What do you consider the ultimate passive bridge pickup for a Soloist HSS?

[Black Shadow]

Ah, so it's very sensitive? Is the Wilde pick up the same more of the Dime that you have is what I'm asking.
I like smooth highs for lead work (Herman Li sound, Vai) But Ideally one would have multiple guitars for squeal and smooth

Have u tried Fishman fluence? Everyone and their mom is talking how great they are. I guess they are more modern and defined sounding. A definite opposite of the Duncan TB4. Even singer of Trivium claimed on interview that he wasn't able to play on time with the EMGs but with the Fishman there's less delay and he's always on time. That sounds pretty outrageous but just an FYI.
No chance I once heard Slayer or Tallica being even a ms offbeat with their Emg 81 haha.

As said before, I had the TB5 in the Jackson Kelly. I'm really not sure if it was a bad setup but it was so piercing high it was absolutely horrible to listen to. If no one else has the same complaint I can call that a dud. I mean TB5 might be another thing to put on your bucket list.

I've never heard anyone call the Custom overly piercing. Sounds like a problem with amp settings to me. The Custom is currently in my Top 5 on my quest top revamp this Soloist.

I have never played Fluences, but won't be going active with this guitar. And anyway, I love the old school classic EMGs for that sound and have them in all of my ESPs.

[DanzoStrife]

I've never heard anyone call the Custom overly piercing. Sounds like a problem with amp settings to me. The Custom is currently in my Top 5 on my quest top revamp this Soloist.

I have never played Fluences, but won't be going active with this guitar. And anyway, I love the old school classic EMGs for that sound and have them in all of my ESPs.

Yea I don't think it was the problem with the pickup. I doubt that because the reputation of SD is too good for such a flaw. I was using a VOX pedalboard amp multi thingey but it didn't have an eq on it. The whole thing was sold so I can't test it out.

[kmanick]

I'm also a fan of the Alnico Nailbomb and the Holydiver, but I recently picked up an SL1 that I'm using with a classic rock cover band.
I really wanted a bridge hum that sounds good at full output but really sounds like a sigle coil tapped (not just a neutered humbucker)
Someone local to me suggested trying the Dimarzio AT-1, the Andy Timmons Bridge pick up.
It works great, it's very similar to a JB but with less of an emphasis is on high mid and a tighter low end. It really sounds like a real single coil split. I 've been running it through
my JVM doing stuff like Thin Lizzy, Led Zep , Aerosmith, ZZ top, Pat Travers Atlanta rhythm Section, Foo Fighters, Ratt. it's pretty versatile and works well with
different levels of gain thrown at it

[DanzoStrife]

Oh did u know Marty Friedman has his own PASSIVE EMG Pickup? You could listen to some samples there on YT with him playing. https://youtu.be/mIpqvfJvrlk MF-1 set he calls it and its tuned for soloing and heavy riffing he says.

[DanzoStrife]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsLfJ99Vk_U here's another vid of the MF-1 pickup just playing thrash like stuff

EDIT: He calls this "flubby" It may not be what you're looking for.. u need tight and focused rhythm, clarity in solos.

[Black Shadow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsLfJ99Vk_U here's another vid of the MF-1 pickup just playing thrash like stuff

EDIT: He calls this "flubby" It may not be what you're looking for.. u need tight and focused rhythm, clarity in solos.

Passive EMGs??! Blasphemy!!

[Temple of Doom]

For someone who starts with '80s NWOBHM and Bay Area Bangers thrash, and goes all the way to modern prog metal (well, as modern as it can be tuned to Eb I suppose ). I have no interest in downtuning below Drop Db or djent. My soul is from the '80s and I use mostly my Mark series Boogies and occasionally hotrodded Marshalls or derivatives. I am not into the megafizz amps of today, although I do like intense high gain of the '80s variety.

My standard go to passive pickup has been the Duncan Distortion, although it recent years I have gained major appreciation for the Wilde L500XL and Bareknuckle Nailbomb. I need tight/stout low end, ample (not overly scooped! ) mids and razor sharp top end attack with great clarity.

