Duncan Distortion (or other hot, aggressive pickups)?

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cardinal

cardinal

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Looking for pickup advice.

I'm looking at a Duncan Distortion. Any experience with these? I'm hoping for something with fairly aggressive bite and that is hot enough to drive an amp pretty well but not so much that the dynamics get overly compressed. I'm open to other suggestions, too. Some of my heroes use the JB, so that's on the table too (I think I can just swap magnets to turna Distortion into a JB and vice versa).

It's for an Ibanez RG8127 seven string. Typical J Custom construction (mahogany body, 5 piece maple/wedge neck and rosewood fretboard). The guitar is inherently dark/warm. It came with a Dimarzio Tone Zone 7 at the bridge. Not a terrible pickup for my style (Jerry Cantrell wannabe), but there's a bit too much low end and not enough bite. I'm not looking for an all-out metal pickup, but it should be able to rock pretty hard a la Cantrell and Adam Jones. Thanks.
 
i believe Adam used the JB, not sure what Jerry uses. i have the Distortion in my EBMM, poplar body, and the tone is THICK. i havent played the guitar recently, but when i had my 5150 i gigged with it often and the combination screamed. the pickup is hot, maybe not EMG hot, but near IMO. however it has a lot fuller bass, mids are good and balanced, and the top end has some bite too it, but its smooth at the same time. however, in another guitar (an early 90s PRS CE24) the Distortion wasnt as fat, but had plenty of chunky mids and a good sizzle on the top end. still sounded great, just different.

im sure the distortion would sound great in your guitar. i find JB's to have a weird peak in the mids and i could never get a good tone out of them, even though i have heard people who get amazing tone from them, and i even really liked the single coil sized JB Jr. in my mexican strat. however, in mahongany it seems the JB's mid peak is kind of softenened compared to brighter woods.

personally, id go Distortion anyway! i CAN do more than just really gained out metal. hell, i almost always ran my gain at 3 on my 5150 on the lead channel (almost never above 4) and the fat tone from that pickup just just amazing.
 
This is purely a suggestion, but the Dimarzio PAF Pro's are sick pickups!
 
Thanks guys. I'll check out those clips over the weekend!
 
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