help! looking for good metal pickups!

tfb1990

tfb1990

New member
i have a jackson js (rhoads style) and i havent replaced the pu's yet... ive thinkin the Zakk Wylde EMG set... or... some duncans, im thininkin live wire metal or a screamin demon in the bridge and maybe a distortion in the neck? and im playin some metal, but mostly rock right now... so leave me some feedback please!
or if u have any other combos feel free to tell me! i just want some serious distortion, i know ppl want clean to, but i could seriously care less...
 
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Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

Hey dude welcome to the board,
You know most of the distortion comes from your amp or an additional pedal right? The pick up more or less provides tone rather than real distortion. You might wanna do a little more research on pick ups rather than names as well, no offense, the screamin demon isn't a hot pick up at all. If you wanted a sterile (IMO), liveless (IMO), but very powerful, high output and agressive pick up I'd recommend a set of EMG81s, the most agressive I've ever heard and the clean tone was very bad to say the least. They didn't sound good for what I'm doing but I'm very critical about my tone as well.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

how much are you playing clean?

i used to have a rhodes with a distortion in the bridge and a jb in the neck. great rock guitar but very high output and not the best clean tone. if cleans are important then a jazz or 59 neck is a good choice.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

well thanks for the info, and yea im lookin into a peavy umm... something 112 i think, very nice for my budget, and my mom thinks if i go over 30w ill blow the house up, lol but she dont know nothing... and i dont really use clean at all, so thats the only reason y im sayin that... and o yea, i actually have done research, my teacher has a demon in the bridge (which i really liked) and the humbucker from hell in the neck, which i really like too because it wasnt muddy at all... and o yea, thanks for the dimebucker riff, the only reason i didnt mention that is cuz i couldnt find a clip anywhere, but yea thats a sick pickup
 
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Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

Get a tube amp under 30 watts -- watt for watt, tube amps are a LOT louder. They're also a bit more expensive but you can get an 8- to 15-watt tube amp that will give you more than enough power, especially playing at home.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

If your just starting out, stick with the pick ups you have now and buy a pedal.Then as your playing evolves, you can use that as incentive of rewarding yourself by buying a decent set of pick ups. Then later another guitar, amp, etc,.
The Seabrook/Kemah area is pretty cool. I use to live in Bacliff.
 
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Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

I'd say a JB/Jazz set, or a Distortion/Full Shred.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

Bro, Screw the pickups for right now and screw a pedal for right now. You need a killer amp setup first. With a less than good amp you might as not worry about the other things yet. A good amp will by far make the most difference.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

If you try 20 differnt pickups, you would probably spend $1000.

If you get a nice amp with that money first, you would have no problem with doing metal with pretty much any pickup.
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

well thanks, so now what kinda amp do yall think i should go for? if ur sayin no pickups im guessin bout a 500$ one? and yea seabrook is nice, little humid but its great lol... umm.. o yea, ive been playin um.... a yr and a half, but my teachers have all said i play like twice my expeirence... well to give u and idea im doing some metallica, some ac/dc, little bit of GNR, umm.. anything else, like this awsome song by silvetide, "aint comin home", i can do the whole thing, so just dont think im some serious noobie trying to upgrade... and down the road would u reccomend a new guitar or pickups? jw...
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

ok.. im gonna sound really stupid, but whats the diff between and amp and a head?
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

try and score a tube amp 2nd hand. i dont know how easy/hard that can be at your age, but if you know someone who's more experienced than you, you can make a good purchase.

now i dont know the actual pricing on these amps, but they do go as low as 600 sometimes
a peavey 5150, a marshall jcm800, ashdown fallen angel 45 (this one might even be cheaper)
they're all combos, which means they come with a speaker already inside the box, so you dont have to spend more to buy a speaker cabinet for it
others might suggest other amps. you should look into them and see which one will fit your budget

after you got a kickass amp, i'd start looking into a better guitar. something along the lines of a RR3 or a RR5, but that is, given your budget, a little bit much. unless you score a killer deal =) and they CAN be found. you just have to know the right people and be on the lookout, plus have some money stashed away for sudden G.A.S .. and not like me LOL.. broke half of the time
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

tfb1990 said:
ok.. im gonna sound really stupid, but whats the diff between and amp and a head?
Click to expand...
a head IS an amp ;)

there is a diference between a head and a combo (but both are amps)

a head is a stand alone unit, for which you will need an extention speaker cabinet (you got diferent ones 1 speaker, 2 speaker, 4 speaker) to get any sound from it

with a combo you already have a 'combination' of amp and speaker cabinet in one box, so you just buy one thing, plug in and play.


there are of course a LOT more diferences between the two, but that's the simplest explanation. if we go into detail, we might confuse you even more =)

stay around the forum long enough and you'll learn it =)
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

from what i can tell, heads have a lot more knobs so im guessing more EFX and more tone variation... i guess its more complicated but thats all i know, nvr played on one... and thanks for the ideas ill look into it
 
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Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

it's really not complicated..

if you get a simple amp like a jcm800 you cant go wrong

you got a volume knob, three EQ knobs (bass (for the low tones) mids (for the midrange) and trebble (for heights) a gain knob, which distorts the signal and gives you that metal tone and there are a couple of others, but these are the most basic ones.

there are more 'complicated' amps out there, but none are rocket science. amps with more knobs and switches will give you more tonal variation yes. it's erally not complicated.

like i said, get a coke, sit back, relax, browse the forums, you'll learn the neccessary terms and other things in time. we all were beginners once
 
Re: help! looking for good metal pickups!

lol dude, dont get pissed at me, but i know all that stuff, so which of those amps u told me would u recomend the most?
 
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