Need help with a few decisions for my next BKPs...

[GuitarIv]

Hey everyone,

so now that I'm finally happy regarding guitars and amps I'm looking to fine tune my setups by getting the proper pickups. Guitars in question are my LP Studio and my Jackson Rhoads.

The Les Paul: this one is the weird one out of the bunch in the sense of being a bright guitar although it is all mahogany from neck to body with a rosewood fingerboard and a mahogany cap. I looked inside the PU cavities. It has a top, but it's not maple. It came with EMGs (81 and 60) the previous owner installed. It was tight, defined, surgical and crunchy. I wanted the guitar to be my blues to hard rock axe so with the solderless system in mind I bought a used EMG Retroactive Fat 55 set and it helped to tame the pissed off attitude, yielded better dynamics, string seperation and more character, didn't make the guitar sound all that much fatter though. Still tight, biting and bright. A few days ago I toyed around with parts I had lying around and converted her to passive. I used an old unnamed Duncan pickup I yanked out of a Kramer from the eighties for the neck and a Duesenberg humbucker I had lying around for the bridge to see how passives behave in it. Turns out the Duesenberg was shot. So I installed an EMG H3 passive I had left over from a friends Jackson.

Yuck. The H3 made the LP sounds painfully bright, thin, brittle with no lowend whatsoever. Not good, especially not through my 2203 nor my DSL 100.

Now I asked before and mailed BKP about the Les Paul, stating I wanna go from Blues ala BB King and Gary Moore all the way to GnR and Thrash Metal. The Mules have been suggested with the Riff Raff in the bridge if I feel I need the additional A5 bite. Now I know the Mule Set or RR/ML combo is usually a winner in LPs, but I'm concerned it'll be too bright. I'd love to put in some Mules as I know they can even pull off metal, but I'm really unsure...


The Jackson: now this one is awkward. I have an EMG 60/81 set in there, but it's muddy? Well sort of. Contrary to what the 81 should deliver it's fat sounding, lots of low mids and bass, missing tightness and too smooth and compressed. I had a JB/Jazz set in there at first and experienced almost the same issues. So it's probably the guitar. Neck through maple construction, ebony fretboard, alder wings, stainless steel frets and floyd rose. I dunno if it might be too much mids, it sounds honky through my 800. Boosted with a TS-9 into a Marshall 412 with V30s and G12-65s. What I want is a tight and percussive rhythm tone for fast riffing, aggressive and in your face, this guitar is supposed to take off where my LP stops, so 80ies metal into modern territory. My thoughts were Rebel Yell/VHII combo to tighten it up and give a percussive high mid attack emphasis.

Controls will be 500k CTS Logarithmic Pots with No Load Tone Potis, Orange Drop or BKP caps. I play E Standard and E Flat

Hope you can point me into the right direction, cheers!

[ericsabbath]

sounds like the cold sweat might do well for the rhoads

crawler for the les paul, if it's really that bright

[Yellowjacket]

How bright is a bright Les Paul?  I ask because my Ibanez RG is all treble and upper mids, and the beef is contributed by the pickups alone. 

I am aware that the amps you are using are very bright as well, and you definitely will have to factor this in when selecting pickups.  With more modern tones, the amps are usually dark with a lot of low mids, so bright and open sounding pickups work really well with these rigs.

For a bright, marshall style amp, darker pickups would work very well.  I recall playing one of my darkest guitars with dark pickups through a Marshall JCM800 clone and it sounded awesome. 

[GuitarIv]

Well guys, got a response from Ben:

"Hi,

For the LP: to tame the top end you need to go up in power - Black Dogs would be good, plenty of mids and aggression, or Rebel Yells for a smoother edge and more harmonics.

For the Jackson I thought you were going to go a lot heavier - Miracle Mans, Aftermaths, Ragnaroks or something like that. 

Kind Regards,

Ben French"


The Miracle Man is an awesome pickup; I had one and really liked it for all things heavy, had to sell it cause I was short on cash. Could do the trick, although it might be a bit too polite sounding... I kinda shy away from the modern "djent" range, although the Ragnarok seems to be getting praise for lots of different styles as well. Cold sweat might be worth a try as well Eric.

And now the Black Dogs... I never considered those. Will certainly have to check out some clips. Christmas and new years is coming so financially I'll still need some time before I have the dough for 2 sets, might as well watch reviews, haha

[Dave Sloven]

The Ragnarok sounds like a Miracle Man with more mids to me, so it might work well in the Jackson

[GuitarIv]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! For now I put the EMG 57/66 combo back into my LP and my Rhoads is still rocking the 81/60 combo, I will keep it like this until I can afford new pickups and look up as many options as possible in the meantime. Currently leaning towards the Miracle Man and the Rebel Yell :)

Cheers!

[gwEm]

I think Eric, Ben and Dave's suggestions have all been good.

Theres some amazing clips of the Black Dogs around, and I always thought I'd go for those "one day". I'm not that much of Les Paul guy, just owning one which is fitted with a Rebel Yell and sounds like a tone monster.

The Jackson sounds like what a I call a "problem guitar". I've had a couple of these over the years - guitars that look and play great, but whatever you try, you can't seem to get the sound you want out of them. In one particularly bad case I resorted to using an EMG 60 in both the bridge and neck position. Go carefully on this one, such guitars have always ended for me like a money hole. I tend to second Eric's idea of the Cold Sweat. It is bright, and without a strong mid response, so it might be the right thing. The Cold Sweat has a surprisingly strong bass response in the wrong guitar though. I have two Jacksons, which I adore due to the look and the neck shape. In one I have fitted a Painkiller, which has a little too much attack but otherwise sounds good. In the other I put a JB I had laying around, but I tried a few magnets. I eventually settled on an A8 magnet for it which gives a little bit less mids and a more modern sound. Its not as rich and detailed as a BKP but it "works" and does a job. I have no plans to change it.

[GuitarIv]

Funny you'd say that. Having played around with the Jackson some more she does her job fine and I get along with it. I know there's something not quite alright and I know I can fine tune her. But tryinng to do so will take time and cash... since both are scarce right now I'll just play her some more and worry in the future about it :D

[Yellowjacket]

I still think those marshalls are BRIGHT and you really don't need a bright pickup.  Dark Duncans like a Custom Custom sound great through Marshalls.  Emerald / Holy Diver or Crawlers seems like they'd actually work really well with the Marshall amps.

If you were playing something beefy and low mid focused like a Mesa, I'd be saying Rebel Yell, Riff Raff / Mule.....