Emgs, Duncan Distortions/Screamin Demon, many of the Dimarzios, maybe the Tonerider Generator if you're on a tight budget, it's more hair metal sounding though, not super tight. My brutal guitar has a Crunch Lab in the bridge. Amazing pup.

Go Dimarzio ? They rule...

Crunch Lab is a great call, my personal favourite combo is the Air Norton and D-Sonic on a 5-way. 8) Cruise control for cool ?

I upgraded the stock pups in my V with EMG HZ's. Fraction of the price for a 81/60 set as played by Hetfield and the Kerry King EMG set. Never looked back, the bridge pup rips you face off and the neck pup drowns you in a big fat "distortion ocean"....the neck pup is even good for blues. They even look good with the flat black finish of your Explorer.

It's much of a muchness IMO especially if you don't have a nice amp. Hi-gain sounds are 80% amp anyway.

Explorerlover wrote: I upgraded the stock pups in my V with EMG HZ's. Fraction of the price for a 81/60 set as played by Hetfield and the Kerry King EMG set. Never looked back, the bridge pup rips you face off and the neck pup drowns you in a big fat "distortion ocean"....the neck pup is even good for blues. They even look good with the flat black finish of your Explorer.

I played a guitar with those once. My Seymour Duncans (JB, Alnico II Pro) were MUCH better, even for metal.

ezietsman wrote:

Explorerlover wrote: I upgraded the stock pups in my V with EMG HZ's. Fraction of the price for a 81/60 set as played by Hetfield and the Kerry King EMG set. Never looked back, the bridge pup rips you face off and the neck pup drowns you in a big fat "distortion ocean"....the neck pup is even good for blues. They even look good with the flat black finish of your Explorer.

I played a guitar with those once. My Seymour Duncans (JB, Alnico II Pro) were MUCH better, even for metal.

The only real question is...

ezietsman wrote:
I played a guitar with those once. My Seymour Duncans (JB, Alnico II Pro) were MUCH better, even for metal.

No for sure, just mentioned what worked for me

Explorerlover wrote:

ezietsman wrote:
I played a guitar with those once. My Seymour Duncans (JB, Alnico II Pro) were MUCH better, even for metal.

No for sure, just mentioned what worked for me

My comment was my opinion of course ?


@Hammeron, Don't listen to us. We all mostly just chose pickups based on what our heroes played (and maybe some of the smart ones looked for clips of the different pups to hear what they sound like). If you go with any of the bigger brands you'll be fine, especially if you use their 'standard' hard rock types. New pickups are kinda expensive but makes a massive difference if your guitar is equipped with stock ones (this applies to budget guitars in general, my Korean Epi came with shockingly bad pickups.)

Tonerider Generator set! Go look at what they're selling a set for. You won't be sorry. I've got a Generator set and they absolutely cook! I prefer them over Duncans and Dimarzios. ?

Hammeron i listened to your tracks on myspace and yr tone is great imho..... not sure you going to achieve much by changing pups except a notable drop in yr bank balance.

Floydoid wrote: Tonerider Generator set! Go look at what they're selling a set for. You won't be sorry. I've got a Generator set and they absolutely cook! I prefer them over Duncans and Dimarzios. ?

Ooooooohhweeee !

The Generators indeed COOK!
:woohoo: :woohoo:

Explorerlover wrote: I upgraded the stock pups in my V with EMG HZ's. Fraction of the price for a 81/60 set as played by Hetfield and the Kerry King EMG set. Never looked back, the bridge pup rips you face off and the neck pup drowns you in a big fat "distortion ocean"....the neck pup is even good for blues. They even look good with the flat black finish of your Explorer.

Hmmm my Cort VX-2V has EMG-HZ stock and I quite like them but am thinking of selling the guitar, how much did the EMG-HZ pups cost for a set? and where can i find specs on them?

I has mine done at Music Connection and I think they quoted me a grand including installation back in the day

Chad Adam Browne wrote: Go Dimarzio ? They rule...

Crunch Lab is a great call, my personal favourite combo is the Air Norton and D-Sonic on a 5-way. 8) Cruise control for cool ?

+1. I use an Air Norton & Tone zone combo, and IMO it kicks a$$

I love DiMarzio's in general. The Tone Zone/ Air Norton combo works great for me up to and including metal. For heavy riffing my current favourite without a doubt is the EMG 81/60 combo in my ESP...
I'd rather spend money on upgrading to a decent high gain tube amp before upgrading pups, though...

The 81/60 combo is what Hetfield uses, right?
Probably set one back a few bucks, yea?

My Hetfield signature ESP came with the 81/60 combo as standard. They're great for high gain "heavy riffing" but especially the 60 has a great clean tone as well. Many say EMG's are sterile sounding... I believed that until I was able acquire my first EMG fitted guitar. My ESP produces some of the finest tones both clean and distorted of all my guitars. I've definitely become an EMG fan, but you should run them through a warm valve amp for best effect imo...

Hammeron wrote: The 81/60 combo is what Hetfield uses, right?
Probably set one back a few bucks, yea?

Yeah that's what Hetfield uses, it's also what 99% of generic sounding Metal bands use as well...

Just saying it's a bit overdone ?

Personally I'm not an EMG fan, and I've found that I also am a part of the group of people Zark is talking about. I have an RG2228 with EMGs in it, maybe they're just different in 8-string guitars but I've found the cleans to be flat and almost HI-FI which I kinda like but they definitly aren't warm in the traditional sense. Also I hate the distorted tone, I just find they're too flat and I like the throatyness in the midrange that I feel my passives just deliver more naturally to me.

I've found with my RG2228 all the patches I've made need to be custom tailored to it, whereas all my other guitars I can swop out randomly with each others patches and immediately they sound good, different in character but still nice.

Dimarzio will be releasing passive 8 string pickups in March though, then my life will be improved :woohoo:

My Warlock has a single SD DP100 Dimarzio humbucker in it and I wouldn't change it for the world. It has so much balls and for a Rythm guitar, I wouldn't put anything else in there, no fancy switches, just volume and tone and loaaaaaaaaaaaaaads of sustain.

I've listened to guidopimp's Seymour Duncan Invader HB playing through his HIWATT 100watt and that is probably a future upgrade for one of my other guitars.

As for EMG..........I've had the 81-85 in an old jackson and I wasn't that impressed for a high dollar item like that.