Pickup suggestions needed, but plenty of exclusions

[Mike]

Hello folks,

I'm looking for some pickup suggestions for my DKMGT (Alder body, bolt on maple neck, rosewood board). Here's the kicker, no Fishman, EMG, Duncan, or DiMarzio's. I have no idea why, but this guitar has become my test bed and I have no joke installed roughly 20 different sets of pickups in this guitar in the last year. A few I've liked, most I hated lol.

Right now the absolute front runner and best pickup set to match this guitar is a DiMarzio Utopia bridge and a Gravity storm neck. I love damn near everything about the set other than the Utopia could just use a tad more brightness and bite (upper mids + treble). The output is great, nice and full tone, chunky low end, plenty of saturation (not dry) and nice clarity (but could be better).

The next best pickup set was the Crunch Lab/Liquifire, but same issues (need more bite & bright)

So on the flip side I tried a Nazgul/Sentient, Black Winter set, Distortion, D Activator, Evolution, none of them were quite right. Surely brighter and that modern upper mid thing going on, but lost the balls haha. Like the low mids sucked away thus causing feelings of emptiness and lack of push and punch.

I suppose that leaves me with Bare Knuckle to try (which I have never owned for any prolonged period of time nor extensively played) and other off-shoot, smaller builders.

I'm pretty bridge pickup focused, so whatever matched neck tends to be fine for me.

I know there's probably not a ton of ppl with Utopia experience, but If someone knows of essentially a brighter version of it, that'd be awesome.

 

[Crungy]

I've never used these but people here do and can chime in:

Elysian
Vineham
Railhammer
Suhr

 

[Crungy]

What Bare Knuckles have you tried?

 

[cardinal]

Maybe try a 1Meg pot to brighten the Utopia and hang resistors off the Gravity Storm so it behaves as though there were still a 500k pot.

 

[Mike]

Did not like railhammers in the guitar lol...had the Anvil/Chisel set. Found them to actually be kind of flat. As far as bare knuckles I've tried an Aftermath which I remember not saturating enough and a VHII which I honestly cannot recall much about other than it wasn't hot enough for my tastes.

 

[Mike]

Maybe try a 1Meg pot to brighten the Utopia and hang resistors off the Gravity Storm so it behaves as though there were still a 500k pot.

That's someone part of my next experiment lol. Unfortunately I hate the taper of 1 meg pots, but I did get ahold of some cts (bkp and the art of tone) pots that are measuring around 540k. I doubt it will make a huge difference but maybe a little considering the current volume pot is 526k and the tone is 505k.

I was also thinking about just doing a no load tone pot, but I need push pull, don't want to break one apart and cut the wiper to mod it. I've heard of the lindy fralin blender pot, but idk if that can work as just a straight push for coil taps and not do other funky stuff

 

[cardinal]

D

That's someone part of my next experiment lol. Unfortunately I hate the taper of 1 meg pots, but I did get ahold of some cts (bkp and the art of tone) pots that are measuring around 540k. I doubt it will make a huge difference but maybe a little considering the current volume pot is 526k and the tone is 505k.

I was also thinking about just doing a no load tone pot, but I need push pull, don't want to break one apart and cut the wiper to mod it. I've heard of the lindy fralin blender pot, but idk if that can work as just a straight push for coil taps and not do other funky stuff

Depending on your set up, you could use a super switch to put the tone pot only on the neck pickup so that the bridge sees only the 500k volume pot. That would also brighten just the bridge.

 

[cardinal]

Did not like railhammers in the guitar lol...had the Anvil/Chisel set. Found them to actually be kind of flat. As far as bare knuckles I've tried an Aftermath which I remember not saturating enough and a VHII which I honestly cannot recall much about other than it wasn't hot enough for my tastes.

I've never played a Bare Knuckle that I thought was saturated enough. I think that's just their sound; I think that's what people mean when they talk about Bare Knuckle's "clarity".

 

[tedtan]

You could also try lowering the pickup a bit and raising the pole pieces to add some brightness, at least on the treble side. That combined with a 1meg volume pot* may be enough to bring the Utopia close enough to what you’re looking for.



* Pots are made with different tapers, so it may be worth trying a few if possible to find one that works better for you. I know some manufacturers make custom taper pots on request (CTS, maybe Bournes), but require a minimum order size. Maybe check with companies like RS Guitarworks, Mojotone, Throwbak and other smaller companies that offer branded CTS pots and check the tapers offered.

 

[jaxadam]

At this point, it’s time to get a new guitar.

 

[Mike]

its not the guitar, . I love the guitar and it's sound. As I mentioned, there's pickups I've liked in it just fine and if I just wanted it to be done I'd either put in a townsend set or just leave the utopia, but at this point the guitar has helped give me an excellent understanding of what I like and what I don't like about certain pickups. So the experiment continues.

 

[Choop]

I know you said no DiMarzio, but I think the Illuminators are meant to be a bright pickup set. Other than that, I'm with tedtan -- adjusting the pole pieces and pickup height could help a whole lot. But if you want to just try pickups out, that's cool, too.

 

[Mike]

I've considered the illuminator just because I enjoyed the crunch lab, but every demo I've listened to of it, to me really sounds like just a crunch lab on a diet lol. Lost a little bit of that thiccness.

 

[odibrom]

The problem is not the pickups but the volume pot. Switch it to one with higher resistance value like 1Mega Ohms for example. If the guitar has a tone pot pot, switch it too. End the needless and endless pickup swap for good, swap your Pots instead... cheaper too... make sure to install a treble bleed system as well on the volume pot.

If you're still not satisfied, then contact a pickup builder and go custom. Learn about the process in the meantime, or you'll be burning money in pickup marketing, jumping from brand to brand and going nowhere...

 

[budda]

And if you dont swap the pots, use the utopia/GS set and use your amps eq to add brightness.

 

[jaxadam]

its not the guitar,

Nah I hear you man, I’m just saying it’s never a bad time to get a new guitar.

 

[Mike]

I got 4* I'm currently trying to sell first ha.

 

[BabUShka]

If you liked the tight pickups but need bigger balls, then I would suggest the BPK C-Bomb.
Usually I would suggest Lundgren M6, but maybe you need a model thats "fuller" sounding. But when it comes to tight & clear both M6 and Nailbomb are the most insane pickups I've owned. not in terms of output, but the chug and clarity.

 

[Hoss632]

You already mentioned bare knuckle. Gonna try to mention some that haven't been by anyone yet.
Kiesel
Tom Anderson
Guitarmory
Balaguer
Schecter USA

 

[lost_horizon]

Instrumental SFTY3/4?
Bare Knuckle Aftermath
Bare Knuckle Black Dog
Treble? Bare Knuckle Ragnarok or Juggernaut
Oddball choice? PRS HFS
Suhr SsH+
Suhr Thornbucker