Which heavy metal / metalish hard rock players use a PAF-class bridge pickup?

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Which heavy metal / metalish hard rock player use a PAF-class bridge pickup?

Slash comes to mind. Keri Kelly (ex Alice Cooper).

What do the Schenker brothers have?
 
Pretty sure Bill Steer from Carcass was using plain old '59's at some point. He currently has a signature A6 16K-ish sig pickup, though.

I'm also 99% sure As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security (my favorite recorded tone) was a stock Gibson Burstbucker Pro.
 
With the right boost pedal, anything is possible. I don't know any specific examples though.

"Back in the day" there was a time when amps didn't have as much gain on tap, and hot pickups were a common mod.
 
Kind of on topic, kidn of off topic, to add to the discussion. I know many people claim there are "benefits" to using vintage-style pickups for high-gain, but I find it's just a difference experience, overall. Not really better or worse.

I find people often argue there is added clarity and dynamics. Sure, plugging in at first, it is. Especially if the amp is set up for high output pickups. But there's also less saturation and focus with the vintage output stuff. So once you adjust the amp settings to compensate, I find the added "benefits" take a hit. Then there's the issue that as you raise the gain to compensate for the lower output and less saturation, you start to introduce more preamp hiss, more potential for microphonics, etc.

My point is even with amps with modern levels of gain, there is still an appeal to using high output pickups. It's just whichever fits your taste. Both have upsides and downsides, I feel.

JMO.
 
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Also a big point to consider is there are multiple types of high gain. If your definition of high gain is using an overdrive to clip and boost a signal into an amp with its gain maxed out, yeah, your pickup is going to make a difference.

If your use-case however is using a max sustain big muff to push an amp into breakup, your rig isn't gonna care what you plug into it.
 
About the Schenker bro's and to reply on topic: I remember to have seen Rudolf on stage with a P.A.F. loaded 1958 Flying V.
 
Vivian Campbell, not in Def Leppard necessarily, but in his much heavier band Last in Line, everything he has recorded for that band on the three albums and all their live shows has been done on his original old Les Paul from the Dio days loaded with a set of zebra Seymour Duncan '59s, and his tone is glorious. The guitar is actually a Deluxe he bought as a teen, immediately painted it matte black and routed it for humbuckers. The same guitar back in the Dio days had Dimarzio X2N, (Holy Diver), and later Super D, DD, JB, and almost everything else but when they started LiL he put in a '59 set. For tone reference, the Last in Line albums were recorded through an Engl Ritchie Blackmore head and an older Friedman amp called a "Naked" that belongs to Jeff Pilson, who produced the albums.
 
Vivian Campbell, not in Def Leppard necessarily, but in his much heavier band Last in Line, everything he has recorded for that band on the three albums and all their live shows has been done on his original old Les Paul from the Dio days loaded with a set of zebra Seymour Duncan '59s, and his tone is glorious. The guitar is actually a Deluxe he bought as a teen, immediately painted it matte black and routed it for humbuckers. The same guitar back in the Dio days had Dimarzio X2N, (Holy Diver), and later Super D, DD, JB, and almost everything else but when they started LiL he put in a '59 set. For tone reference, the Last in Line albums were recorded through an Engl Ritchie Blackmore head and an older Friedman amp called a "Naked" that belongs to Jeff Pilson, who produced the albums.

Thanks. That also reminds me that I need to buy the Last in Line catalog.
 
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