I finally got jam with the guys last night and realized my rig sounded like mud and pig squeals. I need help changing that please. Btw I'm kinda a new gear nerd.

Setup
Blacktop tele (new pups soon...sh6,sh11,jb or any other suggestions?)
Jet city 22 head and jet city 2x12 cabinet (soldano circuit)
Pedals- bbe sonic stomp and krankshaft od. The bbe is left always.

Suggestions on humbucker swap. I play heavy rock- saosin and august burns red. I need lots of CHUG!

Thanks

I happen to be a big fan of Blacktop pickups, but then, I play reggae and bluesy/heavy metal solos. They're very clean, however, I kinda wish the neck had a little less output.

A friend of mine brought his guitar over and it had a Seymour Duncan Alternative-8 in the bridge. It was an unbelievably powerful pickup. Like an EMG active with more of a natural tone to it. When I hit it with distortion, it really kicked hard. You can't go wrong with it.

You might want to think about swapping the bridge and leaving the Blacktop neck. If the neck pickup is getting a little muddy on you, just lower it a bit. It's one of the best neck pickups out there in my opinion.

Secondly, be sure to swap the tone cap. A $6 Orange Drop can do wonders in getting the pickups to articulate. If you want to go really balls-out, get a No Load Tone pot and put an Orange Drop on it. At 10, it cuts out the tone pot completely and the pickups are running off of the volume pot only. From 9-0, it works as a normal tone pot.

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If you want clarity you either have to go low powered or active.
For what you want to play, I can only think of EMG 89's to give convincing chug and clarity.

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No no and no

Thanks for the input- I have seen a couple videos of the duncan Alt and it seems pretty articulate. The guys at my local guitar shop are not drop tuners but they said different tone caps will always help.

Can I take the nickle cover off the humbucker and will it just be a normal black pup?

I honestly don't know what's underneath the Blacktop cover. I would assume it's black, but it would just be a guess. You can always take it off just to see. Usually there's some wax that ends up on the top of a pickup that's covered from the factory. If you do decide to take the cover off, just scrape it off carefully with something that's not metal.

Generally you can just heat up the solder spots and loosen the cover to take it off. It's not too difficult. Or you can get an alternative 8 with a nickel cover. They are available like that.

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I will try to research it first. I would prefer black underneath. What kind of blacktop do you have?

I don't have a Blacktop. My other guitar player has a Blacktop Strat. It's his main guitar. I have a blacktop neck pickup in my Tele copy guitar though. It's a Japanese body, and the bridge size doesn't allow for a humbucker to be put in it.

My main guitars are all Hum/Hum, and of all of them, the Blacktop ranks right up there with the best of the neck pickups I have. I think I paid $35 for it too. Nice steal that was.

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