what would you guys recommend....

[shadeofgreen]

right now i am really in a bind about what kind of pickups to replace the stock pickups that came on my epiphone explorer. there are just so many kinds (e.g emg 81, 85) and brands (seymour duncan, dimarzio) etc. im just wonderin if you guys had to get a bridge and neck humbucking pickup what kind would you get. im lookin for a good metallica/creed type distortion and also a good clean tone. thanks 4 the help again.

[Krieselman13]

In the bridge position, Id get some Semour Duncin Screamin' Demins, for the neck, Id get some custom Toni Iommi humbuckers. Thatr would give me a good sound. What do you think?

[ESP_Viper]

Duncan Screamin' Demons are bridge position pickups... too hot for neck.

I have a duncan SH-5 Custom, and it is metallica tone right on. I also get some of the best clean tone, coil tapped it's very strat-like. I am planning on getting a Duncan Alncio II Pro humbucker for the neck. It's a very bluesy sounding pickup, which is what I am looking for in neck position tone.

Get information from seymour duncan, dimarzio, and EMG and pretty much study what they make. Absorb as much info on their products as you can, read what people think on harmony-central's product reviews, and also asking people on here is very good too. :)

Your best choices are gonna be duncan, dimarzio, and EMG. Gibson pickups, in my opinion, aren't that great. For stock pickups they are pretty good, but I don't think they are a good choice to go buy at a store to put into a guitar. A dimarzio can get such better tone than a gibson. I was playing an Ibanez steve vai signature guitar (1500 bucks) through a peavey XXX and it was some of the best tone I have ever heard/played, feedback was good and the noise was good too, the pickups were very defined, clear, and rich sounding. Then I picked up a Gibson Les Paul (2300 bucks) and the tone was very muddy and the pickups got feedback very badly compared to the vai. I also was disatisfied with the paul's quality, but let's not get into that.

That experience turned me off to gibson pickups, and to gibson guitars as well. The dimarzios were very sweet. You also can't go wrong with duncans. EMGs are pretty much strictly metal and rockish type stuff. Their single coil pickups are good for bluesy and more mellow stuff (David Gilmore uses EMG single coils exclusively). I'd just say don't rush on getting new pickups, learn as much as you can!

[Schecter_dude]

I am an avid user of the Seymour Duncan pickups SH-6 "Duncan Distortion" (bridge) and the SH-2 "Jazz" (neck)... I guarantee Seymour Duncan WILL have something to suit your needs. Just go to their website...

www.seymourduncan.com