I so want this pickup again. I thought it would sound like hairspray, but they're magic. Like a noiseless p90 with twice the output, and single notes that sound as loud as full chords. Had a P90 sized one in a Slick SL59 junior style and LOVED it.
I really like the 490R/498T combo but got an ES-355 with '57 Classic pickups in it. I really need to try them in a solid body. (edited, meant '57 classics)
I remember a guy who loved the Invader for a jazz neck pickup, just ran low in the route. "Can you use a jazz bass for metal?" is a classic bassist forum cliche on par with "No Stairway".
I was thinking the same thing especially compared to the Duncan Distortion cause they're both ceramic, the Painkiller had more clarity and slightly more punch.
man that duncan distortion really stole the show. the thing i'm not huge on is the scooped sound on vintage style pickups. most modern metal goes for that scooped sound anyway so i'm not sure why more people don't go for that, especially today where most humbuckers come in four conductor wiring for some ungodly reason
If you notice, many, many, many 5, 10, 20+ yo Gibsons still rock their stock 498T. My LP Studio is one of them, and I went in intending to replace it. 6 years later and 20+ since it was built, there it is, still.
I think maybe the only benefit I've found in higher gain pickups is that the stronger magnets keep the strings from getting flubby when downtuned. Even Ola recommends mid gain pickups with today's high gain amps
Hey Kyle! Love how passionate you are in your videos. I was curious what lights you use for the background in your videos. I’d really appreciate your input on what to get!
Low resistance pickups into an overdriven preamp section was proven by Slash with the AFD OG reference amp (the lost amp on Appetite) hard to beat combo imho.
Agreed 100%! Can't add clarity to a dark pickup, but you can darken a bright pickup. I'm a big PAF guy too. The only issue with PAF spec humbuckers running into high gain is that you'll want to avoid the "unpotted" or "non-potted" ones otherwise it'll be Squeal City in uncontrollable amounts. Luckily you can find plenty that do come potted.
I actually switched to Low Output or PAF pick ups a few years back as well as rolled my amp gain back and use a pedal to fill that gap. I play skate and pop punk (of the 90's vein not new school mall kind) and I have a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100, Marshall JCM 900, amd Blackstar HT 50Mkii (recently acquired. I remember seeing a video where a guy used a PAF pick up and it sounded so good and that changed my mind.
Les Pauls are king for rhythm playing, in my opinion. I have one with a Burstbucker3 and another one with Dirty Fingers and they just grind. In my "rock" guitars I mostly use various Seymour Duncans but the best ones for rhythm are the JB's, which are kinda like PAF's. I think you have to keep pickup distortion somewhat in check to get articulation.
I went on a quest 20 years ago. I had an RG550 I wasn't entirely happy with, running a Tone Zone. I wanted the "James" setup: 24 3/4" scale, mahogany set into mahogany. Had to be something to it - him, Iommi, EVH's Destroyer (all non-Whammy bar tracks, ie the rhythms, on VH I & II are this guitar, NOT Frankie), tons of others. I googled around, and some autiste had utilized contact microphones and a spectrum analyzer to determine which body and build style put down the most low end. I tune to D standard & Drop C & run my bass knob wide open, always. Past this, I just don't like it, not interested in going to B or A. I also primarily use Marshalls and similar circuits, which can use some help in the bass department. Tldr; it's a singlecut setneck. The extended upper bout effectively makes the neck shorter, producing more low end. BTW, a bolt neck will not achieve this physical effect. I ended up with an 03 Gibson Melody Maker, the "Junior Maker" I call it, since it came with a TOM/ST and a P90 instead of a wraptail & single coil. Routed it for an SH5, and it's been a war machine ever since. Cost me about $500 and it's still hard to beat. Bonus was the one piece mahogany body - much like my real, stunning, AAA top on my Studio, also 1 piece back, you aren't getting wood like that from LTD, Edwards, Epiphone, or most other Asian copies.
@@rocketpigrecords3719 Tokai’s Japanese made Les Pauls rival, and in some cases, surpass Gibsons. Their ‘59 reissues are as good as anything Gibson is putting out for a third of the price. Only downside is you have to buy them as a grey market imports.
The sugarbucker sound has very nice tonal character, I like a lot the articulation and clarity it has. Do you have to hit harder the strings in order to sound good compared to the other pickups?
I run PAF style pickups into my Jet City 50, and the gain is still on 4 - while on a DSL or my Tech 21 British the gain is maxed. Recto, 5150 etc have more than enough gain on tap. If you're running a boost or overdrive, you won't need to work harder imho. If you're plugging straight into a JCM 800 or SLX, you might have to work a bit harder. The older pre DSL Marshalls like higher output pickups hitting them hard, and many - like the Distortion, Invader, SH5, Super Distortion were literally designed for this purpose.
Glenn will be proud! Sound samples to back up your claim, love it! I too love mid 7 ohm pickups with A4 mags that are unpotted. The unpotted is a real thing. It’s hard to translate in compressed YT video but in the room the feel is undeniable.
Parallel-wired PAF into a clean boost = the signal strength to push the amp into to maximum gain, but with the dynamics and clarity for awesome cleans.
You actually CAN add clarity to a muddy humbucker as long as it has adjustable polepieces on at least one of the coils - simply lower the pickup a bit and then unscrew the polepieces by the same amount - enjoy a better tone for free :) Anyway, I really liked the PAFs and the Bareknuckles!
Yup. Use what you like. I like low to mid gain pickups these days. I even tend to keep hot pickups...even actives a fair distance from the strings. Sometimes I just got to Dimarzio X2N though.
With the time your videos are even better , you have been understand what exactly guitar players are looking for , comparing pickups , guitars, amplifiers, multi effects very nice organization in your new videos and your riffs are excellent in standar tunes and dropped tunes . congrats friend.
Just got a Epiphone Korina V loaded with Burstbuckers (modeled after Gibson 57' pickups iirc), they sound wonderfull trough my 6505+, of course there's more interference compared to active pickups like a set of EMG's or Blackouts especially when boosted with an 808 but having a noise suppressor on hand helps a lot. It also feels like I have more volume control, the neck pickup clear up nicely when rolled down. As you said the amp seems to do most of the work as some of my amps won't treat me this well and benefit of hotter pickups (a set of SD Distortions can make a lot of a difference in comparison to some stock pickups). Another benefit is IMO that the passive pickup sounds more organic and won't run out of battery at the worst moment possible, I still like a set of actives but it isn't the be-all and end-all of a highgain sound.
High output ceramic is where it’s at for me. Thickness in the mids like an alnico V, but a lot tighter. The alnico high outputs are too loose for me; especially if you tune lower.
