Pickups with Axe FX

Sidivan

Sidivan

Fractal Fanatic
Ok, so this is more of a pickup question than an Axe FX question, but you guys are the most knowledgable people I know. Yes, I used the search button and read through the 50 pages or so it brought up.

I'm thinking of changing out the PuPs in my Custom ESP Horizon (all mahagany, flamed maple top). Currently I have EMG 60/81 bridge/neck respectively. While this combination works exceedingly well with my Baritone Viper, it doesn't work so well in my Horizon.

What would you guys recommend? I'm grabbing an AxeFX Ultra in the upcoming months (currently selling my Line6 gear off to afford it) and I want to make sure I pick something that's going to work well. This guitar will most likely be used in a cover band, but it would be great if I had a pickup that would work well in my original metal band as well. Also, I'm trying to get away from active PuPs 'cuz after 10yrs of changing batteries in it, I'm pretty much done.
 
Anything should work well with the Axe.

I'd suggest trying out other guitars that are similar to yours. Especially same body wood/construction. I'm not familiar with the Horizon but if it's a heavy slab of mahagony like a Les Paul, then try some Paul's out that have different pickups. Start researching pups on the manufactures web sites. Alot of them will have sound bytes (fwiw).

Unless you have very specific sounds or player's sounds in mind, I don't think anyone can suggest a pup to you. Trying out similar guitars (if possible) is really the best way in my opinion. Well, outside of being able to try various pups in your own guitar playing through your own gear. But who can do that? :)
 
Yep, anything works. And every guitar sounds different. The Axe is as responsive to guitars as any good tube amp would be.

Plus, by putting an EQ-block in the front end you can pretty much shape the sound any way you wish. Comes a good deal in the way of having different toned pickups.
 
I just got a Schecter C1-Blackjack ATX in an endorsement deal, which has Seymour Duncan blackouts. I find these pickups to be a lot better than the EMGs, while being in a similar category. They are active but are faily organice.
 
I still prefer a good passive pickup over any active pickup for a wider possible range of tones..

I also changed pickups a lot in the last few years, and i finally found MY holy grail of tones in the exceptionally well built range of bareknuckle pickups. I can not recommend these guys highly enough!
Take a read on their site, they make pickups for any tone you could possibly want, all passive and made by hand!

www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk

Soundclips galore in their well visited forum too.. :)

I currently have a Nailbomb humbucker in the bridge and a Stormy Monday humbucker (custom wound to fit the Nailbomb) in the neck position of my Warmoth VW, and a set of Irish Tour single coils in my Fender Strat.
Just awesome, to me, these pups eat any Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio and the likes..
 
I've got a Mahogany body/maple top Larkin and a Warmoth and have a JB trembucker in both. Perfect for me.
 
I've been really impressed with the Suhr Doug Aldrich as a more aggressive PU that still has vintage qualities and great clarity.
 
quasimono said:
I still prefer a good passive pickup over any active pickup for a wider possible range of tones..

I also changed pickups a lot in the last few years, and i finally found MY holy grail of tones in the exceptionally well built range of bareknuckle pickups. I can not recommend these guys highly enough!
Take a read on their site, they make pickups for any tone you could possibly want, all passive and made by hand!

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk

Soundclips galore in their well visited forum too.. :)

I currently have a Nailbomb humbucker in the bridge and a Stormy Monday humbucker (custom wound to fit the Nailbomb) in the neck position of my Warmoth VW, and a set of Irish Tour single coils in my Fender Strat.
Just awesome, to me, these pups eat any Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio and the likes..
Click to expand...
To be honest, I haven't heard a "great" sounding BK clip to date... for what it's worth... Hunter's has been the best sounding out there... everything else sounds very "muddy". Also, if you are planning on getting BK pickups be ready for a wait... I purchased a BK Cold Sweat on March 21, and I'm still waiting for mine!!!!!! Every time someone talks about something being "handmade" it reminds me of Dice's album "40 Too Long," click here and start at 3:00... the part I'm talking about is at 3:15... "Everything's handmade..." hahahahahahaha :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm sure I'll love the pickup but the wait sucks.
 
In my Strat I use Fralins (VH/VH/SP43) and they are fantastic with the Axe. I just got, about a week ago, a new Edwards E-LP-98LTC. It comes with SD '59/JB pickups. They're ok, but I think I'm going to swap them out. I've got a set or WCR Godwoods that I'm going to try... I'm just waiting for the new wiring kit to show up (also from WCR: new pots/caps) before I install them.
 
mortega76 said:
To be honest, I haven't heard a "great" sounding BK clip to date...
Click to expand...

I think Enditol's Divinity clips he posted here ( viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3963&hilit=divinity ) - he's using Nailbombs - sound amazing. And I've definitely heard other BKP clips that I liked a lot.

Having said that - I've heard more clips of Lundgrens that appeal to me - really looking forward to that pup in my upcoming 8 :)
 
I'd suggest anything balanced with medium output for an all around pickup to work well with as many patches.

For instance I have a guitar with a Super Distortion in the bridge that sounds great for my 80's metal tones patches, and one with a Seymour JB that handles classic rock /medium overdrive much better, but generally I have patches for each that aren't my favorite with the other. I also have a Seymour Screamin Demon, that is a very well balanced pickup and works great with about all my patches, it also made many of the factory presets work for me while my other guitars only worked on a limited number each.

