Heavily down tuned guitar pickup choice #thall

[matyashlavacek]

Hey guys,

I have a custom guitar with a swamp ash body, mix of wenge/ovangkol + bubinga stripes neck. It's a fan fret (multi-scale) 7 string guitar.

I use it with drop E tuning: Low string has E1 (41.20 Hz), 28'' scale, and I use .080 gauge string. Tension seem to be quite good.

I unfortunatelly chose the Ragnarok BKP for this guitar and the sound is extremely muddy (a lot of lows and mids) and completely missing clarity.

It's to the point where my friends cheapo guitar with DiMarzio Activators sounds so much better at the same tuning etc. which makes me frustrated. I care mostly for the distorted sound on the bridge pickup.

Now I'm looking for a replacement for the Ragnaroks

To be quite precise on what sound I am looking for here a 4 songs of bands using quite low tuning that I aim for:

Dealer - Crooked ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0DmJ71jSvk )
Vildhjatra - Dagger ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnaClnVnj_c )
Dead/Awake - Vagabond ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQrTnpE7M4I )
Gravemind - Lifelike ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_WfHdzQnsg )

Vildhjatra has Lundgren pickups (I believe Meshuggah uses em too), Gravemind has Seymour Duncan Nazgul on the bridge and they sound brutal, the closest I was able to get with BKP is Nailbomb. I guess Alnico?, though I'm not really sure.

What options do I have here? Do you guys have any recommendations?

[Dave Sloven]

Impulse is specifically designed for your application and comes in a seven-string version, but I don't think it comes in a slanted version.

You might want to look at the Emerald or Rebel Yell.

[one]

Forget of slanted version of impulses or blackhawks, go for the Juggernaut or the guarantee agains muddiness, the painkiller

[matyashlavacek]

I like impulses and I'd like to have one guitar for `Northlane` type of stuff, but I think this is not the one I'm looking for right now. Too soft and gentle or how would I describe it. I'll take a look at Emerald and Rebel Yell.

Impulse is specifically designed for your application and comes in a seven-string version, but I don't think it comes in a slanted version.

You might want to look at the Emerald or Rebel Yell.

[matyashlavacek]

I already have a 6-string mahagony guitar with Juggernauts in it and I like it, though I find them to have a bit too much mids for what I try to achieve with the 7 string. I was thinking about painkiller, just not sure if it will have enough distortion / chuggyness, what do you think about nailbombs for this type of music?

Forget of slanted version of impulses or blackhawks, go for the Juggernaut or the guarantee agains muddiness, the painkiller

[Dave Sloven]

Painkiller is a more brutal pickup than the Nailbomb, and has more cut

[matyashlavacek]

That sounds like Painkiller will be my pickup of choice! I actually got really lucky as my friend building custom guitars will have two slanted 7-string BKP's within a month available (Painkiller and Nailbomb Ceramic) So I will try them both and see which one I like more. I'll update the post with my findings.

Painkiller is a more brutal pickup than the Nailbomb, and has more cut

[one]

Very curious to hear your veredict, mine is 100% clear, but I want to check your opinion and see if we agree

[gila_crisis]

I have the Nailbombs in almost all my guitars (but one, a Schecter 7 strings baritone, where I put a set of Ragnaroks, which I like a lot as well). I don't tune that low but go down to B.
I love these, pleanty of punch, sound huge and have clarity.
Maybe, can I suggest you the Ceramic Nailbomb?