help choosing new bridge pickup

[mercutioburns]

i'm tired of my stock bridge pickup for my jackson dxmg, and i'm looking for some crushing, focused, articulate, palm muting-clear pickup. and i don't want it to be shrill/thin for the high strings. anybody have experience with:

 

dimarzio d-activator x

watched a review on guitar world, seemed pretty good, very clear. the only con it seems to have is excess noise, which is understandable since its high output.

 

dimarzio drop sonic

read some reviews, sounds good too. very clear. made for thick gauges and low tuning. sounds intriguing.

 

my guitar is basswood, stuck a tremol-no in it. strings are ghs boomers for half/whole step down tuning (53-43-33-19-15-11). i mainly tune Eb standard, dropping occassionally. i rely on my podxt live for my sound. just gonna wire it up normally, no splitting, etc. i like protest the hero, between the buried and me, darkest hour tones.

 

i wanted to get an esp ec 1000 but school's starting back up soon and i'm gonna need money for books lol. i think i can save some cash up for this.

 

they both sound really enticing, almost seems more or less alike except the d-activator x's output is 500 while the d-sonic output is 390 and just $5. i do hate extra noise but if the d-activator pickup is worth it, i'll deal with it. just wondering what you guys think.

[EdMan57]

So you tend to get excess noise with high output humbuckers?I find that at a certain amount of set gain,that the noise and hiss is usually coming from the amp and/or distortion pedals themselves.Of course,you could always try a quality noise reduction pedal,of sorts.Btw,I hear that the Seymour Duncan Blackouts active pickups sound killer and are much quieter than EMG's.

Ed

[mercutioburns]

supposedly there's more noise? i'm just going off of what i've read in the guitar world review. as for active pickups, i wouldn't mind having em, but just not for this guitar. this is mainly just a simple little upgrade to tide me over till i can get something new. i've looked up the blackouts before but i dont have that kind of cash. thanks for the suggestion though.

[chord777]

Duncan JB.

[book_of_lies777]

Duncan Distortion

DiMarzio X2N

DiMarzio Evolution

GFS Power Rail

[mercutioburns]

holy crap i've never even heard of gfs but i'm reading a lot of good things about em. crunchy rails sound really good. anybody have experience with these?

[donsimon76]

 

Duncan Distortion DiMarzio X2N DiMarzio Evolution GFS Power Rail

 

 

+1 on the X2N. I bought a D-sonic and tried it in 2 guitars and it never gave me the sound I hoped for. I have an X2N in the bridge of a Washburn Idol WI64DL and it make me very happy. It handle regular and low tunings well(D is as far down as I have gone), good palm mutes, too.

[smorgdonkey]

Samples of 50 pickups:

http://www.musiker-board.de/vb/e-gitarren/253153-50-humbucker-im-vergleich-soundfiles.html#post2762335

[Norcal_GIT_r]

Take a listen to my HellaBucker Bridge.

It maybe just what you are after.

Clips and info are at www.bg-pups.com/hb.html#hella

[mercutioburns]

not feeling the hellabucker bridge too much. lows aren't quite what i'm looking for.

i wanna go for a rhythm sound like this:

http://www.freehomepages.com/utsukushii/Between%20The%20Buried%20And%20Me%20-%20Solo%20Selkies.mp3

http://www.freehomepages.com/utsukushii/Between%20The%20Buried%20And%20Me%20-%20Solo%20White%20Walls.mp3

the chords in both the songs still have definition and power, whereas my emg-hz pickup would just smear everything together and just sound weak.

thanks for all the suggestions! i check all of them out. keep the suggestions coming!

[LedZep1985]

You could also consider checking out Seymour Duncan's new passive humbucker, the Alternative 8.

[pipedwho]

The Anderson HN3 or HN3+ sounds like what you're after. Unfortunately there aren't too many reviews around with clips that you can refer too. Although there is a thread on here that compares a JB, a H2+ and the HN3 on a James Peters Gryphon amp.

 

Here is the link: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1855126

[mercutioburns]

for the alternative 8, reading the few reviews i've found, it seems pretty good. i wouldn't mind trying them out.

as for the TA pups, the price is too steep for me. they do sound awesome though.

i think for now, i'm gonna try gfs crunchy rails. seeing its price, who could go wrong with it? if i don't like it, i'll sell it to my other guitarist. maybe i'll try d-activator x, or alternative 8.

thanks for all the help!