Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

[shiznats]

I play an Agile LP2500 (very nice Les Paul replica) and the stock ceramic pup in the bridge is not so good, so i decided to get a new pup, from seymour of course. I am really looking at the SH-4 as i hear it is an awesome pickup, but is it good for my style? I play heavy music, not thrash, but Metallica, Iron Maiden, Saxon, things like that. Will this pickup be hot enough for that? I know its an Alnico V magnet, as opposed to the SH-6 ceramic ... how big is the difference there?

thanks a lot,

Mike

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

First of all: Welcome to the board!

The JB is an awesome pick up, and it really does sound good in a mahogany guitar. It's high output, but not really over-the-top you know. You can do excellent Metal with it, but it isn't very harsh. I think the best way to describe it is calling it melodic. If your amp produces a fair amount of gain, I'm pretty sure you can do Metallica. It'll defenitely do the other styles you mentioned. The difference between the Distortion is that it's less harsh and less in your face. The Distortion is a real trash metal pick up. If you've heard Alice in Chains and Megadeth you'll pretty much know what the JB in mahogany sound is. But again, your amp is a very important factor

 

[shiznats]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

Hey

thanks for the reply. I play a Peavey Bandit 112 II combo amp. It has a lot of gain so im hoping i will get the sound i want. What i am really looking for is a good bottom end, when i mute that open E it has to growl ... u know what i mean , and thats why according to the reviews i took the sh-4 over the sh-6. did i do the right thing?

 

[ranalli]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

I hate to be a downer but playing out of a Peavey Bandit, it's not really gonna matter whether you have an SH-6 or SH-4. Just get something fairly high output and clear, both of those pickups will do fine.

 

[theodie]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

I would go for the Inavder if I were you. The Invader will make your amp sound bigger than what it is.

 

[Dills]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

It doesnt really matter what pickup you use with that amp, when i first started playing I used to play through one of those and everything sounded the same through it. The distortion kind of coloured the sound and it would have enough gain for anything, but one thing that you will be able to notice is that on the cleaner settings different pickups will sound different.

 

[wraith_7]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

Dave of Megadeth uses a JB '59 combo. Iron Maiden uses hotrails at the neck and middle and JB jr at the bridge of a strat, and Metallica would be EMG actives. So a JB would be the best for highoutput with some good cleans and make sure you got a good clean neck pickup.. For that kind of music... a JB at the bridge and a '59 or Screamin Demon at the neck would be nice.. Or The JB Jazz combo.

 

[Davey]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

save up man and get a better amp, seriously. the JB will deliver pretty much any tones you want.
if you want sound samples, slick on the possesed ruins link in my sig and check the guitar port test and other files for the JB (the smooth thing is the '59n)

 

[wraith_7]

Re: Will an SH-4 give me the sound i want?

Or you could buy a GNX 1,2,or 3. and have all amp models. it will sound better than the distortion on that bandit. I hate the small peavey's. Crates are moderately better. Small tube amps are awsome if ya have them miced properly. But the GNX1 isn't bad priced and is good for direct recording and has a headphone jack and sounds sweet. plus you can download patches off of Digitech's website. But down the road if you plan to play out much you will need at least a 212 mic'd. Depends on how much money you want to spend... No wait.. get a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier man... The head alone costs more than my last truck did.