Sludge/Doom/Death/Dro)))ne Pickups

[psychic_driver]

I've got a Les Paul tuned down to C standard. Its got stock pickups in it and its time for a change.

Can y'all recommend a good humbucker set that pushes a tight low end & a lot of mids?

I want to maintain clarity and articulation for palm muted down picked death metal chug riffs on the bottom four frets and have maximum sustain for extended drone sections. I've got a SD black winter in the bridge of another guitar that works well for black metal but I have read mixed reviews about pickups of high or lower output for slower sludgier styles

 

[Music&Chaos]

I've got a Les Paul tuned down to C standard. Its got stock pickups in it and its time for a change.

Can y'all recommend a good humbucker set that pushes a tight low end & a lot of mids?

I want to maintain clarity and articulation for palm muted down picked death metal chug riffs on the bottom four frets and have maximum sustain for extended drone sections. I've got a SD black winter in the bridge of another guitar that works well for black metal but I have read mixed reviews about pickups of high or lower output for slower sludgier styles

I have always been happy with my various sets from Planet Tone, even when fully stock with no magnet swaps.

That being said - I particulary find that i like A4 magnets...like a lot. The bass end can be big but is always tight and there is a thick midrange. Top end is clear and is also broader/not as sharp feeling but still clear.

Any set from PT you can request to change to any magnet you want with no issues.

Again, I have quite a few of their stock pickups and enjoy them as well.

Catch them on sale all the time and they are crazy cheap and killer sounding.

 

[japetus]

I've got a Les Paul tuned down to C standard. Its got stock pickups in it and its time for a change.

Can y'all recommend a good humbucker set that pushes a tight low end & a lot of mids?

I want to maintain clarity and articulation for palm muted down picked death metal chug riffs on the bottom four frets and have maximum sustain for extended drone sections. I've got a SD black winter in the bridge of another guitar that works well for black metal but I have read mixed reviews about pickups of high or lower output for slower sludgier styles

Well I like Xl-500's for anything heavy but, have you tried an EQ in the loops?

 

[psychic_driver]

Well I like Xl-500's for anything heavy but, have you tried an EQ in the loops?

I use a boss EQ in the loop for certain parts but I don't like to leave it on all the time because it introduces some noise. Sounds awesome on droning bits to clip certain frequencies and add punch & harmonic depth but I don't want to rely on it constantly

 

[psychic_driver]

I have always been happy with my various sets from Planet Tone, even when fully stock with no magnet swaps.

Catch them on sale all the time and they are crazy cheap and killer sounding.

Good looking out! Their prices seem very reasonable

 

[BeZo]

I use a JB and a Jazz in that tuning for that genre.

 

[anomaly]

I'd say Duncan Invader. That's what the guys in Down use.

 

[Music&Chaos]

Good looking out! Their prices seem very reasonable

Also, if you check out some reviews for their aggressor(?) If I recall people say it is a better JB. They have some other pickups that people say sound like an invader and JB had a baby, etc so there is bound to be something that ticks the box.

Good luck with whatever you decide to slam in there.

 

[rsm]

Duncan Nazgul

DiMarzio Titan

 

[psychic_driver]

Been doing some research into pickup outputs, magnets ect. The planet tone pickup builder says stronger magnets give more drive with less sustain. The stock pickups in my les paul are low output with alnico II magnets. I like the sustain and response they have but they lack punch & beef.

I am thinking to get a set that is wound with a high output in the realm of a nazgul or invader - up to 15 or 16.5 - but uses a weaker magnet than these "modern" pickups to maintain the sustain

 

[buller]

It seems like we play very similar styles. In my Les Paul copy tuned to C# standard I've been through an SD Custom, Black Winter, Jim Wagner Iron Man, Gibson 500T, and have finally settled on the Mighty Mite 1400. It's super aggressive and saturated but is a much lower wind than typical high output ceramic pickups which gives it nice clarity. It hits the sweet spot for me and works great for OSDM, brutal death metal, and sludge/doom/post-metal stuff I play

 

[psychic_driver]

It seems like we play very similar styles. In my Les Paul copy tuned to C# standard I've been through an SD Custom, Black Winter, Jim Wagner Iron Man, Gibson 500T, and have finally settled on the Mighty Mite 1400. It's super aggressive and saturated but is a much lower wind than typical high output ceramic pickups which gives it nice clarity. It hits the sweet spot for me and works great for OSDM, brutal death metal, and sludge/doom/post-metal stuff I play

In your experience do you find that harmonic depth & saturation is brought out more by a stronger magnet or by a hotter wind ?

I like how the mighty mite has a lower wind (in the realm of high output pickups anyway) but a strong magnet. I am thinking of splitting the difference in the opposite way with a higher wind but a weaker magnet.

I want the pickup to run hot & push the amp hard but I don't want the mids to completely dominate the output as most high output pickups like the black winter do. I've got a black winter in another guitar tuned to D standard that I use for black metal. Works great there - lotta great midrange and high end that sounds nasty with the tremolo minor chords - but doesn't have as much beef & body as I'd like for downpicked death chugs and long meditative drones

 

[buller]

In your experience do you find that harmonic depth & saturation is brought out more by a stronger magnet or by a hotter wind ?

