Pickups with the Mark V

[discordance_axis]

Hello everyone.

Does anyone have any tips for some pickups that sound nice with the mark V. I'm a little un-experienced when it comes to pickups. The main guitar I am using at the moment has EMG's (81/85) and while I like the high output they seem slightly high on treble and a little harsh. I am always on the lookout for something really warm sounding, still with high output, more bass and mids that cut through. From what I've read the crunchlab / liquifire seems like a winner. Just hoping some of you guys could give me a heads up before I pull out my wallet.

Cheers dudes.

 

[paulg2uk]

Hello everyone.

Does anyone have any tips for some pickups that sound nice with the mark V. I'm a little un-experienced when it comes to pickups. The main guitar I am using at the moment has EMG's (81/85) and while I like the high output they seem slightly high on treble and a little harsh. I am always on the lookout for something really warm sounding, still with high output, more bass and mids that cut through. From what I've read the crunchlab / liquifire seems like a winner. Just hoping some of you guys could give me a heads up before I pull out my wallet.

Cheers dudes.

I've had the crunch lab and the liquifire in one of my les paul's before that sounded pretty tight. And also they cut thru quite a bit.
Also I have EMG's in another les paul 60/81 combination.

I've heard good things about the James Hetfield set that's just come out from EMG. Think they run a little hotter than the 60/81 he used to used in his guitars. I've got some seymour duncan's in one of my slash les paul's which sound really awesome and I've had some experience with gibson's burst buckers they sound a bit more vintage though. I think it depends on the guitar really at the end of the day.

Hope that helps a little

 

[Jackie]

Do you have the 85 in the bridge and 81 in the neck? If so, try swapping them. My friend had the 85B/81N combo and I helped him swap it and he has been happy with it ever since.

ToneZone's a warm sounding pickup to my ears. Look it up and see how it fits you.

Oh, if money's not a big factor I suggest trying BareKnuckles pickups. I have NOT heard a single bad thing about them yet. Give Tim a call and I think you can work something out.

 

[screamingdaisy]

What style of music are you going for?

One thing that can help is backing the pickup away from the strings a bit. EMGs have really low magnetic pull, so you can set them really close to the strings and not pull them out of tune like a passive will... which is fine if you have a really light touch on the guitar. If you're a heavy picker you'll overdrive the preamp that's built into the EMG and create some harshness. Adjusting the pickup so that it's further from the strings reduces this.

 

[littleguitar]

of, course, liquifire and crunchlab, D sonic, air norton, DSV and DSH + Suhr, Burstbucker Gibson, SH 4 and 2 Duncan's no matter, ererything sounds good with MK V
depending of what kind of sound you want to nail !

 

[K-Roll]

I've had a BKP painkiller with the mark 5 it sounded too shrill/icepicky.. it was too powefull and it overdrove the clean channel a bit too.. my guitar is a 7string mahogany body/wenge top + pao fero neck with 2 ebony stipes+ ebony board.. lots of ebony and I'd say it sounds like a les paul custom with even more presence and high cut which just did not work that great with the mk5 but I swapped the painkiller for a holydiver and it did what I wanted.. a full bodied sound, no harsh trebles, maybe a little too fat cause now I've got all my bass pots on 0 too much of a day/night change.. so what I am abou to do is get a BKP nailbomb which should be something in between those two..
It really depends on the style you play+ the neck wood/fretboard in the first place and then the body wood itself

 

[discordance_axis]

Woah. Thats a load of useful information, thankyou.

The EMG 81 is in the bridge and the 85 is in the neck so I might try switching them. The current band I am in is post-rock so i have no particular set tone, that said i am a big fan of JP's tone. I am just looking for the warmest and smoothest meduim to high gain tones possible for lead and rhythm and the Mark V can really deliver that. I have similar settings to JP on the mark V, but i've found myself backing off some of the highs. i'm not sure if it's due to the EMG's but I'm excited to experiment with others.

Thanks again.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Woah. Thats a load of useful information, thankyou.

The EMG 81 is in the bridge and the 85 is in the neck so I might try switching them. The current band I am in is post-rock so i have no particular set tone, that said i am a big fan of JP's tone. I am just looking for the warmest and smoothest meduim to high gain tones possible for lead and rhythm and the Mark V can really deliver that. I have similar settings to JP on the mark V, but i've found myself backing off some of the highs. i'm not sure if it's due to the EMG's but I'm excited to experiment with others.

