Hi i have two guitars that i would like to buy new bridge pickups for.

First one, Ibanez RG321, basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, bolt on neck, 25.5 scale neck. I'll plan to use this guitar for standard tuning mostly, i'll be playing a lot of old school metal type stuff on it like megadeth, early slayer, Manilla Road, Iron Maiden, Kreator and such but i'd also like to be able to play some post rock type stuff like Pelican, Callisto and others. Basically its gotta be able to do metal well. I am a lead player also so it has to cut through the mix, oh and i'd like plenty of harmonics too please
I think i'll have 10-52 gauge strings on this guitar not sure yet

Second i have a Maverick Species 2, basswood body, three piece canadian maple neck, grade AA Indian Rosewood fretboard, set neck, 25" scale. I plan to use this guitar for the low tuned stuff. I'd really like a tight punchy more modern tone for this, i am talking about bands like early In Flames, Children of Bodom, Meshuggah, basically tight punchy melodic stuff is what i want to play on this guitar, again it has to cut through the mix and not sound muddy at all. I plan to use 12-56 gauge strings with this guitar

I am not even certian which i will choose as my downtuned guitar yet so any suggestions on that would be great too.

Oh and one more thing, i don't want active pickups so livewires and emgs are out of the question and i would like a decent clean tone from all of my guitars if possible.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

For your RG, since you want versatility, get a Dimarzio Tonezone in the bridge. I would reccomend 46-10 or 48-10/11 tops for standard, 52 is better for D. It will add all the depth you need in a standard-tuning guitar. Great harmonic responce, clarity, and "just hot enough" output. Exactly what you want.

For your other guitar get a Dimarzio X2N for the bridge. It will rip your fucking face off. Incredible clarity, output(510Mv!!), and super balanced EQ with a tad of added presence that really boosts clarity when playing in low tunings.

I don't like EMG's too much either.

Since you want clean sounds, rely on your neck pickups. Which ones do you have? Most basic stock neck humbuckers on lower end guitars I've encountered are okay for cleans unless you're some elitist jazz player. Duncan 59's/Jazz, PAF, Dimarzio PAF Pro and Air Norton are good choices.

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Yep, get the X2N if you want a searing metal pickup. I have it and i love it. I paired it up with single coil sized humbuckers (DiMarzio Pro Track) and it gives me a very nice clean sound suitable for less abrasive rock tones and jazzy/bluesy stuff. Since you're looking for a humbucker i hear that the PAF Pro is good as well as a DiMarzio Fred. I'm still trying to decide which one i want to pair up with my X2N for my other axe.

Well, EMG's are about the tightest sounding pickups you can get, so I wouldn't discount them yet. I have 81s in all my guitars, wired to 18volts, and they can do brutal and melodic with equal amounts of ease.

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any reason you're ruling out active pickups? i think an emg 81 would be one of the top contenders for a detune guitar. though the x2n as mentioned above is a sweet high output pickup with alot of clarity.

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After my last guitar being an EMG-loaded axe, and now my guitar having an X2N, I prefer the X2N now. Its as hot as my EMG's ever were but has that organic, three-dimensional 'lift' to it that the EMG's don't have.

Well i shouldn't really rule out active pickups, well EMGs at least. (i hear the livewire metal is not good for cleans?) I tried an emg 85 out the other day through my amp and i preferred the jb to that but i haven't tried an emg 81, the dave mustaine active set would interest me to but another thing about active pickups is that they generally cost more and i will have to change all my electrics. I won't rule them out though

I would definitely go for the X2N for the detuned guitar and possibly the Dimarzio Steve Special for the other one. Its a freakin hot pickup, great for leads.

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i have an early 90's modded ibanez rg570 with an emg 81/85 set. it's not my main guitar. i like it alot and keep it around because it plays well and has that "this guitar has emg's" sound. it's very tight, balanced, sterile(in a good way), and has high output.

but for the music i play right now, i have two parkers with the custom wound dimarzio's in them. these guitars just feel better too me, that's the main reason why they see more action. the sounds are just as good, just different. the nitefly for example has alot bassier/thicker les paul sound on the bridge pu, but the neck and middle pickups give you the stratty single coil tones. where as the fly deluxe has the tight highoutput sound similar to the emgs but less sterile in the hum/hum setup.

so basically i'm a fence sitter. i'm not part of the hate emg's or love emg's band wagons. alot of people play emgs for a reason. they sound great. but alot of people play duncans and dimarzios or ______ too, because they sound great. just different. don't rule out actives unless you've played them enough to know they're not the sound you want. people use terms like "organic" "sterile" "3D" "dynamic" ect... to describe pickups, but to someone who hasnt played a guitar with active emgs in it, a description of "sterile" might steer them away. while me, thats a quality of those pickups i love, they just sound so clean cut. but some people want some "imperfection" in the sound, they want more variables and whatnot, so sterile is something to avoid.

