Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

[ibanezcat86]

Hey guys, I recently bought a Jackson Rhoads (alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard). The guitar came with Emg Pickups (85 bridge 81 neck) and an OFR bridge. Im not very pleased with the tone, so I'm considering changing to passive pickups. I'm very fond of the sound of the Sentient neck pu, so that's pretty much decided. I'm still debating on the bridge pickup. I'm looking for versatility, I play mainly metal and hard rock (not heavily downtuned, practically never below drop C, bands like psycroptic, lamb of god, necrophagist, 80's thrash and hair metal, Guns N Roses, Led Zep,) but also play some funk, clean prog styles like the band Chon and blues. I'm trying to decide between the Pegasus, Black Winter, Alternative 8, Distortion sh 6 and Perpetual Burn. I rely a lot on palm muting and use a lot of harmonics while playing distorted and use a lot of complex chords and sweep picking while playing clean.

So, I would really appreciate your suggestions, I apologize for the long post and for being a total noob regarding SD pickups (only used a Jb jazz set once).

 

[Demanic]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

I'd go with the Pegasus. It was made to be paired with the Sentient and it's not so all out death metal like the Nazgul. I were to go with the Black Winter, I would do the set.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[DarkMatter]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

2nd the Pegasus. It's highly versatile. Slam it with gain and it will stay tight, great palm mute attack and crunch. Lower the gain and/or roll back guitar volume knob and it settles down while maintaining strong presence. It's also quite responsive to the strength of pick attack.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

Yup, y'all are right. The Pegasus is the one. It really sounds remarkable with the Sentient.

 

[BlueSkiesAndPaign]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

I paired a Perpetual Burn with a Sentient in a Carvin DC400. Not too pleasing to my ears. Individually they're nice pickups. Together...they're too far apart tonally. You have to keep reaching to your amp whenever you switch from bridge to neck and vice-versa. I don't understand why though, because according to the Duncan site, the Pegasus and Perpetual Burn are nearly identical in terms of magnet type, output and eq.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

I'm very fond of the sound of the Sentient neck pu, so that's pretty much decided. I'm still debating on the bridge pickup. I'm looking for versatility, I play mainly metal and hard rock (not heavily downtuned, practically never below drop C, bands like psycroptic, lamb of god, necrophagist, 80's thrash and hair metal, Guns N Roses, Led Zep,) but also play some funk, clean prog styles like the band Chon and blues.

if you like Lamb Of God, the Dominion set is groovy. I just bought another bridge model to go into a custom build

I'm trying to decide between the Pegasus, Black Winter, Alternative 8, Distortion sh 6 and Perpetual Burn.

you said you used the JB/Jazz set once. what did you like/dis-like about that set?

it seems the Sentient is something between the Jazz and the '59 (according to the official description).

the Black Winter might seem a bit off the reservation for some of your influences, but could get tweaked in with the right amp settings and possible combinations of wiring options (i.e., series/parallel, etc) - the full set would be a good idea to help better get those "in between" voices. it would lend itself toward the Drop C downtuning - which I think some would consider being "heavily downtuned".

I rely a lot on palm muting and use a lot of harmonics while playing distorted and use a lot of complex chords and sweep picking while playing clean.

with that in mind, my personal experience would lead me away from the Perpetual Burn

 

[lukebob2020]

Re: Pairing a sentient neck pickup on a Jackson Guitar (alder body)

I suggest the pegasus also, but consider the nazgul as well.