DK2M or DKMG

[Diminished29]

Trying to get a little more information about these two guitars, I understand they both come with decent pickups, same bridge and are both made of alder wood, however one is a "Pro" series and the other is a "MG" series any difference in quality?

And what pickups in Alder sound best for bands like these:

The Absence
Astral Gates
Nightrage
Death
Carcass
Quo Vadis
The Haunted
Necrophagist
Arch Enemy
3 Inches of Blood
Iron Maiden
Black Dahlia Murder (old)

Secondly, I'd like to know how the JT580 holds up against the Ibanez Edge 2, just for comparsion, I understand both are licenced and probably are hit or miss obviously, but unfornately Ibanez discontinued they're RG3120 (mahogany bodied) 24 fret guitar w/ Edge a while back and sometimes they can be quite hard to find, and I would rather have a new guitar right now, and I'm not sure if the S470 would be for me or not being only 22 frets, especially for bands like Necrophagist.

Thanks Guys,
Chad

[Sunbane]

The Edge trem simply destroys the JT580LP, which is more similar to the cheaper Ibby trems.

The 580LP trem on the DKMG should also be inferior in materials to the one on the DK2M. The DK2M belongs to the 2006 Pro-series, and those should have trems with a hardened steel baseplate. As far as I know, the MG and X series still have the older version of the JT580LP, with the non-hardened plate.

I would deem the DK2M the better guitar of the two.

[wilkinsi]

i checked out an edge iii and thought it was shit in comparison to the jt580, only because it felt weak and you have to take the spring panel off to tighten the nut for the trem arm. too bad they wouldn't let me try the guitar out. EMG's and Duncans from my own experiences are that EMG's have a better lower end whereas the Duncan's are crisper and brighter in sound. i've only ever used passive pups.

[Inazone]

The bands you named really have a wide variety of sounds, so I think you'd be best to get a good all-around pickup and rely on amp or EQ settings to fine-tune the tone. When I think of Carcass or The Haunted, I think of a very raw sound with lots of mids, where as Death (or Chuck anyway) had more of a treble-heavy tone with chorus...somewhat thin but very fluid.

So far, my favorite pickup for alder is the SD Full Shred. I consider to be an improvement on the JB, having less midrange emphasis but much better for the essential palm-muting and percussive riffing. It's not harsh in alder, even though I expected that it would be. It's still a very lead-capable pickup. On the DiMarzio side, I really like the Steve's Special, but have only tried it in basswood. Both the Full Shred and Steve's Special have all the characteristics I like in EMGs, and none of the things I dislike.

All that being said, the JB in my DK2M sounds really good. I probably wouldn't record with it (I prefer the aforementioned pickups overall), but played live through a cranked tube amp, a lot of the medium-output pickups really shine. I've used the Duncan Invader live, and find myself fighting with it to get a consistently good lead tone out of it, even though it's great for rhythm work. Our rhythm guitarist uses a Duncan Distortion in alder, and I'm not a big fan of that either. Unless you're using a rig that struggles to get enough gain, I just don't think a really hot pickup is necessary.