BURNTHISCORPSE":bm9100ka said:
how is the Aldrich compared to a duncan distortion?
I've never had them in the same guitar, but I think I know that duncan pretty well. The Aldrich has more clarity and is less compressed. For a high gain pickup the Aldrich also does a good job of letting the guitar "breathe". I find the Aldrich is tighter (especially in the lows) and is much more dynamic; they have a nice responsive spring to their feel without getting compressed and mushy. The Duncan's I find more strident in feel and aren't, as open, and dynamic. For these reasons I think the Aldrich has more of a "fun factor" when playing.
Tonally the Aldrich is a brighter pickup than the duncan with a slight dip in the low mids, but overall pretty balanced. The Duncan has more lows to my ears. The Aldrich is a sweeter pickup since the high end is smoother. Whereas the Duncan have a sharper more cutting high end.
For cleans and coil splitting I definitely prefer the Aldrich. I also find the Aldrich is able to clean up better. It could still do better in that department IMO, but I don't find it to get as thin and weak as the duncan when rolling back the volume.
Overall, I prefer the Aldrich, but there is one area I've still haven't been completly happy with the Aldrich: extreme metal rhythm tones. I've only played the Aldrich's in a super strat, so that maybe why. I also can help but imagine that the Aldrich would do it those tones equally as well a LP or another large body style guitar. All that aside I can get more punch out of the duncan for the metal stuff. The low end and sharper highs of the duncan also sound really good for those agressive tones. The clarity isn't as good and they aren't as tight, but in the right guitar or with a boost it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Well that's my take on the two...all IMO of course
it's cool and did what i wanted it to, but this guitar has 12-52's and is drop tuned, so pretty hard to compare to my uncovered with 10-46 in E? 
