favorite wood/pickups for high gain?

[sleewell2]

black limba

SD pearly gates

 

[mchn13]

My two favorite guitars, have ended up being mahogany bodies with maple caps and ebony fretboards. I have a JB in my les Paul, and a Bkp painkillers in my esp. but, like others have said before, it depends on the guitar, construction, piece of wood, etc... both of my main guitars ring like a bell unplugged, and are resonate acoustically. Both are good under high gain, but the esp with the bkp's is just a tight, grindy, chunk monster.

 

[FourT6and2]

I have three guitars all with different body and top wood. But same model of guitar. They all have the same neck though and sound about the same. I've found that the neck makes more of a difference. So I guess I really like wenge/bubinga 5-ply as a neck wood. For pickups, I really like SD Omega and Sentient.

 

[mchn13]

I have found wood is very unique and just because it's a species of wood doesn't mean they sound the same; 2 cuts of ash could sound completely different. I'm assuming it's because how the wood fibers grew and their density/pattern. I think it matters more on a particular cut of wood, not necessarily the wood species itself.

This again +1000. Commenting again cause I find this subject fascinating. I'm always amazed when a certain guitar just plays or sounds great when the next one is meh, all things being equal. I have a friend who owns a studio and he has an old Jackson slsmg(?) that weighs like five pounds, and sounds like a ton of bricks. Just kills les Paul's and shit. Lucky piece of wood I guess. I've tried to buy it off him a few times when we're drinking lol.

 

[jeff5]

I will agree that pick ups make a much bigger difference. I haven't tried enough guitar woods to really make valid comparison, but it seems like anything with Mahogany sounds great for metal. Again though, I think pick ups make the biggest difference.

I really like the Suhr Aldrich and Motor City Afwayu for high gain hard rock and metal tones. If I want to go back to ceramic, the PRS Tremonti is a FANTASTIC metal pick up that completely flies under the radar. I also really like the Seymour Duncan Black Winter. Don't let the name fool you, it is very versatile. And honestly, I've been round and round teh block with every Seymour Duncan Custom variation, but the stock Custom is just...right for a lot of tones.