Pickups for metal?

[Phantasmagoria]

In the bridge:

Lace Deathbucker (Like a louder/more organic/rounder, less beamy EMG 81),

Sin Pickups "7th Sin" (Handwound A4..love the tones, chunky & thick, yet articulate for rhythm, sings for solo's w/ awesome overtones & harmonics),

EMG 81,

SD Custom 5, Blackouts Metal & Invader's,

Dimarzio X2N,

Tesla Plasma 2 (great warm fat sounding pickups w/ awesome lead tones & dark chunky rhythm),

Mighty Mite Motherbucker (it's a blistering hot pickup, yet very musical with lots of mojo),

Lace Dirty Hesher bridge (Insane Sabbath/Doom tones!)

Dominger Pickups - The Raw Bridge. (great overtones, open 3D sound, great compression for tapping)

Also love the stock bridge pups in my Ibanez S7421 (rich , thick, warm & open sounding) and Kramer Baretta Special's (The tone of the 80's!)


Plenty others...

 

[alex1fly]

So I put a Full Shred in my 7 string several days ago. Holy smokes. Tight, huge, mean. I'm not a shredder but I do love some Hetfield/Killswitch-esque rhythm playing. This guitar now nails that sound perfectly. So I guess I can answer my own question - yes, voiced pickups can help with tone sculpting for ridiculously massive chuggage and clarity with riffage. All notes in the chord are defined. Palm mute riffage is just *that much easier*. The stock pickup was pretty good, but the Full Shred just refined the sound into more of what I'm used to hearing on recordings. And I don't have to thwack the strings as much anymore - the big bold mean sound that I usually get from thwacking the strings is just "there" in the pickup's voicing. But the pickup still cleans up nicely with the guitar volume and I can dial in great cleans and sounds for other styles. Pretty happy with it - just surprised it took me so many years to try a Full Shred.

 

[Frater106]

Yeah the Jupiter would be great also. The rail design adds some clarity to the more compressed high-dcr traits of a scorcher, same with the Dime.

I’m really looking forward to trying the Jupiter in an Epiphone Jerry Cantrell Wino Les Paul Custom. The sound clips are amaze-balls!

 

[misterwhizzy]

Metalheads - what do you all use for ridiculously massive chuggage and clarity with riffage?

Less gain. Actually being serious.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I used to think that high output burners were it. Now I think that the clearest tightest medium gain pickup is the way to go.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

I'm the other way around. I used to think lower output pickups had more clarity. Not in my case, because I had to raise the gain to where the added clarity was negligible.

I do think higher output pickups *tend* to be tighter and more focused. Plus the last generation of Duncan high output pickups certainly don't lack clarity at all.

 

[Demanic]

Way back when, I think that Mark Morton used a 59 set. I like the JB and Distortion. Crunchlab too is a wicked metal pickup. Alt 8 is no slouch either. But I've heard Emg HZ3'S sound fantastic with a decent amp and cab either clean or with serious amounts of gain.
My favorite still has to be the Lace Deathbucker.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[Ascension]

Metalheads - what do you all use for ridiculously massive chuggage and clarity with riffage?

Anyone else - how much do "metal" pickups assist with tone sculpting? What's the point beyond Being generally higher output?

I ask because I like playing this style, and have had fun for years palm muting and riffing on vintage style pickups into a hot amp. In fact my favorite metal type playing has come from my Strat and Tele. But as I build out my guitar family, I'm finding that one guitar doesn't quite have its own identity... And I've never had a dedicated metal guitar, so why not give it a shot and try a set of Full Shreds or two JBs or Sentiment/Pegasus or a Dimebucker?

My preferred metal is progressive metal (Darkwater thanks to the recent Off Topic thread, Coheed, 1990-2008 Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Mastodon), and some of the new djent stuff has cool tones too, but I'm interested to hear from anyone playing any style of metal and seeking that balance of brutality and beauty.

Love Darkwater! For those tones take a hard look at a Alt 8 with a sentient neck. Have that set up in my KOA Carvin DC 127 hardtail and it kills. Very articulate and clear but still can be absolutely brutal. Like you I like medium output pickups into a hot amp I also find must super hot pickups to be harsh and lack dynamics. Not this set up though. I am primarily a modern worship player now but don't run a typical set up for that style. I demand versatility out of any guitar I own and have it with this set up.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I'm the other way around. I used to think lower output pickups had more clarity. Not in my case, because I had to raise the gain to where the added clarity was negligible.

