I'm back after extensive experimentation, and have learned to whole heartedly hate my emg's.

So i need new pups, passive this time.

Heres what im looking for my bridge: something that wont go muddy as shit when i downtune, and have a fairly thick and chunky sound, but with enough highs to get some good distortion going. So far i've considered the Duncan Custom, Duncan Distortion, Duncan Invader, and Dimarzio X2N. Right now i'm leaning towards the Invader, but i've heard that it can go muddy as shit... can anybody confirm/disprove this?

And for my neck... well i have no fucking clue... i've never really looked at pickups for their clean sound. I have a humbucker sized pot hole thingy for my neck pickup, but i was thinking that maybe i could shove a block of wood in there and stick in a Duncan Cool Rails or something. Or even better, get a humbucker that sounds like the cool rails.

Other notes... i have an alder body guitar if that means anything.

any advice would be appreciated.

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i was going through the same problom and ended up deciding on the jb/jazz set up and ive never been so happy with my guitar a good heavy sound not muddy and great cleans

i use an invader.
Sure it isn't the clearest pickup in the world, but theres ways of making it sound clearer. Like, the EQ!
Very hot, and good Death metal sound.

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x2n is for my taste much better than an invader although it has 2 much bass imo

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I like JB/59 or JB/Jazz Duncans

x2n

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I agree, X2N all the way!

my soul is owned by Dimarzio, I'll use that X2N untill I die, or have my fingers cut off.

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I have both a Tonezone and an Invader... IMO, The Tonezone is a bit muddier and has some more bass and power.

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I would say X2N

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what are the tonal differences between the invader and X2N? I need some physical description here... like which has more bass, which has more gain or if one has too much gain and all that.

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well... it also depend on how far you put your pick-up from your strings (and in case of my two guitars, it's not exactly the same ofcourse, might influence the sound differences).

But you know what, I'll record one riff with both guitars... I'll put it online soon. It'll be with a crappy amp and mic but you should hear it good enough I think.

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Alright, here you go.

Two easy riffs with the Tonezone, followed by the same riffs with the Invader. Not that much difference, but for deathmetal, now that I listen to this, I slightly prefer the Tonezone.

http://users.skynet.be/fa299107/samples.mp3

Mind, the Tonezone is a tiny bit closer to my strings as well. That might give the advantage.

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Invader is muddy, i dont miss mine one bit

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for ur bridge im not sure im still trying to decide on a bridge.
but for the neck i suggest dimarzio humbucker from hell. the cleanest clean great highs and lows.sounds great with distortion, and is very versitle so if u feel like playing somthing else. the only bad thing about it is that u cant get harmonics out as easily as normal pickups

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i owned a invader, i loved the outputt, but since the pu gives a lot of bass, and hardly andy mids, highs, its getting muddy as fuck, wich is to bad, cuz the output is amazingly nice.

if u still want one ill have one for ya

i have a queastion myself, whats the highest output neck pu?? i own a fullshred wich has pretty much the output id like, but i can still get kinda muddy (note, its also been a while sionce ive used it, but id like some recomendations)

im probbaly gonna hear sumtin like jb or jazz or sumtin, since thats what i always hear

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ive owned a tonezone, and a invader, id take the tonezone for tone, but the invader for output (they should combine those two into one high ouput none muddy pu )

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Both companies have some great pups. Neither one is really better then the other. You just have to try out the pups and see what you like the best. I got Dimarzio Blaze 7s on my 7 string and I love them. The only thing I might try on that guitar would be EMG 707 and 7-81. I don't know if I would like them better or not though. The blaze 7s are tight as hell.

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yep the 7 string balze pus kick some serious ass ... maybe you just play guitars with invaders (some jackson usa series) and x2n in it and find out youraself ...

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wow that was amazing hahaha. the tonezone has mad punch to it, much what i thought the invader would sound like. the only thing i like about the invader over the tonezone is when you slid your hand and it made the sick scratch... this is guna take me years to decide which one i want hahah.

oh, and would an EQ pedal help with cutting out some of the mud? like maybe boost the mids and highs and cut out some of the bass?

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id lik eto know this aswell, since i still have my invader and fullshred, and reusing those would be cheaper for me than buying new pu's

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anybody want to make a recording of the X2N vs the Invader... anybody?.... please?

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