Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

[Hammerheart]

I'm currently playing around with swapping the EMGs out of my LTD EC1000 Eclipse. The first set I've tried in it are my Black Winter set from my Ibanez RGA42. I love these in this guitar but in the EC1000 they just seem to be far too bright, jangly and really not good at all.

I read somewhere that the Nazgul/Sentient set are a good mix for this guitar. Anyone have a set in an EC1000?

Do I need to be careful with pot/cap combos with all these pickups? Is the fact that I have wired the Black Winters directly to the jack to demo them have any bearing on what i'm hearing? In my Ibanez they only have a 550k CTS volume knob and they sound great in that.

I'm going to try my BKP Warpigs in the EC1000 next as I've always felt they are a bit dark. I don't want to leave them in this guitar though as they have bare nickel covers and will probably look stupid in a gloss black EC1000. Hopefully though it will get me a bit of a better reference point for what I'm looking for in this guitar.

I've tried a 57/66 set before and I found them again too bright and they still had that EMG sterility which is what I'm looking to be rid of.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

wiring directly to the jack without any controls will give you a very bright sound, even just a 500k volume will tame some treble

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I used to have a Black Winter set in my EC-401. I had the neck wired in to a 500K volume, and the bridge to a 250K volume. No tone. Try that. It definitely tames the bridge pickup.

I think the Nazgûl is even brighter than the Black Winter.

 

[Hammerheart]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

Well I just tried the BKP warpigs in here to get an idea of how they sound in this guitar and they are fantastic (they just look awful). They tame all the top end and give it that proper Les Paul grunt. This is ideally what I'm looking for. Do they compare to anything in the SD range?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I don't think there's anything quite as overwound in the Duncan range without going Custom Shop. I'm guessing the Invaders are the closest as far as a hot, dark, high-output pickups.

 

[LesPaulPlayer001]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

Well I just tried the BKP warpigs in here to get an idea of how they sound in this guitar and they are fantastic (they just look awful). They tame all the top end and give it that proper Les Paul grunt. This is ideally what I'm looking for. Do they compare to anything in the SD range?

Maybe a Custom or a Custom Custom though. That's probably the closest that I could think of. The Duncan Custom is a Ceramic magnet like the Warpig, but the Custom Custom has an Alnico II magnet (my favorite) which would give you a lot of that Les Paul grunt since they have more midrange. So in reality it depends on which one you like, the Duncan Custom is best for high gain and the Custom Custom is more versatile. This link takes you to a Custom vs Custom Custom vs Custom 5 comparison https://youtu.be/kLfRvjjAwf0. Although, I use a Pearly Gates in the bridge of my LP and play tons of metal with it. I would never want another pickup because I think it just sounds better for thrash and heavy metal, but if you want to down tune past drop C# don't get it.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

i dont know if there is anything in the production line up like the warpig. the invader is kinda close like rex said. warpig is like 21k with either alnico5 or ceramic magnet, or at least used to be. not sure if its changed or anything since i dont see too many around here.

 

[OLDERBUDWISER]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I am the odd man out on this, I liked the Nazgul WAY WAY more than the BW. I tried for weeks, lowering it, lowering the gain, changing amp settings. Eventually it came out and I sold it. IMO evrybody comments how great it is and then tell how they had to change whatever to make it work. The Nazgul is a much better pickup to me and I think its great split believe it or not. The BW was the only Duncan I ever owned I just didnt like at all. I could see it working for any music where you want it to sound ugly like Black Metal

 

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I am the odd man out on this, I liked the Nazgul WAY WAY more than the BW. I tried for weeks, lowering it, lowering the gain, changing amp settings. Eventually it came out and I sold it. IMO evrybody comments how great it is and then tell how they had to change whatever to make it work. The Nazgul is a much better pickup to me and I think its great split believe it or not. The BW was the only Duncan I ever owned I just didnt like at all. I could see it working for any music where you want it to sound ugly like Black Metal

Well, I get where you're coming from, even though I love the BW. No pickup is for everyone. Plug-and-play pickups have lots of value, but so do pickups that require a bit of finessing. The latter will usually give you more tonal options.

On Naz vs. BW, I own both (they're in different guitars), and while I think the Naz is beastly-good at chugging sounds and metal in general, I don't find it nearly as versatile as the Winter, which gives me a drier, crisper metal attack (particularly at high speed) but which can also do pretty much everything under the sun. I can play thrash, classic metal, rock and hard rock, pop, blues, funk, and even get some good jazz tones just by playing around with the volume and tone knobs and splitting when necessary. I can't do nearly as much with the Nazgul, which to my ears is too typically ceramic for any clean tone that isn't "early Metallica." But again YMMV. That's part of what makes guitar so fun, isn't it? It's all about figuring out how *you* best interact with your instrument. Other people can make suggestions, but at the end of the day, it's your ears and your feeling that matter the most.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I always thought a Nazgul was always much more bright/jangly than a BW.

 

[bloughlin16]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I had the Nazgul when it came stock in my Schecter KM-7 and actually thought it was much brighter and harsher than both the Omega that I currently have in there and the Black Winter when I tried it.

 

[LesPaulPlayer001]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I agree with bloughlin16. I have tried the Alpha/Omega and they don't sound overly harsh and I would definitely recommend them.

 

[Despair]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

I don't think there's anything quite as overwound in the Duncan range without going Custom Shop. I'm guessing the Invaders are the closest as far as a hot, dark, high-output pickups.

PATB-2 Parallel Axis Distortion is hotter than the Invader, but not as dark. Mid-focused from wind, rather than huge screw heads.

Not sure if Invader or PATB-2 survive appearance preferences, though.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Nazgul/Sentient in EC1000? I find Black Winter too bright/jangly.

PATB-2 Parallel Axis Distortion is hotter than the Invader, but not as dark. Mid-focused from wind, rather than huge screw heads.

Not sure if Invader or PATB-2 survive appearance preferences, though.

My bad, you're right. The PATB-2 is wound hotter than the Invader. Not sure if it's actually higher-output, though. The Invader does have A LOT of ceramic in it.

 

[Hammerheart]

I finally got around to ripping the active wiring/pots out of the ec1000 and putting 500k pots in it. I tried the Black winters in it again with the proper pots and caps in the circuit and I'm totally happy with it now.