It would be interesting to test the Holy Diver or Rebel Yell which are (in my opinion) Bare Knuckle interpretations of the JB (or at least sound close to me). The Rebel Yell being (reportedly) kind of a 70s version and the Holy Diver late 80s. Wonderful video! Love to see a follow on!
I personally love the bareknuckle nailbomb and rebel yell but bareknuckle is expensive, especially if you get into the customization options (I think my nailbombs alone were over $500) and honestly the JB is still probably my all time favorite pickup.
The most common misconception i see people get with the full shred is that they don't realize that pup vastly excells at playing complex chords. It makes the notes very defined so all your weird prog chords ring out nicely with distortion. It's also an absolutely merciless pickup so it'll make you tighten your rhythm and technique. When a pup actually makes you play different that to me is the indication of a great design.
Recently came across the C5 but have been eyeing the Aldrich for some time and this was a PERFECT demo!!!! I’ve been after a semi-hot, angry, mid driven pickups with good tight bass that’s not weak and highs that shine but aren’t harsh and while not the Suhr Aldrich and SD Custom 5 fit the bill the Aldrich does seems to have better depth and clarity which is why it sounds “more expensive”….goin to snag me one now!!!
Custom 5 for sure. Runner up, Suhr. Very articulated and a lot of real growl while also pleasant clean channels. Bought myself the Custom 5 for a Yamaha Pacifica H120 and will put a Dimarzio Bluesbucker in the neck.
Thx for the comparison! I liked every pickup, but they're for different tones. To me, I'd like the brute force more, but because I'm more inclined to a different type of metal.
Great comparison!! Listening on Senn HD650's 1) Suhr Aldridge 2) Full Shred 3) Custom 5 4) JB 5) BK Brute Very surprised as I thought and wanted to like the BK Brute... but it sounded too compressed... however now noticing it was the only ceramic....
I don’t understand why someone makes a comparison video but thinks it has to be overproduced with drums and fx. I’m here to hear the different details in the pickups. I understand hearing them in a mix but if I had to choose I’d rather hear pickups soloed, but there’s no crunch/lead clips without the drums. 🤦🏻♂️🤔🤘🏼✌🏼
Me gusta la #5, la #2 y luego la #1. Creo que la peor es la Suhr. Es como si apagaran la reverb. Es totalmente hifi y plana. Excelente comparación. bien hecho.
I liked the tone of my custom 5, but felt like it was missing mids. A little too scooped for me. I do remember liking the Suhr DA better than the JB. I think the Gibson 498T and the Duncan Distortion have spent the most time in my LP.
Thanks amazing video. If I wanted to stand out as nice and warm, Aldrich, if I wanted to be mean and experimental, BareKnuckle. If I wanted to get the job done without attracting attention, SH-10. The first two, no way. Just me.
I agree with yer assessments, altho TBH, I have the JB in majority of my guitar builds, but have used the Full Shred and the Custom Custom (Which I prefer over the Custom, Custom 5 and even the 59 Custom).
Great video! I'm going to give the Suhr Aldrich a shot. Just uninstalled a JB. Great tone but not tight enough and looking for something for Metal. Had a P-Rails laying around but they're so dang thick it wouldn't fit. Can't wait to see how the Aldrich pans out. Thanks for the vid!
@@MadebyMiike The Aldrich didn't pan out for me. It's like the 4th or 5th pickup I tried in this dang guitar (Schecter Reaper 6 FR) and nothing seems to sound like I want. Then I saw a used Reaper 6 on Reverb for sale with Bare Knuckle Nailbombs in it and thought, hmmm, maybe those sound good in the type of wood (Ash) and found a YT video with a bunch of sound samples of their hotter pickups. Went with the Black Dog and finally got that guitar screaming like I want. It's so weird how every pickup sounds so different in different guitars.
