Passive Pickups

[Uncle Meat]

I'm going to be getting a new bridge pickup for my Wolfgang Peavey, and I was wondering which you think are the best options for high gain, modern metal.

I've mainly been looking at the Bare Knuckle pickups, Painkiller and Miracle Man (pretty expensive though), and the Duncan sh-15. I play bass and don't know a whole lot about guitar pickups, so any help is appreciated.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

What's that Petrucci pickup again, the D-Sonic? Whatever is in the older sig model is fuckin what's up.

 

[Metaltastic]

I'm going to be getting a new bridge pickup for my Wolfgang Peavey, and I was wondering which you think are the best options for high gain, modern metal.

EMG

 

[Metaltastic]

But seriously, I guess the SH-15 Alt VIII is cool - but really, listen to the pulverization it gets from the 89 in this thread, I can't ever see myself using passives for anything other than leads and getting my 80s metal ya-ya's out, EMG's are just so oppressively awesome Excellent choice of guitars too, Wolfgangs give me a mega chub! (one of my best friends has two, I love the necks)

 

[Uncle Meat]

Yeah, I love the guitar, I'm just not big on the tone I get while recording with it. It's actually my brothers guitar, but I've been playing a lot recently (and just got some extra cash), so I decided I'd get it set up for thicker strings and swap out the pickup.

 

[Uncle Meat]

About the EMG's, is swapping passive pickups for actives common/easy to do? I'm a noob with guitars and was thinking I would need to find another passive.

If I can do that I might get the 81.

 

[Uncle Meat]

I think, after a few days of research, I'm going to get these APC pickups: http://www.apcpickups.com/index.php?p=product&id=15&parent=4

Has anyone here ever used them or have any clips? And do you think putting them in the wolfgang will be an easy job? Because if so, I might just go ahead and do it myself.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Dude, how do you know those APCs even voice well with the body wood of your guitar?
The guitar is basswood so the following will work well and are proven in basswood:

Dimarzio D-Sonic
Dimarzio Evo-2
Seymour Duncan Full Shred

Look into one of those for your guitar and save yourself the hassle of not knowing if the APC will even sound good

 

[John_C]

I really would recommend EMGs
They kick serious ass, people say they don't like them from their personal experience, but they have appeared on so many albums with kick-ass tones and tend to beat everything in shootouts for high gain metal.

what wood is the guitar made from? If it's mahogany I'd recommend an 81 running at 18Volts, if it's a particularly bright guitar then an 85 or 89 (IIRC the 89 sounds bit less muddy than the 85 in the bridge position).

edit: i see ^^ the guitar is basswood. I'd recommend the 89 or 85 in the bridge myself

 

[narcossintese]

About the EMG's, is swapping passive pickups for actives common/easy to do? I'm a noob with guitars and was thinking I would need to find another passive.

If I can do that I might get the 81.

It´s common, but sometimes you won´t get room to do a 18v mod (two batteries) without carving it. Also, if your guitar has a basswood body I recommend 85 on the bridge instead of 81.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Dude, how do you know those APCs even voice well with the body wood of your guitar?
The guitar is basswood so the following will work well and are proven in basswood:

Dimarzio D-Sonic
Dimarzio Evo-2
Seymour Duncan Full Shred

Look into one of those for your guitar and save yourself the hassle of not knowing if the APC will even sound good

Thanks for the post. That's the type of info I wanted to get.

I've heard nothing but good things about these pickups, which is the reason I was going to give them a shot. A quick google search came up with a post from someone that put them into a basswood body guitar and loved it. (http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17015)

I'll try and do some more research, and I'll definitely look into the ones you posted.

 

[Uncle Meat]

I really would recommend EMGs
They kick serious ass, people say they don't like them from their personal experience, but they have appeared on so many albums with kick-ass tones and tend to beat everything in shootouts for high gain metal.

what wood is the guitar made from? If it's mahogany I'd recommend an 81 running at 18Volts, if it's a particularly bright guitar then an 85 or 89 (IIRC the 89 sounds bit less muddy than the 85 in the bridge position).

edit: i see ^^ the guitar is basswood. I'd recommend the 89 or 85 in the bridge myself

I know everyone loves the EMG's for metal, I just though it would be easier getting passive pickups, and was hoping I could find something pretty close.

 

[John_C]

I know everyone loves the EMG's for metal, I just though it would be easier getting passive pickups, and was hoping I could find something pretty close.

EMGs are worth the very small amount of extra effort (and trust me it's small, just change the batteries every few months) unless you are actually looking for a passive pickup sound. If you want an EMG sound, get EMGs

As far as passives go, just judging by the seymour duncan tone clips, i've always wanted the full shred. Mikael Åkerfeldt has one in at least one of his guitars i think, although most of the studio work is done with the PRS's with HFS pickups

 

[GoofPig]

I use a SD JB and Jazz set. Really great stuff.

In my old Ibanez Prestige S2170fb I had DiMarzio D-Activator X's, which sounded absolutely fantastic.
The output & tone I was able to squeeze out was crazy!

 

[AHChris]

I would try a Harry Häussel Tozz or Tozz XL. http://www.haeussel.com/
Got a Tozz in my RG, which is Basswood, and I love it!

 

[amarshism]

What's that Petrucci pickup again, the D-Sonic? Whatever is in the older sig model is fuckin what's up.

Yep. And the older one carried a dimarzio steves special in the bridge.

 

[jeid]

Barenuckles?

Personally, I love the Gibson 500T, it works really well for me. EMG's are pretty awesome, but they weren't for me. I quite like the Seymour Duncan Blackouts also.

 

[Trevoire520]

I've gone through quite a few pickups in several different guitars, at the moment I have:

LTD Viper 400 with EMG 85 (bridge) and 81 (neck)
Ibanez SZ520QM with Bareknuckle Nailbombs
PRS Tremonti SE with Rio Grande BBQ Bucker (bridge) and Seymour Duncan 59 (neck)
Yamaha Pacifica 812V with Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) and Hot Rails (neck)

They can all pull off metal, though the Yamaha less so. I'm not massively into EMG's myself, kinda prefer the character of the Bareknuckles and Rio Grande. EMG's are the way to go if you want super tight tone though.

 

[Melb_shredder]

+1 for the blackouts. Not as sterile/ razor clear as the emgs. But only a Tiny difference but with warmer fuller mids and passive feel!!!

 

[MetalJonesy]

Im deffo an EMG dude,

but i love the Seymour Duncan Duncan Distortion pup!! works wonders in my yammy pacifica!