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

[Lucy Diamond]

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

...A buddy is recommending I lower the BW to get rid of that annoying high end, which I'm going to try, but I figured I'd come here and ask the experts. For a baseline, I play primarily old school extreme metal with some weird stuff thrown in (think early-Voi Vod). I've had an IBZ-USA (tone zone clone), Invader and Super Distortion in this guitar before and liked the Invader the best, but it didn't sit well in a mix with my other guitars - hence looking for a replacement.

One of my other guitars is a Soloist with DDs in it, and I like that tone much better. My other 6-string is a KM6 with Schecter Apocalypse pups. My 7s: an LTD H7 with a custom/59 set (my fav) and a Jackson (heavily customized) JS22-7 with a set of Dimarzio Imperiums (my second fave).

Yeah man, the Winters do not have to be close to the strings to be effective.
Throw out the usual rules for pickups with Black Winters, because they are their own animal and react to everything in a completely different way from normal high output pickups. This is evident in the amazing clean and slightly overdriven sounds you can get with these pickups.

Pickup height is a factor though.

Good luck and enjoy the tone chase my friend \m/,



~LD

 

[dbrich]

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

Installed Black Winters in my Schecter Omen Extreme 6, they scream, sustains is unbelievable, played through my DRZ MAZ18, the strings sound like they breathe air. Thinking about lowering the pickups for more compression with more distance between the magnets and the strings. I like these even better than the Antiquity pups.

 

[Masta' C]

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

Glad you're liking them! Going from Antiquities to Black Winters is a pretty dang big jump, but they really are great pickups and a lot of tones can certainly be coaxed out of them.

 

[RevDoom73]

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

dbrich I have my Black Winters set fairly low now from the strings and I do think it's effective, let us know how the results are for you I'd love to see how it works out.

 

[Iron1]

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

Yeah man, the Winters do not have to be close to the strings to be effective.
Throw out the usual rules for pickups with Black Winters, because they are their own animal and react to everything in a completely different way from normal high output pickups. This is evident in the amazing clean and slightly overdriven sounds you can get with these pickups.

Pickup height is a factor though.

Good luck and enjoy the tone chase my friend \m/,



~LD

Thanks. I've already moved on though. Bought an Elysian Trident for this one. But, I *might* try putting the Black Winter in my KM6 before I sell it.

 

[NeglectedField]

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

I replaced the screws with fillister head ones and the issue has improved slightly but I'm undecided as to whether it's enough. It's still very 'vowelled'. I'm just scared if I hunt for other pickups that they'll have the same problem or won't have the same tasty tight tracking which is otherwise such a draw for these babies.

 

[Iron1]

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

Update: The Elysian Trident II arrived and it's dramatically better (for my tastes at least) than the Black Winter. No ice-pickey highs, stands out/cuts through the mix really well. Very defined lows that give it a great growl and it cleans up really nicely when doing non-OD stuff. Like it so much I'm looking to get a set for my KM6 now, too.

 

[BleedingFingertips]

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

I've had my BW set in a Charvel Desolation (mahogany body, mahogany/rosewood bolt-on neck) for 2,5 years now. At first, I wasn't 100% impressed. Had some issues with too much "bite" on my drive channel that could only be dialed out with an OD/boost pedal.

I don't know what happened but the tone seems to have "aged" well (maybe because the wood aged too?). Now I'm pretty sure I will install them in my other "metal" guitars someday. Been torn between BW and Alt8 for a while, but I'm not sure if Alt8 can clean up as good as BW. The latter is something I absolutely LOVE about the Black Winters.

 

[bldrst]

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

I would say play with the pickup height on the Winter first. I had my BW bridge close to the strings a while back, and I wasn't liking the tone. Backing the pickup down a bit made a big difference, allowed a lot of harmonics to come through and left me with a great rhythm chug sound for metal (and great tones for non-metal, too, but that's another conversation).

Agreed, after a year of these in my RR1, I have found this to be very true. Screw with the screws, and overall height.

 

[bldrst]

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

I've had my BW set in a Charvel Desolation (mahogany body, mahogany/rosewood bolt-on neck) for 2,5 years now. At first, I wasn't 100% impressed. Had some issues with too much "bite" on my drive channel that could only be dialed out with an OD/boost pedal.

I don't know what happened but the tone seems to have "aged" well (maybe because the wood aged too?). Now I'm pretty sure I will install them in my other "metal" guitars someday. Been torn between BW and Alt8 for a while, but I'm not sure if Alt8 can clean up as good as BW. The latter is something I absolutely LOVE about the Black Winters.

I have found that to be happy I have to accept some kind of trade off. With the BW I have such clarity, along with explosive attack - even in Legato - that to deal with the side effects is well worth it, the mid/high peak and the lack of woody Tone that I would get from a A2, is gone. Trade that for the type of focus / attack I want from my RR1 and I am close to perfectly happy, finally, with the the BW set, yeah, it's not perfect in there, but it's close. If I could adjust the eq notch, that would help. At this point, I plan to add two mini toggles. CooL.