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Fuck EMG's, I still have them in my Ironbird and I don't like them. The X2N in my shitty JS30 Jackson and the Tonezone in my older crappy Ironbird(neither of which I own now) sounded wwaaaaaaaaaaay better than EMG's. When I get the courage to let go of my Ironbird I'm getting either a Tonezone/Paf Pro or a X2N/Paf Pro installed(I have all of these 3 pickups laying around, it'll probably be the X2N, and my Tonezone will go in my neckthru Charvel).

Emg's advertise themselves as "noiseless" pickups. My ass. Even my crappy-half-assed wired Js30 with an X2N and NO NOISEGATE hummed LESS than my EMG 81-85 equipped guitar.

Sometimes I get satisfactory sounds with actives but I'm just really pissed that I can only get 1 sound with them, they always sound the same and don't respond to playing dynamics. Actives sort of take away the "feel" of digging in to the strings as you always get a glassy compressed tone. Of course, some people like this, but I can guarrentee that if you go with an X2N or another good hot Dimarzio or Duncan(or Bare Knuckle or Bill Lawrence!) you'll never give a fuck about EMG's.

And I do play plenty of brutal stuff, btw. Decrepit Birth, Decapitated, etc, but the X2N/tonezone just made it sound so much better. I do however love the modern Vader-esque rythm sounds I can get out of it, but for lead playing they're just so robotic and lame...

EMG's have like infinite sustain though, but a good passive in a well built guitar(I think yours are probably decent) will sound miles better than any "preamp in a humbucker" pickup.

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the same thing i say to every pick-up question

JB/JAZZ

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what is the blade pickup stave vai uses in his the neck? also what neck pickup does john petrucci use? i like my 59, but it sounds just like a single coil. too poppy and clicky. thats a horrible description i know, but i cant tell you. really...like not smooth. i want smooth.

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Steve Vai's 6 strings usually have Dimarzio Evolutions where as his 7 strings have Dimarzio Blaze's. Back in the day, John Petrucci used a Dimarzio Steves Special/Air Norton combo, nowadays hes endorsing the D-Sonic with his emo hair.

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im goin by G3 tokyo sounds. vai doesnt use a 7 as far as i know.

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my 81/85 guitar isnt noisey. sure if i crank the gain on my engl's at high volumes without a noisegate any pickup is going to feedback and have a little noise. but it's prety quiet for me.

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For the basswood RG, EVO's would be best suited set IMO, for the tones you want. But hey, no matter how many suggestions people make, and there are fucking so many in this thread alone, you'll be just as happy with whatever you pick.

Palm mutes on EMG 81's just don't sound as good as on passives btw.

Evo's, Blazes, and most other Vai/Satriani/etc. pickups are great and hot, but are probably more suited for virtuoso shit, which I don't know if you're interested in. Evo's are really sensitive.

OF COURSE Steve Vai uses a 7-string, have you not heard of Passion and Warfare, n00b?

I have the stock Blazes in my Ibanez Universe and they kick ass. Not super super hot but I don't like massive amounts of gain on such low tunings, because they just sound muddy and numetally. But you probably don't want Blazes for your 6 string anyway.

The Tonezone and X2N choices I suggested will probably keep you more than happy.

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Palm mutes on EMG's sound insanely good dude. Have you not heard Suffocation? Disgorge has intense palm muting as well, courtesy of EMG's.

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im talking about on the dvd

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Yup

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+1 i could throw out hundreds of cds with good tone and emgs.

i love the sound of palm muted emgs, just as good if not better than any passive i've heard. soeru, you're making blanket statement on a subjective matter. you could say "i dont like the sound of palm mutes on emg's as much as passives".

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The trick I use when using both EMGs at the same time is to roll the volume on the 85 neck pup back until it compliments the 81 bridge with a bit more mid and bass. It sounds perfect to me after that.

