Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Took the Les Paul to practice today, and it worked out great through the Mesa. When I put the Winters in, I wired them up with a pair of push pull pots I had laying around for series/parallel switching, which is also working out great.

Overall, I'm still getting the same basic tone I was getting with them in my JS Series King V, but with more grunt in the mids, and like I said above the top end is just as bright as the Gibson 500T/496R set I previously had in my LP, but without the harshness.

 

[nsatke]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Its a very gritty sound without loosing depth. The mids seem to be voiced lower than a lot of duncans-they really punch. The advantage these give me is that the high output matched with a very low starting pull (almost like an active) so my guitar intonates well even in lower tunings. Prior to this I was using the custom custom a lot.

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[D-EJ915]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I put the regular set into my ESP Horizon ( maple neck-through alder? body with trem) and found it to be too bassy and not really hot enough for my tastes. I remembered my Syn Special has the TB version of the Invader and it is a bit brighter than the regular Invader I have in a few other guitars so I ordered the TB spaced BW. Anyway it is a bit brighter and seems a bit hotter too which was great but it still had the kinda fuzzy top end that was bugging me on the regular version too. I've always wanted to try the PA-TB2 so I ordered it and just installed it tonight. It is very, very clear in comparison and probably about the same output as the regular black winter. I think I'll be keeping it in the guitar.

 

[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Okay, I don't play death metal or satan metal, but I do play a good bit of Master of Puppets style metal. I'm in a cover band that does everything from Guns n Roses to Aerosmith, to 80s hair rock, to actual Metallica, to Lady Gaga, and Green Day. My tone that I'm going for, however is balls to the wall aggressive. But, I'm using an Orange Dark Terror with two 1x12 Orange cabs with V30s. I'm planning to swap a JB/Jazz neck combo for a Black Winters duo into an Epi Les Paul Custom. I like the JB/Jazz combo, but I've never had a really high output aggressive heavy metal guitar. I already have a set of 59s in one Epi which I like, and I even have another Les Paul with an Alnico 2 Pro neck and a Pearly Gates bridge which doesn't get quite as heavy as I'd like. The Alnico 2 Pro is great, and with proper finger technique I can get pretty close to Slash's Sweet Child sound when we have to cover that song. However, for the Epiphone Custom, I want to dip into the higher output range and not go active (yet). I'm willing to take a chance at swapping the JB/Jazz neck out for another higher output set.

I originally wanted Invaders because the massive output sounded so intriguing, but I've been told that if I do that to a Les Paul I can wind up in instant mudzone. The Orange Dark Terror is a single channel amp, and when I'm cranking it, I really only push my gain to just about 2 oclock. Any more and it's just unusable. So I could stand to even dial the gain down even more if necessary. The JB is great, but it has this sag and sorta drags behind on chugga chugga stuff. We do a cover of AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" and I basically downpick every part of that song except for the solo I came up with.

What I do like about the JB/Jazz is that they both clean up well for my tastes even on a single channel amp. I like to hit my cleans with a touch of a Boss Super Chorus to add that 80s clean tone, and for the most part I'm pretty satisfied with what I come up with. I'd like to know this:

Instead of playing at drop H flat tuning, can I get away with playing in E flat standard and still be able to clean these Black Winters up enough to pass for a decent clean tone? That neck has just gotta be able to clean up. I don't really care if the bridge can or can't, but if it can that's always nice. The neck pickup on my Les Pauls are basically my "clean channels" when I'm not doing leads with them.... or semi-bluesy stuff with them.

Any thoughts and advice are welcome!

Yes, you can.

Make sure you install a good set of pots and capacitors. If you use your volume knob through a regular rock(ish) or metal amp, you can clean them up very nicely. If you have a Fender amp for cleans then you don't even have to bother with the knobs.

The Black Winter Neck pickup is one of the sickest imaginable neck pickups you can legally own at the moment and cleans up beautifully.

 

[nsatke]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Yes, you can.

Make sure you install a good set of pots and capacitors. If you use your volume knob through a regular rock(ish) or metal amp, you can clean them up very nicely. If you have a Fender amp for cleans then you don't even have to bother with the knobs.

The Black Winter Neck pickup is one of the sickest imaginable neck pickups you can legally own at the moment and cleans up beautifully.

The black winter neck pickup is great for a variety of situations--like noodly iron maiden solos and rolled back cleans....but I find it really excels for cleans when you can split the coils. I have a 5 way switch in my guitar with the black winters. The switch is meant to mimic the PRS rotary knobs. The notch positions are unbelievably "fender" sounding. The series position has a ton of quack. The parallel position is very raw and musical.

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[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

The black winter neck pickup is great for a variety of situations--like noodly iron maiden solos and rolled back cleans....but I find it really excels for cleans when you can split the coils. I have a 5 way switch in my guitar with the black winters. The switch is meant to mimic the PRS rotary knobs. The notch positions are unbelievably "fender" sounding. The series position has a ton of quack. The parallel position is very raw and musical.

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What's your rig setup like for the split sound?

 

[nsatke]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Quite a bit of it is guitar rig 5 these days--just straight in...

At rehearsal I use a jet city 20w head and 2 112 cabs for projection. For color I use a boss chorus, dd-3 and an eh holy grail. I use a rockton silver dragon for the real crunch. The amp is pretty much always set clean, but the tubes get pushed from the overall volume.

Live, I use a mesa triple rec. For cleans I have these line6 rack mount things for delay and modulation effects. I also have an alesis quadraverb plus that I use for some things....