I do think higher output pickups *tend* to be tighter and more focused. Plus the last generation of Duncan high output pickups certainly don't lack clarity at all.

I think everyone has to find their sweet spot with gain for metal tones. Some like medium-output pups and a really hot amp. Some like high-output pups. I tend to fall into the latter category -- my favorite metal pickups are the Black Winter bridge and the Nazgul -- but it's all about dialing in the right amount of gain. Too much and the clipping will shrink your tone. Too little gain and you'll sound weak. My approach for metal tones is:

• Use only the gain you need and not a hair more or less. This requires fiddling with the gain a lot to find that sweet spot. When I can palm-mute a riff and get that nice chunk AND good definition, I know I'm good to go. But not all metal is the same. I am primarily into thrash, neo-thrash, and classic metal. If you're into stoner or doom metal, you'll have different gain needs.
• Trim the unneeded bass frequencies with EQ and filters.
• Do not scoop your mids, especially if you want to be heard in a band mix. Mids are where your guitar lives and breathes. You might need to EQ certain low-mid and high-mid frequencies (to eliminate honk, for example), but don't do the "smiley face" thing on your amp no matter how much you love those Master of Puppets tones.
• Add compression to taste, but don't overdo it.
• Mixing your amp's dirty channel with dirt from a booster can yield great results.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I don't fully agree. I get your point, but you can afford to scoop some mids tastefully, IMO. Just don't run a Dual Rectifier with the mids on 0 and bass and treble on 10. I don't do much live playing TBH, but I do some recording, and I think the whole "guitar is a mid frequency instrument" is pretty overblown, especially when you consider that chugging on that low E in Standard tuning is like 80 Hz. I do a lot of rhythm playing and hardly any leads, so I do agree that lead playing could use more mids, but you'd be amazed at how pretty much all of the most iconic recorded metal tones are scooped to some degree. At least from the stuff that I listen to.

Keep in mind vocals are also in the mix, and vocals is pretty much all mids too. So you don't want to step on the vocal's space too much either.

Also, keep in mind a Black Winter, a Tube Screamer, and V30's are all pretty mid-forward. I don't think it's such a bad idea to counter that on the amp a bit.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I don't fully agree. I get your point, but you can afford to scoop some mids tastefully, IMO. Just don't run a Dual Rectifier with the mids on 0 and bass and treble on 10. I don't do much live playing TBH, but I do some recording, and I think the whole "guitar is a mid frequency instrument" is pretty overblown, especially when you consider that chugging on that low E in Standard tuning is like 80 Hz. I do a lot of rhythm playing and hardly any leads, so I do agree that lead playing could use more mids, but you'd be amazed at how pretty much all of the most iconic recorded metal tones are scooped to some degree. At least from the stuff that I listen to.

Keep in mind vocals are also in the mix, and vocals is pretty much all mids too. So you don't want to step on the vocal's space too much either.

Also, keep in mind a Black Winter, a Tube Screamer, and V30's are all pretty mid-forward. I don't think it's such a bad idea to counter that on the amp a bit.

I think this is mostly a difference of semantics. When I say scoop, I really mean the smiley face, mids at or near 0 thing, which we can probably agree is not desirable in a live settings. Studio recordings are another matter. I'm well aware that many of those classic '80s thrash records have scooped tones. But you won't hear them doing that live.

Adjusting mids to taste is something else and totally something every player has to decide on individually. It depends on the amp, who you're playing with, the sound you're going for, the genre you're in, and so on.

 

[gsammo79]

So I put a Full Shred in my 7 string several days ago. Holy smokes. Tight, huge, mean. I'm not a shredder but I do love some Hetfield/Killswitch-esque rhythm playing. This guitar now nails that sound perfectly. So I guess I can answer my own question - yes, voiced pickups can help with tone sculpting for ridiculously massive chuggage and clarity with riffage. All notes in the chord are defined. Palm mute riffage is just *that much easier*. The stock pickup was pretty good, but the Full Shred just refined the sound into more of what I'm used to hearing on recordings. And I don't have to thwack the strings as much anymore - the big bold mean sound that I usually get from thwacking the strings is just "there" in the pickup's voicing. But the pickup still cleans up nicely with the guitar volume and I can dial in great cleans and sounds for other styles. Pretty happy with it - just surprised it took me so many years to try a Full Shred.

The Full Shred impressed me a lot. Played it for the first time probably a year ago on a Charvel at GC. It's a little underrated

 

[Securb]

I think everyone has to find their sweet spot with gain for metal tones. Some like medium-output pups and a really hot amp. Some like high-output pups.

