Motor City Pickups, forum member description thread

[the4thlast1]

Ok so I wanted to see if we could get a thread going for people who are interested in Motor City pickups and want to know what the different models might offer as per user descriptions and opinions. Something like this may have been done in the past but there are a bunch of new models now. I personally find it difficult to get enough info from the website. Dont get me wrong Wade is great at talking to his customers on the phone to give the down low but maybe this would also help. I will kick it off.

Personally I have a Hot Head neck and a Garuda Bridge pickup in my Alder body Charvel SanDimas. Which replaced a 59 neck\JB model.

Hot Head Neck : To my ears this pickup has great clarity for a neck pickup across all the strings. It doesnt get muddy on the lows. It is not an extremely fat\warm\dark neck tone that a lot of other pickups tend to be. It is in no way harsh or overly bright either but it has good cut and sparkle in the highend. It has a nice saturated and juicy tone to it without getting cloudy or undefined. Sustain for days and the juice needed for legato runs. Great Neck pickup , I like it a lot more than the 59.

Garuda Bridge : This pickup is based on the JB from what I understand. It def has the JB vibe goin on to my ears. It has that juicy saturated tone and character the JB has but it is much more even across the frequency range. It has more bass, more even mids and a nice more open top end. I found the JB to not have enough lowend and too much upper mids. Somehow Wade was able to keep a similar voicing yet extend the lowend and keep it tight at the same time. This is not a stiff sounding (feeling) pickup but it is also not loose or undefined. This pickup address the issues I had with the JB, very happy with it. If you like the JB you will love the Garuda !

 

[Bloodrock]

I've got a set of Angel Dust's in a LP.
Bridge pickup is a very hot PAF type. Open, crunchy, but not too hot. Just right amount of low end, good midrange but not overpowering, and smooth slightly lowered treble. Great for bright amps or guitars.
Neck pickup is smooth and round, also hot PAF sound, but without the harshness of my Duncan 59 neck pickups. Very good match for the bridge pickup.
These replaced BKP nailbombs and are much better IMO. Definitely want to try more MCP's.

 

[lolzgreg]

I have a Hot Head set in my all mahogany PRS Mike Mushok Baritone (which is tuned to standard with 10's).

The Hot Head neck is the best neck pickup for lead playing I have ever heard, bar-none. It has none of the muddiness associated with 90% of lead pickups I've owned, and it has plenty of cut without being harsh. Wade, you hit a home run with this one.

The Hot Head bridge is a super juicy pickup that is a ton of fun to play. It has a nice bounce to it with a great amount of output, but it isn't grainy, like many high output passive bridge pickups. I feel like this pickup is a hair on the dark side (but only a bit) in my all mahogany guitar, but would be perfect in a mahogany body guitar with a maple neck, or an alder guitar with a maple neck. The clarity and harmonic content is spot on in my experience compared to other passives.

I also have a Hellbaby in a mahogany body guitar with a bolt on maple neck (Schecter Shaun Morgan signature) and it is very full sounding with good clarity and string separation. There is not a ton of glue in this pickup, but it is super tight and makes you work for your tone. The pickup in my opinion is best suited for guitars that have some natural bounce and juice, because it may be a hair stiff for an alder guitar, or all maple guitar.

 

[the4thlast1]

Lets see if we can keep this rolling with more descriptions..Thanks for the input so far guys Im considering a Hothead bridge for another alder body super strat I have but theAfwayu and Detroiter have my attention also.

 

[metalmaniac93]

Well I it is hard to do descriptions since the pickups react differently in each type of guitar and amp set up. Hopefully one day Wade will have his website up. Here is what I have or tried so far and the * are the ones I no longer own, but the Afwayu's are in my friends RR Jackson Neck-Thu and this is where the Afwayu bridge and neck shine IMO. The Afwayu can get bassy/lots of low end in certain guitars, but pairs great in a maple NT guitar such as the Jackson RR. I will give descriptions of the others beside the AD at a later date, descriptions of the Hot Heads and Garuda in the responses above are dead on.

The Angel Dust (A5) is more of a pissed off dryer lower output JB with a more strident top end. It is less bassy than the Afwayu with more emphasis on the low mids and a sharper more defined top end. The difference in overwound/underwound is more in openness/outout as with any type of pickup. These pickup are perfect for a darker sounding guitar including darker alder bodied guitars like one of mine with no Floyd, Both appeared very bright in a Charvel Floyd rose alder bodied guitar (brass trem block) that I have and I will be replacing the AD underwound one with a Garuda (already ordered). The AD sounded way different than what I had in the Carvin and even in the Luxxtone El Machete (no trem) I tried at TMs played through the Atomica, which I have, but with different speakers and cab.


*Afwayu set (underwound)
*Nasty Nasty (b)
Angel Dust (b)
Angel Dust (underwound)
Angel Dust (overwound)
Angel Dust (A2) (b) &
Garuda (b) &
*Detroiter (b)
Detroiter
*2nd Degree BB
Hot Heads (b) &

 

[TIBrent]

I have a Hot Head set in my all mahogany PRS Mike Mushok Baritone (which is tuned to standard with 10's).

