Pick ups......

Hollywood

Hollywood

Active member
Okay. I want to know who runs what pick ups and the low down on your choice and the style of music you picked them for. I am mostly interested in Humbuckers, but good ingo on single coils is a great extra to learn as we go.
Suhr,Bare Knuckles,Wcr, Seymour Duncan, Rio Grande, Dimarzio, Gibson,Motor City, etc........
Step right up and post away.....yes there was a pick up shoot out, and I am going to try and find it and re visit that video...... :yes:
 
Yo Hollywood, what's up? Hey I love the Motor City Detroiter in a Les Paul. Great pickup for rock/metal. So great I am going to be selling my 2nd degree, just love the Detroiter much more. Also just picked up a guitar with a Timmons AT1 humbucker, I was pleasantly surprised, very nice. :thumbsup:
 
Pick-up's I favor:

Duncan JB/59 (Les Paul)
EMG 85/81 (Thin body guitars)
Suhr Aldrich (Les Paul)
MCP Solutions (Les Paul). They are very hot though. Got to watch 'em....
Tom Anderson H3's (Anderson's)
 
I like my Lesters with stock BB1s and BB-Pros. The GoldTop has Classic '57s in it. I like the lower output pups with Lesters, for whatever reason, they really allow the wood to come through, and they sound f'n awesome with something like my 20thA or a topped out boutique combo. They grind and have a growl.

I have Painkillers (BKP) in my drop tuned, heavy string ESP-NTII. This axe plays aggressive djent style music. The beauty of these pups is that they're not uber compressed, so even though they're typically run through a higher gain head, there's still lots of colour and texture to their grunt. They're extremely rich, and have a bite to them that sets them apart in the djent arena - they cut like nobody's business. Sounds great in split mode too.

I have RiffRaffs (BKP) in a custom Hamer. This guitar does everything well - except the nastiest of metal or hard, hard rock. It's a beautiful sounding, rich, older school style pup with gobs of mids and a nice articulate lowend. Split mode rocks, the neck is syrupy and spanky in single coil mode.

Looking at putting Nailbombs or Aftermaths (both BKP) in my ESP-FRII, this guitar is my stunt guitar. Fast playing and lots of shredding. It's my noodler and it runs through everything... Mostly higher gain.

My Suhr is loaded with stock pups... Neck and Bridge in split shine like a true strat style jangle.

Pups I've used that I may consider again - BKP Mules, Emeralds, Black Dogs. War Pigs not so much.

I guess you can see I'm pretty set on my BKPs. But don't mistake this perception, I love stock Gibby pups in the right Lesters as well.

Peace,
V. :thumbsup:
 
So I take it the Wcr's are more for traditional tones? Any one run any of those? the god wood pups sound interesting. even the dark burst sound good. I really like what Andy wood did on a few clips on the Suhr site with a SSH+ BRIDGE AND A SSV NECK set up. :yes:
 
BKP fan here too. There are some good comparison clips on their site, real easy to hear the differences. Just go to each pickup desc., and there are clips and suggested uses.
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/

out of the ones I've used:
Miracle Man in a basswood RG, love how those pups react in baswood. use it for metal and 80's thrashy stuff. Cleans are actually decent, and the neck pup was a pleasant surprise.

Painkilers in a mahogany PRS Tremonti and Ibanez JCustom. metal lowend, sick grinding mid/upper mid. Still bright, but I like how they tame some super highs in mahog my ears don't dig. Use it for 90's hard rock and modern metal. PK neck and cleans are serviceable for my tastes, but not my favorites.

Holydivers in alder superstrats. Love how the pickup thickens up a guitar, smooths out the highs, and grinds like a mofo in the mids. Use it for hotrodded 80's tones and shreddy stuff, or at least my attempts, lol. Probably my favorite lead pup so far though, and one of the few neck pups I enjoy using. Real vocal quality to it. Splits the best out of the ones I've tried too.

I have a Rebel Yell waiting to go in another tremonti, and looking for something else for another Alder superstrat. More hotrodded 80's tones. Might go with another HD set, alnico nailbomb, or alnico warpig from BK. Other guys I've been looking at, are Solutions from MCP, and Rockers from Stephens Designs.
 
yeah, I went to the bkp site last night. I am leaning towards the rebel yell pups from them. But in a Paul though ?
 
Hollywood":1s943i5o said:
yeah, I went to the bkp site last night. I am leaning towards the rebel yell pups from them. But in a Paul though ?
Click to expand...
that's basically what they were designed around as far as I know. :thumbsup:
 
i've been really geeked on the duncan screamin demon in the bridge for metal/hard rock and blues as of late. i run a bunch of different ones in my axes though and basically listed my experiences with them all here:

viewtopic.php?p=1071594#p1071594

not the be all end all, just my personal experiences.

i've also used the gibson stock 490/496's and really dont like them much at all...but they'd do in a pinch.
i actually have a bunch im going to sell soon.
 
I am a huge fan of The Dimarzio Super Distortion. I have been through a ton of pups (including WCR, BKP, MCP, Rio Grande, BG, and every Duncan imaginable). The Super Distortion just "WORKS" in everything I put it in.......big, fat, tight, but not overly hot/compressed.
 
I just hit on my favorite combination so far. I got the SD SH-1 blues bridge pup in the neck of my Les Paul. Then, I put a ceramic D-Sonic Dimarzio in the bridge. It really sears and soars. You can get a lot of bluesy tone out of the neck. Dropping the tone of the neck and us middle switch is a dark swirling crunch. Treble position is treble and solo. Cleans are great on the ceramic, very bright. Bluesy and open on the neck.

I like it so well that I'm thinking of making an evil twin for it out of a white Epi LP. Use the SH-1 blues neck left over from the set. Getting a Dimarzio Crunch Lab. Should be similar sounding. And it gives me a backup, or one for home and one for rehersal, or one studio and one practice.

Anyway, I just really like it is what I'm saying.
 
EMG 808X... I am currently playing an 8-string and didn't feel comfortable that passives would be able to maintain clarity that low, although other people seem to have no problem. I always had trouble with too much bass on detuned 7-strings with an old rig, so I wanted to play it safe. I think the sterility of EMGs was a worthwhile sacrifice. If I decide to stck with 8-string guitars in the future, I'm probably going to get something that I can slap a Lundgren M8 bridge into, and maybe one of those Q-Tuner bass pickups for the neck. That wouldn't be for awhile though, because I'm completely satisfied with the Ibanez RGA8 I currently play.

I have Bare Knuckle Painkiller/Coldsweat and EMG 81-7/707 in a couple of Ibanez RG 7-strings.

I don't own any 6-strings except for a Squier CVC Telecaster which still has stock pickups. I've been looking at mini-humbuckers for the bridge lately, but the stock neck is surprisingly crystal clear and smooth sounding.

I play prog/tech death metal, and almost anything else on the more extreme side of heavy metal and hardcore punk.
 
i like my EMGs for other styles than only metal. they retain their tone when backed off instead of going dead at low volume.i also like the punch and clarity without being fuzzy at high gain. i use them for everything.

my les paul has the original mini-humbuckers. they have a lot of feedback but have a good sharp crunch if you can control it. thinking about going with duncans or a pair of EMG P60 or P60A's
 
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