My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

[Progbusters]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

or a midrangey amp

[T-Bone-BBQ]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

The guitar I use my Custom 5 in is a poplar Music Man SUB1 (the old USA version). Even with the C5 in it (and Jazz neck), it has more mids than my Music Man Silhouette Special with a Custom Custom and Alnico II Pro.

Wow, that's kinda odd.

[Dave Locher]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

Wow, that's kinda odd.

Poplar can be really, really middy!

[Mincer]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

Wow, that's kinda odd.

Isn't it? Maybe it is the weird textured paint, I don't know. But it is a really interesting, thick sound. Something I didn't expect when I bought it.

[Clint 55]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I had the same experience with poplar!

I'm also a fan of the C5. I think it's one of the most well rounded bridge pickups. Less output and it's starting to get vintage. More output and it gets high gain. Open chords ring with PAF tone, power chords sound nice and crunchy. Leads are full and precise.

[Mincer]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I had the same experience with poplar!

I'm also a fan of the C5. I think it's one of the most well rounded bridge pickups. Less output and it's starting to get vintage. More output and it gets high gain. Open chords ring with PAF tone, power chords sound nice and crunchy. Leads are full and precise.

Yes, this is my experience. The bass is tight at any level of gain, too.

[T-Bone-BBQ]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I finally got to use my Stingray last night at practice to test out the PB and it's a great pickup. I still like the C5 a little better, but have no plans to take the PB out of this guitar. Very versatile, good cleans, great distortion and cleans up good rolling the volume back. I'm happy with it.

[BlueSkiesAndPaign]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread.

I found the Perpetual Burn a very strange pickup in my Carvin:

1. While the JB has a certain bounciness to it that makes it pretty nice for those relatively high-gain bluesy classic rock solos, the Perpetual Burn sounds more clinical, more like a Custom - which is to say it not as good for juicier pentatonic lead parts on the bridge, which you'll hear in Images, Altitudes, Blue and other Jason Becker or Cacophony tracks. One really needs to soften pick attack for those parts on the Perpetual Burn.
2. The Perpetual Burn isn't the best for those meaty sounding Steve Vai or Marty Friedman bridge melodies. I still find the Carvin M22SD (loading on another Carvin guitar) far more suitable for the applications stated for the PB on the Duncan website. It splits better, and sounds better clean, and with the volume backed off for Led Zepp and AC/DC parts, too and is less piercing in the highs, despite being in a brighter guitar - making it the most versatile bridge pickup i have.
3. Unlike the other two pups mentioned which are great at a lotta things on a single channel/tone, adjusting just the volume knob - the PB shines more on multiple-channels or patches, needing more EQ adjustment (rather than just gain levels) for different genres, due to having a flatter tone.

On the other hand, what i find better in the Perpetual Burn better than in the JB and the Carvin M22SD:

1. The tighter bass.
2. Better tone and more articulate for metal rhythm of all sorts - complex chords, slow thundering power chords, djenty-parts, speed metal two string riffs, death metal chugging, even the lo-fi sounding spectrum within black metal. Lacks the mid-range for ultra-low downtuning (fine down till drop C and D standard).
3. The best pickup i have played for arpeggios/sweeps on the bridge, whether clean or high-gain. Just the right balance of smoothness, clarity, articulation and attack. Jason Becker had such GODLIKE sweeping technique to be able to have the courage to sweep like that on the bridge on any other pickup, at lower than Jeff Loomis/Nevermore gain/compression levels.
4. The cleans sound better when the guitar is tuned lower, though this particular guitar is usually on E standard.
5. A softer pick attack yields very neck-like tones, more so than other pickups, making it great for single pup superstrats.
6. Tight and articulate even with the tone on 0, and at any turn of the volume knob.
7. Peculiar mid-range, somewhat like and unlike the JB: thin plain strings sound a gauge thicker and the wound strings sounding snappier or a gauge thinner (though retaining the chunk, tightness and attack of a thicker gauge, have the clarity of a thinner gauge at E standard) - probably inaccurate description but it's the only way i'm able to put it - shreddable tone at blues-level gain.

If a Custom 5 is like a '59 with 2x power, then i could totally imagine a Perpetual Burn being a Jazz bridge with 2x power.

[T-Bone-BBQ]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I'll be using my Stingray with the PB this Friday at a gig for the first time, but I think it'll do great.

[Reee]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5

I've tried a JB before and it wasn't for me. Too high output and too much high mids. The PB is much more my style even tho the overall tone is somewhat similar to the JB. My favorite is still the Custom 5 as it's just perfect for me IMO, but the PB is very good and will work great in this guitar. I've already got plans for the Custom 5 I took out when I put the PB in.

what is it that you like more about the C5?

[Big Mike Blues]

Re: My thoughts on Perpetual Burn vs. Custom 5




Like Mincer I find the C5 seriously scooped, and it works in the right guitar. In anything else there's no mids, shrieking highs, and the bass just might be muddy; not unlike a '59 bridge.

Boy but when it don't work it's like a hail of broken glass to me. C5 in an all mahogany PRS was still jus way too scooped.
I didn't know about magnet changes then or I'd have just made it a custom

[Ascension]

Have run the PB in a couple guitars and have run the Custom 5 a number of times so-.
The Custom 5 is a big and very open pickup lot of top lot of bottom but a scooped mid. Can be fantastic in the right mid leaning guitar through the right amp but a disaster in the wrong one if it is bottom heavy and scooped in the mids. In a guitar like that the C5 is muddy with booming lows brittle highs and no mid cut. Works better in a balanced or slightly mid heavy guitar with a Marshall voiced amp not so good for warm mid scooped or very bright guitar and modern American high gain.
Now to the PB. Very sweet articulate and balanced pickup refined and articulate but leans to the shall we say polite side. In the right guitar can be quite nice. Example in my 2017 Kiesel DC 135 with the AP 11 singles it was very nice and in particular when split with the AP 11 in the middle gave a very Strat like nice chime. Very clear and articulate in high gain but it some ways a little bland. Works better crunched with modern smooth and fat High gain amps like my PRS Archon, MT 15 or Mesa DC 5 than a Marshall voiced amp IMO.
Swapped it for a Hybrid which I like better for the high gain tones but not as much for the split tones and more mellow stuff so may swap it back in that particular guitar.
In many ways I prefer over all the Hybrid to both a C5 and a PB in most guitars kind of the best of both..

[RockinProf]

I like the Perpetual Burn quite a bit but based on my attack and setup for the rest of my guitars I find it a little too tight and high frequency intense in my alder hardtail Strat with a one piece maple neck. Being that I like the voice as it is but have those two areas where it's not tailored to my playing and set up I swapped the A5 magnet with an A2. The magnet swap reigned in the high frequencies and make the bass more relaxed but not loose. I had it paired with a Jazz and knowing that I like matched magnets in most cases (also knowing that a Jazz with an A2 is a Alnico Pro II) I put an A2 in the Jazz as well. Even though I must have put one of the magnets in backwards as the two humbuckers are out of phase (easy fix next time I do a string change), they work well going from bridge to neck and the reverse. Again I think it is a great pickup as it is, I just found it matched my needs much better with an A2.