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[Gibson 1964]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Just got them installed in a new guitar. HH walnut tele with a carvin maple/ebony neck. I will say I suspected it would be a bit brighter than it is. I had heard spiky and harsh used, and I would NOT describe them that way. Fully capable of getting very aggressive, but IMO they are only as aggressive as you want them to be. They do not seem to have an intrinsically aggressive tone at least in this guitar.

 

[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Enjoy them in good health bro!!!

Yeah man...you didn't hear spiky and harsh here. These things are awesome.

You hit the nail on the head...while being very high output, they are only as aggressive as you want them to be.

It's like they KNOW what you need.

I love the name Black Winter and I think the mark was missed a little by marketing them specifically to the Black Metal community. Hopefully as they become more standard fair, they will be pushed as a high output pickup for people who know what the F#^K they are doing because understanding dynamics and utilizing the tone and volume controls only make these better.

PLUS according to nsatke, they are just as awesome split.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

^They kick ass in parallel mode too.^

And yeah, I've never thought they were harsh either.

 

[Gibson 1964]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

It's like they KNOW what you need.

I think SD named the wrong pickup Sentient.

 

[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I think SD named the wrong pickup Sentient.

Haaaaaaaa. I see what you did there.

I like to think of the Black Winter like Ice Man from Top Gun...."Ice Cold - no miskates."
n

I have such a varying and schizo style because I love all kinds of different music. I need chunk, I need scream, I need poppy clicky funky chukka chukka, I need cream, I need sass, I need my $h!t to react well with a cocked wah...I'm just all over the place and the Black Winter is the first pickup in 26 years that's just like "Okay Lucy...I got this."

 

[nsatke]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Enjoy them in good health bro!!!

Yeah man...you didn't hear spiky and harsh here. These things are awesome.

You hit the nail on the head...while being very high output, they are only as aggressive as you want them to be.

It's like they KNOW what you need.

I love the name Black Winter and I think the mark was missed a little by marketing them specifically to the Black Metal community. Hopefully as they become more standard fair, they will be pushed as a high output pickup for people who know what the F#^K they are doing because understanding dynamics and utilizing the tone and volume controls only make these better.

I found myself thinking the same thing as well. I tune pretty low, use heavy strings of the sound SHOULD be a little twangy and brash. The reality is that it 's a high output pickup that plays like a medium output. It's the best passive pickup I've found yet for really heavy music...and I've tried everything. Initially, I was interested in it precisely because it as supposed to sound present with a lot of high mids, etc. i usually stick with a philosophy that says the lower you tune the brighter your sound should be. But this set will be a good friend for a long time. And yeah, Lucy diamond is right about the branding and packaging... But I'm just glad it's out!


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[SGFanatic]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I love the Black Winters in my 27" scale LTD 6-string. I really hope Duncan comes out with the BW 7 & 8 as a production model. I ordered the 7-string version a while back but had to cancel my order due to car troubles. I'm actually going to hold off for a while until they do.
It really growls and has amazing clarity-great for low tunings. It's got that mid range rasp that brings out the notes in your chords.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I love the Black Winters in my 27" scale LTD 6-string. I really hope Duncan comes out with the BW 7 & 8 as a production model. I ordered the 7-string version a while back but had to cancel my order due to car troubles. I'm actually going to hold off for a while until they do.
It really growls and has amazing clarity-great for low tunings. It's got that mid range rasp that brings out the notes in your chords.

Link stolen from the Perpetual Burn thread: http://musicpromarketing.com/musicpro/blog/seymour-duncan-new-2104/

 

[SGFanatic]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

Link stolen from the Perpetual Burn thread: http://musicpromarketing.com/musicpro/blog/seymour-duncan-new-2104/

I hope they're available in active mounts.

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[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I hope they're available in active mounts.

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You can get anything in any mount. You just can't match colored humbuckers to a colored single coil. That's the only limitation.

 

[SGFanatic]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

You can get anything in any mount. You just can't match colored humbuckers to a colored single coil. That's the only limitation.

I hope so. The only reason I posted that is because the link I followed didn't specifically say it was available in active mount. I assume it will be, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

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[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I hope so. The only reason I posted that is because the link I followed didn't specifically say it was available in active mount. I assume it will be, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

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Yeah man I JUST found out the hard way. I scored an '88 Floral Ibanez Jem and it was just something I NEVER thought was going to happen at this point because I've missed so many opportunities over the years I just kinda moved on.

So...me being...well...ME...I had to change the pickups and Duncan was able to make my special blend secret sauce pickups with no logos in Pink but they couldn't match the single coil cover to the pink humbuckers so now I have a slight mismatch that I will N E V E R let them live down because their leading competitor who (for my money) makes 90% crappy pickups can match colors all day.

So in the end....yes...I am more appreciative that the pickups feel and sound right together. I still wish the job was 100% instead of 98%. :sad:

But yeah...if you want to send them a hunk of your dad's old Chevy and have them make a pickup cover, they can do it. Just don't ask them to match it to the single coil if you have one. :banghead:

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Black Winter owner.... Feedback so far????

I finally got around to throwing something up on You Tube. It's just excerpts from a cellphone video from the night I brought home my Splawn, and since I don't quite have my video editor figured out there's a few goof ups in the editing. But it'll give y'all an idea of what Black Winters sound like doing some old school metal, rock, ect.

http://youtu.be/IBCZNc63fsI