What differences do you notice from alternate pickups in your recordings?
For reference, here's the guitars I have and their respective pickups/how I feel about their sound.
Schecter Blackjack ATX C8 - Seymour Duncan Blackouts:
I love how this guitar plays. It's one of the most comfortable, "right" feeling guitars in my hands that I've owned. But the pickups are so hot, so trebley and scooped, everything just sounds like an over-compressed mess.
Ibanez RG8 - Stock:
I'm not huge on how the neck feels higher up the fretboard, but it absolutely holds tension for lower tuning better than the C8 thanks to the extra scale length. I've noticed the stock pickups generally lack extreme low and high frequencies, like they've had a pass put on either end. Cleans feel best on this one out of my 4.
Jackson COW 7 - EMG 707:
Not a guitar for the versatile musician, it only packs a 707 in the bridge. I love the low end warmth, and it responds fantastically to different chug positions (something the RG8 somewhat lacks). They can be slightly hot sometimes, but nowhere near the Blackouts.
Ibanez RG7321 - Bareknuckle Aftermaths:
Being up for sale, that should say it all regarding my feelings on this setup. I don't know what it is about the Aftermaths, but I feel like I'm having to heavily pump gain and master knobs to get the sound I'm after out of them, and even then the mids are very throaty. They're ok for leads.
My mission is to swap the Blackouts for EMG 808Xs in my Schecter. I used to remember loving the Blackouts, but as time's gone on and my mixes have improved, I hate them with a passion. I'd like to make the RG8 a modding project, but there's a bunch of gates on that plan.
For reference, here's the guitars I have and their respective pickups/how I feel about their sound.
Schecter Blackjack ATX C8 - Seymour Duncan Blackouts:
I love how this guitar plays. It's one of the most comfortable, "right" feeling guitars in my hands that I've owned. But the pickups are so hot, so trebley and scooped, everything just sounds like an over-compressed mess.
Ibanez RG8 - Stock:
I'm not huge on how the neck feels higher up the fretboard, but it absolutely holds tension for lower tuning better than the C8 thanks to the extra scale length. I've noticed the stock pickups generally lack extreme low and high frequencies, like they've had a pass put on either end. Cleans feel best on this one out of my 4.
Jackson COW 7 - EMG 707:
Not a guitar for the versatile musician, it only packs a 707 in the bridge. I love the low end warmth, and it responds fantastically to different chug positions (something the RG8 somewhat lacks). They can be slightly hot sometimes, but nowhere near the Blackouts.
Ibanez RG7321 - Bareknuckle Aftermaths:
Being up for sale, that should say it all regarding my feelings on this setup. I don't know what it is about the Aftermaths, but I feel like I'm having to heavily pump gain and master knobs to get the sound I'm after out of them, and even then the mids are very throaty. They're ok for leads.
My mission is to swap the Blackouts for EMG 808Xs in my Schecter. I used to remember loving the Blackouts, but as time's gone on and my mixes have improved, I hate them with a passion. I'd like to make the RG8 a modding project, but there's a bunch of gates on that plan.
