Crunch Lab Liquifire vs Aftermaths

[Jcustom]

Hi guys thinking of swapping out the pups in my omen extreme 7 and I'm still deciding between the CL FL comb or aftermaths. The guitar has a mahogany body, quilt maple top, maple neck rosewood fretboard.

Playing thru a Laney Ironheart with eminence speakers, with a line 6 m5 in the loop.

Will be using this guitar to play mainly prog and djent.

Other recommendations are welcomed too!

 

[Ill-Gotten James]

Tough call dude. I have both AFtermaths in one guitar (Schecter Damien 7) and a CL and a LF in another, with most of my music revolving around prog/ metal. To be honest, I think that I like the Aftermath neck pick up more than the bridge, but really it is going to come down to your preference. Both the aftermaths and the CL & LF combo are excellent pickups, so you really can't go wrong with either. My advice, buy the Aftermaths first. They seem to be pretty popular for the "djent" tone, but more so, I find them to be quite versatile for many different genres of music. If you don't like the Aftermaths, then I'm sure you can sell them and get the Dimarzio combo CL and LF. Sound like a plan?

 

[Jcustom]

Hmm I see. It really is a tough call. How would you compare the CL and aftermath bridge in terms of eq and output?

 

[SamSam]

Go for the Aftermath dude, for Djenty tones it's simply fantastic. Plus it's an amazing choice for the woods your guitar is made of. I own several Aftermaths and CLs, while I love the 6 string CL, I don't regard the 7 string version as highly. As far as I'm concerned BKP put in that little extra effort to make extended range pups that extra bit special.

 

[Michael T]

Go with an Aftermath Bridge & Liquifire neck. I love this combo.
The Aftermath does excellent shred/metal tones, not just Djent stuff.
The Liquifire is the "perfect" neck pup in my opinion. It handles high gain extremely well and has a super choir like clean tone.
I am using this combo in a Mahogany bodied guitar also.

 

[Jcustom]

Go with an Aftermath Bridge & Liquifire neck. I love this combo.
The Aftermath does excellent shred/metal tones, not just Djent stuff.
The Liquifire is the "perfect" neck pup in my opinion. It handles high gain extremely well and has a super choir like clean tone.
I am using this combo in a Mahogany bodied guitar also.

What made you choose the LF over the aftermath neck pup?

 

[Jcustom]

Go for the Aftermath dude, for Djenty tones it's simply fantastic. Plus it's an amazing choice for the woods your guitar is made of. I own several Aftermaths and CLs, while I love the 6 string CL, I don't regard the 7 string version as highly. As far as I'm concerned BKP put in that little extra effort to make extended range pups that extra bit special.

Do you know where's a good place to buy It online with international shipping? Local dealer doesn't have stock

 

[ibanez4lifesz]

I was not a fan of the Crunchlab in Mahogany at all. I have a mahogany bodied BRJ coming with Aftermaths, as I've heard much better things with that pickup in mahogany.

I'd give that a shot first...it can also be sold easily if you end up not liking it.

Eric

 

[Hybrid138]

I have a CL/LF set in my agile which is a Maple neck through with mahogany wings and I dig the tone from both pickups. I haven't tried Aftermaths. But this question gets asked a lot and usually the outcome ends up being. "They are both great sets, one is more expensive than the other, and it's a matter of preference." Either way, I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever you decide on

 

[Michael T]

What made you choose the LF over the aftermath neck pup?

The smoothness of the Liquifire, It's just more creamy & mellow, still get nice harmonics & such under high gain. I play a lot of prog metal and it suits my style better than the Aftermath neck.
It's a hard choice because the Liquifire, Aftermath & Coldsweat are ALL excellent neck pups. I own/use all 3 but the Liquifire is my go to neck pup if I'm struggling with a tone or such.

 

[EdgeCrusher]

So is it safe to say the CL is a bit rounder, darker, and more versatile than the Aftermath bridge? Can anyone comment a bit more in depth?