Real question here, not trolling : why High output ? I totally get the ceramic for tight metal, but high output ? Nowadays modern amps do have all the gain you need and even more, and high output pickups were invented by necessity, at a time when all there was, was Marshall Plexis, and later JCM 800, amps that needed to be pushed harder, hence the need for high output pickups, but today ?
@ generally if you wind a pickup hotter the mid range will be more pronounced. For high gain I don’t want to send too much highs into the distortion. I like it more when there are a lot of - especially -upper mids, but the highs are rolled off. It gets too fizzy for my taste otherwise.
I have an old Dean guitar that I installed a Dimebucker in back in the day. At the time, I didn’t know much about boosting amps, and I didn’t own a high-gain amp, so I thought I needed the high-output pickup. Since then, I’ve picked up several guitars, like an LTD and a couple of Epiphones, that still have their stock, old-school-style pickups. When I boost those into a high-gain amp, they sound absolutely amazing! When i use the Dimebucker in the same signal chain now, i don't like it as much, it feels shrill. So i guess i prefer just regular pickups now.
Great comparison, I really liked this format. Lower output pickups are especially helpful with lower tuned guitars. I dug the hell out of the BKP painkiillers here.
They all had good chugability because of the amps are badass but to my ears the gibon sugarbucker had the clearest and loudest voicing and also very musical sounding. That was an interesting video, thanks so much for your time and effort to go through all this.
I like the Dimarzio Air Zone precisely for that reason. Sounds like a big fat PAF with high gain amps. Tons of low end chunk, great clarity and string separation, and nice mids and highs. Also sounds good with lower gain amps. Probably my favorite all around passive pickup I’ve played so far.
For a high gain amp, I like pickups to sit right around 9-12k. Not too vintage and not too hot. They seem to work for my taste. I have a Fastback Pickups Old Imperial and it’s 11.9k and sounds amazing. It’s probably my favorite pickup and they don’t even exist anymore. I’d love to get more of them.
I personally am not a fan of using PAFs in the bridge in metal... or almost anything. It's mostly centered around my other choices in gear. I don't like the typical modern American high gain amps, I'm using the Friedman IRX which doesn't have the most amount of gain and I like using as little gain as I can get away with. However at the same time I also don't like using overdrives to boost because it adds the kind of saturation I don't want and I switch between cleans and heavy tones a lot. The minimum I personally enjoy playing with as far as DC resistance goes is around 12K DC, which is what combines best with vintage spec single coils too and sounds realistic when split. 12-16K is my comfort zone with the right amount of beef, loudness and clarity, though on unbalanced pickups like Dimarzios with Dual Resonance I don't even have a maximum I like, only the minimum of 12K. But I do definitely get why you would recommend returning to lower output pickups, some do like to get as much of the gain from the amp and others do like overdrives. To each his own :) The lower output pickups did sound better with the 5150, but I hate the 5150. I also hate using lots of gain on the amp. Why even stress the amp like that? to me always sounded worse when the gain comes too much from the amp or its channel. The Mark will sound even better opened up a little and with higher output pickups :D I'll conclude by saying people are not using the wrong pickups, but the wrong amps. Everyone has been milking the 5150 and Rectifier to death. Try out a Mesa Mark (like in the video, great choice also using that!), Marshall JVM, Friedmans, Randalls, you name it :)
I started playing guitar in the late ‘90s when a Les Paul with a JB in the bridge into a Dual Rectifier was IT as far as guitar tone was concerned. That gave way to the early ‘00s when it was an EMG 81 into a Maxon OD808 to a 5150. It always seemed like the answer was more gain, but I really l really like that Sugarbucker and I’ll be exploring lower-output pickups in the future.
I still love my high output humbuckers. There is a reason why people split coils/coil tap. There are definitely some amps that require the bridge to be split for it to sound its best
Mark Morton of Lamb of God uses PAFs/lower output pickups, so much clarity! There is a lot more noise with the high output pickups and they're a bit more fizzy in the top end.
I've been using vintage output pickups for a while now. My buddy has a vintage '72 L6S. The best tone I ever got recording was his Gibson on one side, and my BC Rich with Invaders on the other, both double tracked with a layer of my Zoom amp modeler running a Plexi sim, and a layer of Behringer stomp boxes (TO800 into a UM300 for me, TO400 into the same UM300 for him) into an ART Tube MP Studio mic preamp so it would overdrive the tube (I did this with both the pedals and the Zoom) and both of those were run into the FX return of a Fender Mustang V half stack. I played rhythm, he played lead. All his solos were recorded using the Alex Wade factory preset on the mustang amp, boosted by the TO800, using the paired Mustang V 4x12 cab, and everything else was recorded with a Seismic Audio SA-412 cab, both with stock speakers. We mic'd everything up with a Sennheiser e609 on the cone/cap boundary and an off axis Behringer XM8500 over the middle section of the cone, through a Behringer Q802 Xenyx mixer (I was doing that before Glenn ever made that video) before hitting my interface. My favorite setup these days is GFS Dream 180 in the bridge with a Dream 90 or their version of the '59 in the neck. If I want it hotter, I use a Seymour Duncan Active Blackouts Preamp. My Les Paul is wired up with that setup, with the Dream 90 and preamp. If someone wants more output from their pickups because their amp doesn't have enough gain or turning the gain up too much makes the tone turn to mush, they're better off pairing a lower output pickup with an active preamp, and the clarity and string separation is why. I've been telling people this for years. Use low output pickups, and use pedals and/or your amp's gain to make up the difference. Thicker distortion saturation, more clarity. Glad someone else finally figured it out.
I discovered this almost 25 years ago when I transplanted my glorious EMG set to a 2nd hand passive guitar and suddently the guitar became shit mush though my pod 2.0. I hate too high output pickups since then and EMG specially.
I really liked the way the distortion in the Epiphone was voiced. But, overall I think that pickups around 10-12k hit the sweet spot b/t output and clarity. All my guitars have 15-16k output pickups. Think I’ll be doing some swapping soon
I've been using Rio Grandes for years in all my electrics and one thing I've noticed is a slightly microphonic pickup can be really responsive with a high gain amp (I play Mark series stuff). You can really hang it out there on the edge of feedback and use that in your playing. You don't want something screeching at you constantly but to just be able to hang it into feedback effortlessly and on command. I've never liked the feel of active pickups but I did play JBs and some others for a while. I play chunky riff punk rock stuff.
I recently switched my PRS to a set of Duncan 59's. They sound amazing! I can still get the chugs, but they also have more articulation. I feel like I have more control over my sound.
