Black Dog set for LTD EC1000?

[jesperbc]

Hi all

I'm replacing the EMGs in my LTD EC1000. I want classic hard rock tones, doom and stoner rock/metal tones, and I want to tune down to C std.

I'm pretty convinced on putting a set of Black Dogs in the guitar. Should I just get a calibrated set, or is there a forum favorite pickup combination for the Black Dog bridge and/or neck?

Also, I want zebra bobbins. White outer coils - closest to bridge, closest to neck. What's top and bottom bobbin in that regard?

Thanks!

/Jesper

[darkandrew]

I've got 3 Eclipses, the Japanese cousin of the EC1000 and all now have BKPs. One has a Crawler set, another has a Mule set and the last one has an alnico Nail Bomb set. I'd imagine that Crawlers are nearest to Black Dogs and work very well in this guitar. Again I'd imagine the BDs have a little more bite than the Crawlers which would be quite a good thing. The NBs are probably closest to your brief though and also work quite nicely in this guitar, I especially like the neck pickup. One thing to consider in your conversion is the pot values - the values for EMG actives are different to those that you will need for your BKP set, the pots are also physically smaller which means you will have to ream the holes if you want to fit standard pots ... however if you want to keep the original holes you can use an EMG Hz wiring loom which is designed for their Hz passive range - this is what I did on the guitar with the Nail Bombs. As for zebra types - the format with white bobbins on the screw coils is what BKP used to call zebra (as opposed to reverse zebra) but I think would now be described as black top / white bottom for the bridge pickup and white top / black bottom for the neck.

[jesperbc]

I have an LTD MH1000 with an alnico Nailbomb bridge and a VHII neck, replacing EMG's and an Ibanez FRIX6 with a Holydiver bridge and an Emerald neck, also replacing EMG's. The holes for the shafts were slightly smaller, but easy enough to carefully widen a tiny bit, to make room for 500k CTS pots.

I recently replaced the 498T/490R in my Les Paul with a Riff Raff bridhe and Mule neck, and it dawned on me how much I appreciate the tone of lower output humbuckers, which is why I want another set of lower output pickups in my collection of guitars.

Higher output pickups have a tendency to sound dark, I know this from comparing the Nailbomb and Holydiver to the Riff Raff, despite the the Holydiver having a very nice high end.

[darkandrew]

I've quite fancied trying the BDs myself so that I could do a direct comparison with the Crawlers - from what I've read about them, they sound like they should be a really good match for the EC/Eclipse. With regard to the neck pickup, I've not read an awful lot on the BD neck but what I have read has always been very positive.

[darkandrew]

I understand what you mean about the qualities of lower output pickups and I've quite fancied trying the BDs myself so that I could do a direct comparison with the Crawlers - from what I've read about them, they sound like they should be a really good match for the EC/Eclipse. With regard to the neck pickup, I've not read an awful lot on the BD neck but what I have read has always been very positive.

[jesperbc]

Thanks, Andrew!

[Telerocker]

I would go with a calibrated set. BKP has done a lot of R&D to provide the best matching sets.

Anyway the sonic difference between the BD and the Crawler will be roughly:

1. compression (Crawler) vs more dynamics (BD)
2. more chime vs a tad rounder topend (Crawler)
3. tighter (BD) vs a little moore loose lowend (Crawler), BD will handle lower tunings better.

[jesperbc]

1. compression (Crawler) vs more dynamics (BD)
2. more chime vs a tad rounder topend (Crawler)
3. tighter (BD) vs a little moore loose lowend (Crawler), BD will handle lower tunings better.

Boom. Thanks for the input. Buying new pickups stepped in the background, but I'm ready to put that task in the foreground again.