They all sounded great , I would choose the Aldrich and the barenucklee why ? They sounded different from the Duncan's and i don't own a adrich and bare knuckle . 😉👍🙏
Stick an Alnico 8 magnet in the Custom 5 and be amazed..... Same with JB. Huge tight lows and low mids that fill the room. All I run in a Les Paul. SD Custom with Alnico 8 bar magnet.
lol I know this is a little old but, on their own, i think my pickup choice is reaffirmed for me, The aldrich shounded the best for me. But the moral of this story is really at the end. In a mix, they all sound the same.
I have a Custom 5 in my SG Custom guitar for over a yr now and I hate it, way to scooped for me , next pickup I get for it will be Black Winter. though I may put the C5 in the neck, I even like the pickup that came in my Ibanez ART100 better than the C5, a ceramic magnet that registered at 17.4 ohms.
I put a pegasus in mine and I thought that sounded best. Better palm mutes and barr chord boogie cut throughs and the leads sounded great. The jb always sound too much with evertune bridges imo. I bought the viper version with the evertune and it sounded better so I ended up selling the esp/ltd eclipse 1000 evertune guitar. Bought a Solar and once again I'm putting a Pegasus in it. I used to be a Jb dude but now it just sounds too much to me. Love the Pegasus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Per John Suhr, the Aldrich is an overwound SSH+, which is basically a refined JB. I have all 3 pickups, and the Aldrich seems to sit between the SSH+ and JB in terms of mids/honk. All great pickups. I definitely prefer the SSH+ in mahogany tho.
Why do they call it mid honk? I hear and read all these descriptions used in so many ways it’s hard to get the the context lol. Midrange distortion? Strong upper mids?
@@jonahlmoore tone terms are so subjective, and many of them are lost on me as well. I have no idea what airy or bloom means, for example. The honk usually refers to an aggressive midrange that some perceive as nasally and others love for how it pushes amp into more overdrive and cuts in a mix. Kinda like how a Tube Screamer does but at a little different frequency. I guess 'honk' like an old American car horn, lol.
Someone more versed in sound spectrum could prolly identify the frequency. I have never perceived the JB as nasally, but to me the SSH+ is slightly scooped in relation to the JB and the Aldrich less so. I love all three pickups in different guitars.
Most of these terms are used on forums by guys who don't really play . They just buy expensive guitars and analyze the sound of them and then argue with each other about it.
The winner was actually given away early on in the video. As soon as I noticed the old JB sitting in the Suhr box, it was obvious that you'd used the Suhr :)
Ok I have a LTD SN-1000 White Pearl Metallic wth a roasted maple neck and fretboard that has a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 bridge pickup. It sounds great in that guitar but in a les paul style guitar a Suhr Doug Aldrich would sound killer.
SUHR DA is the best bridge overall. I got 2pcs of it w/c is installed in my Gibsons & keep my 490 in the neck...I dont think that Duncan Custom can beat the sound of SUHR in live gig situation.just me...
I have been searching for the best alternative to the JB b/c the JB is the best thing I've heard so far after ending my years with the EMG 81. I don't know the answer yet. Some suggest one of the "custom" pickups from SD, some say AT-1 or Norton from DiMarzio and some suggest the Holy Diver by Bareknuckle. I feel I am looking for an alnico pickup because every ceramic passive pickup I've tried sounds bad for my style of metal music. The Custom 5 also fails for me. The Aldrich was suggested by others, but one guy said it lacked output (for metal).
