best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

[Guitarist]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

an invader for metal??? no no no... something about this doesnt add up at all!!! An invader is more of a punk sound, isnt it? It's really fat but without much highend... I would not like an invader used for metal!

I hope your not pre-maturely judging the SH-8 simply because you know that Tom Delonge from Blink-182 uses one? If one sh!tty player can ruin a pickup like that, then this world truly has down the toilet!!

 

[heavydutysg135]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

couldn't you just use the EQ on an amp?? Is it really necessary to get an EQ pedal if u buy EMG's? Cuz that would NOT be cool.

Controlling eq before the distortion stage is very different than controlling it after. Boosting frequencies before the distortion causes certain frequencies to clip harder than others. Changing the eq after the distortion stage changes the overall eq levels but does not shape the distortion voicing. This is one of the reasons why people change pickups, to control pre distortion eq. Many people like the custom custom which has alot of midrange, but why dont they just boost the midrange on the post distortion eq of the amp? It is because the midrange boost before the distortion causes the midrange frequencies to clip harder causing a very smooth and creamy distortion voicing which could not be achieved using post distortion ez. In order to fully control distortion voicing it is necessary to control the eq before AND after the distortion. I highly recomend this website to learn more about how to control your tone by controlling the eq and distortion at all levels in your signal chain. http://www.amptone.com/index.html

 

[heavydutysg135]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

For heavy metal I would recommend EMG pickups with the 18 volt mod. To do this run two batteries in series instead of one. The signal will be extremely clean and you will have much more headroom so you can use the distortion of the amp and your notes will be more clear and articulate. I will never run my EMGs at 9 volts again and I have helped my friends do this to their guitars. I that if you run EMGs at 9 volts through a high gain amp the pickups clip too much and the combination of pickup clipping and amp clipping makes the notes somewhat muddy and unclear. The other problem that people have with EMGs is that they can sound sterile because they don't have enough headroom for articulation and expression. The 18 volt mod solves this problem by doubling the headroom.

 

[Hellion]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

Well, I used a '75 SG loaded with an Invader in the back and a Dirty Fingers in front and played 80's metal until 1993. Sounded pretty damn good to me. They don't work for every guitar, but they sure as hell woke up that SG.

 

[Hellion]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

Plus, I haven't found Invaders to be anything other than an incredibly full range pickup. Any extra bass you're getting with them is due (I'd guess) to the amp settings. I agree with Guitarist, don't write them off because one dweeb uses them for punk. I think they probably do that pretty well, too, but that's another subject.

 

[Bones]

Re: best pu's for metal? duncans,EMG's or dimirzio's?

an invader for metal??? no no no... something about this doesnt add up at all!!! An invader is more of a punk sound, isnt it? It's really fat but without much highend... I would not like an invader used for metal!

Only reason why people think that Invader is for punk is because of that ****sucker Tom Delonge. Get some EMG81's man. I was hating them because(believe it or not) the 81 couldn't push my amp like my CC does, and it wasnt really pushing what i wanted from my amp.

EMG81 is not a high output pup, its just a white fuzzy kitten purring in a lil black box. Think of it like this, It sounds like a retarded kitten in the right amps, and will sound like Tiger lookin for food thru a very high gain amp.

If your looking at the Duncan route and CANNOT use emgs (WHY?) Get the Duncan Distortion.