The bridge pickup will need to work on my HSS Soloist and upcoming HH Soloist, which includes being able to split well for cleans. I am somewhat decided on the Black Winter set for my heavy-focused HH guitar (which I understand has generous mids, opposite of the JB), but what about the bridge for my more versatile HSS? Will probably have a Hot Rails neck and Cool Rails middle or something comparable, so the bridge pickup should be on the toasty side to stay ahead of them.

Leading candidates right now include:

Suhr Aldridge Hot
Duncan Black Winter, Pegasus, or Custom
DiMarzio Illuminator
Bareknuckle Blackhawk, Nailbomb or ??

What does JCF say???

What is an HSS?

[DanzoStrife]

Temple of Doom: Humbucker, Single SIngle coil configuration. Ex: Fender strats are usually "SSS"

Blackshadow: Haha, not gonna knock the passive EMG in the new generation builds unless I tried them myself. Marty Friedman likes them so they either must be real good or his playing is too good to notice.

[DanzoStrife]

Also Dimarzio has a few ones that could be nice? They got their own Super distortion.

Seymour also has other pickups geared towards metal.

But thing is I guess the only way to find out is by samples on youtube

[JacksonPyro]

The Jackson J-80 is the best guitar pickup for hard rock.. All of them nomatter what the sticker on the back are about 13 oHms of pure Alnico heaven!!! Perfect for a Marshall Plexi amp.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jack...ih=606&dpr=2.5

[DanzoStrife]

The Dimarzio Super 2 is pretty spot on for Youthanasia solo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6SZyrN-WZ0

Btw, I'm pretty impressed about those Bareknuckles that u got to try.

[Duck83]

I like the JB too

[Full Metal Assault]

old-school headbanger here. these are my faves:

Duncan JB (but only in maple bodies or a maple neck-thru whatever wings. imo, it's the ideal wood for the JB.)
Duncan PATB-2 Distortion
DMZ Super 3
DMZ Megadrive
Lawrence L500XL
Gibson Dirty Fingers

[Black Shadow]

Update on my Tone Saga:

I tried the Duncan Custom Trembucker along with my J200 (middle) and J200R (neck, required some wood routing for the lead wire to fit my Soloist). But apparently the Duncan doesn't play well with the Jackson pups regarding wiring. Specifically, the #3 position sounded out of phase and #2 was a bit strange. A local shop claimed there was no way around this issue, which stinks. Not sure if there is a way to fix it and they simply don't how, but I was tired of fighting it, and also I feel that the scooped mids of the Custom are more at home on a Les Paul. I tend to like aggressive mids for my Superstrats, so I grabbed a Jackson J90C (no cover). It is of course 100% compatible with the other Jackson pickups and delivers more of what I was after, although it is slightly thicker and softer than I like on the bottom, requiring me to adjust my amp EQ vs my other guitars. The mids and high end of the J90C are scorching for leads, however! Still haven't ruled out the J80C, which should be a little leaner and not quite so mushy on the bottom.

This saga has also taught me that not all guitars really need big blocks for their Floyds. I have 2 other guitars with 32mm brass blocks and I put a 32mm titanium block + titanium claw in this guitar. The titanium really does have an impact across the frequency range, with more pronounced high end compared to brass or stock. But the Soloist was a bit more articulate for crunch riffs with the stock block; having a big block amplifies low end and can throw things out of balance unless you just play big power chords and such at moderate to slow speed all the time. I don't think fast thrashy rhythm playing calls for a big block for example, because you need for your power chord to attack, decay, and then make way for the next one!

[Number Of The Priest]

Regarding the incompatibility issue and wiring, did you (or your local shop) bear in mind that Duncan pickups and Jackson pickups have different color codes for their wires? Based on what you said about positions 2 and 3 sounding funny, I imagine that the Jackson pickups were wired incorrectly. Possibly your tech wired up the Duncan Custom first, and followed the same Duncan color codes when wiring up the Jackson pickups next. Then again, I could be wrong because afterwards you installed a Jackson J90C and seemed to experience no problems with positions 2 and 3...