jmcsquared's Metal Studio Setup

Found this at my local Guitar Center. I have the Transparent Black version.

The Pasadena Plus pickups are hot Alnico V passives that remind me of Burstbuckers, but hotter and built for metal.

This thing might be the most perfect axe I've ever owned.

This is my go-to guitar for metal. The stock pickups were designed, it seems, to be lower in height and in front of very high gain. They are extremely tight, even when compared to $300 dollar pickups. They can get ice-picky up at the top and they're quite spiky, but when you roll the tone down, those higher frequencies turn into upper mid frequencies that sound brutal, and the higher notes sing into their harmonics beautifully. I suspect nickel covers would go well with the bridge, if someone wanted to install them. The guitar looks beautiful and feels amazing. The coil split option on the tone control also works surprisingly well, especially when you roll the tone down again. For under $500, this is a steal, might be the best bargain ever. I usually put 13-62 strings on it and tune to either drop B or drop A.

I picked this up at a Guitar Center after loving the way it felt. However, I didn't like the pickups. Something about them was heavenly, but the tone was too dark and fizzy on the bottom. It was annoying because I had my amp set up for a very different type of guitar tone.

After doing some research, I decided to take the nickel covers off, and like magic, the pickups came alive. They are HB-102 humbuckers (Duncan Designed). With the nickel covers off, they sound just like the famous JB/59 by Seymour Duncan. It's now one of my favorite guitars.