MCP Afwayu

[DanTravis62]

I had the afwayu in one my old strats. Just too ‘beefy’? Not sure how to explain. Really thick sounding to me. Then went to the Aldrich. Great pickup. Played for years. Was looking for a bill Lawrence style pickup ((Nuno kick)
Someone told me bout the dimarzio X2n.
It just popped. Perfect for what I play. Put it in all my guitars. Good luck on the tone chasing for sure!!

Were you the guy looking at bill Lawrences style pups that I recc'd the x2n? It very well could have been someone else, but if so, I'm glad it worked out for you!!!

 

[Fiesta Red]

Does he make a Super Distortion type pickup as well? One of Pete Thorn's videos alluded to one.

 

[Racerxrated]

I agree with everything you and @Racerxrated have said.

I actually have had an iron man and an afwayu in the same guitar before, and my experience mirrors yours. The afwayu is good, and the iron man is good-er.

Would love to hear clips of your tone specific hots ?

It’s funny; I have an IM in 2 of my guitars now(08 Charvel, 83 Schecter) and found another on eBay for pretty cheap. Was going to maybe put it in the 09 SoCal that has the Afwayu but I played both 08/09 Charvels back to back and man they sound almost exactly alike. But the IM makes the 08 sound thicker than it really is imo

 

[braintheory]

I may try the Angel Dust in a different guitar or two. Maybe one that already has a thicker or darker low end. I REALLY loved it for leads and it had great tone overall.

I find that some pickups are great for chugs and metal rhythm but not so much for leads. The SD Custom comes to mind, as does the MCP Solution and for actives the EMG Het set. In all cases, I switched them out because of the lead tone.

I struggle because I want a fairly tight (although not too tight or dry) low end that is very aggressive, yet I want the pick up to sing like a JB. It is hard to find something like this, and the Afwayu is what has come closest for me. Strangely enough, I really like the BKP Juggernaut too, at least in my PRC CU 24.

I'll have to check out the Iron Man someday too. I hear great things about it, but I'm not sure it will me what I want.

I totally get what you’re saying and went through the same thing with finding the right pickups for me. The Iron Man imo does both really well imo and that Tone Specific hot set even more so. I think the Angel Dust is much like you said, but I had mine in a heavy 1980 Yamaha SG2000, so it was still plenty beefy sounding in it, but other pickups in the same guitar definitely had more low end oomph like the Arcane Lynch

I don’t like the Bare Knuckles. They sound too sterile to me, but I did think the Juggernauts were one of their better models and I’ve tried almost their entire lineup

 

[braintheory]

I've tried the Nail bomb alnico set for awhile and didn't like it. I thought it was kind of bland and flat. The Holy Diver was cool, but had way too much of a mid hump for me. I'm not a fan of pick ups with a huge mid hump. The only BKP I've liked so far is the Jugg. All of these tests were in my CU 24, which now has the Jugg and my Suhr Modern has an Afwayu set.

Bland and flat is just an inherent quality to BKP’s in my experience

 

[braintheory]

I agree with everything you and @Racerxrated have said.

I actually have had an iron man and an afwayu in the same guitar before, and my experience mirrors yours. The afwayu is good, and the iron man is good-er.

Would love to hear clips of your tone specific hots ?

My recording abilities are quite bad honestly, but maybe I can send you one of my sets just to try out and send back. This set is going to literally have my name on it (we talked a while about what I was looking for with him). The only thing is it’s still gonna be tweaked and this isn’t the finalized version, but still probably pretty damn close and the neck is really outstanding and maybe won’t need further tweaks

 

[DanTravis62]

My recording abilities are quite bad honestly, but maybe I can send you one of my sets just to try out and send back. This set is going to literally have my name on it (we talked a while about what I was looking for with him). The only thing is it’s still gonna be tweaked and this isn’t the finalized version, but still probably pretty damn close and the neck is really outstanding and maybe won’t need further tweaks

Nice man! Yeah I'd be totally stoked to try them out. Your descriptions of them sound very, very close to my sort of "idealized" humbucker, which obviously has me very curious.

I'm even more interested because of some of the shootouts and clips I did with Scott's A5 pickup - for the first time in many years I'm open-minded that there may be pickups that are more suitable for some of my guitars than the Wagner designs I love.