 

[Levi79]

Hey man, The Crunchlab and Aftermath are actually quite similar. They're both quite even pickups in terms of frequencies. The Aftermath is clearer and has tighter bass, but also has alot of bass (I found anyway) The Crunchlab is slightly looser than the Aftermath, but still has a quite tight low end. It's mids aren't quite as pronounced as the Aftermath either (whether thats a good or a bad thing is up to you). A big thing is the pricetag. The Dimarzios are considerably cheaper than the BKPs. BKPs will cost you about $280 in the states while a set of Dimarzios is closer to $130.

I've had the Aftermath and the Crunchlab in 7's and I thought that since alot of people decide between these that I'd do a little comparison. This is with my shitty old pod tone and sloppy playing, but this is the same tone, same riff, same everything just with different pickups. Hope it helps.
Bareknuckle Aftermath vs. Dimarzio Crunchlab by Levi79 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

 

[Jcustom]

Hey man, The Crunchlab and Aftermath are actually quite similar. They're both quite even pickups in terms of frequencies. The Aftermath is clearer and has tighter bass, but also has alot of bass (I found anyway) The Crunchlab is slightly looser than the Aftermath, but still has a quite tight low end. It's mids aren't quite as pronounced as the Aftermath either (whether thats a good or a bad thing is up to you). A big thing is the pricetag. The Dimarzios are considerably cheaper than the BKPs. BKPs will cost you about $280 in the states while a set of Dimarzios is closer to $130.

I've had the Aftermath and the Crunchlab in 7's and I thought that since alot of people decide between these that I'd do a little comparison. This is with my shitty old pod tone and sloppy playing, but this is the same tone, same riff, same everything just with different pickups. Hope it helps.
Bareknuckle Aftermath vs. Dimarzio Crunchlab by Levi79 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Thanks for the comparison! Nice playing btw. IMO from what I heard, there's more upper mids in the Aftermath so that kinda tightens things up? and yes the Aftermath does have more bass than the CL

Where can you find a set of Dimarzios for $130? The ones i've found online so far are only $150

 

[Levi79]

Ebay some are as low as 130, usually like 140.

 

[WhiteWalls]

I'm probably getting killed, but I tried them both on the same guitar and I didn't find a difference big enough to justify the Aftermath's price tag.
The Aftermaths felt a bit tighter, which is good when trying do djent on a single string but I liked the way the Crunchlab handled chords and arpeggios more.

Mind you this is awesome pickup vs. awesome pickup, there's no way you can go wrong with either, I just feel that bareknuckles are a bit overpriced due to them being hand made and all the hype they've been getting recently

 

[TMatt142]

Ok, so I have two Ibanez RG7-CT's. (Mahogany + maple top). In one I have the CL/LF combo, and in the other I have a Rebel Yell (bridge), Cold Sweat (neck). I'd love to try an aftermath but quite frankly, the RY is kicking the crap out of the CL that's in the other one! Just putting it out there for ya.
For the record though, the two CT's aren't entirely the same. One has a maple fretboard which just brightens it up a tad. Maybe "Kmanick" can chime in, he's pretty affluent with BKP's.
I just think from my experience with the BKP's (very limited), they do have that extra oompf that I don't hear in the CL/LF combo. This is coming from a die hard CL fanatic....

 

[FrancescoFiligoi]

I really don't like the Crunchlab and Liquifire pickups...to me they had no character, were modern sounding but overall the Crunchlab was too dark and EMG 707like imho....Liquifire too warm, something like a Les Paul but again with less character...

Aftermath has somewhat a similar voicing to the Crunchlab but does everything so much better and clearer. It really is a compressed Metal pickup though.

 

[rippedflesh89]

i just put an aftermath in a mahogany bodied 7 string w/maple neck and rosewood board... sounds absolutely amazing... i actually like it a bit more than my miracle man set in basswood w/maple neck rosewood board.... overall, theyre super fucking tight, lower output (but still hot enough for some aggressive tones) and they have this percussive bite to them that makes them sound very aggressive when playing with higher gain tones...

go for the aftermaths, you wont be disappointed!!

 

[BTFStan]

Bareknuckles all the way!

 

[Littledidweknow]

Not to thread jack, but where is a good place to order BKP's in the US?