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wwhhhaatt « CRUNCH! »
Published on 04/19/11 at 07:55I have the distortion installed in the bridge position of an ESP Eclipse standard (mahogany body and neck, maple top, rosewood fingerboard) to replace the stock Duncan JB. I mainly run it through a Framus Cobra tube amp and sometimes with an H&K triamp or Peavey 5150.
I bought this pickup on a suggestion from a fellow eclipse user when I was looking for something with a similar output to the JB but with A smoother top end, tighter bass, and more beef. In this guitar that is exactly what you get. The pickup has a great crunch and top end that allows you to cut through mixes without the harsh quack sound of the JB. In low to mid gain settings it gets a very classic sound then just gets meaner and meaner when turning the gain up. The bass is tight to the point that you really have to tighten up your right hand technique because any slop will show but it's very rewarding when you lock into some double bass and everything just pummels out into the crowd. Chord work retains definition in high gain settings again to the point of exposing any slop in your playing.
The one area I don't think it excels at is lead work. Fast flurries are well defined but it's missing the fluid sound I like in single note runs and it just sounds A little plain. I will not do leads on this pickup without some sort of verb or delay otherwise it just sounds empty to me. I will admit I love effects so I may just be biased to a wet lead sound.
Overall I would definitely try this in other guitars. I think it's tailor made for the classic LP wood configuration and any lack of lead sound can be made up for with a nice neck pickup.
I bought this pickup on a suggestion from a fellow eclipse user when I was looking for something with a similar output to the JB but with A smoother top end, tighter bass, and more beef. In this guitar that is exactly what you get. The pickup has a great crunch and top end that allows you to cut through mixes without the harsh quack sound of the JB. In low to mid gain settings it gets a very classic sound then just gets meaner and meaner when turning the gain up. The bass is tight to the point that you really have to tighten up your right hand technique because any slop will show but it's very rewarding when you lock into some double bass and everything just pummels out into the crowd. Chord work retains definition in high gain settings again to the point of exposing any slop in your playing.
The one area I don't think it excels at is lead work. Fast flurries are well defined but it's missing the fluid sound I like in single note runs and it just sounds A little plain. I will not do leads on this pickup without some sort of verb or delay otherwise it just sounds empty to me. I will admit I love effects so I may just be biased to a wet lead sound.
Overall I would definitely try this in other guitars. I think it's tailor made for the classic LP wood configuration and any lack of lead sound can be made up for with a nice neck pickup.