I listened to this with headphones on and not watching the screen to visually see the changes. They all blended together because they all sound almost identical. I literally could not tell one from the next.
the only variance (at best) is minute details most people couldn't pick out of a mix at all. slight boosts on some at certain frequencies. ultimately, its going to be about output levels. that said, the emgs on have a slight peak in the mid, but in the mix with everything else that mid vanishes entirely. and the gus g loses a bit of the top end from the rest past the emg. but again, its (to the ear) gone when in a mix. if you're goal is to play distorted, and in a mix, it reallllllllly doesn't matter what pickup you choose, so long as its of decent build quality. (you do roll the dice with 'budget' pickups, some are good, some aren't). the core of the tone is out of the speaker that produces it. unless you're playing clean tones, or edge of breakup, _everything else_ is psychosomatic. if your goal _is_ to play clean tones, or edge of breakup, then you can play roll your pickups to find ones you like for x, y, or z sound. but mostly that even doesn't matter, if you only plan to stick to a specific type (all alnico 5 hb's for instance). an alnico strat pup isn't going to give you the same clean tones as a ceramic bar style, but it might not be enough for some to notice the difference. avoid stupid cheap pickups (sub $20) pretty much regardless. they might be wound well, made with decent stuff (sometimes, to both), but they're almost never potted, and that's just a bad day. instead of dumping hundreds (or thousands) on pups, pick up a selection (small or large in quantity) of appropriate sized and rated speakers to swap into a cab (and maybe a single or dual cab that allows this easily). you'll get much greater variance in tone. especially for distortion, and your wallet will thank you.
yep, this tells how little hot pickups actually matters in electric guitar. Same pickup and different guitars would be much more something what can be heard.
I'm probably going to get some butthurt replies on this one... This video did a fantastic job of showing casing one thing, once you add any form of distortion, and especially in a mix, your pickups do next to nothing to change your tone at all. If you're watching this video, unless you bought a low end guitar with some real dollar bin pickups in it, they're probably fine. Stop blowing money on set after set of pickups when you can get a set of speakers for your cabinet at the same price, or a new mic, and it will change your tone infinitely more than any set of pickups. I've been playing guitar for over 20 years, thrash, metalcore, deathcore, deathmetal, hardcore, punk you name it. So it's not a matter of "if you're a new player you can't tell the difference" it's literally that there barely is one. Please if you're a new guitar player stop worrying about your pickups. Guitar players hear with their eyes and they see a brand new shiny pair of pickups, or a new amp 4000 dollar amp head that sounds like all the other amp heads because with very few exceptions, they're all modeled after each other, and they see all that expensive gear and they SEE how good it sounds, not bothering to use their ears. The speakers are the one piece of gear you can't see that ACTUALLY change your tone, they are the literal filter that projects whatever you're playing from your guitar, to your ear holes. Invest in some V30's, some greenbacks, whatever speaker fits your tastes. It'll make wayyyy more of a difference.
There's a bit of misinformation out there on this at the moment I think. Amps especially make a huge difference IME. I recently reamped a project for a band using a Triaxis, Tubeworks and 6505 all through the same power amp. Drastically different sounds. Yeah speakers make the biggest overall difference but if you're past the first hurdle of having gear and you've got some good speakers, it's not like the other factors stop mattering. To oversimplify: Speakers = EQ curve. Amp = How the guitar interacts with that EQ curve, how the low end changes across notes, how the transients come across, how fast/slow the response is, how saturated the amp is, etc etc. Imagine the Black Album through a 5150 rather than a Mark - it would have a very different character. Of course the speakers and amp are part of the same instrument so to speak and affect each other dynamically. Check out the Rivera interview where they discuss it in the context of making a load box that acts like a cab. If you take 5 amps that do a similar thing with a similar circuit and throw an overdrive in front then yeah they'll all sound similar. Part of the reason people think amps all sounds the same is they're all playing through post SLO circuit amps that are basically doing the same thing as each other. Pickups make a difference but angling, pole piece height, pickup height, number of pickups, tone knob etc are as big a difference as anything. Wire your bridge direct to jack and take out the other pickups. It'll sound different.
but youre missing the fact that all the pickups are going through the same mix... thus the contrast can be made. This is a typical metal mix, so comparing all these pickups with the same typical mix is a valid contrast. My only problem is ... playing 1 riff doesnt really showcase each pickup but hey, its a short youtube video.
The best metal pickup IMO is the Dimarzio X2N. I have 23 guitars all loaded with an assortment of Duncan, Dimarzio, EMG and Fishman pickups but the X2N shines above the rest through my tube amps. Through modellers and plugins the difference isn't noticeable.
I’ve noticed that in TH-cam everything kind of sounds the same and it’s even worse when it’s through amp sims. But in person you can tell better. That’s my personal experience cause all my guitars have different pickups
On yt you can't really tell the difference. Totally different case trying them by yoursef. Been playing a invader for years, bought a jackson with the jb/59 combo and the difference is night and day.
Sure, some minor differences on the isolated tracks, but very hard to detect in the mix. Which means this was a good test - other variables are much more important. Amp, speaker - and the one many don't consider - move your cab around and move yourself around. Room placement is king. Even more importantly - all these pickups sound VERY GOOD. You can spend half a life trying to optimize between them. Or grab a cold one, pick up your guitar, and PLAY....
