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The second paragraph is my question, the first will be the situation; you can disregard the first half of this question if you don't need that much information.
I've played guitar a little over a year. Though I'm by no means great, I plan on starting lessons in the next few weeks (I've learned everything from time signatures to vibratos to scales to chords to hammer-ons/pull-offs, the circle of fifths, even a few licks on my own). I hope my lessons will take me a little higher in my guitar as I'd like to perform in front of family and friends before 2015. I have 5 guitars; 1 acoustic, 1 acoustic-electric, and 3 electrics. All my guitars have been used and bought rather cheaply, and I have taken them to stores for repairs and putting together some different things. There is a used guitar I would like to get soon, it's a Warbeast electric. Being concerned about spending a few hundred dollars online, I have taken the liberty of reading some reviews on the guitar. Most of which are positive, but have honest feedback about the pickups being terrible, and the headstock being a little weighted, making it no good to play sitting down. I plan on having the guitar shipped to Guitar Center and picking it up there.
Since the pickups are no good on the guitar I am buying, I would like to get pickups for the guitar that will, more or less, be my type. I enjoy a more thrash metal type of sound (my favorite band is Anthrax), but I want a little bit of versatility--not a lot, mind you, but just enough to where I can play it without distortion as well as with a pedal or two. I've never purchased pickups, nor do I know the first thing about them. I want to be able to play some really speedy licks, but also be able to tone down to, say, a nice slow opening like Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". What kind of pickups should I look for?
I will call ahead to a local guitar shop to get the pickups and some new strings put on the guitar the first day of having it, so I'm not too worried about price as long as it's between $1 - $200, I have time to save up and get the right option. What would you recommend?
PS. I would also like to change tunings on my guitar for things like "Walk" by Pantera (Drop D), though I will not go lower than a whole step down on all strings (DGCFAF)
If needed, the specifics of the guitar are (as provided by the website:)
"Construction: bolt on
Body wood: basswood
Top style: beveled
Headstock style: SOB 3 to a side
Headstock color: black
Tuners: sealed die cast
Neck wood: maple
Neck radius: 12"
Back of neck: satin
Neck binding: none
Nut width: 43mm
Fretboard: rosewood
Inlay: none
Frets: 22 jumbo 2.7mm
Factory strings: 9-42
Scale: 25-1/2"
Bridge type: tune-o-matic
Tailpiece type: string-through-body
Pickups: 2 black plastic covered BC Rich humbuckers
Controls: 1 volume, 1 tone and 1 three-way toggle
Hardware: chrome
Finish: glossy"
EDIT: Yes, I need to get the really good ones. But what pickups ARE really good for thrash metal type of music?
EDIT: Guitar is $500. All my other guitars are actually pretty nice, They've just been used (all of them are $300 or more brand new, but I saved about $50 by just buying them off friends and hooking them up with some new strings and a new nutstock etc.) I just want to add a Warbeast for design and to have some fun. It's not a bad guitar, just that it's not an extravagant $2000 one. I'm getting a $1300 Floyd Rose with a whammy soon. That's why I said I'd pay up to 200 in pick-ups. Because some nice pickups in a semi-nice guitar would be awesome to me.
EDIT: It says it's got 2 humbuckers, though I'm not exactly sure what those mean. I appreciate the help, I really do, I hope I don't come across as a bit of an ass, I've just been looking at the guitar and customer reviews are all very positive but mention that the pickups are a bit muddy and that the headstock is weighted (which isn't surprising because the guitar is a Warbeast so it has one of the ridiculously huge headstocks)
EDIT: Cnewshadow: 1) No, I'm not fluent in specifics of guitars, which is why I'm asking about different things first.
2) I'm bothering with this one because I'm not great with adjusting the tension of the bridge on a Floyd Rose. Yes, I know, the brand is not Floyd Rose, I've had one before, almost bought a second one and changed my mind because I was going to wait until I was better with swapping the strings on it. It's a Synyster Gates signature Schecter guitar, brand new could be upwards of $1300, I'm sure if you looked around you could get it for about $700 used, which is still more than I'm paying for it (friend likes drop tunings, was not smart when he bought the guitar for $1300, he wants to get rid of it and nobody wants to pay $500 for it).
