Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

[bowgraham]

Hi all, I'm trying to decide on a pickup choice for a thrash/death project. Seen some excellent advice on this forum so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The guitar is a Jackson SLSMG soloist with mahogany body with through mahogany neck. I've also a early 70s SG which i'll be putting the pickups in at a later date too.

I'm tuning to drop C with pretty heavy strings and want the heaviness of the drop C but still keeping it tight as there is quite a bit of tight rhythmic work (hope this makes sense!).

At the moment I play through a Pod (Rectified setting) but will be getting a decent half stack once we have a set together.

So far I'm thinking of going with either EMG 81 or Seymore JB, possibly Dimebucker but any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[dani]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

whoa! downtune to c with mahogany body and neck! you will have massive low end and low mids. you will need pickups with plenty clarity to compensate. some of it includes,

bridge: jb, duncan distortion, full shred, dimebucker, emg 81
neck: jb (depends on what you put in the bridge), duncan distortion, full shred and jazz.

jb/jazz and distortion set are tried and true for extreme downtuned metal. some of the forum bros tried the jb in the neck and they liked it there too. combos are virtually endless depending on what you like. no experience with the dimebucker though. a good place to start is the sd sound samples page. emg 81s will work well too. but remember, you need pickups with less bass and more trebles.

 

[dani]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

btw, welcome to the forum bowgraham.

 

[\M/artin]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

Welcome to the forum. Last month I actually narrowed down my replacement pickup choice to the EMG 81 and the JB (seven string versions of each for my 7-string) and ended up chosing the JB. Both sound very similar and both excel at percussive, palm-muted styles as well as solos and everything in the spectrum. They are both extremely versatile pups. I went with the JB because I didn't want to take a router to my guitar to make room for the EMG or the battery. And, the JB is cheaper.

 

[SYKESFREAK]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

Dimebucker is the pickup for you. When you hit the low e string it chugs like no other. EMG 81 I here are great but are active and require a battery and require routing out a space for the battery etc (depending on guitar). I've got the Dimebucker in my Les Paul and it's a modern sounding pickup and is for sure to put a smile on your face!!

 

[some_dude]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

For detuning I use an EMG 85. It's not as purcussive as the 81, but it has an extremely tight bottom end that sounds great as you mute.

For a more Death/Thrash though I'd probably lean more towards the 81....

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

The Distortion.

Tighter than a dolphins *******, and you know that **** is watertight.

 

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

Man, if i were YOU, i should get aN emg 81.
but for active pickups... as you describe..
BRIDGE : Duncan Distortion, Maybe a Jb to clear thing a little and a DImebucker are the ways to Go.
NECK : CC(NEVER TRIED THIS ONE. But since it is a body/neck mahogany, IT should clear things up without getting muddy. 3/7/7 is it´s eq. B/M/T)
Full Shred , Jazz.
HAILS
I play Black/death/thrash metal.
PM me if you want some of my clips.
J.P

 

[bowgraham]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

Thanks for the replies guys, haven't made my mind up yet but you have helped, i'll let you know what I go for... In the meantime anyone else with an opinion i'd love to hear it...

 

[SYKESFREAK]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

Ok this is my ranking for Death Metal:

1. EMG 81 (Definitly the most popular and widely used)
2. Dimebucker (Gaining popularity)
3. Lawrence XXL-500 (Dimes old pickup) Never tried one
3. Invader (Great Rhythm but sucks for lead)
4. Distortion (Can do metal and rock and is a decent lead pickup; more versatile than Dimebucker) but does not chug as strong Dimebucker for rhythm. More 80s style metal.

EMG 81 if you have the money and you don't mind using a battery to power it.
Dimebucker close second.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Pickup choice for tuned down thrash/death metal

I'm really leaning back to the Distortion. It just sound so f*cking good...