Humbucker Set Advice

[Ade]

Hey Friends,
Im trying to decide what pickup set might be suited for me and after reading through the forums Im more confused so i thought i would reach out for any advice you might have.
Im going to order a 6 string Aristides and am into 80s shred like Extreme and Mr.Big and Satriani but also more Modern sounding stuff like Plini and Intervals and Periphery etc.
Im probably asking too much from one set of humbuckers but i thought i would put it out there and ask anyway.
Any suggestions or ides you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Ade.

[Ade]

I'm new to this forum and Bareknuckle pickups, in fact these will be my first pickups I've ever purchased, so maybe I did myself a disservice by not mentioning where my research had lead me, to try and help drive the conversation.
I had initially though Holy Divers were a good go to, but then I had read about Cold Sweats and their percussive nature being very Nuno. That lead me down the Rebel Yell YouTube video path which is where I started to get confused because I wasn't sure if they could pull off a more modern sound.
I had also looked into Jugg's because everyone says how versatile until I read a thread mentioning  your pick attack needs to be substantial ? I may have that wrong, but I'm more a legato, lighter picking person outside of harmonic squeals etc.
I could very well be overthinking all of this and its much more simple than I had thought, its just very hard to pick a product you don't have any experience with and have to rely on the internet for information.
I'm really after something that has clarity which I know is a known thing with BKP, so that's covered but in terms of having the ability to cover 80s metal and more modern metal sounds that's where I get lost.
Maybe this helps someone shed a bit more light on this for me ?
Thank you for taking the time to read my post anyway :)

[Dave Sloven]

Personally I have always preferred the alnico Black Hawk and its matching neck pickup for lead guitar.  The bridge is somewhere between a Holy Diver and a ceramic Black Hawk, and is a much better lead guitar pickup than the ceramic version of the Black Hawk (which I also own).  I think it straddles that middle ground between the really 'modern' pickups like the Aftermath and more classic rock pickups like the Holy Diver.  It's quite a hot pickup so it doesn't need the strong pick attack like the Juggernaut.

You can hear the difference made by the magnet choice for lead, clean, and rhythm in this video.  I find the ceramic version to be strident and has too much high end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qacdnnbe2k

The neck pickup is pretty amazing for lead work imho.

You can hear Nolly playing the neck pickup (and the ceramic bridge) in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKw1F1Bd1-w

[Ade]

Hi Dave,
Thank you very much for the detailed reply, i really appreciate it, especially the youtube links, that really helps me out.
I hadnt considered the Black Hawk pickup, and its very interesting to hear where it sits in terms of characteristics so this is super helpful in my decision making process.
Thanks again :)

[Dave Sloven]

No worries.  I have also found the Miracle Man and True Grit to be nice pickups that cover a lot of ground in terms of rhythm and lead, but I don't think they have that modern aspect that you want a bit of.

Here are a couple more videos of the alnico BH as they are not that easy to find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvoZPM-sVRc

One playing djenty metal:

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

[Ade]

Oh cool, this was really interesting to see, thank you for sharing ! The Alnico sound is pretty amazing and really super versatile !
I have to say that im leaning toward the Black Hawks now, but I do wonder if the Silos might be comparable to the Black Hawks in that respect, as they seem to have some similarities in their ability to achieve quite a range of tones. Im learning a great deal and its really interesting to take this deep dive into the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences each of these have.

[Dave Sloven]

Oh cool, this was really interesting to see, thank you for sharing ! The Alnico sound is pretty amazing and really super versatile !
I have to say that im leaning toward the Black Hawks now, but I do wonder if the Silos might be comparable to the Black Hawks in that respect, as they seem to have some similarities in their ability to achieve quite a range of tones. Im learning a great deal and its really interesting to take this deep dive into the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences each of these have.

No worries. I have always really liked these since I got the first set in 2018.  We recorded our whole album with two Schecters tuned to C standard with alnico BH sets.  They handled everything really well.  Later I got a couple of Impulse sets because I wanted something similar but different to give us a bit more breadth in terms of tones but I think the alnico bridge covered everything really well and Josh used it with the Black Hawk neck pickup for his solos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73GrISaLylo

The Silo set is quite different.  Besides the different EQ curves it also reacts differently to your playing.  I find that the blade pickups have a very distinct 'feel' that I really like.