Pickup advice for RG2228

[Apatheosis]

Hey guys!

I just got a shiny, lovely, minty new 2228 a few weeks ago and now that I have the pleasure of owning two 8 string guitars I thought it was about time I indulge myself a bit by dedicating this guitar to a singular purpose: playing Animals As Leaders.

Now I'm a disgusting, sickeningly huge Tosin fan - but I really don't like his tone a lot of the time. On the self-titled it wasn't TOO bad but on Weightless it was far too organic for me (I understood why they opted to make it sound so warm and fuzzy, but I prefer the cut and clarity of the 8 string tone in Wave Of Babies and the like)

I am very tempted to simply opt for the EMG 808Xs as it will be an easy install and they are the pickups which purportedly have the closest to what I'm looking for rhythm-wise (if EMG's Wave Of Babies ad is to be believed)

Alternatively however, I've been mulling over the idea of going passive, with an Ionizer in the neck and something else in the bridge

To clarify a bit of my preference I'm not really into 'djent' and I'm not really hunting a 'brutal' tone or anything (not being a prude at all, I have other guitars to satisfy that craving!)

Cutting to the chase, my questions are:

- 808Xs Vs Dimarzio DAs/Ionizers Vs BKPs Vs Lundgren for AAL cleans and Wave of Babies-esque rhythm?

- If the consensus deems the 808Xs to be unsatisfactory for the role I intend this guitar to play, what passive pup combo would work nicely?

That's all for now, please excuse the wall of text stuff, I'm very tired and want to try and nail the sound I'm after as concisely as possible. I've spent the better part of the day lurking active to passive conversion threads and 8 string pickup recommendation threads but I wanted to be a bit more specific.

Thanks!

 

[Johnathan]

I was just about to make a thread like this one myself! Guess someone cut me to the chase...Anyway! I'm in the same position as you are in. And i have multiple choices for now.

First of all i will try to remodify the circuit the EMGs are on from 9V to 18V. It's said to give more headroom and more string dynamic. From that modification i will listen to the results and then decide what i want to go for. The procedure is really simple, and is even easier to reverse!
http://home.comcast.net/~mgollihur/emgmod.html


As far as the choice for pickups i'm down to 3 options really.

1. Lundgren M8s
2. Bareknuckle Aftermaths
3. Bareknuckle Rebel Yell

I've been playing with EMGs almost my whole lifespan as a guitar player when it comes to metal. So i want some variation to my sound since my style of playing has evolved loads since the upgrade to 8 strings. All these pickups listed above are passive low output pickups, which gives them a clear tone even with quite heavily distortion applied. I know that Tosin switch from EMG 808X some time ago to something passive with low output, i can't remember the brand though.

 

[gordon_mlz]

Supposedly the emga will do the trick but ya gotta get the white ones!

 

[Johnathan]

Supposedly the emga will do the trick but ya gotta get the white ones!

Which once are these? Active or passive? can't seem to find them in the EMG catalouge.

 

[Corrosion]

I have 808s in my guitar with an 18v mod. Real easy, and saved me 300 on some new pups. The tone is very good once you have modded them, and it is reversible if you dont like it.

 

[glassmoon0fo]

I was just going to say that the 18v mod gets you pretty close to the 808x tone and is fairly simple to do. I wouldn't recommend the M8 as Tosin has sold every set he's bought afaik, and the Ionizer embodies that fuzzy organic sound from weightless. I think the DA8s are where its at here.

 

[Apatheosis]

...I've done a bit more research and have so far crossed the M8s off of the list.

The simplicity of the 808Xs install is appealing, but I'm still drawn to the idea that the cleans from the Ionizer neck would be very authentic AAL and suited to chords, tapping, etc.

Everything I've heard of the Ionizers in the bridge position has been frankly... not so great. So there's very little chance I'll end up with an Ionizer in the bridge.

I'm after a bridge pup that will give me a very clean, precise prog-metal sound. Not full djent perse, but very much in the vein of the opening gain riff in Wave Of Babies. Meshuggah-esque without being limited to only playing Rational Gaze!

