Help me find a balanced bridge pickup for metal

[Chuck_Norris]

Hey guys, I'm looking for a new bridge pickup for (modern) metal. The tone I'm looking for lies somewhere between the Distortion SH-6 and the Custom SH-5. The Distortion has a bit too much upper mids while the Custom's low end is a bit too prominent and it's a tad too scooped. I usually put a tube screamer or something similar in front of the amp, so the Distortion ends up over-emphasizing the upper mids. The Custom sounds a bit too scooped and bass-heavy on the other hand.

Which pickups would you suggest for a more balanced tone with this kind of setup, while maintaining the heavyness, thightness and aggression needed for deathcore, death- and thrash metal?

 

[Aceman]

It would help to know what guitar etc...

But on paper, the Duncan Exciter would be your ideal pickup. Never played one.

From DiMarzio, an X2N, if it had enough highs might be ideal. Or might just be too stupid hot. Or maybe you could lose the Tube Screamer - LOL

 

[jeremy]

im surprised the custom is too bass heavy and scooped with a ts in there. a typical ts9 cuts bass and boosts mids.

the exciter does sound like it would fit the bill

 

[Securb]

I, too, when reading this, do not think the pickups are your problem. I would lose the Tube Screamer and get a pedal with more EQ and the ability to control the mids. If you are sold on the tone of the TS, you might consider a Source Audio EQ or something similar, and you can tweak a setting for each ax. I just picked up a first-gen myself used at a reasonable price.

 

[xxxplorer]

The most balanced 'metal' pickup has honestly been the Bill Lawrence L500XL. Sounds different in every guitar I put it in. May have a bit of a high end presence, but tone controls help.

I like other pickups more, but it is very balanced and natural sounding to my ears. Other pickups impart more of their own sauce to the mix.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

My experience is that the Gibson 500T is kind of in between a Custom and a Distortion.

It has the Distortion's tighter and leaner low-end as well as the Custom's more aggressive and open top-end. It's less stuffy in the lower mids than the Distortion too, so I guess it kinda resembles the Custom in that sense.

It's also got a bit of that Black Winter's emphatic attack, so kind of a "best of both worlds"... or more like "best of three worlds", LOL, kinda deal.

That being said, not sure if I'd call it "balanced". It's certainly grindy and raspy and very full of character.

The X2N is got a balanced mid voicing, but it's also kinda bassy and super dark, so I wouln't call it a "balanced" pickup myself, personally.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I'd go Black Winter, but I also agree that EQing your sound to trim the upper-mid honk and unwanted bass frequencies is probably the better fix.

 

[Chuck_Norris]

I appreciate your feedback so far. Allow me to shed some light on my current setup. Both guitars in question have a mahogany body and a maple neck. I run them into a Kemper Profiler without any pedals in front. All effects I use are built-in Kemper effects. That also includes a graphic EQ for some of the profiles. The amp profiles depend on my needs at that time and are all on the heavy side, think 5150, Soldano, Dual Rec, Diezel, various ENGLs and so on.

I use graphic or studio EQs sometimes precisely for the reasons you mentioned. However, what I'm looking for now is essentially a different kind of pickup with a more balanced tone. I love the Custom and the Distortion for what they do, but would like to achieve something else. Think of a Distortion with a less pronounced upper midrange, or a less scooped Custom with a tad less bass.

 

[skelt101]

Have you tried magnet swapping? Something like an A4 or UOA5 in the Custom might get you where you want to be.

 

[Seashore]

If the Distortion is too bright, what about switching to 250k pots? Longer screw poles will also shave off a bit of high end, but that will be subtle.

Most of my favorite pickups do the opposite of what you're asking for, but something like a BKP ceramic Nailbomb or even ceramic Warpig (try different pot values) could work. Brute Force, too, not my fave but they're pretty balanced. There are several other BKPs that seem like they'd fit the bill for you, but I haven't tried them - Polymath, Silo, Impulse. $$$ though.

And as much as I didn't wind up getting along with Fishman moderns in any of my guitars (not a fan of actives in general), I have to say they were really clear and balanced.

 

[jeremy]

if you want to swap magnets, i think a normal size c8 in the distortion, with or without side mags, could suit you well

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Actually, now that I think about it, the DiMarzio D Activator is the most balanced high-output Ceramic I've tried in a while.

It's not mid-focused like a Distortion. It's not scoopy like a Custom. It's not as attacky as a Black Winter or 500T. It's not dark and bassy like an X2N.

It's just all around balanced and usable for being so strong.

 

[RanchManSandy]

consider a Pegasus with hex pole pieces.

It. Heckin. Owns.

 

[Mononoaware]

Actually, now that I think about it, the DiMarzio D Activator is the most balanced high-output Ceramic I've tried in a while.

It's not mid-focused like a Distortion. It's not scoopy like a Custom. It's not as attacky as a Black Winter or 500T. It's not dark and bassy like an X2N.

It's just all around balanced and usable for being so strong.

Second on the D Activator. It's very versatile and even for a high output pickup. Harmonically rich without being "too much" anything--not nasal, not boomy or spiky, just a very shapable, strong signal.

 

[freefrog]

Sorry for the late answer (if it has any interest, which isn't sure). I was ill...

Not easy IMHO and IME to find a "balanced" pickup, since passive magnetic transducers are by nature unbalanced: physically, they are LRC resonant filters. So they have resonant peaks. So they are never flat sounding (unless a tone pot is lowered enough to flatten their resonance, of course).

Low impedance are a notable exception to this rule but almost forgotten now and I've still to hear metal played with a Les Paul Recording...

I see why fellow members have evoked above powerful pickups like the X2N, 500T, D-Activator: they haven't a flat sound BUT they promote the bass range in a way favouring a relatively flat response of fundamental notes from unfretted low E to 24th frets on the high E. Most of the other pickups "naturally" promote high mids more than bass.

I also see the reasons behind the recommendation of Bill Lawrence L500 series and that's potentially the kind of PU that I'd try as well in such a situation : William Lorenz Stich (Bill Lawrence) designed his humbuckers in a different way, making them potentially very versatile if one knows how to wire them and to pair them with tone shaping components. Not that I'm a BL fan: along with various L500 models, I've also here a collection of DiMarzio / Duncan / active pickups. But BL spontaneously came to my mind in this case.


... That said and before to change a pickup, to swap its magnet or to use an external EQ, I'd think twice about its settings (height, angle under the strings) and I'd consider how much passive magnetic pickups are tonally shaped by external factors/components.

Examples of what I mean (explaining why Bill Lawrence was a great advocate of tayloring the sound with external things like pot resistance, cable capacitance and/or added capacitors, Q filters and so on):

https://youtu.be/4BmkaS91NHQ?si=RDYJQz-KaolTLPo6&t=562

https://youtu.be/HJKYIWGl_KI?si=ivg9aOz-t0yK_tOK&t=211

Technical explanations if needed:

http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/

https://zerocapcable.com/wordpress/?page_id=209

[ignore the commercial discourse about the potentially indifferent no-cap cable at the bottom of the 2d page... but compare the graphs of this page to the response of a really flat sounding pickup like a low impedance one: https://www.cycfi.com/projects/neo-series/low-impedance/ ]
​

Non limitative list. HTH.

 

[Mincer]

If a pickup was truly flat and everything equal, I think most people would hate it.