 

[DanTravis62]

It’s funny; I have an IM in 2 of my guitars now(08 Charvel, 83 Schecter) and found another on eBay for pretty cheap. Was going to maybe put it in the 09 SoCal that has the Afwayu but I played both 08/09 Charvels back to back and man they sound almost exactly alike. But the IM makes the 08 sound thicker than it really is imo

Yeah, it's easy to forget that everything else in a guitars hardware/electronics has effects on the tone too.

For example, I effing hate the high mid honk honk of a JB, but I've also heard plenty of guitars they just work in.

 

[DanTravis62]

Cool, they’re both currently loaded in guitars at the moment, but I’m always swapping and tinkering as you know, so can hit you up with a pm when I have a set currently not in something

Absolutely man, just hit me up when it comes up, I'd love to give them a spin and see what they're all about.

Agreed it’s all puzzle pieces to best mix all the tonal ingredients. Even my Tone Specific can just not be the perfect fit some guitars (mostly in some lighter weight ones, but I also just tend to favor lower output pickups in lighter guitars), but it does work well in many and I think will do even better in most once tweaks are finalized

Absolutely. I've noticed, for example, that when attached to a pickguard, I seem to need more output than when it's mounted to a ring/the body.

I've also had similar experiences with lighter weight guitars and lower output.

I also prefer having "darker" humbuckers on 25.5 scale guitars, because my ear wants to hear closer to a 24.75 scale humbucker sound; I particularly like Duncan sh-14s for this purpose.

Everyone has their own ear, and their own gear, and the pickup that's right for someone may not work for someone else because of those factors.

 

[braintheory]

Absolutely man, just hit me up when it comes up, I'd love to give them a spin and see what they're all about.



Absolutely. I've noticed, for example, that when attached to a pickguard, I seem to need more output than when it's mounted to a ring/the body.

I've also had similar experiences with lighter weight guitars and lower output.

I also prefer having "darker" humbuckers on 25.5 scale guitars, because my ear wants to hear closer to a 24.75 scale humbucker sound; I particularly like Duncan sh-14s for this purpose.

Everyone has their own ear, and their own gear, and the pickup that's right for someone may not work for someone else because of those factors.

Will do! I think you’ll be impressed. My recording abilities also are actually decent for classical guitar since it’s my main thing, but haven’t spent the time yet working on it for electric, so would just sound bad for now

My TS set is pretty well balanced I’d say and has worked equally in well in my darker and brighter guitars. Was great in my McInurff and Charvel’s, but just in lighter guitars preferred his paf sets

We all have our own ears like you said and some have very specific needs, which it seems like you might, especially for your tight rhythmic style, but I would still say whether this pickup set does or doesn’t work for you, imo the level of clarity and detail it has over other hotter pickups I’ve tried is just undeniable, at least to my ears. I’m sure it’s the same (or similar) story with your Larry vs other amps. Still one thing I don’t have in my Arsenal

 

[DanTravis62]

Will do! I think you’ll be impressed. My recording abilities also are actually decent for classical guitar since it’s my main thing, but haven’t spent the time yet working on it for electric, so would just sound bad for now

My TS set is pretty well balanced I’d say and has worked equally in well in my darker and brighter guitars. Was great in my McInurff and Charvel’s, but just in lighter guitars preferred his paf sets

We all have our own ears like you said and some have very specific needs, which it seems like you might, especially for your tight rhythmic style, but I would still say whether this pickup set does or doesn’t work for you, imo the level of clarity and detail it has over other hotter pickups I’ve tried is just undeniable, at least to my ears. I’m sure it’s the same (or similar) story with your Larry vs other amps. Still one thing I don’t have in my Arsenal

Absolutely, just from your descriptions I'm very excited to try them out. The clarity thing has been made even more important for me because of the Larry; it makes everything more transparent. And that can be a great thing for pickups, or a very bad thing for some other pickups. It makes it very easy to pick out details of the sound because the amp is so paranormally responsive to input variance

 

[braintheory]

Absolutely, just from your descriptions I'm very excited to try them out. The clarity thing has been made even more important for me because of the Larry; it makes everything more transparent. And that can be a great thing for pickups, or a very bad thing for some other pickups. It makes it very easy to pick out details of the sound because the amp is so paranormally responsive to input variance

Yeah an amp like your Larry deserves equally good pickups, speakers, etc

Like you’re Larry, if you’re guitar doesn’t inherently have a good tone to it, it can’t hide behind my TS pickup the way most hot pickups would mask its tone. It’s like his PAF’s in that regard where you will still hear a lot of the actual guitar’s tone come though. It actually, like his pafs, can bring out acoustic qualities of the guitar that maybe at first you didn’t notice that much, kinda the job of what a pickup should do in a sense lol

 

[Racerxrated]

Yeah, it's easy to forget that everything else in a guitars hardware/electronics has effects on the tone too.

