Pickup Pairing Quesiton

[MarcWink]

Okay gang, pickup pairing question for all y'alls. Presently, my S2 10th Anniversary Custom 24 has the standard 85/15 TCI pickup pairing in the neck and bridge. This guitar lives in D Standard/drop C tuning for the heavies. While I like the 85/15's perfectly fine, and they do a great job, I want something a little hotter in the bridge for stuff like Killswitch Engage, Bullet for my Valentine, Static-X etc. that I cover with my current band. So the question is whether a HFS would pair well with the 85/15 neck, or whether I would need to swap the neck pickup out too to balance outputs.

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

HFS + dual rec = NuMetal for sure.

The \m/ would also be a good option. It’s much smoother than the HFS in my opinion. Yet it can still take high gain incredibly well.

The 85/15 is just a better all around pickup than the old VB fartbox too.

 

[MarcWink]

HFS + dual rec = NuMetal for sure.

The \m/ would also be a good option. It’s much smoother than the HFS in my opinion. Yet it can still take high gain incredibly well.

The 85/15 is just a better all around pickup than the old VB fartbox too.

I'm well aware that HFS + Dual Rec = NuMetal...That's one of the tones of my middle school years. That being said, my go to live in the room amp when I'm home is a Marshall JCM800 20W head into a Harley Benton 2x12 with Greenbacks, and my live gigging sound is a Helix with the Orange Rockerverb model and a 4x12 Greenback cab and a 4x12 V30 cab, so a little different. I think I may just give the HFS a go, however. I know I really dig the way that my Dragonn I pickups sound through both rigs, and I like how the 85/15's sound through both, but I need just a little ballsier sound from the S2 Custom 24 from what I'm getting at present.

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

Worst case you swap it.

I’d choose \m/ over HFS but I’m just a pickup junkie

 

[MarcWink]

Worst case you swap it.

I’d choose \m/ over HFS but I’m just a pickup junkie

I'm less of a pickup junkie than I used to be. Mostly these days, I'm just looking for hotter or less hot output from a pickup. By and large, I'm leaning more on my amp and pedals for the main meat and potatoes of my tone and using my pickups to fine tune. That being said, the role that my S2 Custom 24 has fallen into definitely requires a bridge pickup that can hit my Tubescreamer and the front of my amp a little harder than the 85/15.