[xavier]

I have an Ibanez RGA8. I want a pickup that can provide skull crushing metal break down sounds like meshuggah but also be able to give a death melodic thrash tone when I shred and play stuff like COB and Arch enemy with screaming solos. lundgren, bare knuckles, others? money isn't a problem! any ideas will help me out!
I have a feeling this is a stupid question!

 

[budda]

Your amp is going to determine if you get anywhere near meshuggah and arch enemy a lot more than your pickup is, fyi.

I'm willing to bet with proper EQ'ing, the stock pickup (EMG808?) will get the job done.

 

[eleven59]

The EMG808 is alright, but not great. IIRC, the RGA8 has some sort of Ibanez pickups in it with a weird pre-amp. The SD Blackouts would sound even better than the EMGs. Anything else will take some work to make them fit and look right.

 

[frankfalbo]

The Blackouts 8-string have a cool thing going on in the middle strings where as you come up from the F#, the strings slowly start to sound more like 6-string guitar pickups. The midrange is very "guitar like" but then it doesn't make the low end sound weak or flubby. The low end is huge and the clarity across multiple strings in a chord is great. It's a safe bet to start with Blackouts IMO, then if you need more versatility from there, you start looking at tone shaping preamps, or custom made pickups. You can use the 8-string Blackouts with one of our Basslines on-board EQ's. In fact, the Blackouts for Bass 2-band EQ would probably be cool. Monday (now that I just thought of it) I'm going to put one in our Schecter and try it out!

 

[eleven59]

^ A cool idea for sure. :yesway: And that's really interesting about the 8-string Blackouts, since that's always been a problem I've had with a lot of 7+ string pickups: they either sound great on the low strings and weak everywhere else, or great everywhere else and muddy on the low strings.

 

[F1Filter]

Frank you got a PM

 

[1]

The 808 is, in my experience, a one-trick pony. I plan to try the BO's in my RGA8 as well.

 

[MFB]

The 808 is, in my experience, a one-trick pony. I plan to try the BO's in my RGA8 as well.

Dimarzio won't do Blazes in an 8 string form?

 

[xavier]

i just dont want to spend money and time on something il regret. custom pickups sound great to me. from what i hear blackouts suck compared to emgs. this is actually the first place i see someone saying bo's are better than emgs on 8 strings. of coure i would need the right eq's. amps are a whole different story i cant set myself with the right amp. 6505 plus head and a boogie cab is all i can really think of.

 

[xavier]

The 808 is, in my experience, a one-trick pony. I plan to try the BO's in my RGA8 as well.

just wondering. dif you do any tweaking with your rga when you first got it? like the action or something?

 

[TheSixthWheel]

i just dont want to spend money and time on something il regret. custom pickups sound great to me. from what i hear blackouts suck compared to emgs. this is actually the first place i see someone saying bo's are better than emgs on 8 strings. of coure i would need the right eq's. amps are a whole different story i cant set myself with the right amp. 6505 plus head and a boogie cab is all i can really think of.

Decisions of spending money on things you MIGHT regret is what life is all about....learning for yourself and not leaving it up to HC reviews to sway your purchase.

EMG's better than Blackouts? If by better you mean less dynamic, more compressed, more sterile and much less headroom then I'm with you 100%.

The whole 'better' thing is always going to be way open to interpretation, it's completely subjective. It's like suggesting that your tone is better than somebody else's - we all look for different tones, and we sure as shit don't all agree on pickups.

And what I'm about to say is just that - the EMG 808s I owned sounded like absolute dogshit, and only started to improve after I fed them 18 volts. But maybe you're way into EMGs and are one of those dudes who loves how your guitar's natural tonal qualities are negated by EMGs, and couldn't be happier when you're left with a hollow, lifeless representation of what your guitar could sound like. :ugh:

Seriously though, Blackouts in 6, 7 or 8 string models have totally beaten any EMG I've tried.

 

[LordOVchaoS]

Decisions of spending money on things you MIGHT regret is what life is all about....learning for yourself and not leaving it up to HC reviews to sway your purchase.

EMG's better than Blackouts? If by better you mean less dynamic, more compressed, more sterile and much less headroom then I'm with you 100%.

The whole 'better' thing is always going to be way open to interpretation, it's completely subjective. It's like suggesting that your tone is better than somebody else's - we all look for different tones, and we sure as shit don't all agree on pickups.

And what I'm about to say is just that - the EMG 808s I owned sounded like absolute dogshit, and only started to improve after I fed them 18 volts. But maybe you're way into EMGs and are one of those dudes who loves how your guitar's natural tonal qualities are negated by EMGs, and couldn't be happier when you're left with a hollow, lifeless representation of what your guitar could sound like. :ugh:

Seriously though, Blackouts in 6, 7 or 8 string models have totally beaten any EMG I've tried.

Agreed... and I like EMG's! Blackouts sound soooo much better to me though.