For example, I effing hate the high mid honk honk of a JB, but I've also heard plenty of guitars they just work in.

I remember getting a 91 Hamer Diablo; just had this killer rich tone. I ended up pulling the JB (MJ wound) thinking it HAD to be the pickup. Put it into another SS I had and it sounded flat. That was my realization moment about the quality of the wood being the most important thing.

 

[braintheory]

I remember getting a 91 Hamer Diablo; just had this killer rich tone. I ended up pulling the JB (MJ wound) thinking it HAD to be the pickup. Put it into another SS I had and it sounded flat. That was my realization moment about the quality of the wood being the most important thing.

I had the same experience when playing this one ‘68 Les Paul Deluxe that was retrofitted with humbuckers. It sounded so good, but the guitar was outside my budget, so wanted to ask to buy just the pickups, but guess what they were? Generic, ‘57 Classics made today that come in many regular Gibsons. A pickup I’ve never really liked

 

[DanTravis62]

Yeah an amp like your Larry deserves equally good pickups, speakers, etc

Like you’re Larry, if you’re guitar doesn’t inherently have a good tone to it, it can’t hide behind my TS pickup the way most hot pickups would mask its tone. It’s like his PAF’s in that regard where you will still hear a lot of the actual guitar’s tone come though. It actually, like his pafs, can bring out acoustic qualities of the guitar that maybe at first you didn’t notice that much, kinda the job of what a pickup should do in a sense lol

That's actually exactly why most of my guitars have darkbursts and godwoods, and the ones that have higher output pickups have been tested with those PAF style pickups first. I 1000% agree that if the guitar doesn't have good "guts," nothing will mask it; and that goes doubly so for going into a Larry, lol. I do run the Larry with an assortment of good speakers, but I'm actually doing some experimentation right now on that, too. I've kind of "proved" to myself that I can get Schaffer-esque tones, now I need to figure out what works for my own playing style.

I remember getting a 91 Hamer Diablo; just had this killer rich tone. I ended up pulling the JB (MJ wound) thinking it HAD to be the pickup. Put it into another SS I had and it sounded flat. That was my realization moment about the quality of the wood being the most important thing.

The YouTube autists can spout all the GIGO science they want; I've learned through hard-earned experience that not only are you right, but that you're right and it makes a huge difference, especially for certain types of guitars.

 

[DanTravis62]

I had the same experience when playing this one ‘68 Les Paul Deluxe that was retrofitted with humbuckers. It sounded so good, but the guitar was outside my budget, so wanted to ask to buy just the pickups, but guess what they were? Generic, ‘57 Classics made today that come in many regular Gibsons. A pickup I’ve never really liked

This has happened to me a couple of times, too. With the white fender strat in my signature...I got smart and ended up buying the whole guitar in the end, lol.

And the YouTube geniuses would have you believe the pickups are the only real inherent "sound altering" component ??

 

[braintheory]

This has happened to me a couple of times, too. With the white fender strat in my signature...I got smart and ended up buying the whole guitar in the end, lol.

And the YouTube geniuses would have you believe the pickups are the only real inherent "sound altering" component ??

Come on now, don’t you know that tonewoods are all just a myth

 

[DanTravis62]

Come on now, don’t you know that tonewoods are all just a myth

*Robot voice*

AH YES, HOW FOOLISH.

*loading screen*

HE HAS. MADE ERROR. TO NARRATIVE.

*loading screen*

TONEWOOD. IS. MYTH. HEADROOM IS MYTH. BUDGET GEAR, JUST AS. GOOD. AS NICE GEAR.

PROCESSING. NEW YOUTUBE INFORMATION.

MUST. CONSUME. MORE BUDGET GEAR.

WASTE MONEY ON GEAR IS GOOD BECAUSE YOUTUBE.

 

[DanTravis62]

he

hey

..........hey

 

[Monkey Man]

It's a bot sans AI.