What humbucker style pickups do you use and why?

[fuzzyoctaves]

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.

For doom tones, I use a Lollar Bridge P90 in the neck position. (like you, I used a bridge version in the neck to better match my Nailbomb bridge HB). If I had a guitar with a neck HB, I'd do the exact same thing with a bridge MQ in the neck.

Has anyone tried the railhammers? Was thinking about replacing my Nailbomb bridge with one...

[benjuro]

To repeat/confirm what's been said here before...

Mean 90 in the neck=excellent toanz for short $.

Duncan Distortion in the bridge=fantastic mix of bottom end and bite, does a variety of metal styles really well.

Honorable mention to DiMarzio's 36th Anniversary in the neck...haven't used the bridge model, but it sounds great in every guitar I've tried it in.

[jwojtysiak]

I put the Black Winter in the neck position and it sounds awesome. Huge tight goodness. It's a super hot, but not too much. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Ancient Astronaught]

I put the Black Winter in the neck position and it sounds awesome. Huge tight goodness. It's a super hot, but not too much. Thanks for the suggestion!

[conky]

I took my ESP to practice last night and used it. I hated the EMG 81 and I'm seriously considering a Black Winter.

[Ancient Astronaught]

I took my ESP to practice last night and used it. I hated the EMG 81 and I'm seriously considering a Black Winter.

[The Mad Titan]

I'm ready to switch my pickups again. Right now I'm using a set of SD Phat Cat p90s. Tell me what you love and why. Please and thank you.

I've got two bucker axes.

My '71 LP Std is loaded with SK Guitar Specialties Dual Tone II's. Actually this is the first pair of the II's he ever made as a custom request for me. They are an alnico 5 SC/ceramic P90 clone combo (kinda like the Duncan P-Rails but these were made before the P-Rails came out). I can run either split to alnico 5 SC, split to a P90 clone coil, or run both coils in parallel for HB tones. GIves me awesome versatility, and sounds great on all settings.

The pickup is hot enough that the SC sounds don't sound wimpy or anemic. The P90 tones have some definite muscle to them, more grunt than my Gibson P90's, with shit loads of raw metallic midrange crunch but the treble isn't as detailed/sweet. The alnico 5 sounds are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, near acoustic in tone/feel with plenty of sweet treble, nice thwack on the bass notes, and a little dip in the mids that sounds so nice and elastic/glassy. The parallel HB tones are killer combining qualities of both the alnico 5 and ceramic P90 coil with a more compressed feel. It's a great sounding HB, more detail and more balls than the Dimarzio Super D's that were in there before. Iirc the bridge is like 16+ k, and the neck like ~12k The neck pickup can also be switched to series HB for a super thick wooly chunk.

My SG is currently loaded with a 498/490 combo. I yanked out the '57s because I wanted a little more chunk/bite, and punch (particularly on the bridge) to match my LP. The 498 is good for now, but I kinda want a little more sweetness out of the neck so I'm thinking about swapping that out for a Live Bucker/Custom Bucker, or Burst Bucker neck.

I loved the '57s for a lot of stuff, but some of the heavier stuff I play needs a bit more tooth in the mids. They're a hair too soft/smooth sounding for some tones IMO.

[Harry_Manback]

Honorable mention to DiMarzio's 36th Anniversary in the neck...haven't used the bridge model, but it sounds great in every guitar I've tried it in.

I've got these in both positions. Having tried JBs, Duncan Distortion, Mean/Dream 90s... the 36th annis are my favorite so far.

[whiskey_face]

black winters are on my xmas list for my bass vi.

and a zoomq3hd whatever. you guys NEED to see the violence.

[doommeow]

I'm ready to switch my pickups again. Right now I'm using a set of SD Phat Cat p90s. Tell me what you love and why. Please and thank you.

I've got two bucker axes.

My '71 LP Std is loaded with SK Guitar Specialties Dual Tone II's. Actually this is the first pair of the II's he ever made as a custom request for me. They are an alnico 5 SC/ceramic P90 clone combo (kinda like the Duncan P-Rails but these were made before the P-Rails came out). I can run either split to alnico 5 SC, split to a P90 clone coil, or run both coils in parallel for HB tones. GIves me awesome versatility, and sounds great on all settings.

The pickup is hot enough that the SC sounds don't sound wimpy or anemic. The P90 tones have some definite muscle to them, more grunt than my Gibson P90's, with shit loads of raw metallic midrange crunch but the treble isn't as detailed/sweet. The alnico 5 sounds are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, near acoustic in tone/feel with plenty of sweet treble, nice thwack on the bass notes, and a little dip in the mids that sounds so nice and elastic/glassy. The parallel HB tones are killer combining qualities of both the alnico 5 and ceramic P90 coil with a more compressed feel. It's a great sounding HB, more detail and more balls than the Dimarzio Super D's that were in there before. Iirc the bridge is like 16+ k, and the neck like ~12k The neck pickup can also be switched to series HB for a super thick wooly chunk.

My SG is currently loaded with a 498/490 combo. I yanked out the '57s because I wanted a little more chunk/bite, and punch (particularly on the bridge) to match my LP. The 498 is good for now, but I kinda want a little more sweetness out of the neck so I'm thinking about swapping that out for a Live Bucker/Custom Bucker, or Burst Bucker neck.

I loved the '57s for a lot of stuff, but some of the heavier stuff I play needs a bit more tooth in the mids. They're a hair too soft/smooth sounding for some tones IMO.

Awesome to hear about to SK love! I had a T-90 back in day, don't even remember why I got rid of it.

[samzadgan]

I took my ESP to practice last night and used it. I hated the EMG 81 and I'm seriously considering a Black Winter.

the only thing i like about EMG's is the fact that you can easily switch pickups without soldering...i was thinking today, why passive pickup's haven't gone down this route of wiring...is it so hard? or is it a purely active thing...?

[Krosis]

Gibson has been doing that quick connect thing. I have two SG's that have it.

[conky]

Are they doing it with the same quick connect clips that EMG uses? The only ones I know of that so that are the SD Blackouts.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with a Black Winter for the ESP. Now all I gotta figure out is what value volume pot I'll need. Since it doesn't have a tone pot I'm not sure if a 500k pot will be too bright.

[Krosis]

Are they doing it with the same quick connect clips that EMG uses? The only ones I know of that so that are the SD Blackouts.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with a Black Winter for the ESP. Now all I gotta figure out is what value volume pot I'll need. Since it doesn't have a tone pot I'm not sure if a 500k pot will be too bright.

Just by going off of some internet searching, the EMG clips and the Gibson clips look different, so I don't know if they are the same in function.

The 500k pot might be overkill for a Black Winter, but ymmv. I kept the stock pots in my Epi when I got the Black Winters put in.

[conky]

I was thinking going with a 250k since there is no tone pot. That should (from what I've been reading) still give me the same if I had a 500 tone and volume pot. Maybe that wont be too bright. That guitar is bright as fuck anyway. Neck through maple, ebony fretboard, and alder wings.