The Lynch pickup is medium output, low compared to todays high powered options, but the Axe has so much gain on tap in various forms for dirt, and getting a compressed sound is easy if I want it, but it's much more difficult to get the dynamics and clarity out of a higher powered pickup, or "un-compress" it.

I'm not saying I like this pickup more, as I like them all, but if I could only have ONE for the Axe, that would be it, as it seems very versatile. While I found that in the Lynch pickup, there are others to look at with similar qualities for certain.
 
OzoneJunkie said:
mortega76 said:
To be honest, I haven't heard a "great" sounding BK clip to date...
Click to expand...

I think Enditol's Divinity clips he posted here ( viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3963&hilit=divinity ) - he's using Nailbombs - sound amazing. And I've definitely heard other BKP clips that I liked a lot.

Having said that - I've heard more clips of Lundgrens that appeal to me - really looking forward to that pup in my upcoming 8 :)
Click to expand...
Oooooohhhh I completely forgot about Endy... He's stuff rocks hard!!! I would love to hear his tracks with a wee bit less distortion to hear a little more clarity. Thanks for reminding me OZJ!
 
Hi
Like others have said, it's tricky to say what will sound right for you / your set up, as the spectrum of choice and preference is wide. However, I have the same ESP Horizon as you I think ..... through neck, maple cap on mahogany back. I tried several pups and wasted quite a lot of cash on replacing the SD's it came with. In the end (believe it or not) I put some Iron Gear Hot Slags in there and it really spits. When you roll back the volume they clean up really well. If you're looking for something a bit less powerfull then the Iron Gear Rolling Mills would be worth a try. The bridge is an overwound 12K Alnico and gives one of the best EVH sounds I've heard for a while. I've got a pair of those on a Warmoth San Dimas Strat and I can't see me changing them any time soon. They are scatterwound by machine, so not technically up to Bareknuckle standards. Also, they are cheap, but don't let that put you off.
 
Get some good passive PUs (Bare Knuckle, Suhr, WCR, ...) and make sure to put good pots (CTS, RS Guitarworks, Hamer, DiMarzio) and make a proper wiring job, then you'll get to experience Axe' dynamics and volume sensitivity.
 
mortega76 said:
Also, if you are planning on getting BK pickups be ready for a wait... I purchased a BK Cold Sweat on March 21, and I'm still waiting for mine!!!!!! Every time someone talks about something being "handmade" it reminds me of Dice's album "40 Too Long," click here and start at 3:00... the part I'm talking about is at 3:15... "Everything's handmade..." hahahahahahaha :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm sure I'll love the pickup but the wait sucks.
Click to expand...

That's weird. I own 7 sets of BKPs and whenever I ordered them (always direct from Tim) I had them in max 8 days. Did you order through a retailer or direct?
 
I keyed in on something you said, that you would use this guitar in a cover band. Typically in a cover band setting I try to get a pickup that not only delivers a good general humbucker tone (not too signature because then your sound is like Gilmour, or Hammett, or whoever on every song) but that also sounds good split to single coil for the stratty type stuff and cleans.

Like 3 Chord Rock I have Screaming Deamons in the bridge of two of my strats and Lace Sensor Golds in the bridge and middle. This gives me great rock or metal tones in bridge humbucker mode and I can split the pickup for a decent single coil sound while getting Gilmour like leads from the neck pickup and those super slinky clean tones in position four that you might need.

If the single coil sound is even more important and you crave that active pickup sound and want something very quiet go with Lace Sensor Dualy pickups. They sound good as humbuckers and are a true split to single coil because they are in fact two single coils mated together. You'll want to research what combination of them will work best for your scenario but they are also available in kits which makes it a no brainer. I have the Hot Gold H/S/S combo in four of my guitars and it works well although you'll have to dial in the midrange properly because the accentuate those frequencies. Hope this helps, good luck! :)
 
Wow! Thanks everybody for the input!

I've been leaning towards a pair of SD Pearly Gates (judging by the tone on their site), but I'm going to spend a few hours in guitar shops comparing guitars with different PuP's.

Basically, I want the impossible. Trying to design a 1 stop shop for a set that ranges from Johnny Cash to The Cars to Tool (yes in North Dakota the cowboys listen to Tool). Currently using a Vetta II and an array of patches to get the sounds, but I can't get the clean to be "rounder" with EMG's. It gets real brittle and harsh during the Folsom Prison solo. Also, the distortion is well... blech.

Great idea on the coil tap Secret80's Man!
 
If you go onto The Gear Page there's a thread of a pickup shootout with lots of different pickups. You can get an idea of what a lot of pickups will sound like. I think you'll find it hard to choose which one you'd go with. Lots of them sound different, but they all pretty much sound good. It also doesn't seem like price affects the tone much. There are some pricey pickups on there, and some cheaper ones, but they sound good.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p+shootout
 
Good luck, I've also found that you can make many pickups sound like other pickups. You can insert an EQ first in line on your patch and play through it clean tweaking the bands until the pickup has the basic sound you are looking for. You may be able to EQ out that harshness of your EMG's quite well so why not try that first and see if you can save some dough.

You could even get crazier and hook up an A/B switch and go back and forth between a guitar with the pickup you are trying to "model". Works better if you have a friend holding one guitar and stepping on the A/B switch while you play the other one and tweak. :)
 
I'm on heaven with EMG SA pickups and the EMG SPC mid booster. With a single adjustment at the Axe-FX they can go from sweet tones to very powerful stuff.

They're replacing the original Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups of the American Deluxe Stratocaster, which are very good, but I'm happy with the change.
 
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