Tired of active pickups...

[Ola Englund]

I'm getting tired of having active pickups in every guitar I own so now I'm in for the market of buying passive ones. What's on the market these days? long time ago I had dimarzio in my Ibanez guitars that sounded good but is there anything new out that suits well for metal? Are the lundgren pickups only for that djenty tone?

Give me some suggestions!

 

[Metaltastic]

Tons of people rave about Bareknuckles, but since it's so hard to directly A/B passive pickups, I have to wonder how much of their praise might come from the fact that they had to spend a boatload on them (meaning, everyone's like, "I had this, then I got this Bareknuckle, and the difference was amazing!", and it could easily just be psychological - or maybe not of course!) And the most popular Duncan seems to be the Custom (SH-5), though Lasse raved about the Alternative VIII (SH-15) in this thread, so that one seems worth investigating too!

 

[Chryst Krispies]

DIMAHHHHZIO.

 

[Ola Englund]

DIMAHHHHZIO.

ok that was helpful!

 

[Metaltastic]

The thing with Dimarzio is I really haven't heard many rhythm guys rave about 'em, just shredders, FWIW...

 

[gabriel g.]

I have a Duncan SH-5 in one guitar but it is not ballsy enough
Its nice for clean or rockish tones but not for metal

The dimebucker is nice but only in thick guitars (like LP style ore SZ from ibanez)

 

[Ola Englund]

Tons of people rave about Bareknuckles, but since it's so hard to directly A/B passive pickups, I have to wonder how much of their praise might come from the fact that they had to spend a boatload on them (meaning, everyone's like, "I had this, then I got this Bareknuckle, and the difference was amazing!", and it could easily just be psychological - or maybe not of course!) And the most popular Duncan seems to be the Custom (SH-5), though Lasse raved about the Alternative VIII (SH-15) in this thread, so that one seems worth investigating too!

Bareknuckles huh? gotta check that out. thanks for that. I've also heard about the custom.

 

[Metaltastic]

I have a Duncan SH-5 in one guitar but it is not ballsy enough
Its nice for clean or rockish tones but not for metal

Really? I never heard that about the Custom, are you sure you aren't thinking of the SH-14 Custom 5? (really annoying that the Custom is the SH-5 and the Custom 5 is the SH-14 :Smug: )

 

[wishtheend]

I just threw a SH-6 (distortion) and SH-2 (jazz) into my Les Paul and really dig them. I got really bored with EMGs after a while, and I think I honestly prefer passive.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Really? I never heard that about the Custom, are you sure you aren't thinking of the SH-14 Custom 5? (really annoying that the Custom is the SH-5 and the Custom 5 is the SH-14 :Smug: )

... And the Custom Custom (WTF? honestly) being the SH-11

But that one is pretty neat in alder body guits...

Edit: And to throw something in, that hasn't been mentioned yet: Bill Lawrence (OBL) L-500 or XL-500... WAY more balanced than the Dimebucker-Treblemonster...

 

[viggen666]

tried a bareknuckle warpig but i missed some top end with that pickup, still favor the old classic duncans like JB, distortion, full shred.

have a alternative 8 laying around here too, but it was just a bit too thick in the mids for my less paul, think it might be suited more to thinner sounding guitar.

I agree that bareknuckle is much too expensive, after all, it's still just a wire around a magnet, nothing magical or high level engineering there.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

ok that was helpful!

Well how helpful are you going to expect on an interwebz forum without hearing them in person???

Any Dimarzio passive that is aimed at the metal crowd( D-activator, D-sonic, x2n , tone zone) Is what has my vote so???

How not helpful?

 

[pifos_2]

DM DSonic
SD SH15 alternative 8 (after hearing Lasse's clips)

 

[Ola Englund]

Well how helpful are you going to expect on an interwebz forum without hearing them in person???

Any Dimarzio passive that is aimed at the metal crowd( D-activator, D-sonic, x2n , tone zone) Is what has my vote so???

How not helpful?

AH tonezone! I had that one in one of my JPM! Gotta remind myself how it sounded

 

[Metaltastic]

EWWWW, I had a ToneZone in my Ibanez RG, which was neck-thru maple/walnut with mahogany wings (meaning, incredibly bright), and it was still unbearably muddy/woofy

 

[Ola Englund]

Really? What I remembered was that it was perfect with my Triaxis 2:90 setup U had back then. But then I changed pickups as often as I changed underwear(once every two weeks)

 

[TheDude]

My experience with the Lundgren M6 compared to the EMG81 is that it has more of everything, and it's really easy to make any amp sound good. As always, there's some tweaking to to, but it's well worth it.

I talked to the builder of the Blackmachine guitars, and he loved Barenuckles, Lundgrens, and Harry Häussels. Awesome pickups, different flavours, according to him.

 

[Joematthews]

I've always heard great things about lundgren pickups but never heard any clips of them. Do they justify the crazy price tag?

Joe

 

[Eschatologist]

DiMarzio Evolution is a great pickup

 

[MarkG]

BK sounds killer from what I've heard...especially the painkillers and nailbombs. Careful though, they are a bit bigger than most pickups. Friend of mine ordered a set of nailbombs for his ibanez...and they didn't fit.

I've got a pair of duncans lying around collecting dust, JB/Jazz set. Gold covered though with some natural wear. Send me a pm if you're interested.