Another Pickup Recommendation thread!

[glpg80]

Could really use some help

im having a hard time finding a neck pickup to match (in an alder guitar) an X2N in the bridge.

i am trying to grab that hollow single coil tone. an example would be a PAF pro wired in parallel, how you get that chirp from the pick and the hollow attitude. another example would be a dimarzio dactivator or a bare knuckle pickups afterburner i believe, original hand wound PAF's, etc.

i tried in phase and out of phasing a dactivator and it is not cutting it, literally and figuratively.

needs to be hot, really hot, and need something that tracks quick. just not liking the dactivator - will be putting it up for sale soon in the classifieds.

anything anyone can recommend im all ears. thanks ahead of time!

 

[chunktone]

Motor City Afwayu...done!

 

[glpg80]

Motor City Afwayu...done!

totally forgot about MC pup's - thanks man

i hope Laura chimes in, i think she uses the MCP solution set. does the MCP Afwayu track so fast that there is no slight compression under the notes? they are certainly clear, but also seem too transparent. not that my playing couldnt benefit from it, but i do enjoy some compression on the pickup side - duncan distortion for example.

what do you think?

 

[Helldunkel]

There is a fantastic artisan who builds custom pickups which you may not be aware about and who is based in France. I've recently collaborated with him on a new signature pickup...

He is highly regarded and most builders in europe are using his pickups because they simply sound fantastic!

He builds any pickups to your specs and you cant go wrong with him, thats for sure.

I just wish he could re design his website and take off most of those soundclips which do not do justice to his pickups at all

http://www.spcustompickups.com/an/index.html

He also offers "wild finishes" to make the pickups look distressed, here is a pair which was custom built for me a couple weeks ago...

The owner:

 

[Code001]

Check out the Painkiller neck model. It has that sound you're looking for, in my opinion. Listen to Periphery's latest CD to get an idea as to how it sounds on lead tones. However, it might be a bit bright in alder, so you might want to check out the Aftermath neck as well. Depends on how smooth you want the tone to be. The Warpig neck might work, but it could be a bit too smooth and modern. The Cold Sweat does that tone in spades, but I dunno if you'll like the volume drop when you switch to the neck. One thing you might want to look into is to use a permanent output booster on the neck pickup only. You can wire up an EMG PA2 to the neck pickup only, and when you switch to the neck pickup, it'll have that boosted output that you need.

 

[RoidRage]

Motor City Afwayu...done!

+ 1 !!!!

If you want it less dark talk to wade about gettting it slightly underwound.

IT IS THE BOMB!

RR

 

[Laura]

Motor City Afwayu...done!

totally forgot about MC pup's - thanks man

i hope Laura chimes in, i think she uses the MCP solution set. does the MCP Afwayu track so fast that there is no slight compression under the notes? they are certainly clear, but also seem too transparent. not that my playing couldnt benefit from it, but i do enjoy some compression on the pickup side - duncan distortion for example.

what do you think?

I am useless on recommendations for neck pickups because I mainly just stick with the bridge pickup when I play. I have a Solution set in an LP, another LP with a Solution in the bridge and I have a set of Torques in a my GMP Xplorer (I LOVE THE TORQUES). I also have Nukes in a couple guitars. I typically like hot bridge pickups but I don't usually go for hot neck pickups. I have a BG Lizard in the neck position of one guitar and I love it but that is not a hot pickup but it sounds great.

 

[glip22]

Could really use some help

im having a hard time finding a neck pickup to match (in an alder guitar) an X2N in the bridge.

i am trying to grab that hollow single coil tone. an example would be a PAF pro wired in parallel, how you get that chirp from the pick and the hollow attitude. another example would be a dimarzio dactivator or a bare knuckle pickups afterburner i believe, original hand wound PAF's, etc.

i tried in phase and out of phasing a dactivator and it is not cutting it, literally and figuratively.

needs to be hot, really hot, and need something that tracks quick. just not liking the dactivator - will be putting it up for sale soon in the classifieds.

anything anyone can recommend im all ears. thanks ahead of time!

Email Tim at Bareknuckles. See if he has experience with the X2N bridge. He knows his pickups and what matches with what. He will wind you what you are looking for. When you get it if it needs tweaking he will do that for you as well until he gets it right. Shipping is about 13 bucks though.

 

[steve_k]

The hotter the better, is what I used to go for. I am quite happy with JB's or something close now. With the gain in the amps, the PU's sending them over the top just isn't happening for me for some reason. My favorites with the Marshall amps are the hand wound one's that Nik Huber uses. I think they are more PAF in character, but meaty and not to top heavy. Since I liked to run a little scooped on the amps, a PU with some weird mid focus seems to work well.

Fuck, I don't know. I am terrible at explaining PU's. MCP's Solutions I can get on good with, 2nd Degree BB's. I have a custom wound Afwayu in my Rampage.

 

[glpg80]

Awsome, thanks for all of the replies.

really liking what i hear from the painkiller neck, the afterburner is darker, seems to be a toss up between the two?

i think i am going to give a afterburner a try and see how that goes. it seems to be the best possible take.

thanks again for everyone pitching in

one quick note as far as the neck boosting EMG circuitry, it does pad your pickup about 20dbm's, but it also impedance shifts the output which could make for a muddy mess if you are a volume knob tweaker or ever use both pickups on at the same time. it could cause the output to seem unclear, as passives are active high output impedance, not active low output like normal active/battery pickups like EMG's. you would be at the constraints of the circuit component design/quality as to how well it tracked.

 

[hopkinWFG]

does the afwayu of MCP = nailbomb's BKP?

have tried the nailbomb and yes it is super clean and more natural with good mids... but i'll need a slight treble boost and would have the extra notch on picking tone... wonder if any MCP would offer that?

 

[Ventura]

+1 for talking to Tim at BKP. Cat know's his stuff, and DAMN that lad can play!!

tim@bareknucklepickups.co.uk

I'm onto my 5th set of BKPs in 5 different guitars and they are something very very special. Not run-of-the-mill, and by no means 'generic'. They each hold a surprise little subtlety that only starts to come out after some time with the guitar... They're so pimp

Mo

 

[luxxtone]

I'd probably have to say the BKP Painkiller neck....that's a really fast tracking neck pickup. Sometimes using a 1meg volume pot in the neck adds a bit of brightness and punch too....definitely worth checking out. Or, get a push-pull pot and have it switch between series and parallel.

 

[thunda]

have you considered bill and becky?

 

[glpg80]

have you considered bill and becky?

i once went through a dimebag stage where i spoke with becky about ordering but never went through with it. i cant even remember the forum where i found the link to their really hard to find site to get her contact information. the billnbecky on google is the company that Bill sold to some other company... i could consider trying to go through all of that bullshit again to get one made but its quite a hastle. why, what do you have in mind?

 

[glpg80]

I'd probably have to say the BKP Painkiller neck....that's a really fast tracking neck pickup

thanks for the reply, im really torn between a painkiller and an afterburner. the voicing of the afterburner seems more pleasing to me, in output how similar are they would you say? which would have more of the compression wild vibrato type of feel?

 

[luxxtone]

Are you guys referring to the Aftermath?