Which Pickups for Mayones Regius Core Classic 6 String?

[KnightBrolaire]

if you want versatile you can't go wrong with a holy diver bridge/vhii or cold sweat neck.
they work in both brighter and darker sounding guitars. that combo will do whatever genre you want from jazz/blues to death metal.

 

[SoundAsleep7]

If you're looking for versatility, I'd also stay away from ceramic pickups in general. Juggs might be different but many have written here they don't like the cocked wah tone, see below for A-bomb.

Here's my take on bridge pickups what I've tried:
Black Dog: PAFish with aggressive attack, tad too much treble for my taste.
Rebel Yell: More versatile what 15k DC would propose. Articulate, similar elements as Black Dog but hotter, bit saturated that provides awesome singing lead tones. Low-end holds up well under plenty of gain. My go-to for 4 years now.
Warpig: Even hotter and darker, low-middle heavy which is pleasant for ear but might get mushy.
Alnico nailbomb: Honky mids causing wah effect I couldn't get rid of.
Aftermath: Like mentioned, sterile, I remember the attack was the only thing I liked about this pickup. One trick pony.
VHII: Rock pickup that has some single coil type of high end and hollowness.

Ragnarok is definitely interesting but haven't found them used yet.

Thanks Snaarpasi, I’ll have to look at reviews of Jugs and Rags though I suspect you are correct as usual. Definitely want to go with Alnico V’s. What BKP pickups do you think will be the best for tone and versatility in V’s?

 

[SoundAsleep7]

if you want versatile you can't go wrong with a holy diver bridge/vhii or cold sweat neck.
they work in both brighter and darker sounding guitars. that combo will do whatever genre you want from jazz/blues to death metal.

Sounds good KnightBrolaire I’ll have to have a look at the specs for those two. Are they Alnico V’s?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Sounds good KnightBrolaire I’ll have to have a look at the specs for those two. Are they Alnico V’s?

holy diver and vh2 are

 

[Snarpaasi]

Forgot to mention I've tried CS HD and Emerald too. Many recommend Holydiver, sorry to say but it was bright in a weird way and lacked balls. Many say it's dark and can handle everything. I googled it back then and found somebody else having similar thoughts: https://forum.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/index.php?topic=28947.0
Maybe it is an adjustment thing, would like to try again in a different guitar.

Cold Sweat neck is a modern, scooped and very fluid sounding that's great for distorted leads. I can't remember how was it on clean/milder gain. I don't know specs wise but my memory says few years after having CS, I felt Emerald could be a milder version of it. Great pickup for neck but it passsed on with a sold guitar.

Sorry but we can't guide you all the way through My ultimate combo would be Rebel Yell / Emerald based on my the most positive experiences. That's just me.

 

[SoundAsleep7]

Forgot to mention I've tried CS HD and Emerald too. Many recommend Holydiver, sorry to say but it was bright in a weird way and lacked balls. Many say it's dark and can handle everything. I googled it back then and found somebody else having similar thoughts: https://forum.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/index.php?topic=28947.0
Maybe it is an adjustment thing, would like to try again in a different guitar.

Cold Sweat neck is a modern, scooped and very fluid sounding that's great for distorted leads. I can't remember how was it on clean/milder gain. I don't know specs wise but my memory says few years after having CS, I felt Emerald could be a milder version of it. Great pickup for neck but it passsed on with a sold guitar.

Sorry but we can't guide you all the way through My ultimate combo would be Rebel Yell / Emerald based on my the most positive experiences. That's just me.

Thanks Snarpaasi I appreciate all the assistance, guidance and suggestions from you and everybody on sevenstring. Many of you seem to be very knowledgeable with BKPs. I’m wondering what will work best for versatility instead of the one trick pony metal only pickups. I like metal and progressive rock, I just want to be able to have decent cleans. Any other BKPs that come to mind for this application. Juggs may be best?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Forgot to mention I've tried CS HD and Emerald too. Many recommend Holydiver, sorry to say but it was bright in a weird way and lacked balls. Many say it's dark and can handle everything. I googled it back then and found somebody else having similar thoughts: https://forum.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/index.php?topic=28947.0
Maybe it is an adjustment thing, would like to try again in a different guitar.