I'm leaning towards DA in the bridge and Ionizer in the neck, unless anyone can think of a bridge pickup that would nail the sound I'm after better (BKPs?)

 

[glassmoon0fo]

^Thinking that's a pretty damn good combo, should be well balanced too

 

[Apatheosis]

Where are all the BKP disciples?! Last chance to change my mind!

The idea of a white DA/Ionizer combo is solidifying in my mind, seems pretty cool to me.

I have the 2228GK so will the soapbar gap be obscene and unsightly? What's the go-to solution?

Any AAL fans/DA naysayers around? I'd love to get both sides of the story.

 

[glassmoon0fo]

Personally, most of the BKPs I've played have been good but not so much better than dimarzio to justify the price you pay in the US (don't know what it's like in Oz), except the warpig. Nothing comes close to that monster if it's the tone you're looking for. And that gap you're talking about is a bit offputting to me, but you can easily remedy that with pickup rings or active pickup covers.

 

[WaffleTheEpic]

EMG 808x's.

EMG - Tosin Abasi - Wave of Babies - YouTube

 

[Apatheosis]

I was at one point very, very keen on the EMG 808Xs, but as much as I love that video I remind myself to take it with several grains of salt as it is, after all, an advertisement.

With pickup rings, will I have to drill into the body at all? I don't like the sound of that...

Also, with the conversion will I need to purchase additional materials or do I just hand the pickups and guitar to a tech and let them do their thing?

Thanks for the help so far guys, it's been... helpful.

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

Maybe a Lace X-Bar in the neck? That would be closer to the cleans seeing as how he used one. Then a D-Activator in the bridge.

 

[Apatheosis]

Oooh! I'd not even thought of Lace pickups. I was under the impression (forgive me if I'm wrong) that Lace pickups were very djent oriented.

My goal with the neck pickup is to attain the most pleasant, chord-friendly clean tone humanly possible, warm (but not too warm) for Tosin-esque pseudo jazz and tapping. When I watched the Ionizer demo video the only tone I thought had any real potential was the neck pickup.

The DA in the bridge seems to be the popular choice as no one's challenged it yet. Should be sufficient for scoring a gain tone similar to the one in the EMG ad, yeah?

 

[Apatheosis]

The more I think about it guys, the more sold I am on the DA/Ionizer combo.

 

[Johnathan]

Oooh! I'd not even thought of Lace pickups. I was under the impression (forgive me if I'm wrong) that Lace pickups were very djent oriented.

My goal with the neck pickup is to attain the most pleasant, chord-friendly clean tone humanly possible, warm (but not too warm) for Tosin-esque pseudo jazz and tapping. When I watched the Ionizer demo video the only tone I thought had any real potential was the neck pickup.

The DA in the bridge seems to be the popular choice as no one's challenged it yet. Should be sufficient for scoring a gain tone similar to the one in the EMG ad, yeah?

Remeber that it's not just the pickups that makes the difference to tone. The rest of the signal chain matters as much as the pickups. On that video he uses an Axe FX lined out directly (?). And then of course, his style of playing affects the tone aswell of course .

 

[Apatheosis]

Yeah, but the pickups are good starting point for me as dialling in tone/signal chain comes later! For me a pickup's attributes, character and responsiveness are almost make or break when it comes to playing electric guitars! Second to the instrument's feel, of course.

 

[glassmoon0fo]

I personally wouldn't mix the laces with any other pickup, just because they sound so unique and the way that they behave with tone and volume pots is a bit different as well (from what I understand, ask Rook about that one). The xbars I had were nice pickups and actually very tight and articulate for bridge work and OUTSTANDING for cleans on the neck, they just werent what I was feeling at the time. Wish I'd given them a fair shake. I really do think you could get the sound you're looking for with them, definately xbar in the neck and either that or the dethbar in the bridge, PLUS you wouldn't have to deal with the routing gap. Check into em

 

[NoMod]

I love the D-activators in mine...for what it's worth

 

[Johnathan]

Yeah, but the pickups are good starting point for me as dialling in tone/signal chain comes later! For me a pickup's attributes, character and responsiveness are almost make or break when it comes to playing electric guitars! Second to the instrument's feel, of course.

Oh i am with you on that one though!