Black Winter, Duncan Distortion, or Invader?

[Ratchet]

Re: Black Winter, Duncan Distortion, or Invader?

TB's and SH's never sound exactly the same. TB's always have a bit more wire and the coils being wider change the sound of the pickup. Even within with the tolerances your average TB will be louder and darker than a SH

SD's consistancy is actually pretty good these days. But like anything else there are always anomalies.

Making a pickup is simple...

Making a good sounding pickup is not so simple and doing it with any consistency is much harder.

Most low cost pickups suffer in sound because they use cheaper materials to cut cost. Not all magnets are created equal. You would be amazed at the differences you can find even between A5 mags from the same sources.

Whoa! Thanks! That was an insanely helpful response! That makes a lot of sense too!

I was reading reviews for $15, generic pickups from China on Amazon. So many people were raving about them, saying they were an upgrade to their stock Epiphones and Ibanez guitars! I have some and they were the most terrible sounding pickups I've ever heard, but mine might be different from the ones they were reviewing, I don't know for sure. Mine sounded like screaming rats with sore throats.

The pickups that came on the Squiers sounded great, but the J5 came with 250kΩ pots, and the neck benefited greatly from going to 500kΩ (and the TB-8 is also on a 500kΩ push/pull pot).

From what you said, I think I like the way the SH's sound better than the TB's, or it's a whole different menu completely.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Black Winter, Duncan Distortion, or Invader?

I agree in that I generally like the sound of SH's more than TB's. I say generally cause I havent tried all so maybe there is a TB out there that dig but so far havent found one.

Epi has improved their pups in recent years but some were/are really terrible but thats what happens when you build to a price point instead of a quality standard.

 

[guitar74]

Re: Black Winter, Duncan Distortion, or Invader?

For that classic metal type tone, I would go with the SH6 DM Super Dist, or the Custom Custom (SH11), or even the JB. To my ears the Custom Custom is a good beefed up PAF type tone. To me, the Invader is just dark and lifeless, but I tend to like a little brightness, ESPECIALLY in a live setting where it's easy to get lost in the mix if you like to max the bass & treble and scoop the mids (which is where guitar lives).

Oh and by the way, the whole "heaviness" comment is more of a LOL to me. At the TIME these bands were in their prime they WERE considered heavy. I guess if you compare them to Napalm Death, then they might not be. But back then they would have been compared to Journey, KC and the Sunshine band, and Neil Diamond, so it's kind of relative to the era.

 

[PearlyHellhound]

Re: Black Winter, Duncan Distortion, or Invader?

I find EMG 81/60 combo, DiMarzio Super Distortion/PAF DP103, Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz to be the best general purpose pickups. And are my default answers to the question. "What pickups do you suggest....?" In passing I would like to say that I am not a fan of "Super" amps. Just not my thing.