HUMBUCKERS

you never run into any Bareknuckles but the mules here in the USA. Everyone who springs the ridiculous BK prices gets mules here. Go figure. All our heavy guys seem to go with various duncans and dimarzios.

They cost about £80 per pu here, but I guess they'll cost more with export charges, etc in the US. In terms of heavy most would say bare knuckle for the best passive, and EMGs for active. Personally I don't really like actives too much, not enough clarity, or tone, just a lot of output, and a focussed low end usually.

I see a lot of guys who play Gibsons for metal using aftermarket EMGs (especially in Explorers for some reason) here in the states, otherwise the dimarzio super distortion & d-activators, Duncan custom, Duncan distortion, Duncan invader and the dimebag model rule the roost amongst metal guys who don't play more traditional humbuckers. A lot of metal guys in my part of the USA play whatever is stock in their guitars but have fancy high gain amps or rack systems with high gain midi pres, TC G series processors plus a pedal switching system for adding mainly boost and OD out front of the amp for solos. I see a lot of guys with stock guitars using mesa mark or rectifier heads set up for bone clean, gain and MORE gain usually with the mids scooped out pretty seriously, TC G majors in the loop and maybe a tubescreamer out front for solos driving a mesa or orange 4x12 atop a15" or 18" bass cab. These guys are usually not as loud as I would expect. Their master volumes are set nice and low and the speakers are barely getting tickled. I mean its loud, but well managed as opposed to how unruly my method of getting a thick sound is.