I have always liked to start with an ultra-clean platform, Fender Twin/JC-120, get the EQ I am looking for, then layer my gain over the platform and further sculpt my tone. I get very brutal, clear, articulate metal tones out of the Roland JC-120.

 

[El Dunco]

I think this is mostly a difference of semantics. When I say scoop, I really mean the smiley face, mids at or near 0 thing, which we can probably agree is not desirable in a live settings. Studio recordings are another matter. I'm well aware that many of those classic '80s thrash records have scooped tones. But you won't hear them doing that live.

Adjusting mids to taste is something else and totally something every player has to decide on individually. It depends on the amp, who you're playing with, the sound you're going for, the genre you're in, and so on.

Everything should be “to taste.” When “rules” are introduced on forums and everyone follows them, everyone sounds the same. I haven’t made a suggestion because we’re as spoiled for choice as ever for good metal pickups. You could use the first thing that works to an acceptable standard, use the available advice as a starting point and go from there, or get real obsessed and spend a long time tweaking.

There’s no wrong answers. I’ve yanked the cables out of “forum approved” rigs in frustration before (not singling out this forum in particular btw) because the sound just wasn’t happening and then found exactly what I was looking for with total sleeper gear you barely even see mentioned if at all.

There’s nothing “wrong” with TS>5150>V30>SM57, but to my ear, it’s getting real standard issue and I want to hear people try and develop their own sounds.

 

[Securb]

Everything should be “to taste.” When “rules” are introduced on forums and everyone follows them, everyone sounds the same. I haven’t made a suggestion because we’re as spoiled for choice as ever for good metal pickups. You could use the first thing that works to an acceptable standard, use the available advice as a starting point and go from there, or get real obsessed and spend a long time tweaking.

There’s no wrong answers. I’ve yanked the cables out of “forum approved” rigs in frustration before (not singling out this forum in particular btw) because the sound just wasn’t happening and then found exactly what I was looking for with total sleeper gear you barely even see mentioned if at all.

There’s nothing “wrong” with TS>5150>V30>SM57, but to my ear, it’s getting real standard issue and I want to hear people try and develop their own sounds.

.

 

[El Dunco]

.

/big bow.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Everything should be “to taste.” When “rules” are introduced on forums and everyone follows them, everyone sounds the same. I haven’t made a suggestion because we’re as spoiled for choice as ever for good metal pickups. You could use the first thing that works to an acceptable standard, use the available advice as a starting point and go from there, or get real obsessed and spend a long time tweaking.

There’s no wrong answers. I’ve yanked the cables out of “forum approved” rigs in frustration before (not singling out this forum in particular btw) because the sound just wasn’t happening and then found exactly what I was looking for with total sleeper gear you barely even see mentioned if at all.

There’s nothing “wrong” with TS>5150>V30>SM57, but to my ear, it’s getting real standard issue and I want to hear people try and develop their own sounds.

Obviously everything is to taste. Not sure where I said different.

Follow whatever rules you want. And as I mentioned in my earlier post, there are many ways to get a good metal tone. People are different. We hear things differently, play different styles, have different budgets.

I happen to think that aggressively scooping mids doesn't make for a great live metal sound, but if you want that smiley-face on your amp, you do you.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I have always liked to start with an ultra-clean platform, Fender Twin/JC-120, get the EQ I am looking for, then layer my gain over the platform and further sculpt my tone. I get very brutal, clear, articulate metal tones out of the Roland JC-120.

Yep, some people love that and get a great metal tone of it. My amp (Boss Katana 50) doesn't take well to that approach to metal, though I have tried, God knows. Past a certain gain, the clean channel just gets weak for me. So I mix the amp's dirty ("brown") channel with a TS emulator to get the tone I want.

 

[El Dunco]

Obviously everything is to taste. Not sure where I said different.

Follow whatever rules you want. And as I mentioned in my earlier post, there are many ways to get a good metal tone. People are different. We hear things differently, play different styles, have different budgets.

I happen to think that aggressively scooping mids doesn't make for a great live metal sound, but if you want that smiley-face on your amp, you do you.

I never said that ya say that! If you’ve been following the events correctly, we’re in agreement! Whyy-I-oughtta! /shakes fist

 

[Blille]

Any pickup set will do as long as you plug it into this:

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Slaughter of the Soul was an HM-2 into an MT-2 into a Peavey Solid State, LOL.