Hi, i recently bought a solid Les Paul copy with a solid Mahogony body and a rosewood fretboard. Basically the stock pickups (Wilkinson) aren't bad but they just aren't "metal" enough. I need advice on choosing a new bridge humbucker.

I play mostly metal. Stuff like Megadeth, metallica, Children of Bodom, In Flames, Kreator, Bal Sagoth among loads others.

I want the pickup to be slightly dark sounding with tight chunky bass for palm muting but also a distinctive lead tone for soloing.

I think passive is the way i want to go for now so any advice and comments abouts peoples experiences with les pauls and the various bridge humbuckers would be great.

I don't want a totally modern sounding pickup nor do i want a vintage sounding one. something inbetween perhaps. thanks

JB/Jazz combo.

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For me, JB is waay good enough for me as a passive bridge PU, but you might want something that has even more high-output, if you want more of that tight-chunky-bassy sound.

A dimarzio X2N It owns me

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If you get a passive pickup, make sure you match the tonality of the pickup with the wood. Les Pauls are sustain-heavy, very bassy sweet sounding woods. A Les Paul has just as much balls as anything you could pick out there. So in this situation I would'nt recommend something like an Invader, which has gobs and gobs of bass, low mids and not too much treble. I would recommend a JB for that axe, as a JB is fairly mid heavy, without too much bass and a smooth top end, which will complement the woods of your Paul. I know a guy who has a Gibson with an X2n in it, and it screams.



If you get an active pickup, anything goes

since were on about pickups..

ayone has a sd distortion in the bridge?? how is it, i need lots of mids, and the tonechart on the sd site says it has lots of mids, just wanna know for sure, cuz they can say whatever they want. and how bout the output?? ive had an sd invader, loved the output, hated the muddyness.

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If you want the best just simply go with an active EMG

I've got an SD Distortion in the bridge of an old Charvel I refinished. It is H-S-S with a JB Jr and a Lil '59 in the neck. The Duncan Distortion IMO is similar to a JB, maybe a little bit hotter, and it really drowns out the JB Jr and Lil 59 bigtime. If you are a fan of the JB, go for the Distortion. It's not as hot as your Invader, and it's not really muddy. I think it's a pretty good pickup.

As for the original poster, go for a JB, or since we're on the subject, go for the SD Distortion pickup. It doesn't hurt to have a pickup with some mids in a mahogany body guitar. But if you really want that fucker to scream, throw some Dimarzio EVOs in it. They are a very hot and have a lot of highs, and in a mahogany guitar they scream.

ah shut up man, emg's arent thats great if you want more than output and a extra battery, i want TONE, i wanna have some character in my sound, i dont need some crap death sounding pickup

i think il give the distortion a shot then

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Go for the Distortion. According to the website, it's a little more beefed up version of the JB, with more midrange response. I think you'll like it.

Keep wasting $60 bucks on junk pickups then, & there is a reason why 99% of the metal genre use EMG's. But ill let you figure that out for yourself, Plus i hope you own them before you made a comment like that to me. Ive had SD's & to me they were garbage & a waste of money, not to mention so fuckin noisy & muddy. Yes K EMG's are that great, ill never buy another brand pickup ever for the reason that in my opinion they just put all other pickups to shame. Plus everything dude described in the first post is exactly what EMG's do.

I've got an EMG-81 in one of my guitars and it really sucks all of the character out of the guitar. I whole-heartedly hate it.

But yea to the original go with the JB. Or as others have been saying the Distortion couldn't hurt either. Its your choice.

Your ignorance makes me chuckle.

tee hee!

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Im ignorant because i disagree with your famed SD's? The ignorance of these forums never surprises me anymore. I know EMG's suck right? I guess everybody must love having a shitty sound that uses them.

