Author Topic: Which pickups with a Nailbomb in a ESP Mirage Custom (H-S-S) (Read 6734 times)

fps_dean · « **on:** September 13, 2006, 02:06:53 PM »

Ok so after all morning of listening to Nailbomb clips, I am pretty sure that I am going to put a nailbomb into my recently aquired ESP Mirage Custom. I will wait for the Painkiller to come out and wait for clips first, but assuming I do go with the Nailbomb as I probably will, which single coils for the neck and middle?

I was thinking Sinners or Trilogy Suites to help match the volume of the humbucker in the bridge. Also should I get bridge models?

Thanks in advance

Antag · « **Reply #1 on:** September 13, 2006, 02:42:40 PM »

Why not the Nailbomb/Irish Tour set?

Eric · « **Reply #2 on:** September 13, 2006, 04:58:13 PM »

Well BKP sells Nailbombs with Irish Tours as the HSS set. But some on here have used Trilogy Suites in front on them with success. I wouldn't worry about getting them as bridge models. They might be too hot and not sound that great. The Trilogy Suites seem plenty hot. Of course it all depends on what single coil tones you're shooting for.

fps_dean · « **Reply #3 on:** September 13, 2006, 05:11:30 PM »

Ideally my most important thing is that whatever single coils I get are loud enough and full sounding enough to not sound incredibly quiet and thin in comparison to the Nailbomb in the bridge.

How would Irish Tours sound vs Trilogy Suites?

Antag · « **Reply #4 on:** September 13, 2006, 05:15:26 PM »

The reason I suggested the standard HSS set that BKP offer is that I have the Holy Diver/Irish Tour set in my korina strat. The Irish Tours don't get overpowered by the HD bridge.

Bear in mind that the DC of a mid or neck pickup will be lower than the bridge so that the output balances - e.g. the neck humbucker of an HD set is 7.8 (compared with 16 for the bridge), so a 16k neck SC would stomp all over a 16k bridge HB. Someone like Tim will be able to explain this MUCH better than me, but you can't exactly compare the DC of SCs with HBs...

fps_dean · « **Reply #5 on:** September 13, 2006, 05:22:38 PM »

A 16ohm SC neck will stomp all over a 16 ohm HB bridge? I've never been too sure on what it takes for a single to start to overpower a humbucker, but I would have thought the hum would have won in that situation.... which is why I was looking at the Trilogy Suites because I thought I'd need the extra output.

Can you do me a favor? Make a quick recording and just play something and move the pickup switch from the neck to the bridge and back and forth with no editing so I can get the idea....

Thanks for the help

gingataff · « **Reply #6 on:** September 14, 2006, 01:38:11 AM »

I just recorded some clips using a Nailbomb bridge and Irish Tour neck, the clip is in 3 parts:

First its a rhythm pattern with drums starting with the bridge pup then at about 19 seconds I changed to neck pup. Then its the same pattern but without drums, finally I played some single notes using both pups.

There isn't much change in volume but I do notice that with low/medium gain the neck pup is much cleaner than the Nailbomb.

oops, looks like I can't put the mp3 here so I'll put it in the players section.

fps_dean · « **Reply #7 on:** September 14, 2006, 02:40:15 AM »

Thanks gingastaff you rock! I'm on my way to check it out now!

gingataff · « **Reply #8 on:** September 15, 2006, 04:14:18 PM »

What I'm learning about the ITs (and I've had them for about 10 months now!!!) is that they take high gain really well but lower the gain and they are pure strat tone, even in my basswood/floyd rose Charvel! I find them quite bright but thats good as my guitar sounded dead before. If you play with medium gain though you'll find that when you change from the Nailbomb bridge the ITs sound very clean in comparison! If you want to change from the bridge rhythm playing to a neck shred sweep picking thing you need to make sure you've got a decent amount of gain going on, I'm not talking full Mesa Recto levels but something a bit more than the average plexi.

fps_dean · « **Reply #9 on:** September 30, 2006, 06:52:52 AM »

gingataff, sorry I missed your reply, I was offline / busy for a while and never saw it for whatever reason.

That description was very helpful as was the clip you recorded for me. Thank you so much for all the help, now it's time for me to make a decision.

They will be going in alder.... so the strat tone thing is appealing in some ways. How is their clean tone?

I liked the balance of your recording, I just have to make a decision of what I really want from this guitar. My goal was for this to be a shred/metal guitar with a little more emphasis on the metal part as I have a Jem 7vwh that is in the same boat but that's more of a shred guitar. (what is cool about that is I can use the single coil in the middle and the neck, bridge or alone for clean rhythms and then switch to the neck for overdrive).

Do you think Trilogy Suites would be better for me?

Antag · « **Reply #10 on:** September 30, 2006, 12:48:58 PM »

You're suffering from analysis paralysis - just buy the NB/IT set already!! :lol:

deg0ey · « **Reply #11 on:** September 30, 2006, 02:36:50 PM »

Quote from: fps_dean

A 16ohm SC neck will stomp all over a 16 ohm HB bridge? I've never been too sure on what it takes for a single to start to overpower a humbucker, but I would have thought the hum would have won in that situation....

I wouldn't be certain what would be the outcome in this case, but it is certainly the case that you need a lower output pickup in the neck pickup to match volumes with the bridge pickup due to the way the string moves...

If you were too look at the amplitude of vibrations above the bridge pickup compared to the vibrations above the neck pickup. The smaller amount of movement at the bridge means less disruption to the pickup's magnetic field and therefore you need a more hefty pickup to produce the same volume.

I also believe this difference in the vibration accounts for part of the reason you get a different sort of tone on each of the pickups (and obviously the difference in the wind and whatever else)

So back to the original comment, 16ohms of anything in the neck position would be overkill, and probably would overpower 16 ohms of anything else in the bridge - although I can't be sure without trying it really

(sorry if this was common knowledge already but i thought I'd best post in case someone somewhere found it helpful :drink:)

fps_dean · « **Reply #12 on:** September 30, 2006, 03:54:49 PM »

I just think the bridge may audibly sound louder due to compression anyway.... although you may clip when recording when switching to your neck as well...

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #13 on:** September 30, 2006, 04:43:14 PM »

MY amber Gunslinger had a nailbomb /Trilogy in it and it worked fine, but I swapped out the NB for a Miracle Man as IN THIS GUITAR the NB was too beefy and not enogh crunch for my taste.

I like the Trilogy in the neck position is what I wanted to say

Here it is at last years LGS with Twilight Odyssey and Davey (in rare - no sunglasses pic)

I_cant_play · « **Reply #14 on:** September 30, 2006, 08:37:02 PM »

having just listened to some trilogy suites clips I think I'd suggest them since you want a distorted sound on the single coils too. Search the players forum for "trilogy" and you'll find some clips with the nailbomb and with some other pups too. For a metal guitar I'd say they're better than the IT and they sound pretty good clean too.