Which of these bridge pickups for alder superstrat in C standard?

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buller

buller

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I have an alder superstrat with bolt-on maple neck and ebony fingerboard tuned to C standard with 12-56 strings that I use for hardcore and old school death metal. It has a 500k volume pot with no tone pot, and it currently has a JB in the bridge which, like so many other people have found, is nearly what I'm looking for. I love the harmonic content, aggression and cut that the mids have, and the bit of give and sponginess that makes it more forgiving. I don't like really modern sounding pickups.

What I'm not getting along with is the congestion and flubbiness in the lows for C standard. If I could keep the mids on up basically the same and retain the sponginess and edge of the JB but with leaner, more articulate lows then that would be perfect. It seems like many of the "improved" JBs like the Suhr Aldrich end up smoothing out the aggression and edge of the JB's mids, which isn't what I'm looking for.

People often recommend lower output pickups to retain clarity in lower tunings, so I'm torn between VH-style hot PAF types with bright, aggressive mids, or getting some sort of tweaked JB. I emailed the SD Custom Shop with the detail of what I'm looking for but their reply wasn't very helpful. Maybe I should ask to consult directly with MJ if possible?

Anyway, here's my current list of pickups I'm considering:
  • Tweaked JB from SD Custom Shop (like a Thrash Factor or 35th Anniversary, maybe with unoriented rough cast A5, shorter magnets, etc)
  • Kramer Eruption
  • Mighty Mite 1400
  • SD 78
  • EVH Frankenstein Classic
I'm pretty drawn to the Mighty Mite since I've read good things, but it's not clear how much of a departure it would be from the things I like about the JB. Obviously it's a double-thick ceramic mag instead of A5, but it still is on the vintage side of things.

I appreciate any thoughts on pickups I should rule out, or what may be best for my application!
 
I despise the jb. I had one in my Jackson dk2 with an alder body, bolt on maple neck with rosewood board. Ordered and installed a custom 5. Fucking awesome. Like taking a blanket off my speaker cabinet. Amazing difference. Duncan distortion would be an improvement also imo…. Honestly pup recommendations are a crap shoot bro….
 
Also if the jb is close to what you want maybe play with it. Try adjusting the pole pieces…even turning it around if you have enough lead. Then maybe swap out the magnet. I can’t remember but I know there’s a pretty common magnet swap on those things that’s supposed to help them out.
 
I got an alder superstrat recently that came stock with duncan distortions

Sounds great to me tuned low


Part of your problem could be the 12-56 strings to be honest - what's the scale length of your guitar?
 
JackBootedThug said:
Also if the jb is close to what you want maybe play with it. Try adjusting the pole pieces…even turning it around if you have enough lead. Then maybe swap out the magnet. I can’t remember but I know there’s a pretty common magnet swap on those things that’s supposed to help them out.
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I think the Distortion is a JB with the A5 swapped out to ceramic?
 
Might not look right on paper but I bet you’d dig a Dimarzio PAF Pro.
 
JackBootedThug said:
I despise the jb. I had one in my Jackson dk2 with an alder body, bolt on maple neck with rosewood board. Ordered and installed a custom 5. Fucking awesome. Like taking a blanket off my speaker cabinet. Amazing difference. Duncan distortion would be an improvement also imo…. Honestly pup recommendations are a crap shoot bro….
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angelspade said:
Duncan custom
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I've had a Duncan Custom in my LP before swapping it out for a Jim Wagner Ironman which will probably live in that guitar forever. The Custom is great but I'm looking for something with less low end and more mid focused. I know the Custom 5 is more scooped than the Custom so I think that would also be going in the opposite direction of what I'm after for this guitar.

JackBootedThug said:
Also if the jb is close to what you want maybe play with it. Try adjusting the pole pieces…even turning it around if you have enough lead. Then maybe swap out the magnet. I can’t remember but I know there’s a pretty common magnet swap on those things that’s supposed to help them out.
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Yeah I might try a magnet swap. I realized it's a trembucker JB though, which apparently is even thicker in the lows than a normal JB which isn't helping things. Unoriented, rough cast, and unoriented rough cast A5 mags all are popular replacements and seem like they might shave off some low end. I gotta admit though, part of wanting a new pickup is that I really want a zebra pickup rather than all black, so I might end up buying a new pickup even if a mag swap gave good results lol

Devin said:
I got an alder superstrat recently that came stock with duncan distortions

Sounds great to me tuned low


Part of your problem could be the 12-56 strings to be honest - what's the scale length of your guitar?
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DD is definitely a possibility. I thought it might be too high output but I'll keep it in mind. And the scale length is 25.5". The string gauge seems fine, a lot of death and sludge metal guitarists use 56s on Gibson scale lengths tuned to C or lower, although having loose strings isn't as much of an issue for sludge lol
 
I use 9-46 for drop C on mine hahah but I hate high tension

Thinner strings tend to sound brighter and tighter which I also prefer
 
Mighty Mite Motherbucker 16k also seems like a really good tighter and clearer JB-ish option for what I'm looking for. I think I'll be deciding between Mighty Mite 1400, Motherbucker, or Duncan Distortion, just need to decide whether I want lower output ceramic (that still feels very high output from what I've read on here, high output A5, or high output ceramic. Leaning a bit towards the Mighty Mite options, just wish there were more impressions of them online
 
Devin said:
I use 9-46 for drop C on mine hahah but I hate high tension

Thinner strings tend to sound brighter and tighter which I also prefer
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Ah I thought you meant the 12-56 might not be tight enough :ROFLMAO: I like the feel of the 56 so I probably won't go lighter than that, but Iommi got great tones with 9s tuned low!
 
Since you like the JB then i'd try a SD Thrash Factor, that is a cloned JB that Dave Mustaine recorded the most with, I guess it's somewhat tighter on the lows that alot of other stock JB's but it should retain all the other attributes you like.
Lambchopper loves his.......

 
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Devin said:
I use 9-46 for drop C on mine hahah but I hate high tension

Thinner strings tend to sound brighter and tighter which I also prefer
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I use 10-48 for D / Drop C. Works great in that range.
 
I'm loving the Railhammer Z-One in D Standard and Drop C. Check it out!
 
https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/mod-squad-muddy-sounding-neck-pickup

Or the G&L Version.

Even if you just wire it up as a test, you may like a high pass filter if you already have a pickup with the amount of output you want.

Hopefully someone can chime in with the different RC values to have different cutoff frequencies

When I first started playing 7 strings, I had to make an HPF or I'd lose my mind from the flubby mud, but nowadays the pickups they usually come with seem fine to me

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I'm actually between a Mighty Mite MotherBucker 16k and Jim Wagner Fillmore/MurKat now. @EyesOfTheSouth! hope you don't mind me asking but I saw in another thread that you've tried both of these and that the Mighty Mite is your favorite in your guitar. Do you remember what about the MurKat you didn't get along with?
 
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