The Children Of Bodom Gear Thread

Im reading sometimes alot about Pickups.
Has this EMG ALX really that boost/differnt sound than stock pickups? With distortion i can barely hear any difference.
https://www.emgpickups.com/alx-set-black.html#reviews

Also this set are Active Pickup, hasnt Alexi played Passive one?
Compared to what stock pickups? The pickup itself is just a passive EMG HZ-H2 even though it's labeled as EMG ALX. The booster is the main point of that set.
 
I think it's active there's a battery in the cabinet of my JS35 with ALX-F, it's not bad but I like the EMG-81 in the RR24 better, I think it's sounds more like a J-50 BC
 
Im reading sometimes alot about Pickups.
Has this EMG ALX really that boost/differnt sound than stock pickups? With distortion i can barely hear any difference.
https://www.emgpickups.com/alx-set-black.html#reviews

Also this set are Active Pickup, hasnt Alexi played Passive one?

The pickup is completely passive, the booster needs a battery.
It'll be like turning on an overdrive pedal in front of a distorted amp. It shouldn't give that much, but it'll color your tone and impart its own character. If you use less amp gain, it'll be more obvious how it works.
Alexi ran his gain at 9 o'clock on the JVM.
 
There is no difference in tone when boosting the pickup. It's just the amount of gain that will be affected. I'm not sure about the amount of the boost, but the H2 has around 0,700V RMS and with boost at max, it should be doubled. So a bit more than 81s. But you can easily tweak it by yourself by adding a second battery.
 
Compared to what stock pickups? The pickup itself is just a passive EMG HZ-H2 even though it's labeled as EMG ALX. The booster is the main point of that set.
Lets say to my Jackson Seymour Duncan. If i compare my Ibanez with Jackson, then the Ibanez has a bit more agressive tone.
But this lil bit is not worth 115€ :D

It think with the right Amp/settings you can achieve more the COB Sound then with an Pickup.
You cant tell me in this Video that the Pickup makes the Sound.
 
7643CEC9-9363-4FB4-AF4D-9948D55742D3.jpeg Here are some good pics I took today. Guitar will be on ebay. Starting sunday evening.

EE8F803C-A1BA-483C-9829-0858E9216A05.jpeg
 

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Lets say to my Jackson Seymour Duncan. If i compare my Ibanez with Jackson, then the Ibanez has a bit more agressive tone.
But this lil bit is not worth 115€ :D

It think with the right Amp/settings you can achieve more the COB Sound then with an Pickup.
You cant tell me in this Video that the Pickup makes the Sound.



No one is saying the pickup will make the sound. It's actually one of the lowest output passive EMG's. It's the booster that will do the difference. That'll push way harder than for example the difference between your ibanez and Jacksons pickups.
He is obviously running his guitar into an amp, preamp or ampsim. I'm betting digital, because i hear alot of artifacts.

What gear do you have at hand currently? Like amps and pedals?

Have you tried boosting a dirty amp with an overdrive pedal with the level all the way up an the gain all the way down? Thats what basically everyone else does, Alexi just had his boost inside his guitar.
 
Yeah he shares the sticker in one of his vids......from the years youtube was 360p....
sooo I cannot really take that quality to a sticker maker lol.
I was wondering if anyone just a high res file etc

Having the measurements additionally would also be nice, then I could get the sticker made exactly somewhere.

@<-Warheart-> ?
 

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No one is saying the pickup will make the sound. It's actually one of the lowest output passive EMG's. It's the booster that will do the difference. That'll push way harder than for example the difference between your ibanez and Jacksons pickups.
He is obviously running his guitar into an amp, preamp or ampsim. I'm betting digital, because i hear alot of artifacts.

What gear do you have at hand currently? Like amps and pedals?

Have you tried boosting a dirty amp with an overdrive pedal with the level all the way up an the gain all the way down? Thats what basically everyone else does, Alexi just had his boost inside his guitar.
I just asked. Cause i think there is to much "hype" about PickUps. Im not talking about the ALX ones.
I personally use a Line6 PodXT with kinda COB modified Preset.
 
A good pickup will sound shit, when your guitar and your amp is shit.

but with a good guitar and a good amp, you can easily hear the difference. The tone of a pickup can not be reproduced with an amp (unless you have a Kemper, Axe FX or lots of plugins)
 
I completely agree on the hype thing. If your playing and rig isn't good, getting a certain pickup won't change much.

The booster is where it's at though. It will change the peak resonant frequency of a passive pickup, and push certain frequencies harder. It won't work for actives like EMG 81's or SD Blackouts. The boost will still work adding gain though, but you might as well use an Afterburner variant.

I've always been partial to Seymour Duncan pickups. I like the classics, JB, distortion and my current Invader. I only ever liked the X2N out of all Ibanez and DiMarzio pickups.

Check out the information EMG has supplied for the ALX + ABQ.
 

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Oh yeah how could I forgot booster is for passive pickups :brick:
Now the thing is from my experience if I don't activate the booster the pickup sounds really weak, I don't know if it's an attribute of passive pickups or the previous owner did something wrong :oops:
 
Since the emg hz is widely considered to be a subpar passive pickup, do you think the gain boost paired with something like a Duncan distortion would be ridiculously good lol? Is that even possible?
 
Since the emg hz is widely considered to be a subpar passive pickup, do you think the gain boost paired with something like a Duncan distortion would be ridiculously good lol? Is that even possible?
You could absolutely pair the ABQ with any passive pickup, but if you do something pretty high output, like a Duncan Distortion, you're going to have more gain than you probably want. Your best option then would be to either turn down the gain from the boost or from your amp. Bear in mind, Alexi was using a very low gain amp and a low output pickup for the vast majority of his career if you're trying to replicate something similar. That unique gain staging is a big secret to his tone.
 
I used to use the EMGHZ that came in my Stars along with the gainbooost (EMG PA-2) but never really liked the sound. Dull, lifeless, "round". The gainboost was literally just upping the gain. JE-1000 or the esp alexi one has some EQ stuff going on too but doubt it'll make a big difference.

Ended up going with the classic EMG81. It just sounds so nice and mean. And with the 18V mod it doesn't sound as sterile as 9V.

The heart of Alexi's tone is in the GP-1000 I would say. That sound is really something!
 
Since the emg hz is widely considered to be a subpar passive pickup, do you think the gain boost paired with something like a Duncan distortion would be ridiculously good lol? Is that even possible?
I just put on fresh strings, so when i get the ALX set i will test/record DI tracks and effected tracks with the booster and the Invader currently in the guitar, before swapping and doing the same thing. For me it probably won't make much of a difference because i will still suck at guitar :rofl: