Juggernauts vs Nailbombs

[darkandrew]

I like pickups with a distinctive voice and a bright "leading edge" to their tone. I'm familiar with Alnico Nail Bombs and wondered how the Juggernauts compare to them. From what I've heard, I like the distinctive tone of the Jugs and their fast attack, and perceive them as being of the same family as the Nail Bomb's but taken to the next level. I've also tried Holy Divers but was left unimpressed with their compressed tone and lack of shimmer at the top end of the frequency range. Any thoughts about the Jugs, especially comparisons to Nail Bombs (or Holy Divers, Rebel Yells, Cold Sweats, Mules or Crawlers) would be appreciated.

[Yellowjacket]

I have Juggs, A-Bomb, and Rebel Yell for bridge pickups.  I have Juggs, Rebel Yell, and VHII for neck pickups.

Here's the thing:  A-Bomb is really cool in a dark guitar like a Les Paul or a block of mahogany.  It's tight for a 6 string in the range of E standard to Drop C ish.  It does have a cut in the treble but it is a warm, organic sort of a tone with a pronounced AAAHHH vowel tone to the sound.   Its gainy, hairy, and powerful.

The Rebel Yell bridge doesn't have a pronounced treble cut.  It has a focus in the upper mids but with a very open and even top end.  No frequency seems to cut or sizzle.  Rather, it has a brilliant open sheen and the tone is open and huge sounding.  The bass is high and very tight, so the pickup works best in a darker guitar with a lot of low mids.  It can sound overly bright and anemic in a bright guitar.

The Juggernaut pickup has huge and powerful low mids, a tight bass response, and a diffuse / purring top end.  It does have a nice pick attack and cut in the upper frequencies but this quality is quite blunted.
The set is amazing and I personally prefer it with an Ibanez style 5 way blade switch.  This gives me neck in series, neck in parallel, bridge and neck in series, inner coils, and bridge in series.  With a treble bleed mod, you can use the volume pot and access many really awesome tones. 

I'd say that this pickup set works best with really bright 6 and 7 string guitars.  Any guitar that is really bright work spectacularly well with this pickup.  If you have a brighter amp a more balanced sounding guitar can sound great as well but then you end up with a darker tone overall. 

Let me know and I can PM you some scratch tracks I was using for songwriting.  You can at least hear how the pickups sound.  Do keep in mind that they are in guitars that are optimal for the best result in all cases.

[darkandrew]

Thanks for your thoughts ... maybe it's Black Hawks that I want then?

[Dave Sloven]

I have the alnico Black Hawk and it is fantastic.  Definitely a distinctive tone.  I have three guitars set up in C standard that I have used in my doom metal band and this is them in order of preference (1 being first preference):

1. Schecter Stiletto 6-FR with A-Hawk set and Gotoh GE1996T tremolo system
2. Epiphone '58 Korina Explorer with A-Bomb set and TonePros Nashville bridge and tailpiece set
3. Gibson SG Special Worn Yellow with A-Pig set and TonePros Nashville bridge and tailpiece set

Out of these the SG is just a bit too bright (which shows how much difference the guitar makes, as the A-Pig set was too dark in the Explorer) and it doesn't get used live or in recordings any more, only sometimes for tracking songs in Garage Band and will probably be put back to D standard soon.  The Stiletto and Explorer definitely interchange well but the Black Hawk has the edge for me

I mention the exact bridges because I feel that they make a big difference too.  The stock bridges in the Schecter and Epiphone were rubbish and had a big impact on the tone.   The TonePros bridge set didn't have a big impact on the SG as it is quite close in spec to the stock Gibson bridge.

My experiences with the A5 magnets in the Nalibomb and Warpig for this genre and tuning convinced me to go with the A5 magnets in the Black Hawk.  I'm glad that I did.  It doesn't sound like an EMG (as people claim regarding the ceramic version).  It has it's own unique thing going on, massive and grinding but with great clarity, warm lead tones, and great clean tones.