Cold Sweat neck is a modern, scooped and very fluid sounding that's great for distorted leads. I can't remember how was it on clean/milder gain. I don't know specs wise but my memory says few years after having CS, I felt Emerald could be a milder version of it. Great pickup for neck but it passsed on with a sold guitar.

Sorry but we can't guide you all the way through My ultimate combo would be Rebel Yell / Emerald based on my the most positive experiences. That's just me.

holy diver definitely doesn't lack balls, it still gets super mean and heavy ime, especially if you're running an already gnarly sounding amp.

https://app.box.com/s/tya46gvgku7d0p8emrz7e4c2xn517yvc

 

[SoundAsleep7]

Forgot to mention I've tried CS HD and Emerald too. Many recommend Holydiver, sorry to say but it was bright in a weird way and lacked balls. Many say it's dark and can handle everything. I googled it back then and found somebody else having similar thoughts: https://forum.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/index.php?topic=28947.0
Maybe it is an adjustment thing, would like to try again in a different guitar.

Cold Sweat neck is a modern, scooped and very fluid sounding that's great for distorted leads. I can't remember how was it on clean/milder gain. I don't know specs wise but my memory says few years after having CS, I felt Emerald could be a milder version of it. Great pickup for neck but it passsed on with a sold guitar.

Sorry but we can't guide you all the way through My ultimate combo would be Rebel Yell / Emerald based on my the most positive experiences. That's just me.

I realise that I lean towards Alnico Vs for some reason. Does anyone have any suggestions for good clean and gain pickups from BKP that cover both applications, being good for prog rock? I guess Hoss from Karnivool uses them.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Thanks Snarpaasi I appreciate all the assistance, guidance and suggestions from you and everybody on sevenstring. Many of you seem to be very knowledgeable with BKPs. I’m wondering what will work best for versatility instead of the one trick pony metal only pickups. I like metal and progressive rock, I just want to be able to have decent cleans. Any other BKPs that come to mind for this application. Juggs may be best?

No. The jugg bridge is bloated in the low mids, and their midrange in general isn't aimed at genre spanning versatility. It has a very cocked wah/vocal quality which really can't be dialed out. They're good if you want that modern djent tone and they do have good cleans, but they're not really "do it all" pickups imo. The neck pickup is wonderful for smooth leadwork though.
Holy diver is definitely one of the more versatile bridge pickups in terms of voicing. The impulse bridge is similarly versatile because it has a relatively balanced eq, but has more of a throaty growl to it compared to the holy diver. The only quibble i have with the impulses is that they don't sound quite as good in standard as they do in lower tunings (which is where they really shine imo).

 

[SoundAsleep7]

holy diver definitely doesn't lack balls, it still gets super mean and heavy ime, especially if you're running an already gnarly sounding amp.

https://app.box.com/s/tya46gvgku7d0p8emrz7e4c2xn517yvc

Yeh, I read the post from the bloke with the strat who hated them through the orange and diezel herbert among others. He wanted metal tone, yet seemed unsure how to get it or dial it in. I set my amps (archon, mark v, orthos) as follows: gain 2 o’clock, bass 10 o’clock, mids 2 o’clock, treble 2 o’clock approx. My set of custom hand wound humbuckers by Mick Brierley (Aussie scatter winder) work really well with these amp settings on all these amps. His pickups are based on SD JBs and they are Alnico Vs they have an open natural organic sound in my opinion. Yet I was after something different for the Mayo perhaps a hint of more aggression.

 

[SoundAsleep7]

No. The jugg bridge is bloated in the low mids, and their midrange in general isn't aimed at genre spanning versatility. It has a very cocked wah/vocal quality which really can't be dialed out. They're good if you want that modern djent tone and they do have good cleans, but they're not really "do it all" pickups imo. The neck pickup is wonderful for smooth leadwork though.
Holy diver is definitely one of the more versatile bridge pickups in terms of voicing. The impulse bridge is similarly versatile because it has a relatively balanced eq, but has more of a throaty growl to it compared to the holy diver. The only quibble i have with the impulses is that they don't sound quite as good in standard as they do in lower tunings (which is where they really shine imo).

