Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

[Mellowman]

Hey, I recently purchased a second hand Ephiphone Jeff Waters signature Ephiphone "Annihilation" V (http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Designer/Jeff-Waters-Annihilation-V.aspx) and while I don't have any major issues with the stock pickups persay, the tone chaser in me has me wanting to try something something new, my main concern is the bridge pickup, it's quite a low output pickup and that's cool for certain aspects like cleans, note definition when playing intricate riffs. It can be lacking for the tight fast riffing at times.

At this point I should say the main genre of music I play is Thrash metal, although I also enjoy playing blues, alt rock, death metal, grunge at times, but those aren't a priority in my selection, see as I'm a huge fan of Megadeth I've been gravitating towards a JB, but I also know Jeff waters has put in a SH-5 Custom into the same guitar and I also really love his tone.

If it helps some of my favourite tones are Slayer (Reign in blood/Seasons in the Abyss/South of Heaven), Megadeth (Rust in Peace), Metallica (Ride the Lightning / Kill Em All), Death (Symbolic), Annihilator (Never Neverland) to name a few, problem is there's no consitency in those, some of those tones are produced with high output pickups and some with low output, I know ultimately it comes down to the player but any help would be hugely appreciated.

Oh, and the body and neck is Mahogany with a felonic fretboard, if that changes anything.

Thanks!

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Well let's look at the pickups that each band used on those albums.

Kerry used some kind of DiMarzio (probably a super D) on Reign in Blood. On Seasons and South of Heaven, he used a DMZ MegaDrive. Jeff used some kind of DMZ as well, but I couldn't find the exact model. probably a Super D as well.

Dave Mustaine used a JB up until his signature pup from SD (Something worth looking into. I've heard it sounds great.) Marty Friedman also used a JB.

Hetfield used an Invader for Kill Em All and the stock 500T on his Explorer for Ride. Kirk used a Jackson Rhoads that had a single EMG 81 for Ride and a SD pup of some kind for Kill Em All (possibly an Invader since James used them too.)

Chuck Schuldiner used a DMZ X2N pretty much all the time.

I always thought DAve had the best tone of the Big 4, so I'd go with the JB, as much as it pains me to say that.

 

[EDX]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Hetfield used an Invader for Kill Em All and the stock 500T on his Explorer for Ride. Kirk used a Jackson Rhoads that had a single EMG 81 for Ride and a SD pup of some kind for Kill Em All (possibly an Invader since James used them too.)

actually the SD that kirk used was a Duncan Distortion

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

actually the SD that kirk used was a Duncan Distortion

Well thank you for that. I could never find which one it was.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Well let's look at the pickups that each band used on those albums.

Kerry used some kind of DiMarzio (probably a super D) on Reign in Blood. On Seasons and South of Heaven, he used a DMZ MegaDrive. Jeff used some kind of DMZ as well, but I couldn't find the exact model. probably a Super D as well.
....

I´m fairly certain that Slayer were EMG endorsees (and heavy users) before Seasons came out, and that 81s were predominatly used on that album....

 

[EDX]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

also, james had an explorer with what seemed to be Dirty Fingers and had a SD custom shop set on his flying v for a while before he started using EMG's, suposedly you can contact the custom shop and ask them to build a set with set same specs as that of james, but wouldn't tell you the specs.

if you wonder this bit is from an old thread here wich was about the original metallica flying v's, what pickups they had

 

[Mellowman]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Thanks for all the responses . Debating between the JB and the Custom, I like the high midrange Dave Mustaine-esque tone, so I think that might be the path to go down.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

I´m fairly certain that Slayer were EMG endorsees (and heavy users) before Seasons came out, and that 81s were predominatly used on that album....

Everything I've found says that Kerry used a Megadrive for Seasons and South of Heaven.

 

[El Supremo]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Everything I've found says that Kerry used a Megadrive for Seasons and South of Heaven.

Yup, check out the official vid for War Ensemble and live footage circa 1988. The gun metal grey V he used at that time had the mega drive in it (and probably a Paf Pro in the neck).
Great pickup that will do a lot more than just metal. King did use maple neck through models with ebony boards though, so a lot brighter than a mahogany V.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Pickup swap for Ephiphone Annihilation V

Thanks for all the responses . Debating between the JB and the Custom, I like the high midrange Dave Mustaine-esque tone, so I think that might be the path to go down.

Mustaine also had the Custom in the bridge of his signature Jackson V's, but that was for the earlier models I'm sure, because I always thought he used a JB for 99.99% of everything until his Livewires came out.