Hi-Gain Rhythm Pickups?

[drawnacrol]

Originally Posted by Stealthdjentstic

I wouldn't listen to any of them, seeing as all the people recommending them are doing so because they saw a post where Misha said he swapped what was in his guitars for them and haven't actually played them

IMO, the Tr00ch set would be too muddy for something with mahogany, so rule those out

Any examples of the exact tone you're going for?

Ha thats true but Nolly & a few who actually tried them recommended them to me. I just hate their design. Tone I'm looking for would be Necrophagist/Protest the Hero/Children of Bodom. Lots of clarity but still full sounding with chunky palms mutes.

Originally Posted by wakjob

The OP didn't make mention of the type of amp they have. So, I'll assume they have some sort of modern high gain deal.

In which case, they probably don't really need a HOT pickup or any other type of PU associated with metal. I found my Aftermath to be quite low on the output which helps with clarity, but I wouldn't call it 'thick'.

Woops forgot to mention I'm using an Axe-Fx II.

Originally Posted by mniel8195

I have never understood the hot pickup phenomenon. Turn up the gain on your amp or on your boost pedal you will have better results in the tone and clarity department. for that guitar i would put in either holy divers, black dogs. I cant comment on the blackhawks because i have not used them.

I think I'm set on a Holy Diver set. I love how it sounds in my Swamp Ash Schecter.

[Sdrizis89]

I have the Petrucci set(CL/LF) in my mahogany jackson soloist. Isn't muddy with my set-up and i love those pickups. Not saying it wouldn't be muddy in another rig, but it works with mine and i couldn't be happier with them.

[Rook]

Originally Posted by mniel8195

I have never understood the hot pickup phenomenon. Turn up the gain on your amp or on your boost pedal you will have better results in the tone and clarity department. for that guitar i would put in either holy divers, black dogs. I cant comment on the blackhawks because i have not used them.

The two effects are to,tally different. Hot pickups usually have most of their power focused in the mid range, adding to that that the fundamentals we're talking about in guitar largely sit in what we'd call the 'mid' range when discussing rhythm on a standard tuned guitar, what you're doing is hitting the front of the gain stage with a different eq shape, turning up the gain simply gives more of everything the tone stack puts out (or the input stage depending where the tone stack is).

In the instance of a dual rectifier for example, a low gain pickup with lots of gain sounds very mushy, because the gain structure of those amps is quite loose; a hot, medium to bright pickup into a lower gain setting feels a lot tighter and more controlled because you are determining how you what to distort the signal over the spectrum, rather than letting the input stage and subsequently the tone stack just do its thing.

Hot pickups make perfect sense in some instances, it's totally down to the exact setup and the sound and feel that you want. I personally like fairly hot (not x2n hot ) pickups into very low gain settings, it's the basis of my 'sound', using less powerful pickups and more gain just wouldn't be the same at all.

As for clarity, I personally prefer the clarity of ceramic magnets to most alnico compounds and power comes hand in hand with ceramics usually. I think I think of ceramic based pickups of being much more hi-fi and wider bandwidth.



To the OP, the Cold Sweat is a great rhythm pickup, its a little scoopy and non-intrusive but wonderfully clear and sounds great for panned hard left and hard right rhythms to back up more mid happy signals. The blaze from dimarzio and the lundgren m7 have similar qualities, but the lundgren is much harder sounding and the blaze much smoother. They'll all sit well in mahogany too. I like the idea of putting cold sweats in a guitar for those kind of rhythm tracks, I just don't have a spare guitar worthy of the expense

[Koop]

I have a Holydiver in my Les Paul and it sounds fantastic! I love the Holydiver so much that I bought one for my Koa/Swamp Ash DC727 (which should be arriving soon)