Seymour Duncan Nazgûl vs Pegasus vs Saturday Night Special For Les Paul High Gain

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slicepaperdavid

New member
My Les Paul's bridge P90 sounds great but is noisy and lacking in the low end responsiveness for classic/modern metal. I've decided to order a Duncan Custom shop humbucker that looks like a P90 and am not sure which model to get. I had a Black Winter in my PRS and wasn't a huge fan, it was more versatile than I expected but it was also pretty harsh and I wasn't a fan of how it responded to palm mutes and it's overall voicing. This leads me to some of Duncan's other recent high gain options the Nazgul and Pegasus, based off of clips the Nazgul is more to my taste. And for a more vintage voicing the Saturday Night Special sounds great but I haven't seen/heard any high'ish gain clips. Anyone have experience with these pups and/or any suggestions? Looking for a Seymour Duncan exclusively, thanks!
 
I had the Duncan SNS in a LP Standard and didn’t like it. Output was fine, but it had a flat sound with no exciting character or punch. But I’ve felt that way about other A4 loaded pups as well.

The Pegasus is a really dark pickup IMO. I don’t think it would fare well in an LP. I find the Custom a bit thin, but if you are stuck on Duncan, I would go with that or the 59/Custom hybrid.
 
Well I was about to say the Pegasus is bright and clear but that conflicts with previous post. If anything I would expect the Nazgul to be dark-ish but I would really expect it to be a lot of snarly mids but I've never played one.

I'm not super familiar with anything more than overwound PAF types in LPs, I put higher outputs in my Strats. But I at least wanted to provide another opinion on the Pegasus. I had it in a Chubtone that I sold to LPFreak and I'm pretty sure he swapped it for an Aldrich or similar. Maybe he'll chime in with his assessment. That Chub was sort of 'twangy' for lack of better word and was picky about pickups.
 
The sd p90 stack sounds really damn good for heavy sounds, the only issue is it could be deeper than the cavity of your lp, something to look into, I have one installed in a edwards lp with 500k pots and it rips.
 
The Nazgul chugs like a champ but that is all it does. The Black Winter is versatile and could work well in the right guitar. The Pegasus is tight like the Nazgul and more versatile and articulate on string separation than the Nazgul. You may also want to consider the Mark Holcomb pickup (Alpha and Omega). They are very nice and tight without feeling stiff. Articulate without feeling harsh. They clean up, they chug, they are nice. Depending on your guitars natural characteristics I could see any one of these choices I mentioned working well. Match the wrong one and I could see you not being as happy as you are hoping for. The Sentient neck is a great neck pickup for virtually anything.
 
RockyStar said:
The Sentient neck is a great neck pickup for virtually anything.
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I also had a Sentient neck in the Chubtone mentioned above and I absolutely loved that pickup. So much better than a '59n or a Jazz. I should mention both of those pickups were double cream so they were Custom Shop built.
 
DanTravis62 said:
For a Les Paul or similar

The best humbuckers by far are made by Jim Wagner.

Darkbursts, Godwoods, icebuckers, Ironman to taste.
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Wagner’s were my favorites for a while (especially the Iron Man and Darkburst), but have all been sold and rendered obsolete for me since getting Tone Specific pickups. He makes right now just PAF and vintage style pickups, but soon will come out with a highoutput set he made for me that I have 2 prototypes of. The Iron in particular was my favorite highoutput pickup, but this set he made me is I feel in every way superior. Tighter, clearer, more detail, more growl, more aggression, I can go on... With an amp as good as the Larry, you may wanna try these with them. I myself have another year or so for my PMM to arrive. Can’t wait! Never heard any Larry’s yet. I can already tell from your clips that it’ll be an exceptional amp. It deserves imo the best pickups, speakers, etc
 
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mchn13 said:
Everyones going to have an opinion,but i love the nazgul. Sounds like a more mid focused sh5, and rings like a bell under high gain.
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The Nazgul and BKP Pig90 are now the 2 contenders for my new bridge pup, not sure which route to go yet still. The Nazgul would be a Duncan custom shop P90 looking pickup with a Nazgul underneath the hood.
 
braintheory said:
Wagner’s were my favorites for a while (especially the Iron Man and Darkburst), but have all been sold and rendered obsolete for me since getting Tone Specific pickups. He makes right now just PAF and vintage style pickups, but soon will come out with a highoutput set he made for me that I have 2 prototypes of. The Iron in particular was my favorite highoutput pickup, but this set he made me is I feel in every way superior. Tighter, clearer, more detail, more growl, more aggression, I can go on... With an amp as good as the Larry, you may wanna try these with them. I myself have another year or so for my PMM to arrive. Can’t wait! Never heard any Larry’s yet. I can already tell from your clips that it’ll be an exceptional amp. It deserves imo the best pickups, speakers, etc
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Oh man, you're in for a treat when you get your Larry, if tight is your thing, they have the reputation for a reason.