I actually like low/med output pickups into my high gain amps....clarity sweet clarity. The modern metal amps have NO trouble getting enough gain. In the past....people didn't have real high gain amps so boosting the front end was how they did it. Nowadays...clean headroom..a clean input signal...the modern amp will do it's job better. I love the bareknuckle pickups...my faves. Lots of good stuff out there from others too.
Especially with modeling this is important, Because you’re adjusting your input gain anyway, Sometimes I wish I had not gravitated towards high output because high output guitar signals are more trouble in a digital environment. Worthy if note, One advantage of higher gain pickups is that every notch of that gain dial up on the amp raises the noise floor with it. Also the attack is better suited for staccato stuff. I used to play more medium gain but switched to high output as my tastes changed, Think I’d prefer lower output, But I really like the black winters. I wish a video like this existed before I switched.
The HO pups were more important to people who were trying to squeeze any more distortion out of old non-master type amps. Nowadays, most high gain amps almost have TOO much distortion, but the best way to let them "breathe" some is to use low output pups, and then bring up the gain on the amp a little bit (if required). I have an Invective 120 & a JVM 410H. Have an Ibanez that came with cheap, HO ceramics in it. I found some cheap Alnico 2's that might put out about 7k's. The amps definitely sound better - "woodier", and you can get more thickness out of the amps that way as well. Not only that, but I lowered the pickup height as well - and it seriously sounds a LOT better on high gain settings. Just smoother and less brittle - but like what you experienced in the video - just more clarity!
@@DanAdlingtonOnline Honestly - I'm about to get rid of mine. Some "mystery problem." It suddenly has very limited volume on all channels. Have changed all the output and preamp tubes with no success. From what I can tell, it's a circuit board problem. The theory behind the 410 is great, but in all honesty, the Invective blows it away - certainly with the high gain sounds... I might try to fix it, but I don't know. Not the first time I've had issues with it...
My take on this would be more for the studio rather than live, but going to a thiner gage string might help bring out more clarity. My theory behind that is that the thinner string will carry the more fundamental note and have less harmonic (undesireable) overtones
My go-to compromise, and favorite pickup for my sound, is the Duncan SH5 Custom, the "PAF On Steroids." *Not* the Custom V (no mids, at the pickup mids = output) or the Custom II (haven't tried, A2, lower output, spongier bass). Great tone, medium output, does cleans. It went in my Rampage and then my 03 Melody Maker, replacing the P90. Cut like a razor in the bright Rampage, because tonewood is real. Oh, and? Best palm muted chunk anywhere. For the low output PAF thing with more articulate tightness, you'll want to check out the Dimarzio PAF Pro. The hex poles do their thing, and the Firebird Zero pickups are similar, all slugs so it has almost a single coil quality without the thinness. Guitar Fetish has the Professional Series "KMZ", I have the original unpotted versions in my Agile LP. Like $39. See also metal covered Mean 90s, where the PAF style cover eliminates much of the hum, just like Iommi's Birch modded P90s in the Monkey SG. Can't decide? Fluence Classic - PAF on one voice (with all the advantages of an active pickup) and 70s Butyrate Bobbin JB on the other AND a noiseless single coil. These would be in my Les Paul, but since I bought the Agile with PAFs its 498/490 set isn't in a rush to go anywhere - another overlooked option that costs you nothing in the right Gibson. Go check out the classic Keith Merrow demos he did for Seymour Duncan. You just might dig the 59/Custom hybrid, and it's the antidote to Glenn Fricker's nonsense about all pickups sounding the same through high gain.
Lol would love to see Glen respond to this. The sugar buckers have slightly less emphasis on the prickly highs/upper mids, but it's honestly a very small difference in the video audio, but may be different in the room. More and more I find lower resistance/lower output to be more articulate than a lot of higher output pickups. I think the use of alnico IV magnets was the key to some of those "magical" original PAFs too but that's just my opinion. Pete Thorn uses alnico IVs for his custom Suhr pickups too, so it must make some kind of perceivable difference 🤷♂️
That seymour duncan distortion loaded epi has the clarity thing going on too. But idk if its just reminding me of my epi with a seymour duncan 59. It may just be a familiarity thing since I run mine through high gain stuff too. My ear feels "at home" when listening to that.
I used to run an Epi SG with the Duncan Designed Distortion equivalent. It's purpose built for metal - in a way you can't turn off. Like a passive 81, you better like what it does, because there's no getting around it when you want to switch modes and jam some ACDC or Sabbath. Whereas, you can take your '59 and put any number of boosts in front to get you that output and tightness - and then turn it off when you don't need it.
PRS 57/08 as another to throw in the “lower” output category. They have great clarity and will do plenty well with the right amp and drive settings and also have a unique clarity to them that hotter pups don’t
You are so right, now with so much good tight gain , less is more when you play, actually another thing to keep in mind, better to use more gain, and not setting guitar volume to 10 , better tone with it at 9-9.5 ! When it comes to hotter PAF tone i think the generic squire HB pu will surprise you, At around 9k and a not too strong magnet, sounds like that holy grail overwound by mistake vintage hot PAF . Oh yea so cheap but killer sleeper !
My favorite PAF based Pickup for metal ist the Kloppmann electrics "Hammer & Anvil" set. Expensive, but once you have these installed in one, you´re gonna want them in all your guitars...
Man, those Sugarbuckers really did everything you said they would and now I'm mad that I dont already have a set in a guitar. But $400 for pickups or $X00 for your Archon 50...
This is 100% accurate. I take it a step further. Take regular pickups, and an older architecture amp like a deluxe or soemthing, non high gain amp and hit it with a quality overdrive front and the saturation profile you get is wayyyy better than a 5150 or something more modern like ENGLs etc
@@GearStuffandThings No it’s not. There is objectivity in life. This is just one of those things that are objectively better. Some people like prefer to eat feces, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t an objectively inferior preference.
My counterpoint would be the amount of treble can sometimes sound sloppy, and noise floor. The more gain you add at the amp stage, the more background noise you're adding.
Honky alnico V (except for the 498T), can be lovely. I play a lot of Southern rock/blues and I do prefer a high output ceramic like your Bareknuckle painkiller. Great comparison vid. Thank you and take care!
Cool video Kyle! I have had paf style pickups on my brain lately. Have you checked out the mojo tone paf pickups? I know they make a hot paf pickup. Any other favorite paf pickup brands you recommend?
