help me with pickup choice please:)

[Bigfknbang]

hey every one. i got this old bc rich nj series warlock off of ebay for 210$. what i want to know is what dimarzio pickups came stock on these? i wasn't expecting this guitar to be as badass as it is! it sounds fkn incredible! i plugged in my RR1 afterwards and i felt realy shyty cause i only paid 210$ for this warlock and it kills my rhoads right now wtf??? the warlock sounds sooooooo much thicker and overall it sounds better, clean and distorted. so im wondering what the pickups are on the warlock. and i'm also wondering if anyone knows what wood the body of the early nj series warlocks are made of? i want my rhoads to sound as close to this warlock as i can get it. through my gear the rhoads sounds thin and way too bright! im using a digitech genetix 1 processor into a rocktron silver dragon pedal into the front end of my crate blue voodoo 120hb halfstack. the warlock is so thick and mean sounding through this. the rhoads sounds like ass. so which pickups will sound thick and mean in an alder body neck thru guitar? i already tried duncan jb/jazz, duncan distortion, duncan custom, all of these are way too bright! i also tried a kent armstrong distortion pickup it sounds like ass too realy muddy and lifeless, i also have 2 emg 81's but they are way too bright too [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]. i'm gonna take the rhoads to the shop and have her set up and stuff real soon so i figure ill get new pickups too. would an x2n or dimarzio super distortion sound good in an alder body? or maybe evolutions? or the fred that satriani uses? this is buggn the hell out of me. 210$ guitar crushin my rhoads that fkn sux! help meeeeeeeeeee!!!! thanx in advance [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[roodyrocker]

Re: help me with pickup choice please

I like the Duncan Distortion but you already tried that and didn't care for it. The Duncan Custom Custom is nice and I'm also very partial to the Screamin Demon. It all depends, and you just have to try them in different guitars to find out what you like. As a starting point, I'd take a peak at those Dimarzios in the Warlock and try the same set in the Rhoads since you like them already. Dimarzio marks the bottom of the pickups with a number, like DP193 and you can tell from that number what the pickup is. Check them and put the same set in the Rhoads.

Rudy

[zeegler]

Re: help me with pickup choice please

Is it a newer or older NJ? The Early 80's NJs often cam stock with Gotoh pickups.

[noodlesatf]

Re: help me with pickup choice please

A Warlock has a lot more wood in the body than a Rhoads, especially in the aread right behind the bridge, where you get a lot of your bass response from. This is why a guitar like a Les Paul (lots of wood behind the bridge) has so much thickness, while a V (which has hardly any wood behind the bridge) has so much bite and definition. Please keep in mind that no matter what pickup you put in your Rhoads, it will never sound like a Warlock. Remember that the guitar was designed for a lead player, and it sounds the way it was designed to sound.

Having said that, check out a Seymour Duncan Invader. It is a lot fatter pickup than any of the other Duncans you've tried. I hated the pickup in a Soloist (it sounds boomy and farty), but I love it in a too-bright like a Rhoads (escpecially a bolt-on like mine). When searching for pickups, think about the eq response of your guitar, then match it to a pickup that has a boost in the range that is deficient.

[delt]

Re: help me with pickup choice please

I use Kent Armstrong ultra distortion's in my rhoads and i can get some fukkin thick&heavy tones with that.

good point about the wood behind the bridge tho.

[Bigfknbang]

Re: help me with pickup choice please

thanx for all the replies everyone. the dude i got the warlock off of said he thought it was an 81 nj series warlock but he didnt realy know? it has the old pointy headstock with nj series written in copper or gold color on the point. i took the pickups out today to see what they say on the base, the bridge pickup says dimarzio but there are no numbers or anything on it. the neck pickup doesnt say anything on it. i'm going to try an invader in my rhoads thanx again