Miracle Man is close, but...

[Potatohead]

I have a Carvin CT4, mahogany body/neck and ash top that I recently put a Miracle Man bridge into. I also have a CS6 mahogany/maple top with a Cold Sweat set that I adore, I have had this setup for years. I play mostly 90's, 00's metal, mainly rhythm.

I was hoping the CT4 with MM would be more of the same with a slightly different flavor. I guess it mostly is, but I am not quite as happy with it. It's somewhat dark, and there is an inherent smoothness on power chords that simply lacks aggression. I have really had to play with pickup height and pole height a lot in order to get it to where I would call acceptable. I did hear this same type of thing with the original pickup in the CT4 so it is possible I am hearing a characteristic of the guitar I'm just not as fond of. Aside from that though I am finding I seem to prefer brighter pickups with not a ton of low end and lots of high mids so that chords really sear. The thing is I don't like a ton of fizz or presence which is why I tend to gravitate towards BKP in the first place. I get the sound I want with the CS6/Cold Sweat setup but not as much with the CT4/MM setup. It could absolutely be a maple vs ash top thing, I am not 100% sure.

Anyway, would the C-Bomb or something else have been a better choice than the MM? I am regretting not asking for more advice before pulling the trigger. The videos and what not I hear online of the MM sounded great.

Thanks

[Dave Sloven]

Sounds a bit like you want a Painkiller

[Dave Sloven]

Rebel Yell could also be a good option.

[Telerocker]

I was thinking RY as well, but it is alnico.. If that is not your thing, I would go CS unless you want a different flavour than your other axe. No experience with the Painkiller.

[darrenw5094]

I was thinking RY as well, but it is alnico.. If that is not your thing, I would go CS unless you want a different flavour than your other axe. No experience with the Painkiller.

I had a painkiller in an ibanez j custom. Probably the middyest pup I ever heard. Chunky in the mids, can't imagine it would sound anything like the MM

[Potatohead]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't typically like a ton of mids, but a high mid bump is good. The more I play this guitar the more I think it is a sound inherent to it. It has a lot of low mids in the 400 hz or so range. I can dial it out with my eq pedal but it's so much easier to not have to mess with it every time I switch guitars. I do have this guitar in D standard as well which might not be helping.

The RY crossed my mind, but I also have two other CS's as well and I was going to save that for one of those. Mind you the pickup in those (Carvin M22SD) has kind of a bad rap and I love it, so who knows. I am hesitant to change those for that reason.

[Dave Sloven]

If the guitar has a lot of bottom end and you don't want that crazy ceramic bright top end the Impulse is a good option. There are some strong similarities to the Rebel Yell and the VHII bridge pickups.

They sound pretty nice in this PRS, for example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8MyXNAj_6E

[Potatohead]

I've been tinkering with this guitar for two months or more now and just can't get happy with it. It is simply too dark for rythym stuff in this guitar. Sucks, but not much I can do.

So I have been looking at some other pickups and have narrowed it down to the Painkiller, C-Bomb or the boot camp Brute Force, the latter mainly because I won't have to wait six weeks for it. Does anyone have a comparison to what the BF sounds most like in the original line? It's ceramic and if I had to guess I would say it's likely based around the Cold Sweat/CBomb because that seems like a popular middle ground to base it on, and the dc resistance is close, but that just a guess.

Thoughts?

[Nolly]

The Brute Force has a bit of a different voicing to any of the pickups in the main line, due to the symmetrical wind and SPN coated wire that all of the Boot Camp pickups use. I'd say it's closest to the Painkiller or Aftermath in that it has that quite dry and upper midrangey feel, though the low end isn't as big or extended as either of those due to the lack of flanking magnets - frankly I think this all adds up to a pickup that you'd really like given what you've said in this thread. Certainly worth a try.

[Potatohead]

Ok thanks Nolly

I have been looking for a couple months for a Painkiller or CBomb in zebra but that's easier said than done. I'm impatient to wait six weeks (shipping takes forever right now) but if I had ordered back when this thread started I'd probably have it by now  . Oh well.

[Potatohead]

Ok so, let's put this in a vacuum and ignore everything above.

If someone told you they had a PRS Custom 22, mahogany/ash top, tuned to D standard, played thrash/metalcore/melodeath into a 5153... What would you tell them to put in it? Prefer to use clean boost also.

[darrenw5094]

Probably better off starting a new thread for a new guitar, but a Alnico Nailbomb would the thrash side of thins.

[Nolly]

Ok so, let's put this in a vacuum and ignore everything above.
If someone told you they had a PRS Custom 22, mahogany/ash top, tuned to D standard, played thrash/metalcore/melodeath into a 5153... What would you tell them to put in it? Prefer to use clean boost also.

As someone with several PRSs and experimented with many many pickups in them, I'd say the ultimate pickup for what you're describing is the Ragnarok. They're simply perfect for those styles and work extremely well in a PRS.

I could probably knock up a clip for you later on.

[Potatohead]

Probably better off starting a new thread for a new guitar, but a Alnico Nailbomb would the thrash side of thins.

Same guitar. I just called it a PRS C22 in the example to simplify things. Same construction, scale length, woods etc as the PRS.

Ragnarok I did not expect at all... lol. I will check that out.

Like most people I guess, I wish I could try four or five at a time, would make things a lot easier. I played it at length last night again and sometimes I like it and sometimes it's just ok. It reminds me of playing through a Rectifier. But then I ask myself why is that a bad thing and why do I want all my guitars to sound the same?

[Nolly]

Here's that clip of the Ragnarok, it's in my CU24 in drop C# with 10-52s.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkckj5k75ki8vr8/Ragnarok%20in%20PRS%20CU24.mp3?dl=0

Yes, it's very tough to make a decision without trying or having options. I hope the clip helps!
Compared to your Miracle Man you can expect the Ragnarok to be tighter and to have less of that "Rectifier" low mid saturation that can be a bit wooly or fuzzly sounding especially with thicker strings. It's also got more upper midrange but a bit less "twang" (not that the Miracle Man is a twangy pickup).