Need rocking new pick up!

D

Donniebrasco14

New member
Hey guys this is my first time on this forum. Just looking for some opinions on what pick up i should purchase. I am building my own guitar it is going to be based off the esp eclipse. I am putting one bridge humbucker in it and that is all. So i want a very versatile pick up.

I mainly play metal usually just messing around with licks and riffs. I would compare my style to megadth, iron maiden, and metallica. I do like to play alot of avenged sevenfold, machine head, trivium, and ozzy. Basically all out metal.

I was considering getting an invader or a dimarzio x2n. But thought it might be more of the same because i have active blackouts in my schecter and dimarzio superdistortions in my ibanez. Would the invader and x2n be too similar to the blackouts. I think it could be a waste. Maybe a jb or a full shred?

Any thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

What is the body and neck wood of this guitar? Since you said it would be based off the Eclipse, mahogany body/neck rosewood fretboard? The Invader sounds nothing like the blackouts. The Invader has a very defined bottom end, but it lacks a little in the treble side. Never played any dimarzios, sorry. The JB can pretty much do it all, so if you can't decide, go with the jb.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

I really like the Invader in lighter-weight bright guitars like older dinky-pros or so-cal types, or ESP MII.
With a maple neck and/or maple-top I'd say the Invader would do great in mahogany.

X2N is much more like an EMG-81 than a Blackout IMO (although the MT are more focused),, more of a focused thickness instead of wide and thick.

Dimebucker is another option if you're going full mahogany/rosewood, or with basswood bodies.
 
Last edited:
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

Donniebrasco14 said:
I mainly play metal usually just messing around with licks and riffs. I would compare my style to megadth, iron maiden, and metallica. I do like to play alot of avenged sevenfold, machine head, trivium, and ozzy. Basically all out metal.
Click to expand...



EMG
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

well, a big mistake is thinking you will ever find a do it all great pickup, you will never, a pickup that does one thing great will probably do other horribly wrong and other thing very okay, the trick to versatility is work your whole rig to get all them great sounds a pickup is capable of, make the okay tones good tones and turn the horrible tones into passable ones, that said now let's start with the questions and examples and a wall of text

what amp you have, what pedals you have, which particular style you play the most, for example if you play maiden metal 33% of the time, modern metal 33% of the time and lets say doom metal 34% of the time then you would be playing doom most of the time, so doom is your tonal priority that must sound absolutely positively freaking great, and the tones for the other styles can be nice or just ok

once you answer that we can start throwing them all pickups to you

to them examples
my v is a single pickup equipped with a duncan dimebucker and i play quite an array of styles, from thrash to rock (sodom, black sabbath, pantera, ac/dc, zztop, anthrax, candlemass, venom you get the idea), and it delivers them all, some better than other obviously
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

I'd go with a Custom or a Distortion bridge, with a push-pull pot for series/parallel wiring, allowing a bit more versatility out of that guitar, considering the styles you play.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

I have a peavey 6505 combo amp. Currently the only pedal i have is a mxr super badass distortion pedal. I probably play modern metal most. Avenged sevenfold, trivium, and machine head. With thrash metal a close second mainly megadth.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

I was going to mention Custom. It isn't strictly a metal pickup, as it does modern rock really well, too. But it has enough output and is certainly tight enough for metal. It sounds good split, too. Too many 'metal' pickups are really great for 1 or 2 genres of metal. The Custom is a little more versatile.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

Is that even a question? Of course the JB!

Just kidding, but in all seriousness, if you like Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy, you can't go wrong with the JB. I have one in my custom ESP and it rocks like no other! To the point where I almost bought a bunch of JBs so I can put one in all my guitars!

I also have a Custom that that seems to be very good for heavy rock rhythm chugging too. Less "in your face" than the JB in my opinion.

If you're into drop tunings, I'd have to recommend the Dimarzio D Sonic too.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

daenius said:
Is that even a question? Of course the JB!

Just kidding, but in all seriousness, if you like Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy, you can't go wrong with the JB. I have one in my custom ESP and it rocks like no other! To the point where I almost bought a bunch of JBs so I can put one in all my guitars!