Everything sounds indistinguishable in the mix. Especially if there is some editing (and TH-cam compression). The point of pickups is they change the sound in the room and the way it feels to play the guitar. A good pickup switch will almost feel like you have a different guitar and inspire you to play certain types of music. Instead of parroting your favorite TH-camr try switching out some pickups in person. I know it may be hard to believe, but you can experiment with gear and also spend a lot of time practicing.
@@giovanniblanc819 I agree. There are few similar sounding but there is also differences. It would be even more noticiable if the dialed tone here would not be so crap. The low end is too overwhelming
Great shootout, the EMG 81 is my absolute favorite and is what I use exclusively. It has an amazing high output razor sharp textureanf tone. While still maintaining warmth where you want it. Out of the passive pickups I have to go with the Invander and Dimenucker. I love the super high output from both pickups without loosing any enunciation. Plus 95 percent of all my favorite guitarist use the EMG 81 and I can hear the reason why while playing them.
Honestly if you were to tell me it was one pickup the whole time I would believe it. Different picking technique can affect the sound but other than that I really cant telll more than maybe 5 % difference between the two most different.
The blood stains upon the sacred shroud of metal may have been put there by the EMG 81/85, but its tapestry was woven by the DiMarzio Super Distortion.
Old school metal guitarist here who plays modern as well, and after all these years, the JB still stands tall and just sounds so full of life. It does the single notes the best and is the most musical. While the EMG's of course are bright and crunchy, they are otherwise lifeless for anything but riffing IMO. The only downside of the JB is how it sounds tuned down. It wasn't made for Drop C and lower, otherwise it still holds the crown IMO.
They may give you a different feel while playing them, but at hear they sound all the same. Exept for the Hetfield ones and maybe the Dimes, but again nothing that you can't correct with a little of eq. That helped me understanting that I don't need to swap my Duncans, thanks!
Pickup differences aren't night and day, but they are definitely there. Glenn's claim that all like pickups sound identical is disproved by Keith Merrow's Seymour Duncan Shootout video. I don't know why Glenn is not able to capture tonal differences in pickups in his recordings. But in this video, the reason they all sound the same is clear; that tone is straight ass. No high end definition at all. Just muddy mids. Sounds like his tone knob is turned all the way down, so of course every pickup he plays is going to sound the same.
Yes and no. In this test is noticeable that the signal has a low pass and extreme compression, killing the harmonics and higher frequencies, and also he was only doing palm muting. I mean...the signal looks too processed, and seriously all pickups sound the same. But it was his choice. Particularly...if I spend hundreds or thousands of Euros in a guitar and pickups, I would avoid that kind of processing, because you can make the same sound with a very cheap guitar and it is not necessary spend thousands in equipment. With this huge amount of processing, you can not listen the wood, the pickups, the brand of the guitar...nada. And finally...Seymour Duncan are more low end pickups, and give more lower to medium frequencies. Dinarzios gives more higher frequencies, have more frequency content but less compression.
As you increase the gain you lose the subtlety . Listen to them clean and youll hear the differences. Also the differences might have been clearer if he left off all the effects
The fact that both guitars had the bridge pickup in different positions likely makes as much difference as the pickups themselves. I think thats why all the active pickups sound tigher on the chugs. Think about how much a difference there is between the bridge and the neck. This is one of the larger sources of sound differences between different guitars.
They all sound more or less identical. The Hetfield pup sounds like it might have just a slight bit more clarity, but maybe I'm trippin. Need more string action to really be able to tell if there actually is a noticeable difference between pups.
The takeaway to me is if you're playing high gain guitar, just enjoy playing, and save some dough. If you are in a band and want a attempt to differentiate sonically from your other guitarist I'd say the het set emg stood out the most in clarity (like 5-10% clearer).
Amazing how little difference there is between them. I'm basically detecting some being a slight bit brighter but not much difference in them being chunkier etc...
Maybe the Seymour Duncan p-rails with triple shot mounting plate is for you, it’s a p90 with a single coil next to it , if you get the mounting kit you can change from humbucker parellel to humbucker series then p-90 and finally a single coil with switches on the mounting plate, you can control each pickup individually so you could have humbucker series on neck and p90 on the bridge, 24 total combinations super versatile
I'm a drummer, but I have a few LPs that I play. I love metal and have very recently started looking at swapping out the pickups on a couple of my guitars, so I'm stoked I stumbled upon your channel. I like the content and i think if you smooth out the wrinkles in presentation you could get big. This was pretty helpful for someone like me, keep it up. Oh yeah, I think my Gibby is getting EMGs
i have used all the SD pickups here except for the Pegasus and Gus G..for me the SH-8 Invader has a little more bass..the SH-4 JB or TB-4 sound great in multiple guitars..the Black Winters are awesome as well as the SH-13 Dimebucker with the dual rails..for me they produce some great pinch harmonics and when I bend the strings they don't lose as much signal..so overall for me the Black Winters and Dimebucker are what I use mostly for high output bridge pickups..but I like the rest of them too ! I bought a new Jackson SL2Q with the TB-6 Trembucker Mayhem set and that bridge pickup was way too bassy in that guitar so I swapped in the Black Winter and it made a huge difference..but I have used that SD SH-6 Distortion pickup in other guitars and it was perfect... overall excellent video here.
I’m a little late to this conversation but the difference is subtle. I thought that most of the EMGs were slightly louder. I think it was the James Hetfield ‘s and the Retros were a bit brighter too, but not by much. For Metal most pickups like the ones you used do a good job. Good job!