Thanks again.

I found the JP settings to be extremely bright, even with passive pickups. With Mark IV mode I run my treble around 10:30 and the presence around 9:30. I've seen various settings off Hetfield's amps and he seems to be doing something similar, as does Willie from Lamb of God.

 

[primeholy]

When I got my lp std, I hated the burstbuckers in it(coming from a lp studio). I liked the pickups more from my studio. The burstbuckers are pretty **** bright, while the ones in the studio were smooth and more compressed? I think the studio had a 490T and a 490R in it, but not sure. Whatever came stock with the guitar.

 

[BrownieD2W]

I found the JP settings to be extremely bright, even with passive pickups. With Mark IV mode I run my treble around 10:30 and the presence around 9:30. I've seen various settings off Hetfield's amps and he seems to be doing something similar, as does Willie from Lamb of God.

In regards to Hetfield, do you mean currently, or back in the day. Because if you are talking about back in the day, I always thought Hetfield pretty much kept the treble fixed on 7 with his IIC+'s at least for recording. I have seen a couple pics floating around that show his Black Album era settings and he did dial back the treble to 4ish I think, but he compensated for that by boosting the treble frequencies with the GEQ, whereas when he kept it around 7 he kept the GEQ Sliders (2200,6600) on or barely above the middle line. Just saying all this because I was under the impression that Hetfield has always kept a good bit of treble in his sound.

In regards to the OP, I have two guitars with 81's in the bridge position, and one is a bit more harsh than the other, so I am wondering what specific guitar you have your EMG's in??

I have them in a Gibson Explorer, and a Epiphone Les Paul, and the Epi seems to be harsher than the Explorer, not 100% sure why, but I have my educated guesses. Anyway, I really like the way they sound with the Mark V, but both of these guitars are on the heavier side, I have tried a friends ESP Eclipse (EMG 81-bridge as well), and it was like a lightweight in comparison to my two heavyweights and I did not like the sound at all, it was harsh and shrill and kind of flubby at the same time, it was weird.

Anyway, some other suggestions of pickups if you are kind of wanting the output of an Active but the warmth of a Passive is some of the Seymour Duncan Actives. The Blackouts or the Dave Mustaine Livewires. I haven't tried the Blackouts with the Mark V, but the basic concept of the Blackouts and DM-Livewires is kind of what you said you were looking for. And I can say the Dave Mustaine Pickups sound great with the Mark V, they really do have seem to hit the active-passive sound perfectly. They really get into the classic rock sound well, with kind of a good tone for Ted Nugent type tones, but they are also great for the Megadeth/Thrash/Speed Metal tones of course. They are in general a good deal more open sounding than the EMG's, so you might really want to consider something like that for what you want. Just a thought. Anyway Good luck to you with whatever you decide to get.

 

[boogieman88]

I run an EMG 81 (Bridge) & 60 (Neck) in all my guitars; ESP Eclipse-II FR, Charvel USA Production Model So-Cal, and a Peavey HP Special. For me, those pickups give me such a wonderfully clean and quiet slate to work with. I find they allow me to dial in any kind of sound/tone much quicker, quieter, and faster than passives did. They are pretty straight foward and I like how I don't have to battle the V and pickup for balance like I did with the tons of passives I tried. When I bought the V I swapped pups constantly, trying finding the perfect pickup to compliment the versatility of the amp. Those two did it for me. Although I like the EMG 85, it doesn't work as well for me in the Bridge position as the 81 does; and I hate the 85 in the neck of all my guitars as I find it has nothing on the harmonic overtones of the 60 in the neck or the cleanliness of the 81 in the bridge. The 60 in the neck has such a nice, fat, sustainey, and vintagey openess to it for playing old school rythem or high gain solo, and the 81 can pretty much take care of anything you throw at it though the amp.

