I've had my BCR Ironbird gutted for weeks after I sold away my EMG's and finally got around to wiring it up with a minimalistic 1-bridge-humbucker setup with the paf pro I had laying around, 1 volume, nothing else. Not the most usual thing for playing death metal but I must say I am damned impressed with it. It's like... all mids, sensitive, and just the perfect amount of treble/presence. I think it's also enhancing the sustain of the guitar, though I don't remember how much it sustained previously with emg's. :huh:

It's impossible to get it to sound muddy, it's clean as fuck. Think SoP/Psycroptic style stuff. Really versatile, it cleans up tons rolling down the volume knob. If I played strictly classic rock it would probably be my first choice. Rhythm guitar sounds warm but not dark/bassy, and for leads it just screams. No competition in this department, imo. Everything sounds so damned fluid through the thing.

Not insanely br00t3l but if you have a really high gain amp that you never feel like it lacks gain(eg: 5150, Engl, Recto, etc.), or don't play strictly super-high gain grind/death and want to try something new I really suggest checking these little pups out. I have to push the gain knob on my Fireball a bit farther than my other guitars to get it to sound really massive, but it works plus it gives you a really different sound, more "smushy" in a really good way.

If I feel it lacks balls within a few weeks it'll go up to the neck pos. and I'll pick up an Evolution or something, but so far I'm pretty happy with the sounds it's making.

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Sounds cool.. SoP/Psycroptic's tone is pretty fucking sick too (although i prefer Psycroptic's).

Anyway strange you found it clean, I've always found that the more signal you have going into your amp the cleaner / tighter the gain (think clean boosting vs. unboosted amp).

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Oh well here's the difference. You use high gain pickups > drive the input signal harder > give a more brutal, saturated sound, think Suffo. The PAF doesn't really drive the amp hard so the amp does the work, so yeah it's a little less tight and it sounds less saturated at the same gain levels, but at the same time it's even tighter in a different sense, the best way I can describe it is Psycroptic's tone(and they use EMGs, go figure, guess they use lower gain amps).

Guitar sounds a little less massive but even the MINUTE dynamics of your playing are heard. I mean everything.

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Hmm, sounds cool. I want to pick up another guitar without EMG's and I was thinking about Dimarzio's, I think you said you were eventually looking at getting a ToneZone as well, right? I'd like to know how that sounds with the Fireball. Oh got the FB yesterday: incredible!

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I have gotten good effects just turning the gain down and the mids up a bit.. but you need a really clear, articulate pickup too, i guess both the PAF Pro and EMG's would work well, just adjust gain & EQ. Tech death is generally lower gain, you need to adjust it down to the point where the sustain isn't as massive but more "crunchy".

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I've been playing a lot of neck pickup solos today and compared to the stock pickups in my new axe i now play them a LOT cleaner.. or so it seems (I put a PAF Pro in the neck position). Same thing when you put it in the bridge? I always found Dimarzio's were sort of forgiving anyway (except the Evo maybe.. that thing will butcher you if you don't have psycho chops).

The thing is i know i can't play half the stuff i was playing nearly as clean as i did so i know it's the pickup :P

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Yeah! I use a tonezone on my Charvel, and holy hell does it slay through the FB. I've got it in B, busting out those Carcass riffs never felt so good. Sounds amazing, I originally thought it was gonna be too dark you know, dark pickup + dark amp but it wasn't muddy at all. But if you want more gain and a little more "pierce" and cut try an Evo.

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