Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

[CarlosG]

Hi!
I'm looking for a bright sound humbucker pickup for distortion without icepick. I listened to isolated tracks from 80's metal and this sound is bright without icepick, but sound big and warm.
Most of bright humbuckers has icepick .
Any suggestions?
Will SH-13 or L-500XL work here?
Guitar specs:
Body: Alder
Neck: Maple/Rosewood/ Stainles Steel frets
Tusq Nut, String Saver Saddles and brass block

[idsnowdog]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

The 500XL is bright, resonant, and clear. It can be ice picky with maple fretboards and with hard ash or maple bodies.

[GuitarStv]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

No icepick? Tone Zone. :P



Seriously, if you run a Tone Zone with a 1 meg volume and tone, it's actually decently bright and not ice-pick-y. There is also a fair amount of low end which gives a big warm sound, sometimes this will require that you roll off a little bass at the amp. Works great in Alder bodies. The pickup itself is very picky about height though - so expect to spend some time fiddling around to get the sound just right.

[formula73]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

The 500XL is bright, resonant, and clear. It can be ice picky with maple fretboards and with hard ash or maple bodies.

I love Lawrences.

What’s your amp?

[chadd]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

How you set up your amp makes a bigger difference than the pickup

[BeKindRewind]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Custom, or Distortion would be my suggestions . Or as Steve the Guitar suggested, a tone zone would do it for sure

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

[idsnowdog]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

I love Lawrences.

What’s your amp?

Crate. I'm not an amp aficionado. I just never made the investment. Luckily the Lawrences are transparent enough they work well with a wide range of guitars. The only downside I can see to them is if your guitar is mediocre they will let you know it.

[Diego]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

If you want to dial the icepick out of a bright humbucker for 80s Metal, use a Tubescreamer or a SD1 as they did back then. It will add compression and fat.

[Aceman]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Distortion w/ 300k pots

[Dave Locher]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Dimarzio Super Distortion. No ice pick but plenty of highs. Judas Priest (Super D in a Strat), Ace Frehley (in a Les Paul), Nirvana (in a Jaguar), and too many others to list. Just adjust the poles so they are above the face of the pickup a bit.

[Securb]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

A SH-13 with a 1 Meg pot will definitely get the job done. I would also highly recommend putting a coil-split on it.

[JB6464]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Antiquity JB , then learn how to dial in your High and Presence knobs on your tube amp setup .
A lot of 80's rock was done with the JB and bright Marshall amps .

[Mincer]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Listening to a mixed track and playing in a room are 2 very different things. You are hearing the end result of many levels of EQ and mastering. There are too many variables to say 'this pickup does that, and that one doesn't'. I say get a JB and get back to playing. Many of those players were using a JB back then.

[formula73]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

Crate. I'm not an amp aficionado. I just never made the investment. Luckily the Lawrences are transparent enough they work well with a wide range of guitars. The only downside I can see to them is if your guitar is mediocre they will let you know it.

What model amp? Again, that’s far more important than the pickup.

Lawrences are great but not so ‘transparent’ as they say. They very much impart their own character on a guitar. There are lots of good suggestions in here but here’s an example of the small role your bridge pickup plays: both Dimebag Darrell and Billy Joe Armstrong ran L500s in the DFH and Fernandes Strat around the same time in the late 80s/early 90s and sound nothing alike, due to wildly different guitars and amp setups.

And like everybody else said, studio mixing.

Hell, even Dime’s 80s hair metal tone from the pre-CFH albums sounds wildly different than his later stuff and it was still the same pickup in the same guitar.

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Bright distortion humbucker sound without icepick

JB, Custom, Distortion, or Super D will all get the job done, I think. But as others have said, the end result of those records comes from a lot of studio wizardry. No one pickup is going to reproduce it.

Of course, being a Black Winter cultist, I have to recommend the Winters here. They do '80s metal very well, and there is plenty of cut without icepick, and both the bridge and neck sound huge under high gain.