Differences between the Invader, Full Shred, and Black Winter pickups?

[Megadethgal]

I hope this hasn’t been asked a ton of times previously.

I’m thinking of swapping out my Jackson warrior guitar’s stock Humbuckers and was listening on YouTube and narrowed it down to liking the sounds of the Invader, Full Shred, and Black Winters best on the demonstrations I watched/listened to.

Can anyone tell me the finer nuances and pros and cons of each please? I’m into listening to thrash, death and black metal and currently learning some Megadeth songs from tab.

Eventually I hope to be playing things like the big 4’s of Thrash, Pantera, Marduk, Satyicon, Sentenced, Amorphis, Obscura and Children of Bodom type stuff among others.

Are all those good for extreme metal or are some of the mentioned better than others for those genres of heavy metal? Which do you think would be best for the type of music I intend to be playing?

 

[Clint 55]

Invader is pure bass, Full Shred is pure cut, Black Winter is in between and is voiced sterile for extreme metul styles.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Invader is really hot, dark and lower-middy.

Full Shred is medium output, kinda scooped, and bright/attacky.

Black Winter is really hot as well, tight, mid-focused, and grindy.

For the Scandinavian Metal stuff, I'd choose the Black Winter. It's really what it was originally inteded for.

 

[Mincer]

Invader is, like said, dark, high output, compressed, and thick. Great for doomy stuff, but may not be tight or bright enough for modern metal tones. Full Shred is the brightest humbucker SD makes. Both of these pickups are pretty much used with some kind of gain...not pickups for cleaner, more dynamic styles. Black Winter has mids, and is modern, but can be used for cleaner styles, too. Great for all sorts of tunings and all gain ranges. Doesn't feel as compressed as the other 2.

 

[Artie]

The cool thing about an Invader is, switch it to parallel, and it goes from Darth Vader to Shirley Temple. It's a sweet dual function pup.

 

[Masta' C]

Hard not to single out the Black Winter as the best choice for the styles listed

 

[EmiAba]

Hard not to single out the Black Winter as the best choice for the styles listed

Agree. But black winter is not just an extreme metal pickup. I found it much more usable than the distortion in genres much more near rock than metal