RGA8 Pickup debate

[Hesitateanddie]

Hi all, sooo ive been reading all over the forums about swapping the stock pickups in the Ibanez RGA8 to, well something else.. but im more confused now than when I started researching . I have never used active pickups before so im not entirely sure of the natural tone difference's but I know what I want the guitar to sound like. I have an RGA 121 prestige with V7 & V8 pickups I use for live gigs and it sound killer. I wanted the new 8 to sound more like the "After the burial - rareform" tone. SoooOOooo

Cold Sweat 8 pickups, what are peoples opinions on them? how much work is involved in the swap and can you put covers over them? plus the 9V battery swap. I saw nollys vid and thats sic! way better tone than stock

Going by the tone of the v7 pickups on the 121 for the chunkys what suggestions do you guys have for alternatives.

THANKYOU!!

 

[cow 7 sig]

blackout 8s

 

[paintkilz]

rareform tone would be emg808s and pod tones/plugins.

 

[Hesitateanddie]

well ive gone with SD blackout 8's. I will post some comparison tracks for for others when i get the axe back in a week

 

[cow 7 sig]

you will find there is nothing to compair.SDBO8s kill the 808 in every way.
i love mine so much i am in the process of pulling emgs out of all my main 6s and 7s and fitting B0s.

 

[Metalus]

Ive heard great things about BKP's but they are pretty expensive. If you want the After The Burial tone then go with blackouts. Thats what they use.

 

[Hesitateanddie]

Hey guys quick question, the dude who's setting it up is asking me about the RGA8 active EQ thing, do you need to keep it powered via two AA batteries and have 9V or can it all run from the 9V battery??

Cheers

 

[Hesitateanddie]

Well i got an answer to my last question! haha, the 9V for the active eq failed so I had it ripped out and put the tone pot that came with the blackouts in. It just over distorted with the eq but I dont think its a problem not having it. looks better too not having a silver switch on a black guitar.

Soooo i gotta say the blackouts are way way better than the stocks. The setup involved shaving some of the frets at the top and bottom end to level them out (apparently a symptom of the non prestige models) it plays and sounds insane!! The only thing I will do next time is get a heavier gauge string for the low F. I think the .65 does not have enough tension for a clean chug. I will post up some photos in this thread and some tone tests of before and after the SDBO installation.

The blackouts have a much brighter clear tone. Very very nice clean tone indeed!