The only Tone Specific humbuckers I've played were the blues set, and obviously they weren't ideal for what I'm going for. Hopefully they will release this custom set of yours!
 
DanTravis62 said:
Oh man, you're in for a treat when you get your Larry, if tight is your thing, they have the reputation for a reason.

The only Tone Specific humbuckers I've played were the blues set, and obviously they weren't ideal for what I'm going for. Hopefully they will release this custom set of yours!
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I for sure love my tightness

The Blues and his other current sets are loose sounding and very authentic to PAF’s. My signature set I assure you is nothing like those. I honestly thought he wouldn’t know what I was looking for in a metal pickup, but he actually knew exactly what I meant even though he himself is more of a blues guy. There is nothing remotely bluesy about my set. Even the Iron Man sounds more bluesy than my set. I’ve played them all with pickups and haven’t tried any passive pickups as tight or articualte as this one. Nothing like his other sets. The only thing tighter would be active stuff like EMG or Fishman Fluence’s, but there are lots of tonal sacrifices with those for what they excel at. The main thing that really sets them apart from other hotter pickups is that they have all the nuance, clarity and responsiveness of his PAF sets while still being all out metal pickups. They are a bit unforgiving as is, but am trying to get them tweaked to be a bit hotter and more midrange saturation/raunch like a JB and it’ll be perfect. Already made Iron Man’s obsolete for me as is and I was a huge fan of them (had 3 of them in 3 different guitars, but sold them). The neck pickup is also particularly impressive. Very liquidy, but also very focused and articulate. Perfect for shred, sweeps, etc
 
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braintheory said:
I for sure love my tightness

The Blues and his other current sets are loose sounding and very authentic to PAF’s. My signature set I assure you is nothing like those. I honestly thought he wouldn’t know what I was looking for in a metal pickup, but he actually knew exactly what I meant even though he himself is more of a blues guy. There is nothing remotely bluesy about my set. Even the Iron Man sounds more bluesy than my set. I’ve played them all with pickups and haven’t tried any passive pickups as tight or articualte as this one. Nothing like his other sets. The only thing tighter would be active stuff like EMG or Fishman Fluence’s, but there are lots of tonal sacrifices with those for what they excel at. The main thing that really sets them apart from other hotter pickups is that they have all the nuance, clarity and responsiveness of his PAF sets while still being all out metal pickups. They are a bit unforgiving as is, but am trying to get them tweaked to be a bit hotter and more midrange saturation/raunch like a JB and it’ll be perfect. Already made Iron Man’s obsolete for me as is and I was a huge fan of them (had 3 of them in 3 different guitars, but sold them). The neck pickup is also particularly impressive. Very liquidy, but also very focused and articulate. Perfect for shred, sweeps, etc
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Would love to check a set out!
 
slicepaperdavid said:
The Nazgul and BKP Pig90 are now the 2 contenders for my new bridge pup, not sure which route to go yet still. The Nazgul would be a Duncan custom shop P90 looking pickup with a Nazgul underneath the hood.
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Go with the Nazgul. If that pickup doesn't work for you then you most likely will not have success with the BKP either and have to regroup. The Nazgul is less expensive and easily available typically. Should be a killer sound. Good luck!
 
EyesOfTheSouth! said:
I had the Duncan SNS in a LP Standard and didn’t like it. Output was fine, but it had a flat sound with no exciting character or punch. But I’ve felt that way about other A4 loaded pups as well.

The Pegasus is a really dark pickup IMO. I don’t think it would fare well in an LP. I find the Custom a bit thin, but if you are stuck on Duncan, I would go with that or the 59/Custom hybrid.
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I put a RC Alnico IV mag in a 90’s A2P neck and it’s just like you describe. Difference between the pickups is the mag, same wind per Duncan.
 
DanTravis62 said:
Would love to check a set out!
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I will mention as soon as they’re ready for release and probably also will make some clips with them even though I know it’ll be hard to tell much given the amp, speakers and other stuff going, but will try to make something that’ll be helpful. Maybe a before and after with a different pickup or something like that
 
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