SD Black Winter Worship thread

[KailM]

I was actually thinking of getting the new PRS SVN Black Cherry and putting Black Winters in it. That's where my question came in about the coil-splitting awhile back.

Me too. My local store has a PRS SVN in grey, which I really like. Here's what that one looks like: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...cTDP82vW7IlQgPyxl_xW1_6ygfCgjfsBoCJvIQAvD_BwE

I played it briefly and thought it played very well. I must admit, for as long as I've been a member here, I've never owned a 7-string guitar and haven't even played them more than a handful of times. I might even trade one of my 6-strings and an amp in for that PRS. I don't think I'd ever go beyond standard tuning (E-Standard with the added low-B 7th string). It would be exclusively so that I could play E-standard stuff but still have that low-B for death metal. So whatever pickups I end up putting in it would not need to handle anything lower than B.

Coil splitting is awesome. It basically adds a few more clean channels to your amp.

 

[PunkBillCarson]

^Yeah that was my intention for the low b as well. That way I can play Emperor AND At The Gates on one guitar.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

^Yeah that was my intention for the low b as well. That way I can play Emperor AND At The Gates on one guitar.

you could just get a baritone 6 string. I've got 2 that i have tuned beadf#b right now and they kill for entombed riffs.

 

[PunkBillCarson]

Yeah but I want the entire range of E standard though just in case I want to do some other E standard stuff.

 

[KailM]

^Yeah that was my intention for the low b as well. That way I can play Emperor AND At The Gates on one guitar.

That is literally EXACTLY why I want a 7-string.

 

[PunkBillCarson]

Anyone tried the 6 string versions in basswood? I'm selling the guitar that my Black Winters are in, and I've got the idea of putting them in my Ibanez Iron Label.

 

[JD27]

Anyone tried the 6 string versions in basswood? I'm selling the guitar that my Black Winters are in, and I've got the idea of putting them in my Ibanez Iron Label.

I would think they would work quite well, Keith Merrow used a JP-6 for this video when they first came out.

 

[Seabeast2000]

Anyone tried the 6 string versions in basswood? I'm selling the guitar that my Black Winters are in, and I've got the idea of putting them in my Ibanez Iron Label.

Do it. Basswood below.

 

[KailM]

Enjoy: https://soundcloud.com/kailm-1/blood-of-deliverance-a-dying-breed

 

[Rizzo]

Just checking in for a questions to you users, since I've seen some comparisons in the very first pages.

Gimmicks aside, isn't the BW just a revoiced/different EQ'ed Distortion? That's what I always perceived since its launch.
Like a "grimier" Distortion, while the Nazgul is the "djentier" (think modern cocked wah, djent voicing) Distortion? I'd just like some info about the actual differences between the 3.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Just checking in for a questions to you users, since I've seen some comparisons in the very first pages.

Gimmicks aside, isn't the BW just a revoiced/different EQ'ed Distortion? That's what I always perceived since its launch.
Like a "grimier" Distortion, while the Nazgul is the "djentier" (think modern cocked wah, djent voicing) Distortion? I'd just like some info about the actual differences between the 3.

the black winter is probably closer to a mix of the custom 5 and the distortion. nazgul is more nasal/upper mid focused and feels like a jb/distortion mix imo.

 

[Shask]

the black winter is probably closer to a mix of the custom 5 and the distortion. nazgul is more nasal/upper mid focused and feels like a jb/distortion mix imo.

I have always felt like the BW bridge was kind of like a mix of an improved Distortion/Invader, with tighter lows, and less fizzy highs. It is almost like a low/hi band-limited Invader.

 

[jonsick]

Well I've just made the plunge and taking the SD Black Winters OUT of my guitar....

So I installed the BW set into my Jackson Broderick 7 string pretty much as soon as I got it. I rocked that for about 2-3 years in gigs, recordings and all the rest. I then upgrade to an E-II Arrow-7 which has the EMG 57/66 set. Thought I don't love the 57/66, I felt far far more at home with the EMGs in the Arrow-7 than I did with the Black Winters. I ordered up a couple of EMG 81-7/85-7 sets. I first replaced the pickups in the Arrow-7 with the 81-7/85-7 and it is just completely me now. No 18v mods, no nothing, just straight up EMG sounds.

I have my Jackson in right now getting the pickups swapped over (need to modify the pickup routes for the 81-7 and 85-7).

Why the change

Well in my two years experience I have using the guitar on a near daily basis, a few things irked me about the pickups. First, I like smooth tones (I'm a lover of 80s guitarists, EVH and the like). I always found that riffing could sometimes get a bit muddy and despite various EQ tricks and boosts, I could never really dial that out.

