pilgrimx said:
The Antiquity's sound pretty nice, but the highs are a little too much at times, and I just feel like there's a better match for this amp. Any suggestions?
There's really no single "correct" answer. It comes down to personal taste. One size does not fit all. Different people are looking for different things. What suits me might not suit you etc. etc. And in the end, your pickup is only a very minor detail of the big picture. You can expect something better when you change the pickups but don't expect miracles.
There have already been some very good suggestions here. Since you're looking for an all-around pickup rather than a specialized pickup (like a high-output shred pickup), it would be safest to start with fairly conventional PAF variations. Most traditional Gibson Les Pauls aren't particularly bright sounding by design (mahogany body with either maple or mahogany top), but el-cheapo manufacturers like Epiphone tend to use brighter sounding species of mahogany or even alder instead of mahogany. So you might try a slightly brighter pickup with a Gibson than with an Epiphone or the various other Korean/Chinese/whatever Gibson knock-offs.
High-gain or low-gain pickup? In your case, I would go for a low to medium gain pickup. As pointed out by others, you can always boost the input signal if you need more gain - but it is harder to get good clean or semi-clean tones if your input signal is too congested already because of high-gain pickups. Besides, good OD/amp gain stage boost (with low/medium-gain pickups) can often produce ballsier distortion sound than many high-gain pickups do. The only slight problem with this scenario is that when your boost is later along the signal path, you'll also be boosting all kinds of hiss and noise that could be traveling along your guitar cord or wireless system. Ideally, you want to pick up as much clear-n-loud signal with your pickup as possible.
That said, I should point out that I have installed fairly hot bridge pickups in my both main guitars (a BKP A5 Warpig in a Gibson SG and a BKP Crawler in a Gibson LP Standard) and have not experienced any of the problems usually associated with high-gain pickups. Even though I normally utilize the neck pickups for clean sounds, I can get
great clean tones from the bridge Warpig alone. It's fairly hot (measured DC resistance 21.5k) but the clean sound is very full and does not sacrifice any top-end detail or shimmer or overdrive the input stage. It actually sounds better clean than many low-gain bridge pickups I have tried (they sounded too shrill in the bridge position). And when I use channels 2 and 3 on my Mark V, the Warpig absolutely
slays. Nobody's ever complained that it didn't sound ballsy enough... :twisted: But it is worth noting that the BKP products are considered quality, 'boutique' pickups, they are not your typical factory-produced mass-market pickups. Don't expect similar results with just about
any high-gain pickup you might come across. Even these pickups might not sound good in every guitar.
My intuition tells me that if you wanted to try a Bare Knuckle Pickups product, the almighty Mule (a PAF replica but much, much better) would be all you need. But if you are willing to invest in a boutique product, you'd really be better off emailing their tech support, describing your gear and needs, and listening to what they recommend:
[email protected]
Also, you you said you didn't like the excessive highs on the Antiquities. Have you tried EL34s in your MkV yet? I was having some trouble with rather unpleasant ear-piercing highs with 6L6s (with some channel 1 and channel 3 settings) but the SED =C= EL34s rounded the top end nicely. Now I can actually use the Presence and Treble controls on Channels 1 and 3.