Passive Pickups I've Tried With The V:
1) DiMarzio Tone Zone (Bridge) - Muddy and Bodiless; in my opinoin, the worst bridge pickup I have ever tried. The only way I could get it to sound useable with the V was to adjust the bass side low and raise the poll pieces. That got old, especially when there was no payoff.
2) DiMarzio Crunch Lab (Bridge) - Huge sounding! Nice detail and oddly hot and vintage sounding at the same time. Nice bridge position pickup, although I would recommend not facing the bar toward the neck with the V; too bassy imo.
3) DiMarzio LiquiFire (Neck) - Most close to the EMG 60's tone from what I can remember, only it is a passive and. Very warm and nice clean tones. Cool overtones and very fast tracking with leads.
4) DiMarzio Evolution (Neck) - Same opinion as the Tone Zone.
5) Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon (Bridge) - Excellent passive pickup. It is so darn clean that it's hard not to like. Beautiful midrange (hard to describe). It's hot, yet has a vintagey/old school openess. Amazing tone/sound all around.
5) Seymour Duncan Little '59 (Neck) - I love the '59 in the neck position of every guitar I've had them in. I don't like the "mini" version as much although it does split very well/clean! Did not like it so much for quick leads.

For me and my style (Rush, Van-Halen, '80s, Jazz, with tons of cheezey chorus and delay all the time) nothing beats the EMG 81 (Bridge) and 60 (Neck). Some people dislike the "compressed" sound of EMG's; I love it. Also, If you want to meet in the middle, ala Passive and Active, you could always go for an EMG 81 X series or just do an 18volt mod to a regualr EMG. Other option would be Seymour Duncan Blackouts. They are supposed to have a nice "bridge" between the gap so to speak. Just some food for thought.

 

[boogieman88]

Oh I did have a USA Peavey HP Special (before I traded it for a Mark IV); the pickups in that guitar were so awsome. They obviously nailed the EVH sound, but did a whole lot of other stuff very well. Once again hot, but open/vintagey sounding pickups. They split the best I've ever hear a Humbucker split (on the clean channel.) You'd be fooled to think it wasn't an acoustic plugged in somewhere when I split both Bridge and Neck together on the clean channel. Those pickups are pretty much based on the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop '78 Model. A ton of other companies (including Fender's EVH Brand) make these "style" pickups as well. For passives, I enjoyed Seymour Duncan (overall) for the overall cleanliness, crunch, openess and all around versatility for different styles of music. DiMarzio's in general were great for leads and some were great for cleans, but didn't work so well for anything else that I did. Like I said, the "brown sound" pickup (that every company seems to make a model of) sounded so good as well. "Hot" PAF style pickups in general sound good with the V.

I run an EMG 81 (Bridge) & 60 (Neck) in all my guitars; ESP Eclipse-II FR, Charvel USA Production Model So-Cal, and a Peavey HP Special. For me, those pickups give me such a wonderfully clean and quiet slate to work with. I find they allow me to dial in any kind of sound/tone much quicker, quieter, and faster than passives did. They are pretty straight foward and I like how I don't have to battle the V and pickup for balance like I did with the tons of passives I tried. When I bought the V I swapped pups constantly, trying finding the perfect pickup to compliment the versatility of the amp. Those two did it for me. Although I like the EMG 85, it doesn't work as well for me in the Bridge position as the 81 does; and I hate the 85 in the neck of all my guitars as I find it has nothing on the harmonic overtones of the 60 in the neck or the cleanliness of the 81 in the bridge. The 60 in the neck has such a nice, fat, sustainey, and vintagey openess to it for playing old school rythem or high gain solo, and the 81 can pretty much take care of anything you throw at it though the amp.

Passive Pickups I've Tried With The V:
1) DiMarzio Tone Zone (Bridge) - Muddy and Bodiless; in my opinoin, the worst bridge pickup I have ever tried. The only way I could get it to sound useable with the V was to adjust the bass side low and raise the poll pieces. That got old, especially when there was no payoff.
2) DiMarzio Crunch Lab (Bridge) - Huge sounding! Nice detail and oddly hot and vintage sounding at the same time. Nice bridge position pickup, although I would recommend not facing the bar toward the neck with the V; too bassy imo.
3) DiMarzio LiquiFire (Neck) - Most close to the EMG 60's tone from what I can remember, only it is a passive and. Very warm and nice clean tones. Cool overtones and very fast tracking with leads.
4) DiMarzio Evolution (Neck) - Same opinion as the Tone Zone.
5) Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon (Bridge) - Excellent passive pickup. It is so darn clean that it's hard not to like. Beautiful midrange (hard to describe). It's hot, yet has a vintagey/old school openess. Amazing tone/sound all around.
5) Seymour Duncan Little '59 (Neck) - I love the '59 in the neck position of every guitar I've had them in. I don't like the "mini" version as much although it does split very well/clean! Did not like it so much for quick leads.

