Best pickup for grunge, hard rock, metal

[Ides of March]

Been reading up about some of these boutique pickups, Shep, WB's Skatterbrane's, and I am curious to know if there types I should check out for the styles I mentioned above. I have the classic 57's in my trad and would love to have something with more balls and grit to it. But I am clueless about most of these pickups.

[Kate033]

Out of those you listed, I believe Shep and Skatterbrane specialize more in the lower output PAF end of the scale, although I believe Skat has a new higher output set. Doesn't mean they won't work for you though. WB is a good choice, but if it were me, I would look first to Bare Knuckle. Tim over at BK is great to work with. He's very experienced in the metal/hard rock side of music and has designed an excellent selection of higher output pickups with that in mind. I would check out their site and the BK forum for more info on each model.

[Ides of March]

Ok I will check out the Bare Knuckle site, thanks Kate..

[MrRhoads]

I could be wrong but i think the Green Day guitarrist has used a Gibson Dirty Fingers, not sure.
Thoose 57classic are great pickups IMO

[Ides of March]

Originally Posted by MrRhoads

I could be wrong but i think the Green Day guitarrist has used a Gibson Dirty Fingers, not sure.
Thoose 57classic are great pickups IMO

I have been having a debate with myself pretty much between my Studio and my Trad. Trying to figure what pups I like better the 57's or the 490/498. I am still involved in this. I do like the 57's one of the main reasons I bought the trad, but sometimes I don't know if they are best for some metal or grunge, hard rock stuff. Figured maybe there was a better option.

[captcoolaid]

Firewaters or firewater +

[Splattle101]

The PAF style pickups will be brighter, and they might also have more output than their DC resistance measurement alone would suggest. Skatterbrane has explained why in a couple of threads in this forum, and Dave Stephens has been discussing this in the 'Best PAF clone' thread.

So what you could expect with a good PAF clone is a bright pickup that is rather aggressive and quite high in output, regardless of resistance reading. If you then use your tone control you could make it sound like an overwound 'hot' pickup.

But a modern 'high output' pickup might suit your rig better. If you're going to go for really high amounts of gain, you might need a potted pickup, which excludes your high-end PAF clones.

[kissfanps]

Originally Posted by captcoolaid

Firewaters or firewater +

Is this a typo or is there another kind of firewaters out there?

[Frails]

IMO, WB Firewaters or even UV20's. Incidentally, I have a UV20 bridge I could sell to you.

[kevinT]

You probably would want a pickup with more output for that type of rock. 14k Ohm to 16k Ohm range. With an A5 or ceramic mag.

[Z.K.]

Originally Posted by Ides of March

I have been having a debate with myself pretty much between my Studio and my Trad. Trying to figure what pups I like better the 57's or the 490/498. I am still involved in this. I do like the 57's one of the main reasons I bought the trad, but sometimes I don't know if they are best for some metal or grunge, hard rock stuff. Figured maybe there was a better option.

My traditional can do metal just fine...I raised the bridge pickup and matched the radius with the pole piece(u don't have to do this step if u don't want to). I think the magnet is not as strong as a ceramic magnet so you can pull it up closer, without getting those overtones you might get with a stronger magnet...unless you want to play Slayer all the time, I'd say the 57 classic + works fine for metal /hard rock.
-

[kevinT]

I would also consider you're amp in the equation. If you have a solid state amp, even a high output pickup with an A2 mag would sound great without being harsh like A5 and ceramic can be at times.

Pickups with A5 and ceramic mags, I think, sound better running them through tube amps.