Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

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KioMetalFan

New member
Hey guys. Just looking for some opinions on pickups. The Superrock II pickups in my C1 sound pretty damn good but they're a little tame and I'm wondering about alternatives. I'm looking for a pickup that can deliver some serious midrange growl and grit, something that is voiced to sound mean.. The C-1 has a maple top and a mahogany bottom and I'm thinking of selling my other guitar (Schecter Hellraiser) and getting another mahogany, les paul style guitar but with passive pickups. My current rig is a Peavey Ultra Plus 120 watt head with some Ruby 6l6's in it and I have a mesa 2x12 with v30's for recording/home use and a Peavey 4x12 cab with Eminence Governor/Man o War x pattern going on for live gigs. I don't run any pedals, (not even a tuner, I have one of those ones that you clip on the headstock).

I play in a metal/punk band (specifically black metal meets crust) kinda band, so it's tremolo picked, wall of distortion kinda stuff. I know that black metal and crust punk aren't particularly known for good tone but we're trying to achieve a raw aggressive sound that doesn't sound like total ****. The EMG's in my Hellraiser do the job but I'm getting tired of the sound of those things.

Here's a band that we play similarly to. Wall of noise raw aggressive stuff that's relatively simple kind of metal. I'm sure that the guitars in this mix are running pedals (probably hm-2) but I want to see if I can keep pedals out of the picture. Just head, cab, and guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJPdc73JME

I was originally thinking of getting a BK Warpig in the bridge of the C-1 and some Black Winters in something mahogany. What do you guys think?
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Hello and welcome to the forum. I think the black winters will work well for what you want. Or you could go with a Duncan Distortion.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

If you want to out warpig the warpig, a custom shop slug will do that thing IMO better than my warpigs. Also, while custom shop sounds expensive, $130 is cheaper than a BKP warpig. YMMV, but I would say Slug is very similar to the concept of warpigs.

Personally, that would be my choice. Black winters are also awesome and amazing.

Here would be my criteria, you want a titan sized heavy sound that cuts well, slug. Also, ridiculously hot, however, still has plenty of treble.

You want a very balanced pickup with tons of cut, black winter. Both pickups are great but I suspect slug would be the best choice for you.

I also think having a guitar with both is a good idea.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Slug:



Go to 1:22
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Gibson 1964 said:
If you want to out warpig the warpig, a custom shop slug will do that thing IMO better than my warpigs. Also, while custom shop sounds expensive, $130 is cheaper than a BKP warpig. YMMV, but I would say Slug is very similar to the concept of warpigs.

Personally, that would be my choice. Black winters are also awesome and amazing.

Here would be my criteria, you want a titan sized heavy sound that cuts well, slug. Also, ridiculously hot, however, still has plenty of treble.

You want a very balanced pickup with tons of cut, black winter. Both pickups are great but I suspect slug would be the best choice for you.

I also think having a guitar with both is a good idea.
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Never heard of those before! That's some pretty insane distortion and compression, I'll let the doom metal aficionados on the other side of town know about these.. I think those guys are running Lace pickups in their stuff.

Well my original idea was to have a guitar with a heavier, more distorted tone tracking rhythm while I have something more balanced such as the Black Winter tracking the tremolo picked riffs. So in that case I'd probably have to have two separate guitars since I'll be using the bridge pickups in both cases?
 
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Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Sounds like when I play the .160 gauge string past the 7th fret on my bass. haha
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

KioMetalFan said:
Never heard of those before! That's some pretty insane distortion and compression, I'll let the doom metal aficionados on the other side of town know about these.. I think those guys are running Lace pickups in their stuff.

Well my original idea was to have a guitar with a heavier, more distorted tone tracking rhythm while I have something more balanced such as the Black Winter tracking the tremolo picked riffs. So in that case I'd probably have to have two separate guitars since I'll be using the bridge pickups in both cases?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugOIZplvkKg

This is closer to some of the other sides of the tones you can get out of it. You can get plenty of less extreme tones out of it as well. I think it makes a great alternative to the warpig.

