Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

[Jack_TriPpEr]

I am looking for something very tight and without any fizziness. I generally play stuff like early Metallica and Megadeth, but also Zakk-era Ozzy stuff and Pantera.

I want to stay passive, no active recommendations, thanks.

The Ibanez RG has typical RG specs: maple neck, rosewood fretboard, basswood body, and licensed Floyd.

My setup is BOSS MT-2 into a BOSS GE-7 into a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue out to a Marshall 1960A 4x12

[eschoendorff]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

SH-4 JB (Megadeth) or SH-6 Distortion.

[jclogston]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

SH-6 Distortion

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Vintage thrash in basswood? I'd probably try a super d,

[SFW]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Distortion.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Vintage thrash in basswood? I'd probably try a super d,

I bought a Super D yesterday, installed it and have had a couple listens already. It is a definite improvement over the stock, low output Designed By EMG that was stock. The increase in output and hotness is great. But, it has a high-mids focus that I can't tone down with EQ tweaks. I'm planning to contact Dimarzio and try and exchange for some other Dimarzio. Any recommendations? Like, would going w a pup that has an A5 mag instead of the ceramic in the Super D. alleviate that high mids focus?

[Axl H]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Try the Super 3 - it is awesome! Very tight low end, fat mids and pulled back highs, but still slices right through the mix, just no fizzyness.

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

I'm gonna say Dimebucker.

[LatsMcGee]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

If you want more treble you want the Super 2....

[Masta' C]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

I bought a Super D yesterday, installed it and have had a couple listens already. It is a definite improvement over the stock, low output Designed By EMG that was stock. The increase in output and hotness is great. But, it has a high-mids focus that I can't tone down with EQ tweaks. I'm planning to contact Dimarzio and try and exchange for some other Dimarzio. Any recommendations? Like, would going w a pup that has an A5 mag instead of the ceramic in the Super D. alleviate that high mids focus?

Don't worry about the magnets too much, especially when it comes to DiMarzios. They've got enough tricks up their sleeve to make a ceramic sound like a vintage A2 if they want. If the Super D is overly focused on the high-mids in your setup and you want something "tight", try the Breed or Dominion. If you want to thicken it up a bit, try the Super 3, as suggested above, the D-Activator "X" bridge or even the Tone Zone if you can stand a little more boomy bottom end. The Crunch Lab, DropSonic, X2N and Evolution/Evo2 models are all very high-mid focused, so stay away from those.

What's funny is that your favorite artists play only Seymour Duncan and EMG. Even Hetfield used Duncan Invaders on the earliest albums. Mustaine used the JB/Jazz set and now the Mustaine Livewires, which are in the same ballpark tonally. Dimebag used custom Bill Lawrence L500XL models and Duncan created the Dimebucker off of that. All those pickups tend to have what I would consider a strong high-mids focus. Even the EMG 81 that Zakk Wylde uses in the bridge is brighter and more upper-mid bite than the 85, etc., but that's what lets it cut through a mix so well. Still, what made you choose a DiMarzio in the first place?

[Masta' C]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

If you want more treble you want the Super 2....

He didn't say he wanted more treble, just less upper-mids focus. That would be the Super 3.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Don't worry about the magnets too much, especially when it comes to DiMarzios. They've got enough tricks up their sleeve to make a ceramic sound like a vintage A2 if they want. If the Super D is overly focused on the high-mids in your setup and you want something "tight", try the Breed or Dominion. If you want to thicken it up a bit, try the Super 3, as suggested above, the D-Activator "X" bridge or even the Tone Zone if you can stand a little more boomy bottom end. The Crunch Lab, DropSonic, X2N and Evolution/Evo2 models are all very high-mid focused, so stay away from those.

What's funny is that your favorite artists play only Seymour Duncan and EMG. Even Hetfield used Duncan Invaders on the earliest albums. Mustaine used the JB/Jazz set and now the Mustaine Livewires, which are in the same ballpark tonally. Dimebag used custom Bill Lawrence L500XL models and Duncan created the Dimebucker off of that. All those pickups tend to have what I would consider a strong high-mids focus. Even the EMG 81 that Zakk Wylde uses in the bridge is brighter and more upper-mid bite than the 85, etc., but that's what lets it cut through a mix so well. Still, what made you choose a DiMarzio in the first place?

Thanks masta' c for the thoughtful recommendations and tips!

Those artists were just ballpark examples of the music style I tend to play. I don't necessarily want to sound exactly like any one of them. Plus I don't think any of them recorded with a basswood git, plus my rig is quite different, and so wasn't so sure their same pups would work in my git.

I chose Dimarzio because I anticipated having to maybe use the return and exchange policy if my first choice didn't work out. And when I looked across SD's offerings vs. Dimarzio's offerings for this tone goal, I thought the Dimarzio had more likely candidates. I've tried the JB and Invader previously in this git and each were pretty far off from what I was looking for. The Invader was way too hot and too much lows, and the JB was too hot and had some annoying high freq. focus. I hadn't tried the SD Distortion but user reports on this forum stated that it can be fizzy, which is a no-go in my book. The Dimebucker was one of the few other SD offerings that seemed to make sense spec-wise, but I was wary to try it because it doesn't get much love from the feedback I could find on this and other forums.

The recommendations for the Breed and the Super 3 are nice to hear - I had already them in mind based on their stated specs.

[Masta' C]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

The recommendations for the Breed and the Super 3 are nice to hear - I had already them in mind based on their stated specs.

Definitely sounds like the next logical step for you. The Super 3 maintains the output of the Super Distortion. Also, the Breed has a little more complexity than its sister pickup, the Dominion, which I think you will appreciate. Keep us posted with your progress.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Definitely sounds like the next logical step for you. The Super 3 maintains the output of the Super Distortion. Also, the Breed has a little more complexity than its sister pickup, the Dominion, which I think you will appreciate. Keep us posted with your progress.

Great info. again - thanks! And I will report back on the results.

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Recommend me good metal bridge pup for a floyded Ibanez RG

Edit - removed content because it was a secondary issue that i later broke broke out to its own thread