I put a low output super distortion from the neck position (so reckon is about 8 or 9ohms compared to the bridge which is 13) into bridge position on my SG and it sounds awesome for heavy stuff , also works far better with VST sims than high output. I even but an EMG 85 in the bridge instead of the 81
I'm dig'n the concept. Maybe try using some other low to medium output pickups in a comparison. If all we hear is 1 PAF based example, and then 5 with literally double the ohms resistance. Its not really an optimal comparison. I'm partial to a Vintage PAF in the neck position. But prefer something around 1 ohm more resistance than whatever the neck is, in the bridge. Thats what I've found to give the best balance of tones in LP. Burstbucker 2&3 in a LP Standard. With a Custombucker and Burstbucker 3 in a LP Custom. Peace!
I didn't use headphones, only my cell phone. But to me the hotter ceramics generally sounded a little better to me. However, I have a variety of guitars with a lot of pickup options. Tonally speaking, I have favorites that are not hot ceramics. I use a lot less distortion than youd think for a thrash guy. I dont mess around with the settings on my amp. I just choose the guitar that sounds the best for what I want.
They all sound so similar. If you did a blind test no one would tell them apart. We are hearing with eyes here. So much distortion , who cares what Humber you use.
As long as you have some sort of overdrive PAF’s are going to be perfect for any kind of high gain guitar playing. With that being said rail pickups with a low resistance wind like 8K or 10K give you the best possible balance of output & dynamics.
The guitar player world is so full of people with “absolutes”. This pickup is best, that amp is best so on so forth. It all just comes down to the individual and what they subjectively want. Use what works and sounds best to you :)
Pickups are a big deal but really if you have a humbucker loaded guitar.. any pickup goes , i use a mexistrat hss into a quad cortex and you get really thick sounds .. I also have some emg loaded guitars so.. can you get better tone with bareknuckles , emg fishmans ? Hell yeah , but is it really necessary? Depends on your taste! For me i will change them at some point , but still..bothing wrong with mid / low output pups if the gain stage of the amp is high enough
Hey Kyle. Loved the comparison. Thanks for all the work you do putting these together! I personally preferred the Bare Knuckle here. Speaking of which, have you tried out the Bare Knuckle Poly PAF? Seems that would be right in your wheelhouse.
While you're generally correct and I prefer the dynamics sometimes of a bit lower-gain pickups, you can also just turn the gain knob down for higher output pickups.
@@belligerentamateur I hear you, though also at least with my setup when I turn down the gain it gets more clarity. But I do like quality lower output pickups for a wider variety of things as well as for the clarity. Good video. 8)
High output pickups tend to get muddy and lose clarity especially in the high end. You can get that high end back with your amp but you lose articulation and things start to get shrill when you roll it back in..
I have a few aftermarket pickups I like: DiMarzio D Activator-X, just put a set into a guitar this past weekend; Duncan Blackouts, and Duncan '59 / Custom 5 - closest to PAFs; also EMG 81/85, DiMarzio X2N... I have Gibsons with custombuckers and 60s burstbuckers which work great IMO.
Now, get you a strat with single coils and roll the tone knob down to about 6-7 and.........very similar results...just push the gain up a bit. The clarity with the strat like that and PAFs are where it is brother. After a while you will realize how muddy those high gain pups are.
Really depends on the pickup, and doesn’t change the fact that most of the pickups shown in this video do not possess the same level of clarity that a good paf does. But yes, people neglect pickup and screw heights quite a bit
Don’t skip the Dimarzio Super Distortion. It has that British New Wave of Heavy Metal goodness to pure evil.
It's been around since early 70s for a reason.
I so want this pickup again. I thought it would sound like hairspray, but they're magic.
Like a noiseless p90 with twice the output, and single notes that sound as loud as full chords.
Had a P90 sized one in a Slick SL59 junior style and LOVED it.
GET IN TOUCH LET'S DISCUSS BETTER.
I have not tried one. I do have 3 different versions of the Tone Zone. All 3 are great.
The 498t is the underrated gem of balance between output and clarity. I have always liked it. The Bareknuckle painkiller is a good one here too.
I really like the 490R/498T combo but got an ES-355 with '57 Classic pickups in it. I really need to try them in a solid body. (edited, meant '57 classics)
498t are one of the best pickups ever made.
My 498T slays through my 5150, despite all the nay slayers.
Nahhhh. This is a common thing. People think they’re supposed to like PAF’s every few years lol. Just use what you like. There are no rules.
Totally true
I remember a guy who loved the Invader for a jazz neck pickup, just ran low in the route.
"Can you use a jazz bass for metal?" is a classic bassist forum cliche on par with "No Stairway".
@@rocketpigrecords3719 I mean Ian Hill of Judas Priest used Jazz Basses for years.
Personally I use:
- low to low-medium output pickups for high gain amps
- high output pickups for low gain vintage style amps to drive them into OD.
that bareknuckle sounds soooo nice!
I was thinking the same thing especially compared to the Duncan Distortion cause they're both ceramic, the Painkiller had more clarity and slightly more punch.
was definitely the best sounding, to me.
I have to agree. The Bareknuckle retained the clarity of The PAF, but with the extra high gain push.
man that duncan distortion really stole the show. the thing i'm not huge on is the scooped sound on vintage style pickups. most modern metal goes for that scooped sound anyway so i'm not sure why more people don't go for that, especially today where most humbuckers come in four conductor wiring for some ungodly reason
GET IN TOUCH LET'S DISCUSS PERSONALLY
I loved how my les paul sounded with high gain. Sold it because it couldn’t stay in tune for it’s live!
After that intro you hit us with “boy are you going to get a HOLE lot of unprocessed audio today…” masterful.
love my stock 498t vs all no need to change the pick up
If you notice, many, many, many 5, 10, 20+ yo Gibsons still rock their stock 498T.
My LP Studio is one of them, and I went in intending to replace it.
6 years later and 20+ since it was built, there it is, still.
Overall, I liked the JB the most.
With the amps. I like the bite of the 6534+, and I like the bark of the Mesa.
Agree 1000%
T. Charvel San Dimas
Mesa Boogie Lonestar 100w
Jb in the bridge
59 in the neck
Fight me
@tylerleavitt2715
I'll fight you, if it's a riff battle. Tune up! 🤣
@ ⚡️💥🥹🥹🥹
I’d lose. Obviously.
(Doesn’t have a white set of EMGs ,
Why even live)
(Have white Seymour set in aforementioned Strat tho)
Didn’t know you had soo many Marshalls. I thought you were more into modern amps. Nothing cooler than a wall of Marshalls in my opinion haha
I have found there are far too many variables in pickups to just make hard rules like "low output is clearer" or "I always prefer this magnet type"
Right! It’s a good thing I touched on exactly that in the video.
GET IN TOUCH LET'S DISCUSS BETTER.
I play with a PAF style pickup and they give great clarity, especially when downtuned, where a super high output pickup gets muddy and sloppy.
The mud and slop is great for stoner and DOOM tho. Horses for courses.