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<----- Uses a killswitch and isn't able to do that.

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Suffocation use passives, nulling your first statement.

Seriously EMG's are overhyped as fuck. The way a good hot passive responds when I give that brutal dig into those 2 strings sounds way better than my EMG guitar. They just don't sound good for anything like early 90's sludgy Napalm Death, Obituary, etc. and shit or something like Decrepit Birth, the sound is so high tech that it just kinda turns me off, and I'm no vintage tone-loving old fart.

I don't dime my 85, I have it at like 80% and the 81 at 100% but I've always just been more of a "bridge pickup only" guy for rythm. I just don't get the sounds I want with EMGs, even the sounds that many EMG users get just don't happen with mine, my passive guitars make sound better IMO.

The 81 has plenty of bass IMO, although treble is a little too excessive as it can feed back excessively in some situations(I like hitting the front end of my amp with lows and lots of mids, and adding the highs and cutting some excessive lows in my preamp, it just sounds way better to me. Sure I could tone down the tone knob but then they just sound meh).

I play plenty of brutal DM, but EMGs don't give me what I want. They're definately not the best metal pickups.

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First of all, quit stating your opinion as fact. Second, ever heard of Doug Cerrito, one Suffocations original guitarists? He uses 81's and he recorded on all of their most crucial albums. Get your shit straight before you start typing.

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I can understand both sides of the argument, ive heard some sick tones come from EMG's and ive heard some shitty tones, same with any passive pickup. The issue I have with EMG's is dynamics, they kind of run pretty much 100% all the time since the internal preamp is always going to boost your signal regardless of how you play and you cant really do much to change that. This is usually fine for metal but when you want to back off to about 60% to fit the mood of a song, their lack of dynamics really becomes an issue. Thats why I prefer passives, you can really chill down when you need to but then you can also really go balls out 110% when shit gets intense and the pickups will respond, and I like that.

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Thats what I don't like about passives, they have too much dynamics and not enough compression to them. I run my EMGS at 18 volts series, so I get even more of a boost. I might try out an X2N or Evo in my S series when I get my soloist back from the shop, but in all seriousness, a mahogany body and neck with an 81/60 set in it is the fucking metal tone.

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I see what you mean, actives do compress more but thats why you have outboard compressors. Thats another thing, when it comes to body woods, it really dosent matter that much with actives. A Les Paul (Mahagony body and neck) with passive pickups will have the tone of the pickups plus the warmth and crunch of mahagony whereas a Les Paul with an 81/60 set will sound like EMG's and thats about it.

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I have a guitar with an EMG-81 and one with an SH-8, the EMG is great for really tight crunchy stuff but the SH-8 is really nice for little nuances and a little more texture. I like both styles, I wouldn't really be able to pick one, get emg's in one guitar and passives in the other! Then you can have both sides!

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I got a Dimebucker and that sounds sweet. Sh4 good metal pickup. Seymour Duncan by the way.

otay, aboot the emg thing. an 81/85 combo is realllllly high gain... i had trouble getting spanky cleans out of some amps, so you'd definately have to roll back on the volume. Oh, and the 85 is MUDDY... i found my clean chords didnt ring clearly. Now, i have 3 guitars. A basswood bc rich v (a total piece of shit) with emg's in it, and compared to the old pickups, it sounds amazing, and sustains great too. I also have an old (2003?) ibanez rg. But, my other guitar is an eastwood gp, mahogany body/maple top loaded with 2 replica dimarzio super2's and now THAT is clarity. It has a bit less gain than emgs, but since its mostly mids and trebel, its sickenly clear, like you can hear every string of a first position chord on a distorted amp. Now, people look at the super 2 and think I NEED LOWS!!!!, nothing an eq cant fix, seriously. Oh, and it pwns my ibanez, the infinity II pickups have so much bass you dont get much high definition when tremolo picking.

Get dual super 2's hahahaha. Versatile and CLEAR as fuck, plus the loudest pickups you'll hear.

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Thats why I use a 60 in the neck. Although my soloist is having the 60 put in the bridge to see how it performs with that setup. I'll probably change it back though.

Oh, and Valtiel. You can definetely hear the difference between an 81 in an alder body and mahogany body, the alder body being way too bright, which is why I'd go for an 85 in the bridge for alder or maple bodys.

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