For me and my style (Rush, Van-Halen, '80s, Jazz, with tons of cheezey chorus and delay all the time) nothing beats the EMG 81 (Bridge) and 60 (Neck). Some people dislike the "compressed" sound of EMG's; I love it. Also, If you want to meet in the middle, ala Passive and Active, you could always go for an EMG 81 X series or just do an 18volt mod to a regualr EMG. Other option would be Seymour Duncan Blackouts. They are supposed to have a nice "bridge" between the gap so to speak. Just some food for thought.

 

[Neptical]

Dimarzio D-Activators Bridge/Neck set.

They appear to be everything your looking for in pups.

Everything the EMGs can do and more (and alot better imho). Big,warm,they cut real nice,and with the perfect amount of bass response. High output as well. Perfect hand and hand combo with the Mark V.

 

[MusicManJP6]

The D-Activators are great! I have one in a 1 pickup/1 volume cheap little strat drop tuned guitar and it slays!

 

[Neptical]

The D-Activators are great! I have one in a 1 pickup/1 volume cheap little strat drop tuned guitar and it slays!

Right on! 8)

 

[FFFDFEFRFKFFF]

I'm doing a cover band right now and it sounds like it may be close to what you're after and here's what I've tried...

85 B/60 N WITH 18V Gibson Explorer - does the 80's thing very well and is just too much for anything less than hair metal

SD Alternative 8 B/'59 N Gibson SG - awesome, awesome tone for anything from Kansas to Jet to Rush to metal. I actually used this to record the rhythm tracks for an old band's demo and they were beefy and heavy but still open and airy

Dimarzio ToneZone POS Jackson Dinky - I gutted this and just put an OFR and one humbucker and I only use it for hair metal and it works well but I can't help but feel it is just blah in terms of tone

Bill Lawrence XL500 B/L500C N Gibson V- great pickups and the clean neck pickup is great and works good for anything but the bridge can get a little screechy on my normal settings but the clarity adds a lot for down tuning

Burstbucker 2 B/ 1 /N Gibson Thunderhorse - my main guitar right now and while I desperately want to replace the pickups, since I'm a tweaker, they're awesome for rock and I play everything from Van Halen to Audioslave/Rage to old Ozzy and they are tight/loose enough for each

SD Dave Mustaine set - regardless of what anyone says for an active they are absolutely amazing to me, very open and clear. I hate to copy every ad ever done about modern actives but they really are like the best of both active and passives that I've ever gotten to play with...still waiting on the Het Set though.

 

[Triple Cheeseburger]

currently got the EMG 81 & 85 set and looking for a change. i would love to hear from someone who is using Bareknuckle Aftermaths. I am rocking an ESP eclipse but the fatter bodied one, otherwise i would go the warpig but apparently the aftermath is better for thicker guitars?

 

[zilla]

Here are the combos that I've tried:

Ibanez rg550: had a dimarzio evolution in the bridge originally and I hated it. I swapped with with a Dimarzio Breed and haven't looked back. The neck and middle pups are stock. this is a great all-round set up, especially for lead work.

PRS SE Torero: EMG 81/85. great for hard rock and metal.

PRS SE 245: stock pups. lots of mids and cuts through. i have to dial back the treble a little bit. I've been thinking about swapping these with the Stew-Mac overwound Golden Age pups or some Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells or Suhr Doug Aldrich pups.

EVH Wolfgang Special: stock pups. LOTS of mids and highs. These pups can be a little over the top, but when you dial it in it's great for everything.

home made thing: Tom Anderson HSS pups. awesome for lead work, but they can get a bit muddy when you're doing a lot of rhythm work on the lower strings. Not that great for drop tunings, either. very nice warm tone.

 

[Masterof1angel]

wouldn't it be nice if... Wow idea. Why doesn't somebody invent a plug that lets you use different pickups. Every guitar store could have one and you can audition pickups by putting them in the hole in the audition guitar or something!
-Angel

 

[smd24fan]

of, course, liquifire and crunchlab, D sonic, air norton, DSV and DSH + Suhr, Burstbucker Gibson, SH 4 and 2 Duncan's no matter, ererything sounds good with MK V
depending of what kind of sound you want to nail !

+1 on the Suhr pickups. I love their pickups, both humbuckers and the single coils. Great harmonics and lots of punch. Not a big fan of actives, but that's strictly my personal opinion.