I think maybe the only benefit I've found in higher gain pickups is that the stronger magnets keep the strings from getting flubby when downtuned. Even Ola recommends mid gain pickups with today's high gain amps
Hey Kyle! Love how passionate you are in your videos. I was curious what lights you use for the background in your videos. I’d really appreciate your input on what to get!
Low resistance pickups into an overdriven preamp section was proven by Slash with the AFD OG reference amp (the lost amp on Appetite) hard to beat combo imho.
Yeah if you like hair rock lol
Low output PAF = push the amp harder! Let the amp do the work! 🔥
That intro... hey, do you want to share a secret lair in a hollowed out volcano with me?
Agreed 100%! Can't add clarity to a dark pickup, but you can darken a bright pickup. I'm a big PAF guy too. The only issue with PAF spec humbuckers running into high gain is that you'll want to avoid the "unpotted" or "non-potted" ones otherwise it'll be Squeal City in uncontrollable amounts. Luckily you can find plenty that do come potted.
I actually switched to Low Output or PAF pick ups a few years back as well as rolled my amp gain back and use a pedal to fill that gap. I play skate and pop punk (of the 90's vein not new school mall kind) and I have a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100, Marshall JCM 900, amd Blackstar HT 50Mkii (recently acquired. I remember seeing a video where a guy used a PAF pick up and it sounded so good and that changed my mind.
Les Pauls are king for rhythm playing, in my opinion. I have one with a Burstbucker3 and another one with Dirty Fingers and they just grind. In my "rock" guitars I mostly use various Seymour Duncans but the best ones for rhythm are the JB's, which are kinda like PAF's. I think you have to keep pickup distortion somewhat in check to get articulation.
I went on a quest 20 years ago.
I had an RG550 I wasn't entirely happy with, running a Tone Zone.
I wanted the "James" setup: 24 3/4" scale, mahogany set into mahogany.
Had to be something to it - him, Iommi, EVH's Destroyer (all non-Whammy bar tracks, ie the rhythms, on VH I & II are this guitar, NOT Frankie), tons of others.
I googled around, and some autiste had utilized contact microphones and a spectrum analyzer to determine which body and build style put down the most low end.
I tune to D standard & Drop C & run my bass knob wide open, always. Past this, I just don't like it, not interested in going to B or A.
I also primarily use Marshalls and similar circuits, which can use some help in the bass department.
Tldr; it's a singlecut setneck.
The extended upper bout effectively makes the neck shorter, producing more low end.
BTW, a bolt neck will not achieve this physical effect.
I ended up with an 03 Gibson Melody Maker, the "Junior Maker" I call it, since it came with a TOM/ST and a P90 instead of a wraptail & single coil.
Routed it for an SH5, and it's been a war machine ever since. Cost me about $500 and it's still hard to beat.
Bonus was the one piece mahogany body - much like my real, stunning, AAA top on my Studio, also 1 piece back, you aren't getting wood like that from LTD, Edwards, Epiphone, or most other Asian copies.
@@rocketpigrecords3719 Tokai’s Japanese made Les Pauls rival, and in some cases, surpass Gibsons. Their ‘59 reissues are as good as anything Gibson is putting out for a third of the price. Only downside is you have to buy them as a grey market imports.
The sugarbucker sound has very nice tonal character, I like a lot the articulation and clarity it has. Do you have to hit harder the strings in order to sound good compared to the other pickups?
I run PAF style pickups into my Jet City 50, and the gain is still on 4 - while on a DSL or my Tech 21 British the gain is maxed. Recto, 5150 etc have more than enough gain on tap.
If you're running a boost or overdrive, you won't need to work harder imho.
If you're plugging straight into a JCM 800 or SLX, you might have to work a bit harder.
The older pre DSL Marshalls like higher output pickups hitting them hard, and many - like the Distortion, Invader, SH5, Super Distortion were literally designed for this purpose.
Glenn will be proud! Sound samples to back up your claim, love it!
I too love mid 7 ohm pickups with A4 mags that are unpotted. The unpotted is a real thing. It’s hard to translate in compressed YT video but in the room the feel is undeniable.
Bareknuckle killed it
Parallel-wired PAF into a clean boost = the signal strength to push the amp into to maximum gain, but with the dynamics and clarity for awesome cleans.
You actually CAN add clarity to a muddy humbucker as long as it has adjustable polepieces on at least one of the coils - simply lower the pickup a bit and then unscrew the polepieces by the same amount - enjoy a better tone for free :)
Anyway, I really liked the PAFs and the Bareknuckles!
Yes, but you will never make the pickups shown in this video as clear as the clearest setup paf. That’s the point being made.
@@belligerentamateur , I'm not so sure about that! Cheers ;)
Yup. Use what you like. I like low to mid gain pickups these days. I even tend to keep hot pickups...even actives a fair distance from the strings. Sometimes I just got to Dimarzio X2N though.
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With the time your videos are even better , you have been understand what exactly guitar players are looking for , comparing pickups , guitars, amplifiers, multi effects very nice organization in your new videos and your riffs are excellent in standar tunes and dropped tunes .
congrats friend.
Just got a Epiphone Korina V loaded with Burstbuckers (modeled after Gibson 57' pickups iirc), they sound wonderfull trough my 6505+, of course there's more interference compared to active pickups like a set of EMG's or Blackouts especially when boosted with an 808 but having a noise suppressor on hand helps a lot. It also feels like I have more volume control, the neck pickup clear up nicely when rolled down. As you said the amp seems to do most of the work as some of my amps won't treat me this well and benefit of hotter pickups (a set of SD Distortions can make a lot of a difference in comparison to some stock pickups). Another benefit is IMO that the passive pickup sounds more organic and won't run out of battery at the worst moment possible, I still like a set of actives but it isn't the be-all and end-all of a highgain sound.
All true. I have Black Winters in a Solar guitar. The only use I have for it is in C standard or lower and only for chugs.
High output ceramic is where it’s at for me. Thickness in the mids like an alnico V, but a lot tighter. The alnico high outputs are too loose for me; especially if you tune lower.
Real question here, not trolling : why High output ? I totally get the ceramic for tight metal, but high output ? Nowadays modern amps do have all the gain you need and even more, and high output pickups were invented by necessity, at a time when all there was, was Marshall Plexis, and later JCM 800, amps that needed to be pushed harder, hence the need for high output pickups, but today ?
@ generally if you wind a pickup hotter the mid range will be more pronounced. For high gain I don’t want to send too much highs into the distortion. I like it more when there are a lot of - especially -upper mids, but the highs are rolled off. It gets too fizzy for my taste otherwise.