I love the dimebucker! Have installed on my peavy signature series. And the emg active is cool cause the tone changes with how hard you attack the string. Working on a dean ml build going to try fishmans fluence with a kahler tremolo.
On my opinion I can hear a difference between pick ups sounds like using wah pedal in it’s different positions. Among the others passive ones my favourite are Pegasus, Nazgul, SH 5 Custom, Black Winter. Their range of sound is the best for me for metal.
Some pickups were tighter up top on harmonics, and some seemed a little muddy on the bottom. Either way, in a mix, not much of a difference. In a solo, you'd really only make out the harmonics. A good distortion pedal setup can make about any pickup sound great. Great video.
awesome work. Thanks a ton. i am trying to decide pickups on this guitar rig for what i am writing right now for my 6 string. Have an aftermath in an 8 string.
the invader has a controlled sound, the pegasus has a uncontrolled sound, The JB i feel are meant for clean, the solar you can tell are meant for the new style metal with that mid sound, the van halen has that overdrive, sound, the GUS G pick up is quiet sound good. EMG 81 has the clean high output active sound
The emg81 transients are more pronounced in my opinion that on lot of the others. Also the biggest difference between these pickups is in which harmonic is picked up the most.
Definitely noticable if you know what to listen for, most of the time the mids stayed the same the only difference was the amount of lows and highs and output, though some were muddy like the sinister gates and the guy g, also the lowe out put ones suckt. I think the minute details could be dialed out by tweaking the map
the dimebucker seems to be the most unique to my ears based on the different samples given here. many of these sound insignificantly different to me, in that with a mix and with that amount of distortion it probably won't make a huge difference which one you pick. but yeah, it depends on each person's ears and being right int front of the sound as opposed to listening over youtube and stuff...
They sound nearly the same. I play metal about 30 years, live and studio and I use PAF pickups, because strong pickups chug less. Exception is Dimarzio Super Distortion. Just sayin. I had: Invader, Breed, Evo, HB, EVH, Mighty Mite, EMG's etc.
Incredible video, Jake! I have the Duncan JB, and the EMG 81.. You just can't go wrong with them. *Your Saphue Pickups (from Amazon) demo made me a subscriber to your channel! Awesome job, my friend. PS ..Have you ever tried any GFS pickups? I have bought a few of those as well... I like them.
Video - is cool🤟 my top pick ups on this video : 1.EMG 81 (the Wins), 2.Seymour Dimebucker 3.Seymour Black winter , 4.Seymour Invader, 5.EMG retro active 77 and he 6 condition to EMG JH .
Pickups are a big feel thing.... but one of my favorite pickup is the custom gibson slash burstbucker that's in my gibson slash les paul and the EMG 57 that's in my E ii eclipse!!!! I play through a Orange rockerverb with a dead horse od and sometimes I play through my 5150 iii with no OD and they just slay!!!!
Very good comparison, steady same riffing and some single notes, mix and guitar track! The more or less more clear differences for me are the EMG HET and 81 plus the SD mayhem distortion (SH-6), which I prefer since years for my own taste. Thx, man!
Fishman Fluence Modern are also awesome active pickups, and I have a set of passive DiMarzio Imperium(Dave Davidson signature) and those are gnarly as well. Most of your sound will come from your amp and how you play, though.
My main rigs are a Gibson SG with SD Distortion (Mayhem set), an Epiphone LP Custom with EMG 81/85 and boost (Kerry King set), and an Epiphone Extura with EMG Jim Roots. They are all exceptional but in the mix they sound virtually identical. The difference is how they respond to the player. Pinched Harmonics are insane and effortless on the Jim Roots, followed closely by the Distortions. The 81/85 set has a different feel to them but that doesn’t mean they are “lesser” or somehow not relevant today. I can play any and be totally happy with sound and performance. Glenn Fricker is right. In the mix there is little difference. The only exception is the Fishman Moderns as they are clearer but have a weird upper mid spike and sound really wimpy in the room. They aren’t “garbage” but they are anemic and “meh” to my ears.
They all sound pretty much alike with small differences in the high end and more or less flobbyness in the lowend, which frankly could be your general sound. The SD JTF is way to op for the sound youre already running. I could imagine that one would be a lot cooler through a Plexi or JCM800.
wonder which of all this little Demons will have the best Tone for my scary sinister Funeral Doommetal compositions ??
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For me a mainly passive pup guy the emg 81 and the retro active took the cake. Clarity and oomph in spades there. I have diMarzio d-activators in one guitar and that sounds remarkable similar to the emg 81.
Sorry if he said it in the video and I didn't hear it, but what's he running his sound through? If it's digital or a modeler it's probably the reason for such little differences in pickups. I have both and all my different pickups sound mostly the same through my digital setup, but through a tube or solid state amp with some 4x12's you can really hear a difference. It's part of the reason some people like digital so much, it's easier to get a usable sound out of any guitar with because it makes most guitars sound the same, and obviously it's much lighter and smaller. All kickass pickups man thanks for the video 🙂
By my ears, only 81s and JHs sounds a bit different. All in all they sound like DiMarzios Super Distortion. Thanks a lot for your test ride man. I really appreciate it.
