Well after playing with stock PU's on my ibanez guitar for a couple of years now, I have decided that I want to get new pickups.

However, I haven't a clue what I'd like to slap on my ol bitch.

Aside from EMGs, which pickups do you think would be great for my RG370DX?

Currently, I play a lot of death metal.

What i'm looking for is the heavyness you can get out of EMGs, but also a nice clean warm sound when im doing solos with distortion, you get what I'm saying right?

Thanks in advance.

P.S reason why I havent thought of an EMG setup is because i want to save some cash xd

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I'm getting a dimarzio x2n this week. Maybe look into one of those. The Tone Zone is a good one too.

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If you want cleans forget EMG's less you have single coil spaces in your guitar, otherwise meh. I do hear the 60 has decent liquid-like clean sounds great for leads too, but the 81 and 85 in this respect are absolutely useless. The 85 is particularly useless for everything. :lol: EMG's do really not sound as heavy as most people think, there are plenty of passives out there that are more brutal but also respond to playing dynamics unlike actives.

Tonezone will be able to do br00t3l and pull of a decent clean if you roll off some volume. But generally high output pickups don't have as good cleans, so it's a good idea to get a hot one in the bridge and a softer one on the neck for cleans, as well as leads if you're into that.

I think the most versatile combo you can get that can do both clean pretty music and skullfucking death metal is the Tonezone + Paf Pro setup. It's going into my Ironbird, and those EMG's in it are going out.

Either that or an X2n + Paf Pro. Crushing sounds from the X2N and the versatility of the PAF Pro.

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EMG's? Useless? I don't know how you're using them, but they're not "useless". I do actually prefer passives more myself, but EMG's will get your sound if you can eq your amp and other stuff well enuf.....should be good enough for Death Metal....

i think hes talking about the gain characteristics... and the rediculous muddiness of the 85. High gain + muddy = poop clean, especially through tube, thus, useless.


As for the pup reccomendation, x2n if you believe you're going to be playing high gain deathmetal for a long time. Its ceramic and isnt appropriate for things other than metal, punk, and hard rock... unless you're a fan of "progressive jazz fusion" in which any tone, shitty or amazing, will be worshipped as genius.
For general versatility, Seymour duncan JB/Jazz, or dimarzio Tonezone/Paf Pro. Make sure theyre F-spaced.

After i get my rg370dx repaired (neck broke), i'm planning on dimarzio x2n, SD cool rails, and a SD jazz. Mmmm sexy.

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And again, I don't think they're muddy at all, I've had 2 guitars 1 w/ an 85 and another w/ an 86 and there's numerous artists that use the 85 and reg. equipment, and get nice results. They're not my type of tone, but they're not muddy and useless at all, especially if you're playing D. Metal.

EMG '85s = ten times more balls than all your friends. Also, what's up with that popular setup with the '81 at bridge and '85 at neck? If it were me, I'd reverse that. I mean, it definite is a killer fucking combo but the '81 just seems to me like more of a lead p/u and the '85, a rhythm.

Another I suggest you look into are Seymor Duncans. Great low end, and a lead tone smooth as a baby's bottom... the one's my friend got at least, the trembucker or SH-14 custom, somethin like that. And of course, the Dimebucker too would probably serve a nice can o' whoop ass.

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I have EMG's and as much as I love the 81, the 85 doesn't really do it for me. If I had the choice of new pickups I'd actually go for Bare Knuckle Warpigs/Nailbomb/Miracle Man.

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the thing is, on my stock pickups (which suck ass), whenever i play lead, i dont hear that rich tone and clean sound (when I say CLEAN i DONT mean w/o distortion no effects etc), i mean the notes have to last, and not dissapear. i.e doing pull offs and stuff the notes tend to fade after a few times.

yeah, I'll primarily play death metal, but from time to time I do play some hard rock.

ive been looking at dimarzio evo's bridge and neck lately, how are those in particular?

and ive seen the x2n, which is pretty cool.

im looking for versatility, Im usually playing death metal, some black, some in flames etc, so something good for stuff like that.

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+1

Sure the EMG-85 has balls, but so unproportionally big that it actually drowns itself in its own scrotum. Well even with low amounts of gain it sounds horrible, too much bass and apparently no mids and treble, a stupid idea for a lead pickup. I could barely hear any notes I'd play with it, they all just mushed together, and all my other guitars sounded brilliant and articulate through my Engl. I never use it for anything, I'm more of a bridge pickup lead guitarist anyway.

If you play Sunn O))) then the 85 is your dream pickup. Otherwise, stay clear of it. I highly suggest the 81 as a bridge pickup if you feel your guitar is lacking in sustain, but if you want cleans out of it you'll have to pair it with a coil-splitted 89 or a 60 perhaps.

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That is in part because the RG370dx is a bolt on, and youre probably using 9's for strings. If you up the string gauge to 10, it will make a WORLD of difference. But by every means get better pickups, i found my ibanez pickups to be pretty low output and not exactly amazing for metal, i did however like the neck pickup for sweeping...