Why in the hell would you tune a 27.7 scale neck to standard?
Anyhow, I have a few of these pickups so here is my take. I have the Garuda in my ESP horizon (alder), It is one of the most well balanced pickups I have ever played. No cross-frequency cancellation between the low strings & high strings. Makes the big chords really vibrant. Only complaint, I wish the bottom end was a little tighter, this could be fixed with a ceramic mag version of the pickup though. Second, The Afwayu, it reminds me a bit of the BKP nailbomb, sort of like a raw snarly much hotter PAF. I've done a lot of recording with it. I like Third), The solution, my favorite of the bunch. Hot & Heavy! Just hot I love it. Very nice harmonics.
-Brent

 

[9ball]

What would be a good mc p/u to put in the bridge of a mahogany RG with an edge tremolo and a PAF joe in the neck? For typical rock/classic rock and able to clean up rolling the volume back

By the way i tried a JB once and didn't like it - to bright/too many highs

 

[metalmaniac93]

What would be a good mc p/u to put in the bridge of a mahogany RG with an edge tremolo and a PAF joe in the neck? For typical rock/classic rock and able to clean up rolling the volume back

By the way i tried a JB once and didn't like it - to bright/too many highs

Try the Garuda or even the Afwayu assuming your RG has a maple top and maple neck? Even the Detroiter would work too.

 

[Stone Heavy Sound]

I have a Blackbelt set in a Japanese LP clone. Wade custom wound my set for the Peter Green style setup where the polarity is opposite, the middle position is amazing and unique. The Blackbelts sound to me like the perfect PAF tone, crystal clear highs, snarly mids, very very tight lows. Not super hot, and they have a rigid feel on playing. Oozing with harmonic content like I've never heard in any other pickup.

Afwayu in a LP copy bridge. Wade custom wound one for me based on what I like and don't like about EMG81. He nailed it. Has that high gain ripping tone, and a moderately spongy feel but actually very tight with lots of low end, very saturated but feels fairly tight. Pinched harmonics pop off easily.

Detroiter in LP copy bridge. This pickup is all about mids. It's absolutely perfect through a JCM800, has a beautiful grind to it, and somewhat spongy on the feel. Pretty high output, less than Afwayu, much more than Blackbelts or 2nd degree Blackbelts.

2nd Degree Black Belt in Bridge of LP copy. This pickup is as Wade describes it, more of the Blackbelt. Singing, super clear highs, tasty cutting mids, and very very tight bottom and firm feel, maybe a touch hotter output than the Blackbelt but without changing the tone or feel. Amazing for lead tones and solos.

No BS, I was a pretty crappy guitarist for the amount of years I had been playing until I discovered MCP a few years back. They inspired me to play so much more and my skill has grown tremendously, it was like a missing piece.

 

[lolzgreg]

I have a Hot Head set in my all mahogany PRS Mike Mushok Baritone (which is tuned to standard with 10's).

Why in the hell would you tune a 27.7 scale neck to standard?

I like a good deal of string tension because it offers wonderful rebound for my picking. I also dislike strings heavier than 11's, so using a lighter string on a longer scale offers great bounciness, juiciness, and kerrang, but none of the floppy characteristics of 8's or 9's in standard

 

[fuzzyguitars]

Ill play

I have LOTS of MCP pickups!

Today Ill talk about Afwayu

I play Les Pauls and Tremonti PRS stop tail.

If you need a pickup to fatten up an anemic guitar, this is the pickup that you need.

It does everything the Tonezone was supposed to do.

It has nice clarity and tons of output. Loads of midrange and is great for high gain. Cleans up pretty good for a screamer bridge pickup.

It sounds particularly good with a no load pot or 1 meg pot for the tone control and volume control.

It may sound too dark in a dark guitar.

 

[metalmaniac93]

Ill play

I have LOTS of MCP pickups!

Today Ill talk about Afwayu

I play Les Pauls and Tremonti PRS stop tail.

If you need a pickup to fatten up an anemic guitar, this is the pickup that you need.

It does everything the Tonezone was supposed to do.

It has nice clarity and tons of output. Loads of midrange and is great for high gain. Cleans up pretty good for a screamer bridge pickup.

It sounds particularly good with a no load pot or 1 meg pot for the tone control and volume control.

It may sound too dark in a dark guitar.

I second that!!! Perfect for a bright guitar IMO and destroys the TZ. Never tried with no load pot or 1 meg pot.

 

[OUTLAW1969]

The Angel Dust (A5) is more of a pissed off dryer lower output JB with a more strident top end.

I never could find a decent clip of the Angel Dust, so when I stumbled across one of Marks old YouTube vids, I knew this needed to be added to this thread for future reference.

 

[Heritage Softail]

I heard a few clips of Mark with the Nastee Nastee. Sounded close to perfect.

I have an old LP with the set of NN. They have a great heated up PAF tone with some juice. A great crunchy bit going on, but just a flat out lead player dream. If there has ever been a Talent Booster type pup, it is those. I know Cantrell talked about the Awatayfu or however the hell you spell that. The NN just sounds so perfect, it makes sense to play less and let the guitar tone just sound good.