8) Cool, a pickup thread, we need one of these once in a while.

My favorite bridge pickup is a Joe Barden Duotone humbucker in a mahogany guitar, or a Barden Tele/Gatton pickup in swamp ash. Favorite neck pup is a stock Yamaha SG2000 pickup.

For cleaner metal tone you might want to try the Seymour Duncan Dimebag signature pickup. They have a 21 day exchange policy on any guitar or bass pickup if you aren't pleased with the tone.

DiMarzio pickups are really really good.

I second the dimebag...

hi people ..
same topic,different question..
if i get a guitar with passive pups and put an EMG 81 inside,can i just put the battery in the tone/volume knob hole or does the thing need battery at all ?

wouldn't an EMG 81 be better than the Dimebag Seymour Duncan ?

The internal buffer amplifier of active pickups like the EMG have in the past helped to solve many problems for the guitarist and pickup designer.
A lower power or smaller magnet structure can be used in an active pickup, and has less pull on the strings, affording more sustain.
Less winding(underwound) pickups get nicer organic tone and the active buffer boosts the signal to make the pickup "hot" enough to drive the front end(preamp) of your guitar amp like a normal hotrodded pickup might.
The design also lends itself to quieter operation, which is great for high gain use and recording.
The active internal buffer amp of the EMG also allows a signal that passes through a number of pedals to maintain its integrity in the resulting longer cable run.
Downsides:
Active electronics color the sound. Its not a bad thing, just an aspect that needs to be taken into consideration. The coloration is usually dark, with a loss of liveliness. The speed (dynamic range, slew rate) of the onboard buffer amp may or may not match your reflexes.
The biggest obstacle to the DIY installer of an EMG or Duncan active pickup is the inevitable neccesity of removing wood from the internal body cavity....its best left to a professional installer.

The newest passive dual blade pickups have a lot of the benefits of the older EMG active designs(quiet operation, low magnetic string pull) with the added benifit of the passive designs inherent clean "bell tone" quality. By putting a buffer pedal on the floor or in the guitar( as is popular in bass guitars), you essentially have the best of both worlds because the buffer can be switched off and out of the circuit.

ok .. so why do i need to remove wood from the cavity ?

if I get ur point,a Seymour Duncan Dimebag or an EMG Hz have almost the sound of their active brothers without having to modify the guitar ?

I am not seriously considering letting somebody else do the job coz i have about 250 euro for the whole thing and they charge 25 euro for building in the pups.But I guess that the wiring of a passive humbucker can't be that hard with a wiring diagram.

For a pick-up I generally introduce myself, then offer to buy a drink. Smalltalk then follows, avoiding star-signs and such other nonsense...

oh sorry - you mean't something else... :lol:

Dimarzio Breed or Evo's - high gain and great tone, but alot depends on the guitar. IMHO Get a cheap secondhand Ibanez RG550 or similar and change the pickups to suit. If you're going to thrash, might as well thrash the hell out of something cheap than wreck a newer guitar.

G

I just read that Chuck Shuldiner (R.I.P.) player one DiMarzio X2N DP102. So I was curious and read a review at Harmony-Central(http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/DiMarzio/X2N-01.html) and this is what it said:

"Ive been playing for 13 years so far, and this is the second X2N ive bought. So far ive gone through the stock 500T's, a Duncan JB, EMG 81's, Dimarzio PAF Pro's and a Dimebucker. This pickup beats them all easily, only the JB and the PAF Pro come close."

What do you think now ? Seymour Duncan Dimebag or DiMarzio X2N ?

The Duncan's are exciting, especially the JB and I favor the 59'er in a big way. The 59'er IMO has awesome harmonics and killer output.

Don't forget about the Bill Lawrence pickups too. They're handwound and Bill helped to bring quality and integrity back to Gibson guitars for a period. He makes a great humbucker!

my favorite is p90s (though ive heard of p100s being hotter sounding..)

i have em on my gibson SG supreme, they really give a unique tone. no matter what amp it always ends up sounding very sweet, but still hard, like a cross between a strat through a marshall and a typical humbucker metal configuration.

but thats not suited for what you are looking for. probably emgs, they are pretty standard for the metal sound.

Try DiMarzio ToneZone or Steve Special