That said the clean tones were stellar. The neck pickup has some really lovely tones and as my band does use clean on the semi regular, this is one thing I will miss, especially when split. Comparing to the EMGs in the Arrow in conjunction with my main amp (Peavey 6505+) clean tones need regular checking and EQing to the venue in question. Coaxing a good clean from the 6505+ is difficult in itself, but still doable. While the 85-7 cleans aren't as nice, they will do. I tend to use a good dab of reverb and chorus so can cover it up a little more.

Ultimately, I like my squealies. Pinch harmonics and tremolo abuse is my main style and I just felt that the BWs were just a little too muddy overall (in this guitar) to get where I really wanted to go. As my Jackson is now effectively my backup guitar, it will tend to stay on my guitar stand as my main writing guitar, with the Arrow-7 living in the case until rehearsal and recording time (just easier to sit down with it). Hence I'm looking forward to getting it back with the EMGs loaded in there.

In fairness, throughout my playing life, I've back-and-forth'd between passives and EMGs. There are some guitars I have where the EMGs just really don't work nicely. I've also come to learn through playing my 6-strings, I tend to prefer the sound of guitars with pickup rings as opposed to direct mounts. One example being an Ibanez I modified; I had originally placed the replacement bridge EMGs where the Dimarzios were but upon buying the neck pickup, discovered the neck route was again too small. I asked the tech to use pickup rings and the guitar went from muddy to clear and bright instantly. It's just my tone I think and pickup rings seem to enable that for me.

So all in all, the Black Winters have been fun, but there was enough that I didn't like about then to make me change up. I'm an EMG guy, time to just bloody well admit it!

 

[KailM]

^^^It's good to know your tastes. Ultimately I think pickup choices come down to how they interact with the rest of your rig and perhaps more importantly, your hands.

 

[Vyn]

Well I've just made the plunge and taking the SD Black Winters OUT of my guitar....

So I installed the BW set into my Jackson Broderick 7 string pretty much as soon as I got it. I rocked that for about 2-3 years in gigs, recordings and all the rest. I then upgrade to an E-II Arrow-7 which has the EMG 57/66 set. Thought I don't love the 57/66, I felt far far more at home with the EMGs in the Arrow-7 than I did with the Black Winters. I ordered up a couple of EMG 81-7/85-7 sets. I first replaced the pickups in the Arrow-7 with the 81-7/85-7 and it is just completely me now. No 18v mods, no nothing, just straight up EMG sounds.

I have my Jackson in right now getting the pickups swapped over (need to modify the pickup routes for the 81-7 and 85-7).

Why the change

Well in my two years experience I have using the guitar on a near daily basis, a few things irked me about the pickups. First, I like smooth tones (I'm a lover of 80s guitarists, EVH and the like). I always found that riffing could sometimes get a bit muddy and despite various EQ tricks and boosts, I could never really dial that out.

That said the clean tones were stellar. The neck pickup has some really lovely tones and as my band does use clean on the semi regular, this is one thing I will miss, especially when split. Comparing to the EMGs in the Arrow in conjunction with my main amp (Peavey 6505+) clean tones need regular checking and EQing to the venue in question. Coaxing a good clean from the 6505+ is difficult in itself, but still doable. While the 85-7 cleans aren't as nice, they will do. I tend to use a good dab of reverb and chorus so can cover it up a little more.

Ultimately, I like my squealies. Pinch harmonics and tremolo abuse is my main style and I just felt that the BWs were just a little too muddy overall (in this guitar) to get where I really wanted to go. As my Jackson is now effectively my backup guitar, it will tend to stay on my guitar stand as my main writing guitar, with the Arrow-7 living in the case until rehearsal and recording time (just easier to sit down with it). Hence I'm looking forward to getting it back with the EMGs loaded in there.

In fairness, throughout my playing life, I've back-and-forth'd between passives and EMGs. There are some guitars I have where the EMGs just really don't work nicely. I've also come to learn through playing my 6-strings, I tend to prefer the sound of guitars with pickup rings as opposed to direct mounts. One example being an Ibanez I modified; I had originally placed the replacement bridge EMGs where the Dimarzios were but upon buying the neck pickup, discovered the neck route was again too small. I asked the tech to use pickup rings and the guitar went from muddy to clear and bright instantly. It's just my tone I think and pickup rings seem to enable that for me.

So all in all, the Black Winters have been fun, but there was enough that I didn't like about then to make me change up. I'm an EMG guy, time to just bloody well admit it!

That's really interesting because I found that I could abuse pinch harmonics and trem bullshit more easily with the Black Winters. Be interested to see your technique!