@@Patrick-rf7vx Makes sense, thanks for the reply
I have an old Dean guitar that I installed a Dimebucker in back in the day. At the time, I didn’t know much about boosting amps, and I didn’t own a high-gain amp, so I thought I needed the high-output pickup. Since then, I’ve picked up several guitars, like an LTD and a couple of Epiphones, that still have their stock, old-school-style pickups. When I boost those into a high-gain amp, they sound absolutely amazing! When i use the Dimebucker in the same signal chain now, i don't like it as much, it feels shrill. So i guess i prefer just regular pickups now.
Funny intro man! This is one of my very favorite channels.
Great comparison, I really liked this format. Lower output pickups are especially helpful with lower tuned guitars. I dug the hell out of the BKP painkiillers here.
They all had good chugability because of the amps are badass but to my ears the gibon sugarbucker had the clearest and loudest voicing and also very musical sounding. That was an interesting video, thanks so much for your time and effort to go through all this.
Seymour Duncan Black Winter is my favorite pickup out of any I’ve ever heard. Something about it it just sounds great to my ears
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medium output pickups COOK for metal tones. A slightly weaker magnetic field means more clarity....more clarity means a better chug.
exactly that..even low output..more clarity..the more output the more mudmess
I like the Dimarzio Air Zone precisely for that reason. Sounds like a big fat PAF with high gain amps. Tons of low end chunk, great clarity and string separation, and nice mids and highs. Also sounds good with lower gain amps. Probably my favorite all around passive pickup I’ve played so far.
Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth uses low output pickups and his rhythm playing is as tight as it gets. Dude has massive tone
My advice: don‘t be like Jon Schaffer.
@ despite what he did, his music is still really good.
Most bands use EMG81s and those are low output pickups aswell. It dont matter like he said in the beginning.
@@DallasLangdonsubjectively no 😆
@@Sven.Jeschkemofo is praying for his master to pardon his dumb ass RN.
For a high gain amp, I like pickups to sit right around 9-12k. Not too vintage and not too hot. They seem to work for my taste. I have a Fastback Pickups Old Imperial and it’s 11.9k and sounds amazing. It’s probably my favorite pickup and they don’t even exist anymore. I’d love to get more of them.
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Joe Duplantier, Dave Davidson , Mark Holcomb signature pickups comes to mind
Always have my attention when mention Gojira. ❤
@ I did a great job lol , signature pickup Dimarzio Fortitude was based on P.A.F. 36th anniversary
@@johnpaulo93 the Fortitude is my favorite bridge pickup by far.
I personally am not a fan of using PAFs in the bridge in metal... or almost anything. It's mostly centered around my other choices in gear.
I don't like the typical modern American high gain amps, I'm using the Friedman IRX which doesn't have the most amount of gain and I like using as little gain as I can get away with. However at the same time I also don't like using overdrives to boost because it adds the kind of saturation I don't want and I switch between cleans and heavy tones a lot.
The minimum I personally enjoy playing with as far as DC resistance goes is around 12K DC, which is what combines best with vintage spec single coils too and sounds realistic when split. 12-16K is my comfort zone with the right amount of beef, loudness and clarity, though on unbalanced pickups like Dimarzios with Dual Resonance I don't even have a maximum I like, only the minimum of 12K.
But I do definitely get why you would recommend returning to lower output pickups, some do like to get as much of the gain from the amp and others do like overdrives. To each his own :)
The lower output pickups did sound better with the 5150, but I hate the 5150. I also hate using lots of gain on the amp. Why even stress the amp like that? to me always sounded worse when the gain comes too much from the amp or its channel. The Mark will sound even better opened up a little and with higher output pickups :D
I'll conclude by saying people are not using the wrong pickups, but the wrong amps. Everyone has been milking the 5150 and Rectifier to death. Try out a Mesa Mark (like in the video, great choice also using that!), Marshall JVM, Friedmans, Randalls, you name it :)
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I like both. It just depends on the tuning and the amp I’m using.
I started playing guitar in the late ‘90s when a Les Paul with a JB in the bridge into a Dual Rectifier was IT as far as guitar tone was concerned. That gave way to the early ‘00s when it was an EMG 81 into a Maxon OD808 to a 5150. It always seemed like the answer was more gain, but I really l really like that Sugarbucker and I’ll be exploring lower-output pickups in the future.
I still love my high output humbuckers. There is a reason why people split coils/coil tap. There are definitely some amps that require the bridge to be split for it to sound its best
I wish you could have tried a Dimarzio super distortion pickup as well with the rest of those pickups.
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Hey Kyle, what are your thoughts on T-top pickups?
Awesome pickups! Love them as long as they’re not super microphones
@ I’d love to see a comparison between PAFs and T-tops for high gain, though I suspect there wouldn’t be enough interest unfortunately.
I have a Gibson 79 "The Paul" that came with T-Tops. Those pickups were bright as hell. Definite ACDC tone straight outta the gate tho.
Mark Morton of Lamb of God uses PAFs/lower output pickups, so much clarity! There is a lot more noise with the high output pickups and they're a bit more fizzy in the top end.
I've been using vintage output pickups for a while now. My buddy has a vintage '72 L6S. The best tone I ever got recording was his Gibson on one side, and my BC Rich with Invaders on the other, both double tracked with a layer of my Zoom amp modeler running a Plexi sim, and a layer of Behringer stomp boxes (TO800 into a UM300 for me, TO400 into the same UM300 for him) into an ART Tube MP Studio mic preamp so it would overdrive the tube (I did this with both the pedals and the Zoom) and both of those were run into the FX return of a Fender Mustang V half stack. I played rhythm, he played lead. All his solos were recorded using the Alex Wade factory preset on the mustang amp, boosted by the TO800, using the paired Mustang V 4x12 cab, and everything else was recorded with a Seismic Audio SA-412 cab, both with stock speakers. We mic'd everything up with a Sennheiser e609 on the cone/cap boundary and an off axis Behringer XM8500 over the middle section of the cone, through a Behringer Q802 Xenyx mixer (I was doing that before Glenn ever made that video) before hitting my interface.
My favorite setup these days is GFS Dream 180 in the bridge with a Dream 90 or their version of the '59 in the neck. If I want it hotter, I use a Seymour Duncan Active Blackouts Preamp. My Les Paul is wired up with that setup, with the Dream 90 and preamp. If someone wants more output from their pickups because their amp doesn't have enough gain or turning the gain up too much makes the tone turn to mush, they're better off pairing a lower output pickup with an active preamp, and the clarity and string separation is why. I've been telling people this for years. Use low output pickups, and use pedals and/or your amp's gain to make up the difference. Thicker distortion saturation, more clarity. Glad someone else finally figured it out.