Timestamps:
(Left) Humbucker - Pickup - Coil Split (Right)
Samples 1 & 2: Clean 1
03:11 - JB - 03:57
03:20 - Custom 5 - 04:07
03:29 - Full Shred - 04:16
03:29 - Aldrich - 04:25
03:47 - Brute Force - 04:35
Sample 3 & 4: Cleanish (with Delay)
04:45 - JB - 05:25
04:53 - Custom 5 - 05:33
05:01 - Full Shred - 05:41
05:09 - Aldrich - 05:49
05:16 - Brute Force - 05:57
Sample 5 : Crunch
06:06 - JB
06:22 - Custom 5
06:37 - Full Shred
06:52 - Aldrich
07:08 - Brute Force
Sample 6: Solo (only Humbucker, with Delay)
07:24 - JB
07:37 - Custom 5
07:49 - Full Shred
08:00 - Aldrich
08:12 - Brute Force
Sample 7: Song "Stroll"
08:28 - JB
08:37 - Custom 5
08:45 - Full Shred
08:54 - Aldrich
09:02 - Brute Force
Sample 8: Song "My Own"
09:15 - JB
09:21 - Custom 5
09:27 - Full Shred
09:33 - Aldrich
09:39 - Brute Force
I love the format of this video. Great job!
You are really good at this ! By far the best video I've seen !
It would be interesting to test the Holy Diver or Rebel Yell which are (in my opinion) Bare Knuckle interpretations of the JB (or at least sound close to me). The Rebel Yell being (reportedly) kind of a 70s version and the Holy Diver late 80s. Wonderful video! Love to see a follow on!
Great video, thanks! Riffs are so good too that I had difficulties concentrating on the sound of the pickups :D
1) Custom 5
2) JB
3) Full shred
Super job, Great comparison, deserves more likes
Thanks mate!
finally found a video of the Custom 5 with split coil! thanks!
best pup comparison video award
Haha thanks man!
I personally love the bareknuckle nailbomb and rebel yell but bareknuckle is expensive, especially if you get into the customization options (I think my nailbombs alone were over $500) and honestly the JB is still probably my all time favorite pickup.
The most common misconception i see people get with the full shred is that they don't realize that pup vastly excells at playing complex chords. It makes the notes very defined so all your weird prog chords ring out nicely with distortion. It's also an absolutely merciless pickup so it'll make you tighten your rhythm and technique. When a pup actually makes you play different that to me is the indication of a great design.
Crunch
JB: 6:07
Custom 5: 6:22
Aldrich: 6:53
Solo
JB: 7:25
Custom 5: 7:37
Aldrich: 8:01
Stroll
JB: 8:29
Custom 5: 8:37
Aldrich: 8:54
My Own
JB: 9:16
Custom 5: 9:22
Aldrich: 9:33
Do you hate bare knuckles?
I dig this review! Thanks for sharing!
Recently came across the C5 but have been eyeing the Aldrich for some time and this was a PERFECT demo!!!! I’ve been after a semi-hot, angry, mid driven pickups with good tight bass that’s not weak and highs that shine but aren’t harsh and while not the Suhr Aldrich and SD Custom 5 fit the bill the Aldrich does seems to have better depth and clarity which is why it sounds “more expensive”….goin to snag me one now!!!
Great explanation of the differences on these pups!
Custom 5 for sure. Runner up, Suhr. Very articulated and a lot of real growl while also pleasant clean channels. Bought myself the Custom 5 for a Yamaha Pacifica H120 and will put a Dimarzio Bluesbucker in the neck.
agreed the custom 5 is the winner .also really liked the Bare Knuckle Brute Force but it probably is really spendy
Thx for the comparison! I liked every pickup, but they're for different tones. To me, I'd like the brute force more, but because I'm more inclined to a different type of metal.
Great comparison!! Listening on Senn HD650's 1) Suhr Aldridge 2) Full Shred 3) Custom 5 4) JB 5) BK Brute Very surprised as I thought and wanted to like the BK Brute... but it sounded too compressed... however now noticing it was the only ceramic....
That's a fine Idea, to compare with the help of a worthy headphone 👍
I don’t understand why someone makes a comparison video but thinks it has to be overproduced with drums and fx. I’m here to hear the different details in the pickups. I understand hearing them in a mix but if I had to choose I’d rather hear pickups soloed, but there’s no crunch/lead clips without the drums. 🤦🏻♂️🤔🤘🏼✌🏼
Agree!