Thanks KnightBrolaire. I don’t necessarily want to cover 80s rock to everything in between. I’m just after progressive rock clean and gain sounds that may work for modern standard rock, not so much the djent tone. It seems I like a handwound version of jb pickups. Can you think of something in the Alnico V range that is slightly more aggressive under gain than a jb, yet remains clear under clean without ice pick highs? Anything BKP?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Yeh, I read the post from the bloke with the strat who hated them through the orange and diezel herbert among others. He wanted metal tone, yet seemed unsure how to get it or dial it in. I set my amps (archon, mark v, orthos) as follows: gain 2 o’clock, bass 10 o’clock, mids 2 o’clock, treble 2 o’clock approx. My set of custom hand wound humbuckers by Mick Brierley (Aussie scatter winder) work really well with these amp settings on all these amps. His pickups are based on SD JBs and they are Alnico Vs they have an open natural organic sound in my opinion. Yet I was after something different for the Mayo perhaps a hint of more aggression.

yeah if you're trying to get away from the jb sound then I'd say avoid the holy diver or nailbomb sets, both have elements of the jb sound to them.
the black dogs are a good choice if you want a pickup that has an aggressive voice but cleans up well and uses alnico mags. they have a growly throatiness to their midrange which pairs wonderfully with mesas. the low end isn't as tight as the holy diver and it feels brighter on the high end, so it can need some taming in brighter guitars.

 

[SoundAsleep7]

yeah if you're trying to get away from the jb sound then I'd say avoid the holy diver or nailbomb sets, both have elements of the jb sound to them.
the black dogs are a good choice if you want a pickup that has an aggressive voice but cleans up well and uses alnico mags. they have a growly throatiness to their midrange which pairs wonderfully with mesas. the low end isn't as tight as the holy diver and it feels brighter on the high end, so it can need some taming in brighter guitars.

Thanks KnightsBrolaire, I don’t mind elements of JBs, I suppose I’m after a more aggressive version of a JB if such a pickup exists. I don’t necessarily want to get away from them, I want to enhance them if that is at all possible. Perhaps by making a set more aggressive somehow. I’ll give you an example of my thinking; I started with a mesa mark v for cleans and gains and realised I wanted a more aggressive gain channel with a nice clean and end up with a prs archon. Then I wanted a more aggressive gain with a nice clean and end up with an orthos. The custom jbs work really well with all amps how I have them dialled. Now I just want a more aggressive pickup that still works on the clean.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Thanks KnightBrolaire. I don’t necessarily want to cover 80s rock to everything in between. I’m just after progressive rock clean and gain sounds that may work for modern standard rock, not so much the djent tone. It seems I like a handwound version of jb pickups. Can you think of something in the Alnico V range that is slightly more aggressive under gain than a jb, yet remains clear under clean without ice pick highs? Anything BKP?

there's 3 main slightly JB flavored pickups that bkp makes but they all do very different things.
1. holy diver- removes the infamous JB midrange honk, tightens up the low end, relatively versatile, solid cleans. the most balanced of the 3 soundwise, but also the least aggressive in terms of voicing.
2. nailbomb- decent cleans, retains that JB midrange to an extent, bigger low end and rawer/more aggressive sound than the hd. That rawness is both really great for late 70s classic rock riffage (think Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak), or super aggressive metal (John Browne from Monuments has used them forever).
3. painkiller -worst cleans of the bunch, horrendously bright in the wrong guitar, but it's really great for high gain pummeling metal riffage (if you can handle the high end being kind of hairy). Honestly this one is closer to a duncan distortion than to the JB due to the greasy high end and tighter low end.

If you're open to other pickups then i'd really suggest something like the black dog or impulse. Both of those offer more aggressive voicings than the holy diver, but can still cover a great deal of tonal range.

 

[SoundAsleep7]

I’ll keep the holy diver and nail bomb in mind. I wonder if BKPs are handwired?