I discovered this almost 25 years ago when I transplanted my glorious EMG set to a 2nd hand passive guitar and suddently the guitar became shit mush though my pod 2.0. I hate too high output pickups since then and EMG specially.
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I really liked the way the distortion in the Epiphone was voiced. But, overall I think that pickups around 10-12k hit the sweet spot b/t output and clarity. All my guitars have 15-16k output pickups. Think I’ll be doing some swapping soon
I've been using Rio Grandes for years in all my electrics and one thing I've noticed is a slightly microphonic pickup can be really responsive with a high gain amp (I play Mark series stuff). You can really hang it out there on the edge of feedback and use that in your playing. You don't want something screeching at you constantly but to just be able to hang it into feedback effortlessly and on command. I've never liked the feel of active pickups but I did play JBs and some others for a while. I play chunky riff punk rock stuff.
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I recently switched my PRS to a set of Duncan 59's. They sound amazing! I can still get the chugs, but they also have more articulation. I feel like I have more control over my sound.
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I actually like low/med output pickups into my high gain amps....clarity sweet clarity. The modern metal amps have NO trouble getting enough gain. In the past....people didn't have real high gain amps so boosting the front end was how they did it. Nowadays...clean headroom..a clean input signal...the modern amp will do it's job better. I love the bareknuckle pickups...my faves. Lots of good stuff out there from others too.
Especially with modeling this is important,
Because you’re adjusting your input gain anyway,
Sometimes I wish I had not gravitated towards high output because high output guitar signals are more trouble in a digital environment.
Worthy if note,
One advantage of higher gain pickups is that every notch of that gain dial up on the amp raises the noise floor with it.
Also the attack is better suited for staccato stuff.
I used to play more medium gain but switched to high output as my tastes changed,
Think I’d prefer lower output,
But I really like the black winters.
I wish a video like this existed before I switched.
The HO pups were more important to people who were trying to squeeze any more distortion out of old non-master type amps. Nowadays, most high gain amps almost have TOO much distortion, but the best way to let them "breathe" some is to use low output pups, and then bring up the gain on the amp a little bit (if required).
I have an Invective 120 & a JVM 410H. Have an Ibanez that came with cheap, HO ceramics in it. I found some cheap Alnico 2's that might put out about 7k's. The amps definitely sound better - "woodier", and you can get more thickness out of the amps that way as well.
Not only that, but I lowered the pickup height as well - and it seriously sounds a LOT better on high gain settings. Just smoother and less brittle - but like what you experienced in the video - just more clarity!
I have a JVM 410H and I have been very pleased with the tones I can get out of it.
@@DanAdlingtonOnline Honestly - I'm about to get rid of mine. Some "mystery problem." It suddenly has very limited volume on all channels. Have changed all the output and preamp tubes with no success. From what I can tell, it's a circuit board problem.
The theory behind the 410 is great, but in all honesty, the Invective blows it away - certainly with the high gain sounds...
I might try to fix it, but I don't know. Not the first time I've had issues with it...
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My take on this would be more for the studio rather than live, but going to a thiner gage string might help bring out more clarity. My theory behind that is that the thinner string will carry the more fundamental note and have less harmonic (undesireable) overtones
My go-to compromise, and favorite pickup for my sound, is the Duncan SH5 Custom, the "PAF On Steroids."
*Not* the Custom V (no mids, at the pickup mids = output) or the Custom II (haven't tried, A2, lower output, spongier bass).
Great tone, medium output, does cleans. It went in my Rampage and then my 03 Melody Maker, replacing the P90.
Cut like a razor in the bright Rampage, because tonewood is real.
Oh, and? Best palm muted chunk anywhere.
For the low output PAF thing with more articulate tightness, you'll want to check out the Dimarzio PAF Pro. The hex poles do their thing, and the Firebird Zero pickups are similar, all slugs so it has almost a single coil quality without the thinness.
Guitar Fetish has the Professional Series "KMZ", I have the original unpotted versions in my Agile LP. Like $39.
See also metal covered Mean 90s, where the PAF style cover eliminates much of the hum, just like Iommi's Birch modded P90s in the Monkey SG.
Can't decide? Fluence Classic - PAF on one voice (with all the advantages of an active pickup) and 70s Butyrate Bobbin JB on the other AND a noiseless single coil.
These would be in my Les Paul, but since I bought the Agile with PAFs its 498/490 set isn't in a rush to go anywhere - another overlooked option that costs you nothing in the right Gibson.
Go check out the classic Keith Merrow demos he did for Seymour Duncan. You just might dig the 59/Custom hybrid, and it's the antidote to Glenn Fricker's nonsense about all pickups sounding the same through high gain.
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Lol would love to see Glen respond to this. The sugar buckers have slightly less emphasis on the prickly highs/upper mids, but it's honestly a very small difference in the video audio, but may be different in the room. More and more I find lower resistance/lower output to be more articulate than a lot of higher output pickups. I think the use of alnico IV magnets was the key to some of those "magical" original PAFs too but that's just my opinion. Pete Thorn uses alnico IVs for his custom Suhr pickups too, so it must make some kind of perceivable difference 🤷♂️
The JB has insane low end!
That seymour duncan distortion loaded epi has the clarity thing going on too. But idk if its just reminding me of my epi with a seymour duncan 59. It may just be a familiarity thing since I run mine through high gain stuff too. My ear feels "at home" when listening to that.
I used to run an Epi SG with the Duncan Designed Distortion equivalent.
It's purpose built for metal - in a way you can't turn off. Like a passive 81, you better like what it does, because there's no getting around it when you want to switch modes and jam some ACDC or Sabbath.
Whereas, you can take your '59 and put any number of boosts in front to get you that output and tightness - and then turn it off when you don't need it.
PRS 57/08 as another to throw in the “lower” output category. They have great clarity and will do plenty well with the right amp and drive settings and also have a unique clarity to them that hotter pups don’t
I’ve got the SE version of these pickups, and I agree!
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You are so right, now with so much good tight gain , less is more when you play, actually another thing to keep in mind, better to use more gain, and not setting guitar volume to 10 , better tone with it at 9-9.5 ! When it comes to hotter PAF tone i think the generic squire HB pu will surprise you, At around 9k and a not too strong magnet, sounds like that holy grail overwound by mistake vintage hot PAF . Oh yea so cheap but killer sleeper !
My favorite LP I've seen you with.
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Those vinehams and sugarbuckers sound amazing
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Glen and Kyle are going to slapbox at the next NAMM
My favorite PAF based Pickup for metal ist the Kloppmann electrics "Hammer & Anvil" set. Expensive, but once you have these installed in one, you´re gonna want them in all your guitars...