@@raakareiska9804 i have perfectly clean ear and a good setup to listen to. I just don't hear that much difference there. I hear basically the same sound. close your eyes and let one friend of yours change the part of the video so you can guess which is which. Enjoy your failure
It’s funny, I’m getting into guitar again after a very long hiatus, and all of the pickups people are reviewing are pretty much the same pickups I was looking at when I played 10 years ago.
If you want your guitar to sound differently, you would have to move the position of the P.U. instead of replacing the P.U. Move it 1/4" (5mm) and it will sound different. The ideal guitar would have a small rail system on which you can move the P.U. Changing P.U.'s (of the same style (single-coil for a single-coil, humbucker for a humbucker)) will only change the output signal a.k.a. volume (If you make weak frequencies louder, you can start hearing them. Giving the illusion of a different frequency response. The same happens in hi-fi (low volume doesn't allow you to hear the full range) Some people will argue that spending $200 on a booootique P.U. HAS to make your guitar sound different... I don't agree.
Great demo!! I've been playing 33 years, have 27 guitars currently, all set up for metal of course lol, and I'm right there with you on SD and EMG still being my favorites. Nothing like that old school brutally nasty metal tone. Some of this modern stuff is sounding way too pretty and delicate to me lol! 🤘
The Nicole guitar is very cool; it's a sweet thing for you to do, but I wonder what Nicole thinks. As for the pickups, on their own there were minute differences (I listened with headphones), but in the mix they sounded EXACTLY THE SAME 🤷♂ This in itself is useful to know.
You should try out Lace Alumitones. Namelly the Deathbucker. 0 mud, and razor edge bite. I have them in a few guitars, clean or distortion, they are realy sweet. jmho.
I barely hear any difference between any. My black winters compared to my EMG's are nights and day. I dont know if it's your recording but mine sound way different.
There is one pickup for metal that for me, stood out among the hundreds I've used over the years but unfortunately they are now extremely rare. It was available from 1990-2000. I went on a tear years ago when production ceased and bought several to hoard for various superstrat projects. If you ever stumble on one, buy it...the Bartolini E90-D. Much higher output than the base E90 which had more of a goosed PAF vibe. The D stood for Distortion and that was a comical understatement. Nothing else is even close. It wasn't some juiced up 20k mosh pit of mush but an incendiary active humbucker with razor sharp definition providing harmonics that would leap off a fretboard. Think EMG 81 that's been wax potted with Red Bull.😂
SD Nazghul and Sentient are my favorite combo I also like teh Fishman Fluence Modern I LOATHE the EMG 81's I have a Schecter Hellraiser FR and it came with EMGs and I swapped them out for the Fishman's... so much better My Blackjack came with Fullshred and Jb. While I really like them, I swapped out for the Nazghul and Sentient... they are the same tones just MORE
I listened to this with headphones on and not watching the screen to visually see the changes.
They all blended together because they all sound almost identical. I literally could not tell one from the next.
the only variance (at best) is minute details most people couldn't pick out of a mix at all. slight boosts on some at certain frequencies. ultimately, its going to be about output levels.
that said, the emgs on have a slight peak in the mid, but in the mix with everything else that mid vanishes entirely. and the gus g loses a bit of the top end from the rest past the emg. but again, its (to the ear) gone when in a mix.
if you're goal is to play distorted, and in a mix, it reallllllllly doesn't matter what pickup you choose, so long as its of decent build quality. (you do roll the dice with 'budget' pickups, some are good, some aren't).
the core of the tone is out of the speaker that produces it.
unless you're playing clean tones, or edge of breakup, _everything else_ is psychosomatic.
if your goal _is_ to play clean tones, or edge of breakup, then you can play roll your pickups to find ones you like for x, y, or z sound. but mostly that even doesn't matter, if you only plan to stick to a specific type (all alnico 5 hb's for instance). an alnico strat pup isn't going to give you the same clean tones as a ceramic bar style, but it might not be enough for some to notice the difference.
avoid stupid cheap pickups (sub $20) pretty much regardless. they might be wound well, made with decent stuff (sometimes, to both), but they're almost never potted, and that's just a bad day.
instead of dumping hundreds (or thousands) on pups, pick up a selection (small or large in quantity) of appropriate sized and rated speakers to swap into a cab (and maybe a single or dual cab that allows this easily). you'll get much greater variance in tone. especially for distortion, and your wallet will thank you.
yep, this tells how little hot pickups actually matters in electric guitar. Same pickup and different guitars would be much more something what can be heard.
SO YOU'RE TELLING ME KEITH MERROW LIED LIKE THE SACK OF SHIT HE IS IN HIS OLD VIDEO?!?!?!1 SHOCKER!!!!111!111
that might be a huge reason why all of these pickups are his favorites.... this was an excellent demo.
i feel so bro . so little difference
I came for the pickup shootout, I stayed for the Eddie Guerrero pic on the wall. RIP to the GOAT.
I'm probably going to get some butthurt replies on this one... This video did a fantastic job of showing casing one thing, once you add any form of distortion, and especially in a mix, your pickups do next to nothing to change your tone at all. If you're watching this video, unless you bought a low end guitar with some real dollar bin pickups in it, they're probably fine. Stop blowing money on set after set of pickups when you can get a set of speakers for your cabinet at the same price, or a new mic, and it will change your tone infinitely more than any set of pickups.
I've been playing guitar for over 20 years, thrash, metalcore, deathcore, deathmetal, hardcore, punk you name it. So it's not a matter of "if you're a new player you can't tell the difference" it's literally that there barely is one.