I like how the mighty mite has a lower wind (in the realm of high output pickups anyway) but a strong magnet. I am thinking of splitting the difference in the opposite way with a higher wind but a weaker magnet.

I want the pickup to run hot & push the amp hard but I don't want the mids to completely dominate the output as most high output pickups like the black winter do. I've got a black winter in another guitar tuned to D standard that I use for black metal. Works great there - lotta great midrange and high end that sounds nasty with the tremolo minor chords - but doesn't have as much beef & body as I'd like for downpicked death chugs and long meditative drones

Yeah I couldn't get along with the mids of the Black Winter. Unfortunately I can't be of much help when it comes to different magnets since I've just stuck with ceramic so far in my Les Paul. When it comes to hotter vs less hot winds I haven't found there's any clear correlation. Iron Man was probably the most uncompressed of the pickups I've had despite being the hottest wound. It felt like notes really popped with it but it was less saturated and more dry and articulate. Kind of like the Fryette/VHT of pickups. The Mighty Mite I swear is more saturated feeling/sounding despite the much lower wind, and it's probably the most aggressive and crunchy sounding of the pickups I've tried without the mids being over the top or in a weird place like with the Black Winter. So the Iron Man and Mighty Mite have been 2 clear exceptions that haven't fit the mold of higher wind = more saturated, lower wind = less saturated. There's different wire gauges and a bunch of other tricks with pickup winding that I won't pretend to understand that also play a part in the equation.

For alnico pickups there's a handful I've been tempted by:

Monty's Bill Steer set - A6 mags which is interesting
Lollar Monolith - A8 mags, new Taylor Young signature humbuckers and I trust his ears
Gibson 498T - I think they work really well for doom and sludge since they just have an inherent gritty quality
Lollar Imperial or Gibson Sugarbucker - good low output picks for doom if having more dynamics is important

There's also Avedissian Pickups which a lot of doom guys swear by, and they'll custom wind pickups based on exactly what you're looking for if you tell them

 

[godgrinder]

Gibson Iommi

I generally like BKP Warpig for the styles you mentioned but I find they add too much lower-mid bloat to a Les Paul.

 

[DanTravis62]

Tight low end is the opposite of what you want for huge sounding doom or drone riffs man.

If you want big and fat, I would say a dirty fingers or one of the many copies of it over the years is best for that type of tone.

 

[psychic_driver]

So the Iron Man and Mighty Mite have been 2 clear exceptions that haven't fit the mold of higher wind = more saturated, lower wind = less saturated. There's different wire gauges and a bunch of other tricks with pickup winding that I won't pretend to understand that also play a part in the equation.

For alnico pickups there's a handful I've been tempted by:

Monty's Bill Steer set - A6 mags which is interesting
Lollar Monolith - A8 mags, new Taylor Young signature humbuckers and I trust his ears
Gibson 498T - I think they work really well for doom and sludge since they just have an inherent gritty quality
Lollar Imperial or Gibson Sugarbucker - good low output picks for doom if having more dynamics is important

There's also Avedissian Pickups which a lot of doom guys swear by, and they'll custom wind pickups based on exactly what you're looking for if you tell them

Thanks for the recs ! I'll be looking into these ...

There's a dimension of pickup mysticism between the resistance specs magnet numbers, wire gauge, wind spacing ect that make it real tough to get an idea of which pickup to try without soldering it into my guitar & playing thru my rig. Frustrating when they all cost $100+ apeice ...

On the face of it I'm like the look of those mighty mites ... Gotta get a winning scratcher so I can get a set with low wind strong magnet & a set with hot wind weak magnet to compare

 

[psychic_driver]

Tight low end is the opposite of what you want for huge sounding doom or drone riffs man.

If you want big and fat, I would say a dirty fingers or one of the many copies of it over the years is best for that type of tone.

I am not lookin for "tight" as much as deep or rich. I want the highest possible output to maximize saturation, gain & aggression without the mids dominating the eq.

The hella fuckin beefy yet scraping and knifing sound of the pick finally striking the strings again in a Sunn track is my tonal lodestone

 

[DanTravis62]

I am not lookin for "tight" as much as deep or rich. I want the highest possible output to maximize saturation, gain & aggression without the mids dominating the eq.

The hella fuckin beefy yet scraping and knifing sound of the pick finally striking the strings again in a Sunn track is my tonal lodestone

You definitely want a gibson dirty finger, or if you want something more modern looking the EMG LF-DMF which is the lars fredriksen signature version of a dirty finger pickup.

My number one suggestion would be one of @scottosan Psykes pickups, as its the best dirty fingers style pickup i've ever played, but he's not windin' anymore.

The dirty finger pickup is the apotheosis of everything you described, including scooped mids and huge low end and output

 

[godgrinder]

The hella fuckin beefy yet scraping and knifing sound of the pick finally striking the strings again in a Sunn track is my tonal lodestone

There's something special with Travis Bean's pickups. I think they're closer to Fender Wide Range than regular humbuckers. Maybe look into EGC's pickups since they are based upon TB's designs.