Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

[esandes]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

JB

 

[PushedCrayon]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

If you're going for lead, try maybe the pearly gates, or a custom5, the invader is much more of a rhythm pickup, gets a little muddy when you try and get fancy with it.

 

[Lucy Diamond]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

See...there are now "punk" pickups.

Make the best music you can possibly make with what you have. THAT is punk. As long as what you are doing has INTEGRITY, then you are doing the right thing man and stop caring what other people think.

The punk circle of life is so small. Once you begin asking people what THEY think you should do, you fall out of that circle and are no longer punk.

Make a decision and live with your decision.

Throw you computer out...turn off your television....get in your jamming space and make music bro. Make it is abrasive or clean or jangly or heavy as you want, but for Randy's sake man...MAKE IT YOURS.

Now stop posting and start playing!!!

~LD


EDIT: Also...I want to clarify a statement I made that one of our brothers commented on. When I say "...you have to be all unimpressed with yourself and be like "I don't know man, it's just some $h!t I found." I mean to ACTUALLY be unimpressed with the machinery involved because the tone and the rage and the passion comes from YOU. You are going to sound like YOU whether you are playing through a Mesa? Boogie stack or a crate practice amp. Don't "ACT" like anything...be true to yourself. Work hard and buy the best gear you can and appreciate your gear but don't get caught up in the gear.

 

[Orange]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

The screaming demon because its tighter on the bass when palm muting and has growl without sounding muddy, meaning it extremely good for tight and fast rythm work, but also has a clear and bright but not harsh sound when playing full chords which is essential when you play like nofx or blink (one plays the powerchords the other one the melodic part on two strings.)

Makes leads cut trough the mix without sounding harsh and gives you a big sound without having to turn up the gain or buy a mesa boogie.
At this point i think everyone is tired of the rectifiers, people start to switch back to marshall and orange, among others.

The screaming demon will work better on fat, warm and creamy instruments, baswood or mahogamy. If your guitar sounds more hard, harsh or bright, the invader is a good choice. its muddy in les pauls but in a brighter instrument will add bass and growl, which is why tom delingue had it in a stratocaster.

The super distortion or duncan distortion are good choices on most les pauls knockoffs but sound pretty generic too, especially with a mesa. If you have an expensive or extremely good sounding instrument the custom 5 or Super V are more subtle.

 

[DoniMartin]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

Chris Rest of Lagwagon supposedly uses the full shred, i like his tone. One of my bands is kind of in the same veins with those you mentioned, Nofx, Lagwagon, Hi-Standard, etc. My current guitar is an Artrock RLP200, mahogany body, Les Paul type, it has a JB in it which is great for the tone im after for that type of music, i used to have a Cort Source 335 copy, also with a JB, with the wrong amp the Cort sounded ear-pickingly bright (many knowledgeable members of the forum says that the combo is just dead wrong), but when paired with the right amp and cab, it can sound just great (i recorded one of the singles of my 'punk' band with that guitar straight into a Bogner Ecstasy head and Marshal 1960 cab, sounded pretty awesome).. it depends on what amp you're / will be using it with. I say try the JB, lots of em for sale for a good price used, and there's always the option to swap the mag if you like the tone but not 100% happy with it.. Hope you find your tone, cheers..

 

[DoniMartin]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

I see this kind of thing in every gear recommendation thread where someone uses the word punk. I mean this respectfully, but frankly: I'm going to have to say that you'd sound like a clueless outsider to anyone involved in an actual punk scene.

Punk means a lot of things to a lot of people. Yes, The Sex Pistols and The Ramones play "punk rock". I'm not going to dispute that as a name for the style, because that's what most people call that style, and that's how language works. When most people use a word to mean something, that's what it means. But those bands were hollow from the very beginning. While DIY punk scenes sprung up and thrived all over the world, those guys dressed like punks and talked like punks, and there were very very influential in punk culture, but it was all an act. When they signed their major label deals, they ceased to be participants in the culture itself. They were still icons, but not participants. Bands like Crass and Minor Threat were able to be just as influential AND maintain their integrity. The scenes these guys were a part of never died.