Please if you're a new guitar player stop worrying about your pickups. Guitar players hear with their eyes and they see a brand new shiny pair of pickups, or a new amp 4000 dollar amp head that sounds like all the other amp heads because with very few exceptions, they're all modeled after each other, and they see all that expensive gear and they SEE how good it sounds, not bothering to use their ears.
The speakers are the one piece of gear you can't see that ACTUALLY change your tone, they are the literal filter that projects whatever you're playing from your guitar, to your ear holes.
Invest in some V30's, some greenbacks, whatever speaker fits your tastes. It'll make wayyyy more of a difference.
well if you do get butthurt replies, we know they are wrong and you are right 🤣 spot on comment 👍
There's a bit of misinformation out there on this at the moment I think. Amps especially make a huge difference IME. I recently reamped a project for a band using a Triaxis, Tubeworks and 6505 all through the same power amp. Drastically different sounds. Yeah speakers make the biggest overall difference but if you're past the first hurdle of having gear and you've got some good speakers, it's not like the other factors stop mattering.
To oversimplify:
Speakers = EQ curve.
Amp = How the guitar interacts with that EQ curve, how the low end changes across notes, how the transients come across, how fast/slow the response is, how saturated the amp is, etc etc. Imagine the Black Album through a 5150 rather than a Mark - it would have a very different character.
Of course the speakers and amp are part of the same instrument so to speak and affect each other dynamically. Check out the Rivera interview where they discuss it in the context of making a load box that acts like a cab.
If you take 5 amps that do a similar thing with a similar circuit and throw an overdrive in front then yeah they'll all sound similar. Part of the reason people think amps all sounds the same is they're all playing through post SLO circuit amps that are basically doing the same thing as each other.
Pickups make a difference but angling, pole piece height, pickup height, number of pickups, tone knob etc are as big a difference as anything. Wire your bridge direct to jack and take out the other pickups. It'll sound different.
Couldn't agree more
You are only speaking facts man.
but youre missing the fact that all the pickups are going through the same mix... thus the contrast can be made. This is a typical metal mix, so comparing all these pickups with the same typical mix is a valid contrast. My only problem is ... playing 1 riff doesnt really showcase each pickup but hey, its a short youtube video.
The best metal pickup IMO is the Dimarzio X2N. I have 23 guitars all loaded with an assortment of Duncan, Dimarzio, EMG and Fishman pickups but the X2N shines above the rest through my tube amps. Through modellers and plugins the difference isn't noticeable.
finally, somebody that plays the same riff with all the different options so we can actually hear the difference. Thanks dude!
the diffence is so small
there all around the same k-ohm of like 15-18
In real life the difference is huge I don’t think whatever rig he’s running isn’t doing a good job differentiating them
I’ve noticed that in TH-cam everything kind of sounds the same and it’s even worse when it’s through amp sims. But in person you can tell better. That’s my personal experience cause all my guitars have different pickups
He has too much gain going on also
On yt you can't really tell the difference. Totally different case trying them by yoursef. Been playing a invader for years, bought a jackson with the jb/59 combo and the difference is night and day.
Sure, some minor differences on the isolated tracks, but very hard to detect in the mix. Which means this was a good test - other variables are much more important. Amp, speaker - and the one many don't consider - move your cab around and move yourself around. Room placement is king.
Even more importantly - all these pickups sound VERY GOOD. You can spend half a life trying to optimize between them. Or grab a cold one, pick up your guitar, and PLAY....
Everything sounds indistinguishable in the mix. Especially if there is some editing (and TH-cam compression). The point of pickups is they change the sound in the room and the way it feels to play the guitar. A good pickup switch will almost feel like you have a different guitar and inspire you to play certain types of music.
Instead of parroting your favorite TH-camr try switching out some pickups in person. I know it may be hard to believe, but you can experiment with gear and also spend a lot of time practicing.
Dont forget the electronics inside the guitar. Pots and the capacitors used also have a huge effect on tone.
Agree, differences are so small that not worth the money, effort or time.
Better to focus on practicing and learning more
Everyone saying they can’t hear the difference between the pickups don’t have a musicians ear at all lol
@@giovanniblanc819 I agree. There are few similar sounding but there is also differences. It would be even more noticiable if the dialed tone here would not be so crap. The low end is too overwhelming
Great shootout, the EMG 81 is my absolute favorite and is what I use exclusively. It has an amazing high output razor sharp textureanf tone. While still maintaining warmth where you want it. Out of the passive pickups I have to go with the Invander and Dimenucker. I love the super high output from both pickups without loosing any enunciation. Plus 95 percent of all my favorite guitarist use the EMG 81 and I can hear the reason why while playing them.
I like the emg 707
I have a real problem with this being the "Ultimate Metal Guitar Pickup" Shootout when the DiMarzio Super Distortion and X2N pickups were not tested.
Agreed. I am a Petrucci "Crunchlab" type guy. IMO the best all around pickup on the market. It does everything better.
Agree
The 81s and the dimebuckets are vicious
Honestly if you were to tell me it was one pickup the whole time I would believe it. Different picking technique can affect the sound but other than that I really cant telll more than maybe 5 % difference between the two most different.
Bro just had a poltergeist interrupt his video 😂 I love your pickup vids man, was a big help installing installing an EMG set in one of my guitars
The blood stains upon the sacred shroud of metal may have been put there by the EMG 81/85, but its tapestry was woven by the DiMarzio Super Distortion.