I also have a Custom that that seems to be very good for heavy rock rhythm chugging too. Less "in your face" than the JB in my opinion.

If you're into drop tunings, I'd have to recommend the Dimarzio D Sonic too.
Click to expand...

The JB has worked in anything I've put it in. Others have different results. But it was my first aftermarket pickup in 1985, making me a customer of about 32 years. Some people forget that Jake E Lee was connected to the JB...good call on naming Ozzy.

Of course, many people think those JBs from them were a little more special than the modern ones. I've been covering that a bit in a current series on my site.



If you like the D Sonic, have you tried the MegaDrive??
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

Thanks for the input guys i am leaning towards the jb. Will have to listen online to some of the pickups you guys have mentioned. I know its hard to get a feel for it in a video but its probably the only way i can get somewhat of an idea to the sound.
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

hmm on this situation i would also bring up the black winter
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

Since the guitar will be Mahogany, Id start with a JB. Megadeth used em, and they cover alot of ground and thats what alot of makers like ESP put in at the factory for good reason. And it can be split decently too. My first Duncan was a JB and been hooked on Dunc's ever since.. Welcome to the Forum and put up some pics of the axe when done!!
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

darthphineas said:
The JB has worked in anything I've put it in. Others have different results. But it was my first aftermarket pickup in 1985, making me a customer of about 32 years. Some people forget that Jake E Lee was connected to the JB...good call on naming Ozzy.

Of course, many people think those JBs from them were a little more special than the modern ones. I've been covering that a bit in a current series on my site.



If you like the D Sonic, have you tried the MegaDrive??
Click to expand...

I didn't even know that MegaDrive existed until like.. 3 days ago? LOL
I heard that you can still special order it from Dimarzio, but they claim that it's practically the same as a Steve's Special or something like that. No clue! I'm quite curious about them though!

Personally HIGHLY enjoy the D Sonic in my EBMM JP. Had that thing for over 10 years. It was perfection out of the box, I've NEVER needed to do any setup or mods on it for 10 years, it just played and sounded amazing ALL the time. Never have I ever felt the need to adjust the pickup height or anything like that either. Either I lucked out big time or they're just that good, haha
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

Donniebrasco14 said:
Thanks for the input guys i am leaning towards the jb. Will have to listen online to some of the pickups you guys have mentioned. I know its hard to get a feel for it in a video but its probably the only way i can get somewhat of an idea to the sound.
Click to expand...

Video sound samples are good, but highly dependent on how the person recorded it and the amp settings. But you can hear the general ball park of the tone

The way I think of pickups though is that they're very much like cars! Imagine a race car... as an audience, you look at it and go "damn, that's a fast car!" but only the driver will FEEL the drive of the car and how it responds when the driver steps on the gas, the brakes, and how the car steers.

Pickups are like that too, we listen to sound samples and go "ok that sounds nice", but only the player will feel how it responds to the player's playing, and how that response ends up inspiring the player.

Having said all that, I would say just go for a JB and see how it is! Personally I would say it's the one pickup that you just can't really go wrong with. It's like the Marshall/iPhone of pickups. You may have specific preferences that it may not fully provide, but chances are you won't plug it in and go "yuck, I hate this thing".
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

First choice would be the custom, but it wouldn't be my favorite for all of that.

Then, maybe the JB.

Finally, might consider the distortion. Will kill some of that, not so much the others.

The sound clips will clearly show differences in those three....
 
Re: Need rocking new pick up!

daenius said:
I didn't even know that MegaDrive existed until like.. 3 days ago? LOL
I heard that you can still special order it from Dimarzio, but they claim that it's practically the same as a Steve's Special or something like that. No clue! I'm quite curious about them though!
Click to expand...

er.... not really like the SS. not a fan of the SS. I think it exist in the catalog to stroke Blucher's ego, but that's just an opinion. SS is pretty scooped. MegaDrive is a more even EQ. the most common things is that the both use the dual resonance design so it's pretty open sounding. the screw coil will give a little cleaner tone when split.

if you look online, you can probably find a place with a MegaDrive in stock. if you have to, a special order with DiMarzio isn't like a 6-8 week boutique sort of thing. and it's still their normal pricing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top