Pickups for Progressive Rock/Metal

[adrianplaysguitar]

Hi good day
I want to upgrade my SE Custom 24 and I am looking for some pickups to play Progressive Rock / Metal based on the sound of bands like Dream Theater, Opeth, Tool, Pink Floyd, Rush, Flying Colors and Muse.

Which ones would you recommend from the DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan brands to cover those kinds of sounds?

 

[Black Plaid]

PRS \m/ pickup, or the 85/15

 

[Drew]

PRS \m/ pickup, or the 85/15

85/15s are not sold outside of guitars. \m/ pickups are excellent for metal and high gain prog.

You can go blind trying to research all of the available non-PRS aftermarket pickups. Duncan Custom 5's are a good all around medium output bridge pickup that will cover a lot. The Duncan 59 and Jazz neck models will also cover a lot of territory. As for Dimarzio, I'm kinda digging the Mo Joe bridge pickup in my new Satch guitar. But the Tone Zone bridge pickup has been popular for a long time. The Air Norton neck pickup is probably their best all around neck pickup. I have a pair of Gravity Storms in a CE and am very happy. I play all of the stuff you do so I'd recommend any of these.

 

[Tim S]

85/15s are not sold outside of guitars.

But someone is always selling 85/15 pickups they removed.

https://reverb.com/marketplace/parts?query=prs 85/15 pickups

 

[alantig]

85/15s are not sold outside of guitars.

And who amongst us is small enough to get into a guitar to buy a set?

 

[GuitarJammin]

I have a bareknuckle warpig in the bridge of my SE EG....crazy good. I also like the PRS metal pickup as well. There are just lots and lots of examples...but these two work for me.

 

[Ovibos]

Duncan Alpha/Omega Mark Holcomb sig pickups.

 

[littlebadboy]

Dimarzio D Activator X set! I play metal and had it on my S2 just recently, and oh my gosh... It sounds really nice and can really drive! But, it also does cleans very well!

 

[Serious Poo]

Duncan Alpha/Omega Mark Holcomb sig pickups.

Duncan also makes a Pegasus / Sentient set I have in my Mushok baritone, I really like them.

 

[FunkyFreeman]

I replaced 53/10 set in my ME with Bare Knuckle Aftermath. The bridge pup sounds absolutely hot in high gain setting. In this video it’s being played through a Mesa Mark V.

And incredibly the neck pup sounds great in low gain.

I love BKP so much! And recently ordered a set of Cold Sweat for my SE SVN too.

 

[Andrew Paul]

PRS \m/ pickup, or the 85/15

THIS ! or if you want to try something other than PRS pups don’t overlook Lindy Fralin high output humbuckers, they are fantastic.

 

[Guitarjon]

Dimarzio D Activators are really good, especially if you tune down. I also really love the crunch lab in my SE277. It has a lot of roar!

 

[Eddie kim]

This why I purchased the Paul Allender SE model, since it came with EMG p/u. The price of the guitar was a little more than buying and installing new p/u.

 

[John]

Late response, but I've been partial to the following sets for prog on my PRS: Bare Knuckle Nailbombs, Painkillers (if downtuning), Holy Divers, and possibly the Miracle Man.

Hopefully these may help in shedding light over how well they may work:

1) C bombs:

2) Painkillers:

3) Holy Divers:

 

[William Hyland]

Looking to upgrade the pickups on the SE277 any suggestions for metal?..

 

[littlebadboy]

Looking to upgrade the pickups on the SE277 any suggestions for metal?..

I love my DiMarzio D-Activator X set on my S2. I am sure it handle baritone tunings really well. I have the Seymour Duncan Trembucker TB-6 bbridge on my Ibanez RGIB6 baritone, but I still prefer the D-Activator X as it is very clean yet wild and versatile.

My demo:

 

[alantig]

Looking to upgrade the pickups on the SE277 any suggestions for metal?..

I like Marc Holcomb’s sig Alpha/Omega set. Have them in my Holcomb SE and both sevens. No idea if they’re good on baritones, but I don’t see why not.

 

[singularity6]

Gilmour almost exclusively uses single coils on a strat and sometimes a tele (I've seen EMGs multiple times on his guitars.)

Petrucci has been a DiMarzio man for as long as I can recall.

Mikael Akerfeldt uses a Duncan Full Shred.

My recommendation - Get the pickups that sound good to you for your play style. I find that you'll be getting diminishing returns once you cross the $250/non-covered set.

 

[Tahlee]

Duncan Alpha/Omega Mark Holcomb sig pickups.

I have a set of Alpha / Omega in my Tremonti. I like them a lot.