Aint it true
Great video dude, I’ll be watching this back when I upgrade mine. Top content and beauty of a belt you have there, my personal favourite aha
Old school metal guitarist here who plays modern as well, and after all these years, the JB still stands tall and just sounds so full of life. It does the single notes the best and is the most musical. While the EMG's of course are bright and crunchy, they are otherwise lifeless for anything but riffing IMO. The only downside of the JB is how it sounds tuned down. It wasn't made for Drop C and lower, otherwise it still holds the crown IMO.
They may give you a different feel while playing them, but at hear they sound all the same. Exept for the Hetfield ones and maybe the Dimes, but again nothing that you can't correct with a little of eq. That helped me understanting that I don't need to swap my Duncans, thanks!
I think Glenn Fricker is right. Pickups don't do much in when playing metal.
well idk dimebag had a really sharp clear neck sound so maybe some
Pickup differences aren't night and day, but they are definitely there. Glenn's claim that all like pickups sound identical is disproved by Keith Merrow's Seymour Duncan Shootout video. I don't know why Glenn is not able to capture tonal differences in pickups in his recordings. But in this video, the reason they all sound the same is clear; that tone is straight ass. No high end definition at all. Just muddy mids. Sounds like his tone knob is turned all the way down, so of course every pickup he plays is going to sound the same.
@@Tomcat82...+1!! To hear the difference you'd have to be in the room.
Yes and no. In this test is noticeable that the signal has a low pass and extreme compression, killing the harmonics and higher frequencies, and also he was only doing palm muting. I mean...the signal looks too processed, and seriously all pickups sound the same. But it was his choice. Particularly...if I spend hundreds or thousands of Euros in a guitar and pickups, I would avoid that kind of processing, because you can make the same sound with a very cheap guitar and it is not necessary spend thousands in equipment. With this huge amount of processing, you can not listen the wood, the pickups, the brand of the guitar...nada. And finally...Seymour Duncan are more low end pickups, and give more lower to medium frequencies. Dinarzios gives more higher frequencies, have more frequency content but less compression.
@Tomcat82 completely agree.
I have been using the Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion PATB-2b for years. Another option to check out sometime.
As you increase the gain you lose the subtlety . Listen to them clean and youll hear the differences. Also the differences might have been clearer if he left off all the effects
The fact that both guitars had the bridge pickup in different positions likely makes as much difference as the pickups themselves. I think thats why all the active pickups sound tigher on the chugs. Think about how much a difference there is between the bridge and the neck. This is one of the larger sources of sound differences between different guitars.
Btw, you have impeccable taste in pickups, my man.
They all sound more or less identical. The Hetfield pup sounds like it might have just a slight bit more clarity, but maybe I'm trippin. Need more string action to really be able to tell if there actually is a noticeable difference between pups.
The takeaway to me is if you're playing high gain guitar, just enjoy playing, and save some dough. If you are in a band and want a attempt to differentiate sonically from your other guitarist I'd say the het set emg stood out the most in clarity (like 5-10% clearer).
They all sound fine, super close in high gain context. Love your Kramer bud 🤘🇨🇦
Amazing how little difference there is between them. I'm basically detecting some being a slight bit brighter but not much difference in them being chunkier etc...
To be honest I would like a pick up that has a good clean tone,blues tone and metal tone.
Maybe the Seymour Duncan p-rails with triple shot mounting plate is for you, it’s a p90 with a single coil next to it , if you get the mounting kit you can change from humbucker parellel to humbucker series then p-90 and finally a single coil with switches on the mounting plate, you can control each pickup individually so you could have humbucker series on neck and p90 on the bridge, 24 total combinations super versatile
I'm a drummer, but I have a few LPs that I play. I love metal and have very recently started looking at swapping out the pickups on a couple of my guitars, so I'm stoked I stumbled upon your channel. I like the content and i think if you smooth out the wrinkles in presentation you could get big. This was pretty helpful for someone like me, keep it up. Oh yeah, I think my Gibby is getting EMGs
My favorites were the Invader and Distortions. They sound the closest to my favorite pickups, the Seymour Duncan Blackouts.
Not Ganna lie I didn’t really like the emg 81. But for what ever reason I really loved the emg retro acvtive hot 70
i have used all the SD pickups here except for the Pegasus and Gus G..for me the SH-8 Invader has a little more bass..the SH-4 JB or TB-4 sound great in multiple guitars..the Black Winters are awesome as well as the SH-13 Dimebucker with the dual rails..for me they produce some great pinch harmonics and when I bend the strings they don't lose as much signal..so overall for me the Black Winters and Dimebucker are what I use mostly for high output bridge pickups..but I like the rest of them too ! I bought a new Jackson SL2Q with the TB-6 Trembucker Mayhem set and that bridge pickup was way too bassy in that guitar so I swapped in the Black Winter and it made a huge difference..but I have used that SD SH-6 Distortion pickup in other guitars and it was perfect... overall excellent video here.
I’m a little late to this conversation but the difference is subtle. I thought that most of the EMGs were slightly louder. I think it was the James Hetfield ‘s and the Retros were a bit brighter too, but not by much. For Metal most pickups like the ones you used do a good job. Good job!