The 99% of the metal genre using it comment, was ridiculous. Not to mention I can think of many bands that use EMG's and have shitty tones.

ive owned emg's in my jackson usa. they sound ok, but i need real tone and real character (btw dont take that other post TOO personal)

and the reason that probaly 99% of the metal scene plays emg's is probaly, cuz they play fast, therefore probaly want to make the notes stand out more in a fast riff, but thats totaly not what im after.

but thats all personal ofcuz

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Buy an X2n goddammit

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hmm, im not sure if ill like it, im not a big fan of dimarzio's.

1 more question, what does the ammount of output change to the sound?? does it give more gain? or does it pickup more signals?

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I think it's the 'facts' you stated that got him to call you ignorant

I love my EMG85/81 setup in my RAN but I don't like EMG's in every guitar, EMG's in an Ibanez RG sounds pretty crap, my RAN has far more sustain and tone even with EMG's. the 85's give me sparkling leads and are less sterile sounding then the 81.
EMG's definetly DO have tone. And yes, they do use the guitar's characteristics, just not as much as passive pu's do.

Don't worry though, everybody can have a shitty tone with EMG's as long as they don't know how to work their equipment. I'm not 'everybody' though

aargghh choosing pickups pisses me off, i dont know what to get

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Well on my les paul I had a hard time picking out new pick ups.but I ended up picking up a jb/jazz and holy crap i couldent be happier.

The best thing to do is go and try guitars with different pickups.

My RAN (with Mahogany body, Maple neck, and Ebony Board) has a solitary EMG 81-7, and I love that motherfucker to death. It has tone as well, because I know how to use my setup.

I also have a Steph Carpenter ESP (with Alder body, Maple Neck, and Ebony board) and it has a JB in the bridge, and it sounds fucking great too.

I bought about 3-4 different pickups when I first started playing until I finally decided on which one I liked the most.....which in the long run was EMG's for me.

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I have two of the same exact guitars, one loaded with Dimarzio's and the other with EMG's.

The one with the Dimarzio's sounds far superior, now we all know tone is subjective.. so if you like your EMG's then woo hoo for you! But saying they are the best simply because so and so uses them is just pathetic. Guess that means Krank amps are the shit because they pay a bunch of metal bands to use em!

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WORD NIGGA

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Krank make me giggle. It made me laugh because one time I was in one of the local guitar shops and some guy asked about it and the sales person said that it was "the best sounding amp in the store. by far." To make matters worse there was a Crate Shockwave right beside it and a wall of assorted Marshall JCMs.

I love the EMGs in my ESP, and I love the Dimarzios in my JEM. When it comes down to it, whatever you do is going to sound good.

You can't go wrong with a JB/Jazz combo, especially in a mahogany body guitar. You also can't go wrong with EMG81/85. They are both going to be a vast improvement over what is in there now.

I think the EMGs are great for metal, leads, etc. But I think they are a little sterile when it comes to other stuff. It also depends on what you're playing through. If you're playing through a 15 watt Marshall, then you might as well keep what you've got in there, because it isn't going to make a difference.

Go for the Duncans. It is a very popular choice, and for good reason. If you don't like them, sell them on ebay, and get EMGs.

Wrong forum, jack.

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thiz iz da gear hood niggah, they'za donno know shit 'bout this in da guitar hood

i would just like to say that i REALLY like the emg's in my ibanez rg.... they have a nice high output, tight sound, low noise... great... but that guitar only has one sound... that tight emg sterile high output sound. which is what i was going for in that guitar, so i'm more than content.

but to say emg's are the best like it's a "fact" is just retarded... and no %99 of the metal world does not use them.

a jb/jazz set to a 81/85 set to a tone zone/paf set, is like an apple, an orange, and a banana... you're comparing totally different shit man.

i have the custom wound dimarzio's in my parker fly deluxe, and that guitar is imo the most versitile guitar ever. no matter what sound i'm going for, the parker is my main choice... and those pickups have alot to do with it.