Sunn O))) use vintage les pauls with p90's and PAF's They get the heavy distortion by diming the gain and the volume so they get full effects of preamp and poweramp distortion.
Their rediculous compressed sustain they have is from the sheer volume of their amps... if the volume is super loud, it doesnt die out as quick

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Yeah but most sane people can't blast their amps like that. So the 85 is the perfect solution for bedroom guitarist Sunn O))) fans.

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[QUOTE=the_bleeding]That is in part because the RG370dx is a bolt on, and youre probably using 9's for strings. If you up the string gauge to 10, it will make a WORLD of difference. But by every means get better pickups, i found my ibanez pickups to be pretty low output and not exactly amazing for metal, i did however like the neck pickup for sweeping...

actually I've been using 11's.

and thanks for your help guys but I already went through with my decision...

I wound up just purchasing an Evolution bridge pickup instead. x2n didnt exactly offer me that much versatility and I thought evolution bridge would be a great choice.

however I still need a neck pickup, didnt get one cos i had no cash haha

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oh and one more thing,.
im using a line 6 30 watt amp.

would the sound of a pickup come out better through a TUBE amp, or does it matter which amp i use?

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wooooooooooooah i think i just made an error...

see im a bit unorthadox in my guitar playing. i play EVERYTHING in bridge, from rhythm to lead...

so would evolution be BAD as a bridge pickup?

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hahahah its soooo true.



It doesnt really matter which amp you use, whenever you change a pickup, it will sound different. Tube amps however are more sensitive to pickup output changes, especially those designed to be sensitive.
Lets take 2 amps as examples, Marshall JCM 2000, and Engl Fireball.
The Marshall has a fuckload of random junk inbetween the guitar input and each separate channel... for example, resistors infront of the clean channel to keep high output pups clean, and compressors to keep the distorted channels from cleaning up. The Fireball however has almost nothing in between its input and its channels, so it can go from blistering high gain, to lovely clean with the turn of a volume knob, because the current in the preamp tubes is allowed to change.
SS amps use transistors, which arent anywhere near as sensitive to current change as tubes are... so the change will be more subtle. And when it comes to modelling amps, the preamps arent even solid state, theyre digital, so they use chips instead of transistors, which are even less sensitive.

You will hear an EQ difference though, your notes will probably come out alot clearer.

EDIT: ADDED
the Evo is designed as a lead pickup silly. Of course its good for leads.

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let me rephrase this, would it suck for rhythm since its designed as a lead pickup?

and thanks for explaining the dif bet. an ss and tube amp

another thing, im gonna use it for this month w/ my guitar in E standard but I usually play in C tuning.. how is it for down tuning?

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Not at all, the Evolution is a tight pickup. It's extremely sensitive, so you'll have to work on cleaning up because if you're not a tight player it'll make it painfully obvious with the insane output it has. Nergal from Behemoth uses a Dimarzio Evolution in all his 7-strings. So yeah I'm pretty sure it's good for downtuning.

Your Line 6 amp isn't solidstate, it's digital modeling, so yeah you won't hear a vast change in sound with it. It was still a good idea to upgrade the pickup however.

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didnt know behemoth used 7 strings. dont they usually play in c#?

and thanks for the info.

so say if i hooked it to a fender tube amp w/ a boss distortion pedal, would I hear anything significant then?

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Yes Behemoth use C# on all the 6-string songs on ZKC and Demigod, but they have 7-string tracks, in which they tune a regular 7-string a half step down(just like Morbid Angel). Ie: As Above So Beyond, The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor, etc.)

Youre welcome

Yeah youd definitely hear a difference because its a different setup. With most good SS and tube amps there will be an audible difference in gain and sensitivity.

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i wouldnt go for a fender tuber if i were you... they're rediculously loud, and they have rediculous amounts of headroom... getting tube distortion out of them usually succeeds tinitis
but with a boss disto pedal, the amp sensitivity will still be pretty low because you're running your guitar through a compressed SOLID STATE pedal If you want to use a pedal while keeping sensitivity, its best to use tubescreamer type pedals because they use OP amps in place of transistors for distortion, and op amps are more sensitive to current change.

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humm...dont feel like making another thread, so i'll just post it here...

and recomend me some hum pickups. i play stuff from really slow doom, to mid paced stuff like X japan, savatage, and classical stuff like mozart. and im getting into some Malmsteen, Vai and Children of Bodom stuff(not to that speed though...). so really, i just play random stuff, and therefore need my pickups to be versatile. but, i would like to have a good sustain on atleast one pickup for lead(so bridge i guess).

i got peavey pickups, so wanna get rid of them. EMG's i cant really afford em, so fuck it.


oh, and whats the difference between active and passive pickups? and can you mix and match em? like use one active, and the other passive?

anything else?

thanks

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Actives and passives and be wired together, but you'll need to wire them a special way.

I'm still offering my EMGs(81/85) for $135(total), the same price you'd pay for two brand new passives. Pre-wired, too.

So why the hell don't you just wait till you can afford them?....there's no point in skimping and buying a POS.

There's no point in saving up to buy a POS EMG set either.

Get yourself some Dimarzio or Duncan, do the research, the sound you're suggesting is too vague.

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