I love the dimebucker! Have installed on my peavy signature series. And the emg active is cool cause the tone changes with how hard you attack the string. Working on a dean ml build going to try fishmans fluence with a kahler tremolo.
So, why no dimarzio pickups? :D
that measuring thing is called a "ruler"
On my opinion I can hear a difference between pick ups sounds like using wah pedal in it’s different positions. Among the others passive ones my favourite are Pegasus, Nazgul, SH 5 Custom, Black Winter. Their range of sound is the best for me for metal.
i'm looking to upgrade my jb sh4 to a custom-sh5
Difference was negligible, great video, very informative
Some pickups were tighter up top on harmonics, and some seemed a little muddy on the bottom. Either way, in a mix, not much of a difference. In a solo, you'd really only make out the harmonics. A good distortion pedal setup can make about any pickup sound great. Great video.
The Het, Dime and Mayhem are brutal!
super clear to me that the EMG and EMG Hetfields were way more punchy with massive pick attack. the best.
they all sound similar,,have owned duncans,,,dimarzios for decades,,gonna install my 1st emg81,,great vid
Need some DiMarzio ❤
Amazing how they all almost sound identical? Cannot go wrong with any of these \m/
Custom shop and emg81 had small differences, dimebuckers were hot
I think I like your JTF custom shop the best...good design.
JB and EVH for me. Great demo. That was a lot of work
awesome work. Thanks a ton. i am trying to decide pickups on this guitar rig for what i am writing right now for my 6 string. Have an aftermath in an 8 string.
Great shootout ! And cool Riff ! All those sounded good to me.
Dude appreciate the tutorial. Feeling more educated! Shred the hell ON!
Gus G sounded so tight, love that. might add it to my list
I agree. For me Duncan and emg is it. I have tried a lot.. good job brother
this is how you show the difference in pickups 👍 to me 81s hetfields dimebags and gus gs are the ones for me
i would go with the emg 81's zakks and then james emg set... then the custom jtf's are nice..
the invader has a controlled sound, the pegasus has a uncontrolled sound, The JB i feel are meant for clean, the solar you can tell are meant for the new style metal with that mid sound, the van halen has that overdrive, sound, the GUS G pick up is quiet sound good. EMG 81 has the clean high output active sound
EMG 81 was an instant punch to the face.
also I tried Bare Knuckle Aftermaths recently and they are pretty sweet.
The emg81 transients are more pronounced in my opinion that on lot of the others. Also the biggest difference between these pickups is in which harmonic is picked up the most.
Definitely noticable if you know what to listen for, most of the time the mids stayed the same the only difference was the amount of lows and highs and output, though some were muddy like the sinister gates and the guy g, also the lowe out put ones suckt. I think the minute details could be dialed out by tweaking the map
You need to get some dimarzio and bareknucle pickups
Second this!
the dimebucker seems to be the most unique to my ears based on the different samples given here. many of these sound insignificantly different to me, in that with a mix and with that amount of distortion it probably won't make a huge difference which one you pick. but yeah, it depends on each person's ears and being right int front of the sound as opposed to listening over youtube and stuff...
They sound nearly the same. I play metal about 30 years, live and studio and I use PAF pickups, because strong pickups chug less. Exception is Dimarzio Super Distortion. Just sayin. I had: Invader, Breed, Evo, HB, EVH, Mighty Mite, EMG's etc.
Incredible video, Jake! I have the Duncan JB, and the EMG 81..
You just can't go wrong with them.
*Your Saphue Pickups (from Amazon) demo made me a subscriber to your channel!
Awesome job, my friend.
PS ..Have you ever tried any GFS pickups? I have bought a few of those as well... I like them.
They all sound great and that riff is mean as hell! What is the song? Nice work dude, new sub!
Need to get a Super Distortion dude.
Video - is cool🤟 my top pick ups on this video : 1.EMG 81 (the Wins), 2.Seymour Dimebucker 3.Seymour Black winter , 4.Seymour Invader, 5.EMG retro active 77 and he 6 condition to EMG JH .
Appreciate the effort man pickup comparisons are really hard to judge and trust unless I'm in control of the situation. There are too many variables.
They all sound so similar I wouldn’t know which one to buy.
Can you put the EVH Wolfgang pick up in your EVH black and white Frankenstein I watch your videos
Pickups are a big feel thing.... but one of my favorite pickup is the custom gibson slash burstbucker that's in my gibson slash les paul and the EMG 57 that's in my E ii eclipse!!!! I play through a Orange rockerverb with a dead horse od and sometimes I play through my 5150 iii with no OD and they just slay!!!!
This is why I personally go for hot pickups that have very pronounced eqs. Most of the time, I’ll go for ones that have a large bump in the mids.
The Sinister Gates, Dimebucker, and Gus G would be my top 3 picks. That Dimebucker is a necessity.
Very good comparison, steady same riffing and some single notes, mix and guitar track! The more or less more clear differences for me are the EMG HET and 81 plus the SD mayhem distortion (SH-6), which I prefer since years for my own taste. Thx, man!
Fishman Fluence Modern are also awesome active pickups, and I have a set of passive DiMarzio Imperium(Dave Davidson signature) and those are gnarly as well. Most of your sound will come from your amp and how you play, though.
Dude! Nice video, thnx!
