Ok, in my somewhat limited experience, for what I play (doom, gothic, or melodic death metal), I have always found the bridge pickup best, whether for lead or rhythm, as it has a clearer, crisper sound and the neck pickup always sounds a bit too soft and smooth to me, for lack of better terminology. Occasionally I might use it for clean tones but that's about it.
However, I only use stock pickups, and was thinking about getting some new ones, eg. an EMG 81/85 pair. When I looked at the EMG site it talks about putting an EMG 85 as the rhythm pickup in the neck position, yet I would never play metal rhythm on a neck pickup because it inevitably sounds muddy - great if I want an early Black Sabbath or Cathedral sound but useless for anything else. To complicate matters my Les Paul has the neck pickup marked as 'rhythm' - I had figured this was just a throwback to when rhythm was mainly clean strummed chords, but with the implications on the EMG site too, I'm not so sure now.
So I'm a little concerned that, at best, I might find the 85 in the neck going to waste, and at worst, the 81 might push my crisp rhythm bridge sound more towards a lead sound too. To put it another way, I worry that the bridge pickup is going to end up sounding more like the neck pickup than it does now, which I don't want, and the neck pickup is going to sound a little more like the bridge pickup but not enough to be useful.
Does anybody know what I mean? Am I making any sense?
Would I perhaps just be better off getting an 85 on its own and putting it in the bridge? Or perhaps a Dimebucker there instead? I've looked back through a few threads and people have subjective opinions on what they like or don't like but it's hard to see what would be best for the styles I play.
PS. Sorry about the double post. It timed out during posting the first time. Now the board is steadfastly refusing to let me delete the other post.
However, I only use stock pickups, and was thinking about getting some new ones, eg. an EMG 81/85 pair. When I looked at the EMG site it talks about putting an EMG 85 as the rhythm pickup in the neck position, yet I would never play metal rhythm on a neck pickup because it inevitably sounds muddy - great if I want an early Black Sabbath or Cathedral sound but useless for anything else. To complicate matters my Les Paul has the neck pickup marked as 'rhythm' - I had figured this was just a throwback to when rhythm was mainly clean strummed chords, but with the implications on the EMG site too, I'm not so sure now.
So I'm a little concerned that, at best, I might find the 85 in the neck going to waste, and at worst, the 81 might push my crisp rhythm bridge sound more towards a lead sound too. To put it another way, I worry that the bridge pickup is going to end up sounding more like the neck pickup than it does now, which I don't want, and the neck pickup is going to sound a little more like the bridge pickup but not enough to be useful.
Does anybody know what I mean? Am I making any sense?
Would I perhaps just be better off getting an 85 on its own and putting it in the bridge? Or perhaps a Dimebucker there instead? I've looked back through a few threads and people have subjective opinions on what they like or don't like but it's hard to see what would be best for the styles I play.
PS. Sorry about the double post. It timed out during posting the first time. Now the board is steadfastly refusing to let me delete the other post.
