day
but if you want the scratchy picking thing, then you could go with the painkiller instead

[Dudley]

the aftermath doesn't have a thick low end at all
it's a very middy pickup with a very lean bass and strong picking response
I'd take a c-pig, miracle man or c-bomb over it any day
but if you want the scratchy picking thing, then you could go with the painkiller instead

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not quite sure how to take this comment...  I know the Aftermath doesn't have a thick low end, but my guitar naturally does sound quite thick.  Warpig seems a bit flabby for me and doesn't seem to do what I'd be in to, so I'd already ruled it out.  I don't want a scratchy picking thing, that's what I was afraid of getting, so I'll definitely be staying away from the Painkiller that I wasn't considering anyway, lol.

[Dudley]

The Aftermath is extreme tight, yet does have the mids you want. It's a little drysounding compared to other BKP's. If you're afraid of scratchiness I would look at the Miracle Man. which does a great job in neck-thru guitars. It's a litte more polite compared to the Aftermath.

Thanks for the reply.  Good to know the Aftermath has the mids I'd be after.  How aggressive is it in comparison to the Black Hawk?  I have a set in a swamp ash Mayones Regius 7 and they're too mild-mannered for my tastes for metal. 

Miracle Man is an interesting recommendation, haven't heard any clips of it I like or doing the sort of tones I'd be going for, though I know it's one that gets recommended often as a replacement for actives.  Will do some more reading on it and see if I can find any good sound samples, cheers :)

[Dudley]

Double-post, sorry!

[Telerocker]

the aftermath doesn't have a thick low end at all
it's a very middy pickup with a very lean bass and strong picking response
I'd take a c-pig, miracle man or c-bomb over it any day
but if you want the scratchy picking thing, then you could go with the painkiller instead

If you're referring to my comment, I didn't say it has a lot of lowend bec it hasn't.

[Dave Sloven]

Miracle Man would be the safest choice here, Aftermath is most likely the second-safest in terms of your guitar, tastes etc.

Some of the others mentioned might not be good choices.  C-Pig could do it, but the sound you would get might be a very bottom heavy sound like Nashgul etc and that doesn't really sound like what you are after.

[ericsabbath]

the aftermath doesn't have a thick low end at all
it's a very middy pickup with a very lean bass and strong picking response
I'd take a c-pig, miracle man or c-bomb over it any day
but if you want the scratchy picking thing, then you could go with the painkiller instead

If you're referring to my comment, I didn't say it has a lot of lowend bec it hasn't.

not really
he stated that he wanted athick low end in the post

what came to mind immediately was that I replaced a cold sweat with the aftermath in my 73 les paul custom years ago, and, although I liked the extra midrange, I got very frustrated that the guitar lost a LOT of low end in the lowest strings
I couldn't even recognize some of my own bands riffs that used big loose notes cause it sounded way thinner than with the cold sweat and any other bkp I had in a les paul
and I'm talking about a quite bass heavy les paul custom with a massive solid harmonica bridge (not the hollow one), pretty high string action and bridge pup set quite close to strings (which adds a lot of bass) into a quite bassy amp (that I had to modify half a dozen times just to reduce the excessive low end)
it was like a holy diver with a boss sd-1 in the front that couldn't be turned off, which was good for some stuff, not good for others
it was pretty fine for fast palm muted metal riffs without requiring a pedal

[Telerocker]

the aftermath doesn't have a thick low end at all
it's a very middy pickup with a very lean bass and strong picking response
I'd take a c-pig, miracle man or c-bomb over it any day
but if you want the scratchy picking thing, then you could go with the painkiller instead

If you're referring to my comment, I didn't say it has a lot of lowend bec it hasn't.

not really
he stated that he wanted athick low end in the post

what came to mind immediately was that I replaced a cold sweat with the aftermath in my 73 les paul custom years ago, and, although I liked the extra midrange, I got very frustrated that the guitar lost a LOT of low end in the lowest strings
I couldn't even recognize some of my own bands riffs that used big loose notes cause it sounded way thinner than with the cold sweat and any other bkp I had in a les paul
and I'm talking about a quite bass heavy les paul custom with a massive solid harmonica bridge (not the hollow one), pretty high string action and bridge pup set quite close to strings (which adds a lot of bass) into a quite bassy amp (that I had to modify half a dozen times just to reduce the excessive low end)
it was like a holy diver with a boss sd-1 in the front that couldn't be turned off, which was good for some stuff, not good for others
it was pretty fine for fast palm muted metal riffs without requiring a pedal

Alright, cheers Eric.