Yes, and it goes very well with a black winter. I was thinking that for what you describe you would use this for the rhythm and the BW for the tremolo picked stuff.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

I'm going to cast a vote for the Black Winters. If I ever change the JB/59 set in my Schecter Blackjack, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to be putting in.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Demanic said:
I'm going to cast a vote for the Black Winters. If I ever change the JB/59 set in my Schecter Blackjack, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm going to be putting in.
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Yeah I think that I'd want to probably outfit my C1 with some Black Winters. I was thinking of maybe changing out the EMG 81 in my Hellraiser and replace it with a Duncan Blackout for a heavier rhythm sound. EMG 81's are pretty trebly and probably wouldn't suit a gritty rhythm tone very well.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

KioMetalFan said:
Yeah I think that I'd want to probably outfit my C1 with some Black Winters. I was thinking of maybe changing out the EMG 81 in my Hellraiser and replace it with a Duncan Blackout for a heavier rhythm sound. EMG 81's are pretty trebly and probably wouldn't suit a gritty rhythm tone very well.
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If you have the 81/85 set, put the 85 in the bridge.

Just do it.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

dominus said:
If you have the 81/85 set, put the 85 in the bridge.

Just do it.
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That's funny because I was just reading up on that. I'll go ahead and give it a try, might as well use what I got rather than throw 100 bucks down. Hopefully things don't get too muddy and woofy since the guitar is a heavy mahogany les paul body.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

The other one I might go with is the six string Nazgul/Sentient set. I like an A5 in the neck.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

I have a similar band going on. Mostly I've used sn EMG 85X in the bridge. I've always prefered the 85 over the 81for nearly everything.

I've also used another guitar with a ceramic Warpig. It has a nice doomy and all around extreme sound but I prefer the 85X for that stuff. I'm not sure it's just the pickup as I really prefer the other guitar in other ways as well. Both work very well, though.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Johtosotku said:
I have a similar band going on. Mostly I've used sn EMG 85X in the bridge. I've always prefered the 85 over the 81for nearly everything.

I've also used another guitar with a ceramic Warpig. It has a nice doomy and all around extreme sound but I prefer the 85X for that stuff. I'm not sure it's just the pickup as I really prefer the other guitar in other ways as well. Both work very well, though.
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So I did the pickup swap and I definitely do not regret it. Pretty much solved my issue with the hellraiser, I guess 81's aren't my cup of tea

pickup swap.jpg


Now I suppose I'll go ahead and get a Black Winter bridge for my C-1. I would get the neck as well but I don't really use the neck position at all. It might look kinda mitch-match but I need the extra 90 bucks for a new bridge on my hellraiser and the work I'll be having to pay for on the C1.

I'm planning on having the C-1 as my main gigging guitar and keep the Hellraiser at home. Overall I find the C1 to be more comfortable to stand up with since it doesn't weigh a ton and is 24 frets rather than 22. I also don't have to worry about my battery going out in the middle of my set lol.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

An EMG 85 on the neck and bridge is about as heavy as you would probably ever need. Those pickups are way heavier than an 81. I never understood using 81's for ultra heavy stuff when you could just put an 85 in the bridge and be done with it. The other cool thing is the 85/85 will clean up nicely if you ever have the desire to play blues or classic rock etc.........
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Yeah that's possibility. My C1 has some passives that clean up pretty well and it also has a knob that can switch the humbuckers to single coils, so I'd probably use the neck on that one for cleaner stuff.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

poundthecheddar said:
An EMG 85 on the neck and bridge is about as heavy as you would probably ever need. Those pickups are way heavier than an 81. I never understood using 81's for ultra heavy stuff when you could just put an 85 in the bridge and be done with it. The other cool thing is the 85/85 will clean up nicely if you ever have the desire to play blues or classic rock etc.........
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KioMetalFan said:
Yeah that's possibility. My C1 has some passives that clean up pretty well and it also has a knob that can switch the humbuckers to single coils, so I'd probably use the neck on that one for cleaner stuff.
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In that case, go with an 89. It's a splittable 85.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

When I was doing my Dbeat/Powerviolence/Black Metal project I was running into my bassman head, a tube screamer, sometimes a hyperfuzz, and a Bc Rich Mock with an Invader bridge....I was looking at snagging an exotic, I was planning on just doing the Distortion set in it...
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

LatsMcGee said:
When I was doing my Dbeat/Powerviolence/Black Metal project I was running into my bassman head, a tube screamer, sometimes a hyperfuzz, and a Bc Rich Mock with an Invader bridge....I was looking at snagging an exotic, I was planning on just doing the Distortion set in it...
Click to expand...

I was thinking of possibly getting a splitter so I can run a bass rig at the same time, but that's a lot of stuff to lug around. Yeah man exotics are pretty sweet guitars, high end parts and it doesn't have that abalone coating so the back of the neck isn't sticky. I heard the Black Winter is basically a Distortion but with more high end.
 
Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter C-1 Exotic

Somewhat over looked, is the Alternative 8.
 
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