Pickup suggestions

[SFW]

Ok. I’ve owned and played numerous Duncan pickups over the past 30 years of playing. Up until five years ago, i had pretty much settled on the Custom in the bridge and a 59 in the neck of my guitars. This was a great combo for the music I was playing at the time.

For the past five years, the Suhr Aldrich set has pretty much been in everything. I’m getting a new guitar in a few weeks and wanted to try some Duncans again. The guitar is maple/walnut set neck with an ash body. 25.5 scale fixed bridge. HH configuration. I play hard rock bordering on metal sometimes.

I recently switch my live rig from my Splawn QuickRod to an Axe fX II XL. So far none of the pickups I have on hand have really gelled to my ears. I have tried the Custom, Custom Custom, PATB-1, Distortion and JB. Would one of the newer Duncan offerings perhaps work better? Pegasus, Nazgul or something else. We tune to drop C#.


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[Masta' C]

You've covered all the standards and none of them worked?

Perhaps you can go into a little more detail about what you didn't like about the Custom, JB, and Distortion in particular.

It'll be easier to advise you if we know why those didn't work for you. The "newer" designs aren't necessarily "better" designs. It just depends...

 

[SFW]

I wanted a little less top end and a bit more tight bottom end on the Custom. They were very close though.
The Distortion just had too much top end. They way the highs hit the AFX is much different than the way they hit a tube amp.
The highs were good on the JB, but I was left wanting more solid low end.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Black Winters. Don't let the name fool you. The bottom end is tight but solid, the highs are controlled, and they cover a very wide range of styles.

The Nazgul is great but much more chug-focused and less versatile than the Winters.

 

[Masta' C]

Sounds like an Alt 8 would be a good candidate here. You might like a Pegasus or a Perpetual Burn, also. Less hot pickups, but not tame by any means, and they'll have the tightness you're after.

Sentient still gets my vote for the neck, regardless of what you stuff in the bridge

If you're open to suggestions outside of Duncan, the Wolfgang set might be something you'd like or perhaps the DiMarzio AT-1, especially since you like the Aldrich.

 

[GuitarDoc]

What you have described is the typical problem with ceramic magnets. I agree with Masta' C, the Alt 8 (with its alnico 8 magnet) should be the ticket. Or you could just replace the magnet in your Custom and get the popular Custom8 pup, one of my very favorite bridge pups.

 

[AdrianSD]

Yeah, my Custom 8 sounds badass

 

[Calsip]

Alt 8, Pegasus, or maybe even the black winter. All in my opinion kind of fix the problem you’re talking about. My favorite is the Pegasus, for medium high output, it has a really nice sizzle. The other thing is it is really sparkly on bigger chords, it’s warm (in my opinion).