I disagree
Me gusta la #5, la #2 y luego la #1.
Creo que la peor es la Suhr. Es como si apagaran la reverb. Es totalmente hifi y plana.
Excelente comparación. bien hecho.
Great Review !!
Thanks! 🙂
I 'am a Duncan man my self..but your´re spot on, Suhr was my choise too.
is this the piezo version? isnt it hard to upgrade the pickups on the piezo edition?
No why should it be? The PU cables are still the same and soldered to the same pots as on a non-piezo version
@@MadebyMiike the pickups are soldered to a computer chip board in order to blend both the magnetic and piezo pickups
Jb sounded the best to me second best to me was the suhr
Rally great comparison, thanks! I like your "Stroll" riff, can you please share how you play it? (tab?)
its basically "walk" by pantera lol. easy to find online.
I liked the tone of my custom 5, but felt like it was missing mids. A little too scooped for me. I do remember liking the Suhr DA better than the JB. I think the Gibson 498T and the Duncan Distortion have spent the most time in my LP.
Thanks amazing video. If I wanted to stand out as nice and warm, Aldrich, if I wanted to be mean and experimental, BareKnuckle. If I wanted to get the job done without attracting attention, SH-10. The first two, no way. Just me.
Custom 5 or Suhr Aldrich for an all mahogany explorer playing everything from ghost/motley in D Standard to Metallica/Priest/Maiden?
Custom 5 is a little bit more scooped with more Bass, while the Aldrich has more mids! I would go for the Custom 5 as it has little bit more gain!
I agree the Aldridge seemed to work better all around
Cool demo. What did you plug into?
Kemper
Amazing, can you make the same with a Alder Strat ?
Bravissimo. Molto utile. Grazie
I prefer the Custom over the Custom 5 or Custom Custom.
I agree with yer assessments, altho TBH, I have the JB in majority of my guitar builds, but have used the Full Shred and the Custom Custom (Which I prefer over the Custom, Custom 5 and even the 59 Custom).
Great video! I'm going to give the Suhr Aldrich a shot. Just uninstalled a JB. Great tone but not tight enough and looking for something for Metal. Had a P-Rails laying around but they're so dang thick it wouldn't fit. Can't wait to see how the Aldrich pans out. Thanks for the vid!
Aldrich or Custum 5! Both are great for metal!!
@@MadebyMiike The Aldrich didn't pan out for me. It's like the 4th or 5th pickup I tried in this dang guitar (Schecter Reaper 6 FR) and nothing seems to sound like I want. Then I saw a used Reaper 6 on Reverb for sale with Bare Knuckle Nailbombs in it and thought, hmmm, maybe those sound good in the type of wood (Ash) and found a YT video with a bunch of sound samples of their hotter pickups. Went with the Black Dog and finally got that guitar screaming like I want. It's so weird how every pickup sounds so different in different guitars.
The bareknuckle sounded so detailed in every clip. I am surprised there wasn't many others that agree!
I do 🤟
sounded feeble compared to all the others.
They all sounded great , I would choose the Aldrich and the barenucklee why ? They sounded different from the Duncan's and i don't own a adrich and bare knuckle . 😉👍🙏
The song choices on some these demos make it really difficult to compare sample 6 specifically.
I like the "Crunch" riff a lot.
Stick an Alnico 8 magnet in the Custom 5 and be amazed..... Same with JB. Huge tight lows and low mids that fill the room. All I run in a Les Paul. SD Custom with Alnico 8 bar magnet.
lol I know this is a little old but, on their own, i think my pickup choice is reaffirmed for me, The aldrich shounded the best for me. But the moral of this story is really at the end.
In a mix, they all sound the same.
Haha yes true!
I wouldn't sweat on changing any of of these pickups. EQ the amp and you'll ge sweet.