Man, those Sugarbuckers really did everything you said they would and now I'm mad that I dont already have a set in a guitar. But $400 for pickups or $X00 for your Archon 50...
This is 100% accurate. I take it a step further. Take regular pickups, and an older architecture amp like a deluxe or soemthing, non high gain amp and hit it with a quality overdrive front and the saturation profile you get is wayyyy better than a 5150 or something more modern like ENGLs etc
I use an 8.2 output PAF that has a tight tone. If you have a high gain amp, you'll get better tone with a normal output humbucker.
In a couple of years from now people will eventually realize that EMGs are still the best PUs for Metal.
people already realize. It’s the youtube marketing industry trying to push crap cause all they can do is reinvent the wheel lol
There is no “best” pickup for any genre.
This will never be a thing. It’s a subjective experience universally.
@@GearStuffandThings No it’s not. There is objectivity in life. This is just one of those things that are objectively better.
Some people like prefer to eat feces, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t an objectively inferior preference.
Ew
Your statement on objectivity is objectively wrong.
Dimarzio 59paf in a strat gets me all the tones.
Passive pickups have more detail and space in the tone imo
My counterpoint would be the amount of treble can sometimes sound sloppy, and noise floor. The more gain you add at the amp stage, the more background noise you're adding.
I feel like lower output pickups allow for more headroom and versatility. Way easier to add boosts and gain with pedals and amps than reduce gain.
Honky alnico V (except for the 498T), can be lovely. I play a lot of Southern rock/blues and I do prefer a high output ceramic like your Bareknuckle painkiller. Great comparison vid. Thank you and take care!
Cool video Kyle! I have had paf style pickups on my brain lately. Have you checked out the mojo tone paf pickups? I know they make a hot paf pickup. Any other favorite paf pickup brands you recommend?
I put a low output super distortion from the neck position (so reckon is about 8 or 9ohms compared to the bridge which is 13) into bridge position on my SG and it sounds awesome for heavy stuff , also works far better with VST sims than high output. I even but an EMG 85 in the bridge instead of the 81
A massive fan of the new Billy Gibbons Hades Gates pickups in particular. PAFs do it all!
nice..... i love my virual pafs in my baritone it is crazy good
My '84 LP with Shaw's into my VH-140C is the best [metal] tone I've ever had and I've gone through a lot of gear.
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I have active pickups and medium output passive and I like the feel and punch better with the passive medium output pickups better.
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I'm dig'n the concept. Maybe try using some other low to medium output pickups in a comparison. If all we hear is 1 PAF based example, and then 5 with literally double the ohms resistance. Its not really an optimal comparison.
I'm partial to a Vintage PAF in the neck position. But prefer something around 1 ohm more resistance than whatever the neck is, in the bridge. Thats what I've found to give the best balance of tones in LP.
Burstbucker 2&3 in a LP Standard. With a Custombucker and Burstbucker 3 in a LP Custom.
Peace!
I didn't use headphones, only my cell phone. But to me the hotter ceramics generally sounded a little better to me. However, I have a variety of guitars with a lot of pickup options. Tonally speaking, I have favorites that are not hot ceramics. I use a lot less distortion than youd think for a thrash guy. I dont mess around with the settings on my amp. I just choose the guitar that sounds the best for what I want.
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Along these lines, the Suhr Thornbuckers are freaking amazing.
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I use Pearly Gates for everything from metal to jazz. Edit: IMO, the sugar bucket sounds more one and clear to my ears.
Great demo dude ,
I’m sure that amp makes you play doom metal , by default . Sounds like a monster !
Love the theatrics ... Yeah that Rampage sounds really sick as does the Sugarbucker.
They all sound so similar.
If you did a blind test no one would tell them apart. We are hearing with eyes here.
So much distortion , who cares what Humber you use.
What do you think of noiseless p90s or mini humbuckers?
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There it is. A new Mezzabarba Apocalypse Demo. Awesome. 😂
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As long as you have some sort of overdrive PAF’s are going to be perfect for any kind of high gain guitar playing.
With that being said rail pickups with a low resistance wind like 8K or 10K give you the best possible balance of output & dynamics.
The signature pickups of Joe duplantier from gojira are paf style, and he chuggs like a beast.
The guitar player world is so full of people with “absolutes”. This pickup is best, that amp is best so on so forth.
It all just comes down to the individual and what they subjectively want.
Use what works and sounds best to you :)
Pickups are a big deal but really if you have a humbucker loaded guitar.. any pickup goes , i use a mexistrat hss into a quad cortex and you get really thick sounds ..
I also have some emg loaded guitars so.. can you get better tone with bareknuckles , emg fishmans ? Hell yeah , but is it really necessary? Depends on your taste! For me i will change them at some point , but still..bothing wrong with mid / low output pups if the gain stage of the amp is high enough
Hey Kyle. Loved the comparison. Thanks for all the work you do putting these together! I personally preferred the Bare Knuckle here. Speaking of which, have you tried out the Bare Knuckle Poly PAF? Seems that would be right in your wheelhouse.
While you're generally correct and I prefer the dynamics sometimes of a bit lower-gain pickups, you can also just turn the gain knob down for higher output pickups.
Like I said in the video, you can’t add clarity to pickups that don’t have them, which is why I like the paf.
@@belligerentamateur I hear you, though also at least with my setup when I turn down the gain it gets more clarity. But I do like quality lower output pickups for a wider variety of things as well as for the clarity. Good video. 8)
High output pickups tend to get muddy and lose clarity especially in the high end. You can get that high end back with your amp but you lose articulation and things start to get shrill when you roll it back in..
lower output for high gain tone is extremely fun to play
I have a few aftermarket pickups I like: DiMarzio D Activator-X, just put a set into a guitar this past weekend; Duncan Blackouts, and Duncan '59 / Custom 5 - closest to PAFs; also EMG 81/85, DiMarzio X2N...
I have Gibsons with custombuckers and 60s burstbuckers which work great IMO.
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Now, get you a strat with single coils and roll the tone knob down to about 6-7 and.........very similar results...just push the gain up a bit. The clarity with the strat like that and PAFs are where it is brother. After a while you will realize how muddy those high gain pups are.
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You can add clarity to any pickup by lowering it.
Most of my high output pickups end up 1-3 mm below rhe pickup ring.
Really depends on the pickup, and doesn’t change the fact that most of the pickups shown in this video do not possess the same level of clarity that a good paf does. But yes, people neglect pickup and screw heights quite a bit
@belligerentamateur Yeah, I wish there was a better selection of lower output rails.
listening in the car my favorites are the bkp and the duncan distortion