Re: I kinda need help deciding...
So as the title says, I need help. I have a Caparison TAT with a Hot Rails in the neck. It's a HUGE improvement over the stock pickup. Now, I need help deciding on a good bridge pickup. I love playing around with stuff ranging from Rush and Boston, to Judas Priest, all the way to Arch Enemy, Carcass, Bloodbath, etc. I had my eye on the Distortion, but I've seen Chris Amott use a Screamin' Demon, and Gary Holt use the Custom. Which do you think would be best? Thanks! :burnout:
That's a pretty broad range. Judas Priest on up would probably all work terrifically with a PATB-2 Parallel Axis Distortion. Boston tends towards processed distortion tones, pickup probably doesn't matter so much there. Rush is more varied, depends on which songs and how close you need to be to Lifeson's tone.
Especially given the ebony fretboard, maple neck-through and (presumably floating) vibrato bridge, I'd look at something in the PATB series first, they do a wonderful job of making a bright superstrat sound more like a beefy les paul.
The PATB-2 is an amazing metal pickup, and can manage less harsh lead tones with much less work than other ceramics. Awesome for gargantuan riffs. Daemon barbeque has some great recordings of it, search for his stuff to check that out. He also had a (soundclick I think?) page that had the PATB-2 panned to one side and a conventional (SH-6 IIRC) Distortion panned to the other, which nicely demonstrates the difference. He's using it in a fixed bridge guitar with different woods (mahogany set-neck, IIRC).
I think given the likely brightness of your guitar, the PATB-2 would be a better match than the conventional Distortion. If you need a bit more bite, just turn the presence up on your amp, that gets as much edge as I'd ever need out of the PATB-2.
If you want something less compressed and easier to get cleans and low to mid gain sounds out of, check out the PATB-1 Original Parallel Axis. It sounds somewhere between a Custom Custom and a Custom 5, but if anything tighter than the Custom 5. It's still good for speed metal rhythms, but that's not it's specialty. It's an amazing pickup for lead, with a far less compressed feel than the PATB-2. I have the PATB-1 in my Ibanez RG570 because I tend to play a fair amount of lower gain AC/DCish stuff that I don't find sounds right with a hot, compressed pickup, as much as I love that sound for metal rhythm.
The TB-5 Custom is pretty open feeling for a ceramic, it's probably the most workable ceramic pickup for lower gain stuff, though it can still be a bit stiff feeling. I'd be a bit uneasy about it in an ebony neck-through, the only time I"ve heard the ceramic Custom be excessively trebly was in a similar guitar design (ebony, neck-through maple, floating floyd). It was an interesting sound, but rather tiring. I can't say it wouldn't work, though, just that it's not the first thing I'd try.
For lower gain the Screamin' Demon would do great, but depending on your amp you may find you need a boost or distortion pedal to get it to do the heavier end of things. It might sound a bit harsh with that guitar design, though. Though the SD tends to have a nice growl and tight bass, some people find them a bit bright due to being underwound. It also might have trouble keeping up with the Hot Rails in the neck for output.
Hope all that helps!