It's important to separate punk culture from punk rock as a style. In the DIY scene, you'll find every kind of music claiming to be punk. No ones puts other bands down for not being punk because they don't sound like classic punk rock. Folk, metal, electronica. That can all be punk as far as the punks are concerned. But you can also play punk rock and not be a punk band. Like The Sex Pistols. We all love Sex Pistols for their music, but no one respects them. Sid Vicious couldn't even play bass. Johnny Rotten just puts on this absurdly fake attitude. It's all pretty dishonest. But you get these outsiders to the scene saying "punk is dead" or "punk is all about attitude", meanwhile there are scenes that have been active since the 70's and new ones popping up in smaller cities, and bands putting out seven inches and silk screening their own t-shirts to sell in dirty punk house basements and not even trying to get big because they're not in it for the money. And the music has evolved so much. 80's hardcore turned into metalcore, emo, screamo, hare-krishna stuff, crustcore, twinkly indie, and ton of other sub-genres and -cores I can't remember. A lot of those subgenres have turned out bands that got big and put out great records, or got big and put out uninspired crap, or didn't get big but still got stale, or didn't get big and stayed fresh and interesting. All that makes you punk is being part of the culture, regardless of how you dress or what kind of music you play or how much attitude and aggression you put on.

Now, not letting stuff stop you is a big part of punk culture. Whether your attitude is "3 chords, start a band" or "my Squier Strat won't stay in tune but whatever I'll keep playing" or "I'm not into guitar so I'll start a zine", lack of knowledge and lack of gear isn't something that's going to hold back punk. But that doesn't mean that caring isn't punk. And I mean caring in more than one way. A lot of bands grow, both in terms of skill and gear. They care. If you're not going to do better when you can do better just because it's not punk, then your punkness is really just an empty affectation. On the other hand, there are definite trends towards certain gear within punk culture. Punks care what their heroes play. Gibsons are pretty common, in big part because of The Sex Pistols, but also because they were a brand name that was relatively cheaper in the 80's when superstrats were in. And punks tended to be pretty disgusted with hair metal and new wave. So all the 80's bands were playing Les Pauls that were made in the 70's. There were a lot of 70's SG's in the 90's/early 00's screamo scene too. Most of those were probably stock, T-Tops or whatever else Gibson put in there at the time, but more than a few punk guitarists upgraded to Super Distortions. So when you say that punk is routing a Dano with a screwdriver, you're missing the point that the culture favours certain gear, which is what people who make threads like this are looking for information about.

We can go on all day about punk being about whatever, but CUCA has given us a pretty good list of the bands that HE wants to sound like, so there's no ambiguity there. According to Duncan's artist list, the guy from Bad Religion uses a Custom Custom and a Distortion. The guy from NOFX uses a Custom. All the other bands I had to do an image search for, and every single one has a pic with their guitarist playing a Les Paul, so the 498T is probably still in many of those. I see JB's used more by guys playing through high gain heads looking for more metal tones, not the other way around. I did notice a few years back that Telecasters were becoming more and more common, and they all seemed to have JB's in them and run them into Oranges. I'm not sure if those guys are still doing that though. The players who have more traditional influences tend to favour the Custom or Custom 5 these days, if they swap their pickups at all.

The only band in the realm of punk that I've seen using an Invader is Blink, and even then a lot of their albums were recorded with a stock Les Paul. Tom Delonge plays a hollowbody with a Dirty Fingers a lot these days too. I bet you could do most kinds of punk well with an Invader, but I just never see punk bands using them.

Some day I would like to play through a delicious hambucker.

+1

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

It all depends on your amp. You can't go too wrong with a slightly hot P.A.F., though, for most styles of music. Pearly Gates or '59 would be my bridge pickups of choice if I was playing a Les Paul in a punk band, depending on what amp I was using. If I played a Marshall, I'd probably go with the '59. If a Fender, probably the PG.

 

[p4vl]

Re: Bridge pickup for PUNK ROCK?

thanks for the responses!

I think is a cliche when people saids: "It's punk rock. Just use whatever you can steal". Is true, Punk is mostly attitude (attitude in concordance whit music I think), but actually i'm talking about sound. 80's and 90's punk are not the same, the sound is different.

The punk bands I listen uses Mesa Boogie Dual Rect, but I don't have the money for that amp, in my country these amps are too expensive. I think goes to a JetCity 22h or a Laney. In this circunstances the pickups have more importance lol.

Thanks again

Mesa's are too expensive where I live, and I'm in the US.

The Duncan Distortion has a really tight, aggressive tone. Lots of mids, lots of highs, but the clarity is amazing. I find that I have to turn the treble knob on my amp back a bit, but it's still the best pickup I've ever had.

The Custom would be a great option, too. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but I'm a metal guy.

Dimarzio Super Distortion would be worth considering if you're looking for a bassier sound. Thousands of punk and hardcore bands have used them.