What humbucker style pickups do you use and why?

[doommeow]

How noisy are the Mean90s compared to other P90s? I sold my Gibson with P90s cause I couldn't deal with the noise anymore.

I've only had one guitar with 'real' P-90's and that was a) a decade ago and b) I hated it, not due to noise, and couldn't sell it fast enough.

The mean90s are by no means silent. Quieter than the single coils in my tele, yes, but no dead silent. If you're an anti pickup noise guy, you might not hack it. Then again - it's a cheap experiment, $35 new, less used, to find out for sure.

For the record, I also have no experience w/ noiseless P90s, but have heard good things. But if you have a guitar routed for humbuckers, want something close to p90s but don't want noise, I'd really be looking at a low output, lightly wax or unpotted, A4 paf with 500K or higher pots.

[Ancient Astronaught]

looks like i'll probably be sticking with my trusty distortion. i actually have a jb sitting around waiting for me to get another guitar to try it in. i've been curious about them for years and a lot of folks like them as a little different take on things from the duncan distortion. my bandmate just gave me one a while ago to try. same as before though, i'm not terribly inclined to pull my distortion to try it. if only i weren't so lazy.

I wouldn't pull the distortion for it especially if your all ready dialed in but the JB isn't a bad pickup. I think they work best in a bolt on neck guitar but alot of people seem to like em in LP's.

I ended up ordering the Black Winter for the neck. I'm looking at some used Distortions for the bridge. The Gibson Paf looks interesting also. How are those GFS Mean 90s? Keep 'em coming. Thanks!

Ummmm this \/ pretty much sums it up. Had an SG and a V loaded with em and they are beast for the price, I loved the dirt tones they provided. Not dead silent but nowhere near unusable.

Mean90s? Love em. Or at least love the sole one with which I'm experienced, in the neck of my SG. It's totally on par sonically with any of the custom, pricey, and/or boutique pickups I've used in the past. It's also fucking leagues above any of the other GFS pickups I've used before, which ranged from an acceptable meh to unflushable turds. Would be curious to see if there's any sonic difference between metal vs plastic cover, but I'm satisfied as is - no yen to change, no gas to experiment with a more expensive HB/P90 style or anything else - which for me, that's saying something. So YMMV, but as someone that generally loathes choosing and buying pickups, I think it's pretty damn great.

[t-rey]

I think a lot of us around our age have some numetal/rap metal skeletons lurking in the closet.

i have my skeletons under a pile of rotting corpses
smoldering remains of burnt bridges
thousands of broken dreams
any empty space filled by the musty stench of self loathing

but i never
ever
had any of that shit in there

to be fair
one of my skeletons has a lighting bolt on its forehead
and its wearing a phish t-shirt
i use to love them parking lots at the meadowlands as a kid
I've always chosen drugs over punkrock
(whoa,just realized the last 3 years have been Punkrock>drugs)

[WeHuntKings]

Just watched the demos of the black winter. Sounds amazing. Can definitely see them being used in a doomed out context.

[whiskey_face]

black winter or slug for a bass vi?

[Ancient Astronaught]

black winter or slug for a bass vi?

Considering I haven't heard one favorable review for the slug I'd say Black Winter.

[samzadgan]

What is the slug? Never heard of it...

Also...my favourite pickups at p90's...but the best humbuckers i've had is the custom made alnico 8...the guy based the design on a distortion but with A8 magnet...its very hot, but really full, clear and the right amount of highs to cut and not be muddy but plenty of lows.

If you were based in UK i would say check his stuff out.

[Ancient Astronaught]

What is the slug? Never heard of it...

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/slug/

It's fat, gnarly, and insanely high-output - it's the SLUG. Measuring at 48k DCR, it gives off an immense sound that is perfect for stoner and doom metal. Comes with mounting ring.

[samzadgan]

Thats funny they says it perfect for stoner and doom and then they put up that video?!?!?

[Krosis]

The first video wasn't bad. The second one with Ola Englund wasn't really doom until the middle, if at all. He's a sick guitarist though.

For the price of one slug, you can get the set of Black Winters for not much more money. Might as well just do that.

[UnicornTrap]

my gibson sg is stock 490R/498T and haven't really felt the need to change. my telecaster has seymour duncan 59' in the neck and a JB in the bridge. I also have a 1972 electra les paul lawsuit guitar, and I'm using whatever PAF pickups are stock with that. I have been tempted to change those out, but they are so old that the gold plating is wearing off. I like the look of em even if they do sound quite vintagey

I've had duncan distortions in the past in the bridge - those are pretty nice.

[Ancient Astronaught]

Thats funny they says it perfect for stoner and doom and then they put up that video?!?!?

Those two are the official demo'ers of SD.... and they don't doom. Ola (the second video) plays in the Haunted which is cool I guess.

I've also found that insanely high output pickups often don't work well for doom....

The first video wasn't bad. The second one with Ola Englund wasn't really doom until the middle, if at all. He's a sick guitarist though.

For the price of one slug, you can get the set of Black Winters for not much more money. Might as well just do that.

Exactly....

[Barracuda]

my gibson sg is stock 490R/498T and haven't really felt the need to change. my telecaster has seymour duncan 59' in the neck and a JB in the bridge. I also have a 1972 electra les paul lawsuit guitar, and I'm using whatever PAF pickups are stock with that. I have been tempted to change those out, but they are so old that the gold plating is wearing off. I like the look of em even if they do sound quite vintagey

I've had duncan distortions in the past in the bridge - those are pretty nice.

I really like the stock SG pickups as well. Great for that bluesy stoner rock/metal tone with prominent upper mids.

[whiskey_face]

i like my dimebucker for doom blended with a fat cat is HEAVYASFUCK

[mpsa01]

I am enjoying the Wolfetone Fenris in the bridge of my '96 LP Studio. It's a 14.5k Alnico II bridge pickup and it sounds fantastic. The neck is a Bare Knuckle Mississippi Queen humbucker sized p90. The interesting thing with this is that, to match outputs a bit more closely with the Wolfetone I use the bridge version of the MQ in the neck. It's amazing. Drives an amp smoothly and with clarity.

In the bridge of my Telecaster I am running a Bare Knuckle Nailbomb, which is a bit tighter sounding and ever so slightly more sterile. In the neck of that guitar I have a Cold Sweat neck humbucker. It's the cleanest and most fluid sounding pickup I've ever heard in the neck of a guitar.

I'm not even a particularly huge fan of Bare Knuckle, to be totally honest. I've just picked them up here and there from a friend that was shifting them on and I've ended up being very happy with their sound.