I like EMG pickups, one of the most heaviest metal guitar distortion pickup
My main rigs are a Gibson SG with SD Distortion (Mayhem set), an Epiphone LP Custom with EMG 81/85 and boost (Kerry King set), and an Epiphone Extura with EMG Jim Roots. They are all exceptional but in the mix they sound virtually identical. The difference is how they respond to the player. Pinched Harmonics are insane and effortless on the Jim Roots, followed closely by the Distortions. The 81/85 set has a different feel to them but that doesn’t mean they are “lesser” or somehow not relevant today. I can play any and be totally happy with sound and performance. Glenn Fricker is right. In the mix there is little difference. The only exception is the Fishman Moderns as they are clearer but have a weird upper mid spike and sound really wimpy in the room. They aren’t “garbage” but they are anemic and “meh” to my ears.
ahb-3 mick thomson ?
They all sound pretty much alike with small differences in the high end and more or less flobbyness in the lowend, which frankly could be your general sound. The SD JTF is way to op for the sound youre already running. I could imagine that one would be a lot cooler through a Plexi or JCM800.
They can’t all be your favorite. Which one do you like best?
This is a great example of how little pickups matter in a full mix.
wonder which of all this little Demons will have the best Tone for my scary sinister Funeral Doommetal compositions ??
For me a mainly passive pup guy the emg 81 and the retro active took the cake. Clarity and oomph in spades there.
I have diMarzio d-activators in one guitar and that sounds remarkable similar to the emg 81.
Sorry if he said it in the video and I didn't hear it, but what's he running his sound through? If it's digital or a modeler it's probably the reason for such little differences in pickups. I have both and all my different pickups sound mostly the same through my digital setup, but through a tube or solid state amp with some 4x12's you can really hear a difference. It's part of the reason some people like digital so much, it's easier to get a usable sound out of any guitar with because it makes most guitars sound the same, and obviously it's much lighter and smaller. All kickass pickups man thanks for the video 🙂
By my ears, only 81s and JHs sounds a bit different. All in all they sound like DiMarzios Super Distortion. Thanks a lot for your test ride man. I really appreciate it.
Basically they are identical. Very nice comparison!
No they are not. Time to clean ears
@@raakareiska9804 i have perfectly clean ear and a good setup to listen to. I just don't hear that much difference there. I hear basically the same sound. close your eyes and let one friend of yours change the part of the video so you can guess which is which. Enjoy your failure
Aren't they the same pickups? Dimebucker is very different compared to all other pikcups, I don't believe it was ever used
It’s funny, I’m getting into guitar again after a very long hiatus, and all of the pickups people are reviewing are pretty much the same pickups I was looking at when I played 10 years ago.
If you want your guitar to sound differently, you would have to move the position of the P.U. instead of replacing the P.U.
Move it 1/4" (5mm) and it will sound different.
The ideal guitar would have a small rail system on which you can move the P.U.
Changing P.U.'s (of the same style (single-coil for a single-coil, humbucker for a humbucker)) will only change the output signal a.k.a. volume
(If you make weak frequencies louder, you can start hearing them. Giving the illusion of a different frequency response. The same happens in hi-fi (low volume doesn't allow you to hear the full range)
Some people will argue that spending $200 on a booootique P.U. HAS to make your guitar sound different... I don't agree.
Great demo!! I've been playing 33 years, have 27 guitars currently, all set up for metal of course lol, and I'm right there with you on SD and EMG still being my favorites. Nothing like that old school brutally nasty metal tone. Some of this modern stuff is sounding way too pretty and delicate to me lol! 🤘
It's a bad idea to place magnetic pickups next to your computer hard drive
The sh6's are still my favorite.
The Nicole guitar is very cool; it's a sweet thing for you to do, but I wonder what Nicole thinks.
As for the pickups, on their own there were minute differences (I listened with headphones), but in the mix they sounded EXACTLY THE SAME 🤷♂ This in itself is useful to know.
You need to test Fischman Fluence Modern pickups and Lundgren M6 or Lundgren Black Heaven
You should try out Lace Alumitones. Namelly the Deathbucker. 0 mud, and razor edge bite. I have them in a few guitars, clean or distortion, they are realy sweet. jmho.
any duncan distortion?
I barely hear any difference between any. My black winters compared to my EMG's are nights and day. I dont know if it's your recording but mine sound way different.
Love EMG sound, just don't dig the battery change.
There is one pickup for metal that for me, stood out among the hundreds I've used over the years but unfortunately they are now extremely rare. It was available from 1990-2000. I went on a tear years ago when production ceased and bought several to hoard for various superstrat projects. If you ever stumble on one, buy it...the Bartolini E90-D. Much higher output than the base E90 which had more of a goosed PAF vibe. The D stood for Distortion and that was a comical understatement. Nothing else is even close. It wasn't some juiced up 20k mosh pit of mush but an incendiary active humbucker with razor sharp definition providing harmonics that would leap off a fretboard. Think EMG 81 that's been wax potted with Red Bull.😂
EMG 81, Pegasus, JTF, Gus G and Mayhem were my top 5!
SD Nazghul and Sentient are my favorite combo
I also like teh Fishman Fluence Modern
I LOATHE the EMG 81's
I have a Schecter Hellraiser FR and it came with EMGs and I swapped them out for the Fishman's... so much better
My Blackjack came with Fullshred and Jb. While I really like them, I swapped out for the Nazghul and Sentient... they are the same tones just MORE
Dinarzio x2n is a hell of a pickup
All of these are a huge waste of money. You can get GGS pickups and sound the same for a fraction of the cost.