Pickup recommendations?
I've just bought a great Gordon Smith SG, with a single EMG81 in the bridge. I actually quite like the sound of EMGs - not for everyone I know, but after abad experience with one dying pre-gig a few years back I've avoided active pickups as a rule. So, I'm going to replace it. My initial plan was a BKP Warpig, which I have in my other SG, but then I thought - I'll have two guitars which sound identical, and secondly as awesome as BKP are they are very pricey. So I'm looking into alternatives. I previously used Seymour Duncan Invaders, which I still like. I've heard good things about Duncan Distortion HBs too. Any suggestions? It would have to be something that does "heavy" well - nice cleans are always cool but not the be all and end all for me. Anyone used Swinehead or Pigirons?

I was looking at these as possible candidate for that Epi SG body(I can't swing the BKP's till next year, prolly): http://store.guitarfetish.com/vintagestyle.html

They've been getting rave reviews over on stonerrock. Cheap too. Gotta be black for my none-more-black SG though!

Spray paint em for that extra crusty punk rock look!

I always find that arthouse cinemas, Waitrose/John Lewis, bookshops, art galleries, antiques markets are good pickup recommedations :lol:

I know these are uber (with an umlau) expensive, but they are more than worth it. WCR pickups are the only ones I would ever put in any humbucker guitar. Just my two cents.

Wolfetone's humbuckers are supposed to be really good. Tommy here on the forum can probably chime in about them - I'm quite sure he has experience with them. http://www.wolfetone.com/productsandpricing.html

I'd really recommend dropping a line to Andy at Wizard Pickups http://www.wizardpickups.co.uk/index.asp Very cool guy and amazing pickups made to spec.

out of curiosity, how does the invader compare to the warpig? i've been considering putting one into my strat as i now have an expendable income to buy nice things

I have always been a big fan of Jason Lollar and Lindy Fralin. Some others of note worth checking out include: WB Pickups and the RS Guitar works RS/Fralin set. Hope this helps.

I think Hayden's Bulldog Pickups are excellent, though they aren't cheap, they're certainly well worth checking out. As are Bare Knuckles, but again, they aint cheap. I hear that those Wizard Pickups are supposed to be pretty good, as are those Shed Pickups. www.bulldogpickups.com www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk www.shedpickups.co.uk

Aye Muzz, Chris has a Bulldog P90 in his Les Paul and it's dynamite. Insanely loud!!! I'm thinking I may still go down the BKP route. Maybe a Nailbomb, to have something different to the Warpig in my other SG. Is it Miracle Man you have?

Ceramic pickup magnets are evil... but not in the good way evil... if you know what I mean... I'm confused already... :? I've got a set of Emerald's in the Tokai (superb pickups), and a set of Crawler's waiting to go into something. I think that both the Emerald's and the Crawler's are seriously underestimated, great sounding pickups, the Crawler's bridge output is very similar to that of the Nailbomb. Saying that, ask Hayden about his "hot Alnico 5" pickups that he doesn't have advertised on his site. There's a set in Iceman #1, the bridge puts out something like 15.8k and they sound HUGE! Just watch those vids from our DMI set to hear them.

Hot Alnico sounds good. Your tone on that DMI is massive alright. I like ceramic magnets as it happens - my Warpig is a custom ceramic. What is it people don't like about them??

FWIW, I think Ceramic's produce a "colder" more kind of clinical tone with a harsh edge, great for metal riffery/high gain noodling/shred etc. Alnico magnets tend to produce a slightly softer, warmer kind of tone, more in keeping with the classic sounds we all know and love. On the heavier side of things, I think an Alnico sounds better with a dirty valve amp than the ceramic's, which tend to sound better with cleaner amp settings, where you have a pedal providing the dirt (or if you're using something something like an active EMG to boost the front end signal). My tuppence ha'pennies worth, but tone is always completely subjective, and a lot of people like ceramic magnets.