----back on topic of the origional post----
in a les paul copy(ibanez lawsuit?)... i think emg's would actually be a good choice for that.

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I believe that you mean that 99% of the metal core community uses them

Which is "better" in the neck, 59 or Jazz?

What's a good pickup to accompany a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge? Looking for the versatility xdislexicx was talking about.

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I would say a 59 over a Jazz, but that's only because that's what I've had experience with. I really don't think you can go wrong with either one.

To tell you the truth, I don't know what to pair with an X2N. That's a pretty hot pickup. I would say maybe a tone zone (even though it's mainly a bridge pickup) or the EVO 2, or even better yet, a Super 2.

You don't want one pickup in the bridge overriding you neck pickup (the sound guy will kick your ass). I've run into those problems before, so I'd stick to something high output in combo with the X2N. Go for the Super 2, expecially in a mahogany guitar.

PAF pro.

PAF Pro is not going to be enough.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PAF Pros in my Jem, but with an X2N, you're gonna want som serious balls in the neck.

But he's asking about versatility not just all out gain. My guess is that you're probably just going to be using you're neck pickup for the clean channel so you could set that a little louder and then when you switched channels I'm sure you could get pretty close volumes going.

Not neccesarily at all.Many people have an X2N/PAF setup.Versatile as fuck also.

It's going into a basswood Ibanez RG. Yes, I will want the neck pickup for clean cleans, and bridge for some high gain. Cover a nice wide spectrum of sounds.

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I say go a X2N/PAFpro.

Well if that's what you're going for. Personally I wouldn't ever put EMG's in an RG, since they're damn versatile with stock pickups and I love the lead sounds you can get from an RG.

In my rr-1 i have the dimario X2n in the bridge and a seymour duncan invader in the neck. I'm pretty happy with that combo

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The stock pickups sucked in my RG, I put a EMG 707 in it & it sounds fuckin awesome! Im gonna put the stock pickup set on ebay for 1 cent & i will take that because thats exactly what they are worth.

Why would you do that if you can make some money out of it

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heh... thats what im doing in my next guitar...

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the stock pickups were fine. as were the dimarzios i replaced them with. i just had an 81/85 set lying around. i'm thinking of popping the 85 out of the neck because i don't like it, the putting the 81 in it's place because i like the 81's better. then i'm probably going for a duncan livewire metal in the bridge and i'm thinking of putting a single coil of some kind in the middle. the stock one is still there, just disconnected.

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you probably had a crappy low-end rg7 series then.

I don't like 7 strings. but if you compare rg6's, there's nothing that sounds better then tonezones in those I would never rape my RG750 with EMG's. I love my EMG's in my Ran but I hate them in RG's. it's not meant to be, or at least, not for me.

The only pickups in Ibanez RG 7's worth anything is the BLAZE & the body in all of them are basswood, even the Universe, so i really dont think it makes a huge difference in what RG model you have. I think with pickup choice from reading & posting in the threads is that it just comes down to personal taste because one person says one thing then another.

That's exactly what I said. Same goes for everything in gear, tone is subjective.
Though it has to be said that there's some consensus on what sounds 'good' and what sounds 'bad'.

But the low end RG7's are just plain terrible. there's some with good pickups though, as long as you don't get the cheapass ones.

Not all RG7's are made out of basswood. that's bullshit

the RG7CT, RG7CST, RG2127X, RG2027X, K-7, RG8527 and 1999 J-customs have a mahogany body.

the JEM7VSBL, JEM7VWH's have an alder body.

Ill start them out at 1 cent, im sure they will go higher but i was just stating that if 1 person bids i would let them have it for that price.

Not always true. My Ibanez J Custom 7 string is Mahogany/Maple. I think there is a big difference in sound between pickups in basswood vs pickups in mahogany.

Whoops! I guess I should read all of the posts before posting! I didn't see the one below yours that clarifies Ibanez 7 string woods.

Can you post some pictures of all these different ibanez guitars?