Difference Between Invader SH8 bridge and Full Shred bridge?

[beerinoculum]

hey all - I have a Schecter Blackjack with a Full Shred in the bridge, but paired with my current amp its just too tight and not a good feel for me. my MAIN question though, regarding the Invader, is will it still have the same CHUNK! (the chog chog chog when palm muting) as the Full Shred? the tone of the Full Shred paired with a Randall Diavlo and SD-1 boost is absolutely insane. very aggressive, but I need a more big sound, and needed to know if the Invader is going to be as aggressive, but more saturated.

 

[Hsb]

Think early Hetfield before he went to EMGs for the Invader. Multiple ceramic mags with lots of bottom end

And welcome to the site

 

[dave74]

Invader has the most chunk of all the passive Duncans IMO.

 

[alex1fly]

Too tight and wanting a bigger sound makes me think, increase the mids and bass on your amp and see what that does for the feel. Maybe experiment with turning the amp gain up/down while turning the guitar volume up/down.

Also if this is for recording, just blend multiple takes with different amps/EQ/etc. Most hard rock/metal recordings do this to get a huge sound.

 

[SweetClyde99]

I don’t have your rig, but I wouldn’t expect chugging to be a problem with the the Invader. It might be a bit less tight and percussive, but it still chugs very well. It is almost the Full Shred’s polar opposite in terms of EQ, so my only caution would be that it might an overcorrection in that you might be surprised by how thick and dark it is coming from the Full Shred.

 

[Hot Octopus]

The Invader is all over Avenged Sevenfold recordings. Take a listen to those. Synyster Gates, their lead guitarist, used to use the invader as his bridge pickup.

 

[Mincer]

The FS and Invader have almost the opposite EQs. If you want more chunk, I'd think something like the Custom or Pegasus would be a better choice.

 

[dave74]

The FS and Invader have almost the opposite EQs. If you want more chunk, I'd think something like the Custom or Pegasus would be a better choice.

Pegasus is chunkier than an Invader?

 

[jeremy]

tighter

 

[Mincer]

Pegasus is chunkier than an Invader?

Yeah, much tighter, more scooped, not as many mids, and tends to handle modern levels of gain better.

 

[alex1fly]

You can also replace the hex head polepieces with regular polepieces from another pickup. That should loosen up the attack a bit.

 

[jeremy]

alex means on the full shred

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Full Shred is not like any other Duncan out there. It sounds more like a Dimarzio than any other Duncan. Its bright, has a good tight chug to it, but can be somewhat fatiguing in super bright guitar. If you have a dark but resonant guitar, its perfect. Invader has HUGE low end, rolled off highs and is pretty dark./muddy sounding. Articulation is not very good whereas on the Full Shred, it shows EVERY flaw in your playing abilities.

 

[dave74]

It all comes down to tone words again. For me the term "chunk" means thick and beefy in the mids, especially lower mids, even the 81 or 85 in the bridge exudes "chunk" IMO.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I'm also thinking you could experiment with an Alnico 8 in the Full Shred to raise the output and fatten the mids a bit before swapping it out.

Also, you might want to try a Tube Screamer rather than an SD-1 as a boost. A Tube Screamer is fatter and hotter.

 

[Seashore]

I'm also thinking you could experiment with an Alnico 8 in the Full Shred to raise the output and fatten the mids a bit before swapping it out.

Also, you might want to try a Tube Screamer rather than an SD-1 as a boost. A Tube Screamer is fatter and hotter.

I have no experience with A8 but I'm curious about it. I wanna ask, by "fatten the mids", do you mean that A8 accentuates a broader swath of midrange frequencies? Or does it just kind of raise what's already there? Or is that one of those things that depends entirely on the pickup?

 

[Inflames626]

I would say "tight" and "chug" have to coincide somewhat to get that sound. The "chug" has to shut off the transient very quickly at some point, otherwise it becomes too loose. Hence my preference for an EMG 81 in the bridge vs. an EMG 85 even though the EMG 85 sounds a little bit fuller than an 81. The 85 may "chug" more, but is it a sloppy mess?

The Full Shred chugs and is tight, but, IMO, it is very restrained in the low end compared to say, a Demon, which I think has excellent low end chug and tightness but is thin in the mids and highs.

In fact I would say if the Custom Shop built me an ideal pickup I would want it to be some combination of the Full Shred and the Demon.

Regarding the Invader, I always found it to be a very dark pickup suitable for situations where you are playing through amps with less gain so the pickup compensates for it. It sounds like the OP's rig has no shortage of gain (I have an old Randall Cyclone 2 x 15" half stack), but then again, some people like high output pickups through high gain rigs for rhythm playing all the time. I don't as I find it becomes a sloppy mess.

If you are playing slower styles the Invader can sound very thick and full, like a JB, but in general the Invader is my least favorite Duncan pickup of all time. In the neck position in a bright guitar with the tone control at 0 it can sound like a bass.

Regarding the Alt 8, I tried it many years ago when it first came out and disliked it. It was like a Distortion but with more negative qualities. Lots of fizz--treble and presence--even backed far down into the pickup cavity, but also very powerful. It reminded me a lot of a 5150 and that amp's polarizing tonal qualities. The Alt 8 also reminded me of a Dual Rec in that the sound could be terrible or great depending on how you dial it in.

Regarding "bright" vs. "dark" guitars, for the usual mass produced poplar/alder/basswood stuff, I don't hear any huge difference. They all sound kind of neutral to me. More important to me is bolt on vs. set neck vs. thru neck as well as fretboard wood and type of bridge.

But I am generally a tonewood skeptic. I agree that there can be individual outliers as far as "dark" vs. "bright" guitars, but of my 40+ guitars and basses I don't think any of them are inherently bright or dark enough to warrant a certain pickup based on wood alone.

 

[Juanhanglo]

Full shred bridge sounds great with the bass bumped up at the amp. The only problem is that the setting could wreak havoc on the neck pickup.

Also, the full shreds do better in fatter sounding guitars, where the pickup eq and guitar natural tone balance each other.
full shreds seem to scream in brighter guitars. I'd do an Invader in that instance.

 

[GuitarDoc]

You basically love the FS sound but want it to be a little fuller. Putting an A8 mag in it is a good suggestion. It will fill in some mids and slightly bump up the output and make the pup sound fuller and bigger. Going to an Invader will make you want to smash your guitar into the front of a fast moving train. It will sound just the opposite of your FS...huge bass and mids with almost no treble. With the same amp settings that you use with the FS, the Invader (comparatively) will sound like pure mud.

 

[dave74]

Full shred bridge sounds great with the bass bumped up at the amp. The only problem is that the setting could wreak havoc on the neck pickup.

Also, the full shreds do better in fatter sounding guitars, where the pickup eq and guitar natural tone balance each other.
full shreds seem to scream in brighter guitars. I'd do an Invader in that instance.

Good call.

As long as the Invader is set low enough to where you can fret the strings at the 22nd/24th frets and all the notes are clear with no warbling/interference then you will have a gloriously heavy crunch machine.

Those hex-caps stick waaay up and I suspect many if not most of the people who have tried Invaders have done so on guitars with the poles too close to the strings. If you just swap them in without accounting for their extra height you will have a muddy inarticulate mess just like others have said.