Barelnuckle for cleans all day. Has well defined mids.. full shred for crunch, jb for the solo, custom 5 for my own
I have a Custom 5 in my SG Custom guitar for over a yr now and I hate it, way to scooped for me , next pickup I get for it will be Black Winter. though I may put the C5 in the neck, I even like the pickup that came in my Ibanez ART100 better than the C5, a ceramic magnet that registered at 17.4 ohms.
I have an ec 401 with a pair of suhr aldrich pickups. Everyone falls in love with how it sounds on my "marshall"y amp
I put a pegasus in mine and I thought that sounded best. Better palm mutes and barr chord boogie cut throughs and the leads sounded great. The jb always sound too much with evertune bridges imo. I bought the viper version with the evertune and it sounded better so I ended up selling the esp/ltd eclipse 1000 evertune guitar. Bought a Solar and once again I'm putting a Pegasus in it. I used to be a Jb dude but now it just sounds too much to me. Love the Pegasus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Custom 5 FTW
Per John Suhr, the Aldrich is an overwound SSH+, which is basically a refined JB. I have all 3 pickups, and the Aldrich seems to sit between the SSH+ and JB in terms of mids/honk. All great pickups. I definitely prefer the SSH+ in mahogany tho.
Why do they call it mid honk? I hear and read all these descriptions used in so many ways it’s hard to get the the context lol. Midrange distortion? Strong upper mids?
@@jonahlmoore tone terms are so subjective, and many of them are lost on me as well. I have no idea what airy or bloom means, for example. The honk usually refers to an aggressive midrange that some perceive as nasally and others love for how it pushes amp into more overdrive and cuts in a mix. Kinda like how a Tube Screamer does but at a little different frequency. I guess 'honk' like an old American car horn, lol.
Someone more versed in sound spectrum could prolly identify the frequency. I have never perceived the JB as nasally, but to me the SSH+ is slightly scooped in relation to the JB and the Aldrich less so. I love all three pickups in different guitars.
Most of these terms are used on forums by guys who don't really play . They just buy expensive guitars and analyze the sound of them and then argue with each other about it.
@@1974zah lol makes perfect sense thanks!
bareknucle
I'm a fan of the Screaming Demon personally...but I have a Full Shred too...
The winner was actually given away early on in the video. As soon as I noticed the old JB sitting in the Suhr box, it was obvious that you'd used the Suhr :)
HAHA good eye! :-)
Yep the Aldrich and the barenuckle
Спасибо. Очень полезное видео.
Shred wins here, followed by the Suhr, they sound extremely similar. Then I’d go with the other Duncan’s and the bare knuckle last
Custom5/Aldrich
Agreed! The best pups here!
The Aldrich has thick mids, rhe Custom 5 is fairly scooped.
Ok I have a LTD SN-1000 White Pearl Metallic wth a roasted maple neck and fretboard that has a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 bridge pickup. It sounds great in that guitar but in a les paul style guitar a Suhr Doug Aldrich would sound killer.
SUHR DA is the best bridge overall. I got 2pcs of it w/c is installed in my Gibsons & keep my 490 in the neck...I dont think that Duncan Custom can beat the sound of SUHR in live gig situation.just me...
Suhr FTW :)
Full shred has a horrible honk. Definitely not modern. Not much difference between the Custom 5 and Aldrich
I have been searching for the best alternative to the JB b/c the JB is the best thing I've heard so far after ending my years with the EMG 81. I don't know the answer yet. Some suggest one of the "custom" pickups from SD, some say AT-1 or Norton from DiMarzio and some suggest the Holy Diver by Bareknuckle. I feel I am looking for an alnico pickup because every ceramic passive pickup I've tried sounds bad for my style of metal music. The Custom 5 also fails for me. The Aldrich was suggested by others, but one guy said it lacked output (for metal).
The Custom 5 is scooped compared to the Aldrich.
they all sound the same.
With the mix its impossible. No utility for this video