Pickup Output And Solid State Distortion Pedals Question...

[PatrickMahoney]

Hello Gang,

A funny thing has recently happened to me that I never actually
thought might. I have a customer who is using a Boss OD-20
Drive Zone pedal for his distortion and running into a solid-state
amp.

He plays the newest style "heavy metal" which I believe the youth
today call it "Grindcore", so most of it is really fast and very heavy.

What is throwing me for a loop (guess that shows my age) is I
have not used a distortion pedal for rock or metal since the early
80's, and 99.9% of my customers all use the newer tube amps
for their overdrive purposes.

He uses an Ibanez RG 270 DX and is wanting a very high output
pickup set to get that "heavy" sound, which in most cases would
not be a problem for me to recommend something, but I have no
idea any more how these new pedals work, and how an higher
output pickup will make them react.

Does anyone here have any experience with this Boss OD-20
Drive Zone pedal and know how a high output pickup might effect
the tone of this pedal?

What I'm afraid of with a high output pickup (12K) is that it might
actually start to saturate the tone rather than boost drive or am I
in the wrong thinking that way?

I can think in terms of (tube overdrive, etc) but when it comes to
solid state, I'm very behind the game nowadays I guess. I just want
to make sure he gets a set of pickups that will best suit his needs.

I know the pickups in most RG's are not great for metal (I know from
experience, as I own a high-end model) and almost anything will be an
upgrade for him, but want to make sure I'm as focused as possible
here.

Any input you guys might want to give me would be very much
appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Steve Conner]

Once you get beyond a certain level of gain, the differences between tube and solid-state, pedals and amps, etc. become irrelevant. It's all just square waves mashed to oblivion. The OD-20 is digital, though, so I'd really question the owner's taste.

The output of the pickup doesn't really matter, because a metal-type distortion box has enough gain to saturate even a low-output pickup. What is important is the other characteristics of an overwound pickup: a nice big resonant peak in the midrange and a complete lack of high end, these help to focus high gain tones, somewhat like a cocked wah, at the expense of sounding useless clean.

That is just IMO. If it were me building a metal axe, I'd buy EMGs rather than custom wound pickups. The best guitar I ever had for metal was a mahogany bodied one, with 11 gauge strings, a single coil in the neck, and an Invader in the bridge. I used the single coil for the clean bits.