
Much like the EMG-81s, these pickups give you a fat chunky tone with plenty of sustain for heavy hitting riffsm and yes, you can still play these babies clean and noiseless if you so desire. Not familiar with Hot Rails? Iron Maiden used them in all of their Strats, and believe me, they rocked pretty damn hard. Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails for Stratocaster-Style Guitarsįor all of you Stratocaster fans looking for something with a bit more bite, Seymour Duncan has the absolute perfect set of pickups for you. Although they won’t give you the outright extreme distortion metal fans are looking for, those who love the sound of classic rock with a heavy kick will love the Little 59. Add a bit of gain to the amp and you instantly notice a very controlled snarl with plenty of presence, much more than you would with your stock Tele pickups. Seymour Duncan designed the ST59 to reproduce the classic warm and smooth sound of the ’59 Les Paul, albeit with a lot more spunk. Not only do they retain the twang, but when set to distortion, this pickup rocks… HARD. For those of you who do not want to give up that signature sound but need a little more oomph in the hard rock department, check out the Little 59s. One of the most popular guitars today is the Telecaster and one of its most lauded features is the classic twang created by the pickups. Seymour Duncan ST59-1 Little 59 for Telecaster-Style Guitars Those on the side of the blackouts dislike the overly compressed tone of the EMGs while the other side of the fence complains about the excessive bass on the Duncans. The biggest difference between these and the EMG 81/85 is that they have a far wider range of output signals, meaning higher highs and lower lows, which can be good or bad depending on your preference. Their added humbucking design means less noise and more pure tone. You’ll get plenty of compressed but powerful tones complete with that aggressive deep chunky sound that older metal is known for. Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Original Blackouts for Dual Humbucker GuitarsĪnother solid and popular choice for aspiring metal guitarists, the Blackouts features a more old-school metal sound combined with the power of an active pickup system. These pickups are so popular several notable guitar manufacturers feature them as stock for several of their models including ESP, Schecter, Dean, Epiphone, B.C. This means better high gain control and less feedback when pumping it up to 11.

Known for their distinct tone, these pickups give metal players the extra boost of signal power made available through their active setup while producing a smooth control at higher levels in comparison to most standard pickup models. Zakk Wylde popularized the 81 lead 85 rhythm configuration used by most today although other notable players such as Kirk Hammett use 81s as both neck and bridge pickups. Quite possibly the most popular pickups in all of metal, the 81/85 combo is used by hundreds of metal guitarists around the world. Hopefully, you'll find some variety on my choices that can fit your exact tonal needs. These bad boys are known for their distinct thick tone along with their advantages at playing solidly with high gain distortion which is an absolute must for hard rock and metal but that doesn't mean that with some slight overdrive that they can't cry out an awesome blues sound as well. If you’re looking for something a bit bolder than your standard Tele pickups, it is highly recommended you give some of these a try.Īnd as far as you 2 humbucker equipped guitars go, think of a Gibson Les Paul or an SG. Although it is naturally a bit more popular for country music due to its unmistakable twang, the Telecaster can rock out, blues in, metal up, or do any sort of directional-based jamming you’d like, and while many will tell you that nothing beats the stock pickups on a classic, there are several out there who have undoutedly given other pickups a try have been thoroughly convinced about making the change. The Stratocaster and their clones use three single-coiled pickups with only very few exceptions in the case of special models, but for all intents and purposes, my choices will be for your standard Strat pickup configuration. The Telecaster is probably just as popular as the Stratocaster when it comes to the history of the electric blues. There are innumerable clones of varying quality and even a diverse model assortment of the real thing, and while certain aspects may be different from one to the other, one thing that you can always count on is the uniformity of the pickup slot sizes, letting your Fernandes Strat don the pickups of the real thing.

One of the most popular guitar bodies ever produced is that of the Fender Stratocaster.
