SD Black Winter Worship thread

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

So I got one coming in today. Gonna give it a shot again because I'm assuming the last one I got was a fluke. Either the guitar was dead or I got a fucked up pickup. It was so dark and not bright at all. Extremely muddy.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

So I got one coming in today. Gonna give it a shot again because I'm assuming the last one I got was a fluke. Either the guitar was dead or I got a fucked up pickup. It was so dark and not bright at all. Extremely muddy.

 

[KailM]

Before: IMG_4057 (1) by Joe Blow, on Flickr

After: IMG_4219 by Joe Blow, on Flickr



The difference this made is indescribable. I actually moved this pup from my explorer, which, despite having a TOM bridge can actually make use of trembucker spacing. So I've got a BW trembucker bridge on order, lol.

I've had the guitar about 3 weeks now and quickly grew out of the stock pups. They are dull, lifeless, and gutless. This thing slays so hard now...

Every aspect of the tone is better, including cleans. Palm-muted chugs slam you in the gut without prejudice. Mids grind like no other. It's actually a tad darker in this guitar on first listen. Darker guitar, I guess. That said, I'm running it straight into my 5153's red channel without a boost, and have presence below halfway and treble barely above noon. I have more brightness on tap than I'll need, if it comes to that. Can't wait to try it in my 6505.

I bought this guitar to play old-school metal and classic rock, but today all I was able to get out of it was black metal...

 

[PunkBillCarson]

That guitar is gorgeous.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Okay, so I finally got the BW installed in my LTD H3.

I was in love at first, but I noticed the stock SH-14 pickup was a bit... too much on both ends. Too much lows, too much highs, not enough mids. Made things muddy. Sooo yeah.

Conclusion?

That first Black Winter-loaded guitar I got must have been fucked up somehow, because holy shit this transformed the guitar. It's perfect now. The low end is UBER tight, the midrange is snarly as fuck, and the high end is just enough to add some snap to the attack. This is basically what I wanted from the Super Distortion down to the T. Made my Horizon III into my best sounding guitar BY FAR.

 

[gunch]

Are there any good demos how these sound with krallice-style fast strumming and tremolo lines?

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Hows the BW neck compare to the Jazz?

 

[feraledge]

Are there any good demos how these sound with krallice-style fast strumming and tremolo lines?

Haven't listened to it in a while and no time to search, but isn't this what Merrow's OG demo was? If you say "Krallice-style" though, the answer is BW. SD really played to the right crowd on this one, turns out it's just killer for a lot of reasons.

 

[BadSeed]

I finally got my hands on a second Black Winter last week, and dropped it in my 2003 Gibson LP Classic. I'm not writing the pickup off, because I have yet to find a pickup that I really love in this guitar. The low end and low mids on the guitar are a bit on the dark side, and the Black Winter seems to enhance this, but I'm also not used to ceramic mag pickups, and I feel like this is part of the sound of the ceramic vs alnico V.

I recently bought an EC1000VB and am wanting to swap out the EMG's, so I may try it in that guitar to see if it fits a little better.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Hows the BW neck compare to the Jazz?

Anyone? Kinda curious about the BW neck pickup.

 

[JK-PA]

Anyone? Kinda curious about the BW neck pickup.

Who needs a neck pickup anyway

 

[KailM]

Anyone? Kinda curious about the BW neck pickup.

I'm probably going to order either a Jazz or Sentient neck later this winter. The Black Winter neck is the only real "nice" aftermarket pickup I've ever owned outside of owning a Blackout AHB1 set in one of my guitars, so I can't objectively compare it to many others (I like it a lot better than the Blackout neck though, fwiw.)

To me, the BW neck is phenomenal at high-gain leads high up on the neck. I believe it would give a Dimarzio Liquifire a run for its money. When tuned higher, I can get a very convincing Slash tone. It's awesome for shreddy stuff as well, and searing, creamy Gilmour type leads.

Its cleans are warm with a little sparkle, but not too much. At times, I feel it has a tad too much bass. The clean tone I get with both BWs combined is amazing, IMO, split or full-humbucking. I don't find myself using it by itself all that often, except for high-gain.

Here's a song I did that kind of runs the gamut of tones. I annotated it in Soundcloud to try to share what I was using when. All of the cleans are Black Winter neck or BW neck + bridge; sometimes split, sometimes full. The leads in the opening heavy part before the interlude are Black Winter neck as well. I think the leads I did at the end of the song are Nazgul; can't remember. Hope this helps: https://soundcloud.com/kailm-1/blood-of-deliverance-a-dying-breed

 

[Shask]

Anyone? Kinda curious about the BW neck pickup.

I really like the BW neck. I dont have a Jazz, but I have a Sentient. I typically find Duncan neck pickups to be kind of mid scooped. They sound good for cleans, and RATM type tones, but not so much for the smooth, shredder type thing Dimarzio neck pickups tend to be better at. The BW neck tends to be more mid heavy, and smoother, so I get more of that wannabe shredder feeling like I get from Dimarzio pickups.

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

I really like the BW neck. I dont have a Jazz, but I have a Sentient. I typically find Duncan neck pickups to be kind of mid scooped. They sound good for cleans, and RATM type tones, but not so much for the smooth, shredder type thing Dimarzio neck pickups tend to be better at. The BW neck tends to be more mid heavy, and smoother, so I get more of that wannabe shredder feeling like I get from Dimarzio pickups.

I haven't played a BW Neck, but I agree with you on your description of the typical Duncan and Dimarzio neck pickup.

 

[TheShreddinHand]

I really like the BW neck. I dont have a Jazz, but I have a Sentient. I typically find Duncan neck pickups to be kind of mid scooped. They sound good for cleans, and RATM type tones, but not so much for the smooth, shredder type thing Dimarzio neck pickups tend to be better at. The BW neck tends to be more mid heavy, and smoother, so I get more of that wannabe shredder feeling like I get from Dimarzio pickups.

Spot on. The 59 and Jazz I had were great for cleans as mentioned but I didn't like them as much for the shreddy stuff with distortion. Enter the BW to cover all bases.

 

[ToneLab]

To me the BW neck sits between the Jazz that is too thin and the 59 that is too fat. The BW is my fav SD neck pup. Very playable, and isn't night and day from bridge pup so you can transition easily. It shreds and it can be fat and creamy.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Actually doesn't sound like the BW neck is what I'm looking for then. I dig the kinda scooped, bright single-coily sound ala Tom Morello. So I guess I'll keep the Jazz.

 

[Shask]

Actually doesn't sound like the BW neck is what I'm looking for then. I dig the kinda scooped, bright single-coily sound ala Tom Morello. So I guess I'll keep the Jazz.

I love my Sentient, coil tapped, for those RATM Drop-D sounds!

 

[Headache]

I fokin LOVE mine!

 

[600wheelies]

Hey guys, wondering if the BW is what I’m looking for. I have an ibanez rgr621xebc, ash body with a maple neck and ebony fretboard, it has stock quantum 6 pickups that I’m not a huge fan of, sort of a twangy brittle high end (maybe too bright?) I play mostly hard rock to metal core to prog rock (drop D to drop B). August burns red, lamb of god, porcupine tree type stuff even some ambient cleans so versatility is a must. How would the BW stack up? Or if you guys can recommend something different. Thanks!