 

[PunkBillCarson]

That's really interesting because I found that I could abuse pinch harmonics and trem bullshit more easily with the Black Winters. Be interested to see your technique!

Yeah I have to say, I'm a bit skeptical. Pinch harmonics to me were absolutely effortless and if there's one thing I could never describe the Black Winter itself as, it's muddy.

 

[jonsick]

That's really interesting because I found that I could abuse pinch harmonics and trem bullshit more easily with the Black Winters. Be interested to see your technique!

Yeah I have to say, I'm a bit skeptical. Pinch harmonics to me were absolutely effortless and if there's one thing I could never describe the Black Winter itself as, it's muddy.

I'll qualify these if I possibly can. The guitar in question is a Jackson Pro Series Broderick 7 string. When I first got the guitar, they had the Chris Broderick Dimarzios. I also noted the guitar was a maple neck through mahogany body. Now in my experience, maple and mahogany rarely make good bedfellows - I built one guitar like that and owned another and noted that they were both quite dead sounding. The Jackson was no exception. However given my budget at the time and my requirement for 25.5" scale and a floyd, it was the best option.

Overall I like how the guitar played but given the wood options, I realised it was inherently VERY dark. I figured the Black Winters would brighten things up and get that low B a little tighter. I wasn't entirely incorrect, they helped a lot, but overall hasn't quite done the ticket.

So my guess is that maybe in a guitar that isn't so dark I'd have had better results? I've pretty much decided to not sell them on and rather keep them for a possible future candidate. But for that guitar (maybe?) they just didn't work out for me.

I do have higher hopes for the EMGs, I won't get the guitar back until tomorrow to report.

As for pinch harmonics technique, I'll just defend slightly in saying I'm happy I know how to do them. I've been playing long enough and no problem on other guitars, including my E-II Arrow 7.

Ultimately I am interested to play some BWs in another guitar, but I will admit to something else. When I bought the BWs, I did get caught up into the hype surrounding them. I had no idea that they were based off of the Duncan Super Distortion. I've never been a fan of the Super Distortion, I've always found them too brittle sounding for me. If I'd have known that, I possibly wouldn't have bought them. But hey ho. Either way, I'm confident the EMGs will do the job for me. Most of my guitar arsenal has EMGs despite me going back and forth between those and various passives throughout the years. I just seem to be happiest with the good ol' 81/85 combo in general.

 

[PunkBillCarson]

Well first things's first... Duncan didn't make the Super Distortion, DiMarzio did. I guess it could be a combination of your woods, but I have the BW set installed in my Epiphone Goldtop tuned down to B standard and I have to say, it has no problem cutting through and that's with a 60 for the low B which some might refer to as too floppy, not to mention the 24.75 scale in theory shouldn't help. I would say try them in another guitar. What amp are you using? I'm sorry if you already mentioned, I just woke up. LOL

 

[jonsick]

Well first things's first... Duncan didn't make the Super Distortion, DiMarzio did. I guess it could be a combination of your woods, but I have the BW set installed in my Epiphone Goldtop tuned down to B standard and I have to say, it has no problem cutting through and that's with a 60 for the low B which some might refer to as too floppy, not to mention the 24.75 scale in theory shouldn't help. I would say try them in another guitar. What amp are you using? I'm sorry if you already mentioned, I just woke up. LOL

Sorry I did mean the Duncan Distortion. I love the DiMarzio Super Distortion. Sorry for the error.

I would tend to agree it's more the woods used on the Jackson. I'm hoping the EMGs will do the trick.

Amps are numerous. My main one is the Peavey 6505+, but I also run lots of Marshalls. To name, TSL100, JVM410h, JCM900, Jubillee 2555x and a Mesa Dual Rec.

I don't think cutting through was the problem, it could cut through fine. I recorded an album using the Jackson and it came out fine. My main issue was the pinch harmonics were difficult to get out and I found the overall tone seemed muddy in comparison to other guitars. While it's not reasonable to say the exact same settings same amp another guitar was better as I've never believed in that ideology as every guitar is different, my USA Jacksons and ESPs do everything fine. But they are maple through alder affairs with EMGs. And 6 strings not 7. So OK it isn't a fair comparison for me to make, but I guess I'm just an EMG guy ahh spose haha.

That said, the BW set will probably sit until I try them in another (future) guitar. That won't be anytime soon, but still interested to definitely see that the EMGs do definitely solve the problem. We shall see.

 

[jonsick]

I got the guitar back. I have to say, it's a night and day difference to me. Just been playing it for the past hour and for me the EMGs do indeed work ten million times better. The guy seemed to wire a tone knob that I don't really need so I will take that off, but hey all in all, happy happy!