3) I'm not dead set on the Warbeast, mainly because there's a few Explorer guitars I've been wanting, but I am still seriously considering the Warbeast simply because it'll be nice to have it,
Answer
You don't know much about guitars do you?
1) The Warbeast is a piece of junk. I wouldn't buy one at all if I were you. Low end BC Rich guitars are marketed toward people that don't know much about guitars and get them because they look cool. Getting better pickups will not help that guitar much.
Keep in mind that since it is marketed to people who don't know much about guitars, it is reviewed by people who don't know much about guitars. The reports you're reading about the pickups being bad are most likely being caused by the fact that the reviewers are playing through a little 15 watt practice amp and blame the thin, tinny sound on the guitar instead of the amp. Those same people probably have several guitars that have "terrible pickups" and it never dawns on them that maybe the amp they are playing through is the problem.
And in most cases, the people doing the review are comparing them to their first guitar, which was likely a Squier or a First Act or something similar. Naturally, it will be awesome compared to those guitars. If you can find even one professional musician who plays a Warbeast, I will be very surprised.
2) If you're getting a $1300 guitar soon, why are you bothering with this one? For the record, Floyd Rose is the name of the type of bridge the guitar has, most likely NOT the name of the company that made the guitar.
3 If you're dead set on buying the Warbeast despite my warning, look into the following brands and models of pickup:
Seymour Duncan: Duncan Distortion, Invader, Dimebucker, JB. The Invader and Dimebucker are a little thin sounding for my taste, but you might like them.
DiMarzio: Dominion, Crunch Lab, X2N, D-Activator, Super Distortion, Breed, Evolution. Of that group, I like the Dominion and D-Activator the best.
Bare Knuckle: Warpig, Aftermath, Painkiller, Cold Sweat (these are very expensive, I'm just including them for completeness)
All of those pickups are humbuckers, which is 2 pickups placed side by side so the magnetic fields cancel each other out and eliminate unwanted noise from the pickups.
4) You really should wait until you actually have the guitar and know what it sounds like before you plan to change the pickups. Doing it the way you are is like buying a car and getting a new engine for it before you've ever driven it.
EDIT:
I'd opt for something like this over the Warbeast: http://www.guitarcenter.com/In-Store-Used-USED-LTD-MH1000-DELUXE-TRANS-BLACK-QUILT-108832711-i3123533.gc
Goes for $800 new, Guitar Center has a used one for $549. And it already has an EMG 81/85 pickup set, so no changing of pickups will be necessary. So, you could buy the Warbeast for $500 and spend an additional $200 changing the pickups, or you could just buy the ESP for $549 and be set.
I actually kind of like the Synyster Gates signature model. It's not a bad guitar. I think it looks a little goofy, but it's a quality axe underneath the gaudiness. I have a Schecter Avenger myself, which is the body style his signature model is. It's surprisingly comfortable to play, even with the upper horn sticking out like that.
String swapping on a Floyd Rose isn't hard, but I can see how string tension would be a pain in the butt.
If you got one of these you wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, basically turns a Floyd Rose into a fixed bridge, and you can unlock it if you want to use the tremolo again: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Allparts-Tremol-No-Tremolo-Locking-Device---Pin-Type-H71947-i1820306.gc
Here's a video that might help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzBLysvmPy0
I change my strings one at a time so I don't have to block anything off, but the way he's doing it works just fine.
Note: If your friend is selling his Schecter cheap because he doesn't understand how to adjust the bridge on it.....JUMP ON IT NOW BEFORE HE FINDS ONE OF THESE VIDEOS!
You can drop tune just fine with a Floyd, you just have to make sure you adjust your spring tension to counteract the change in string tension and gauge.
Watch the video I linked you to, and when your friends are idiots and buy expensive guitars they don't know how to work on, you can get them cheap because you'll know what they don't :P
If you have questions about how to change tunings with a Floyd, ask here and either I'll try and walk you through it or someone else who knows about them will (Ask in Performing Arts, that's where the serious musicians hang out)
(I wasn't trying to be a jerk about my answer, I was just having a bad day so I was a little more sarcastic than usual)
You don't know much about guitars do you?
1) The Warbeast is a piece of junk. I wouldn't buy one at all if I were you. Low end BC Rich guitars are marketed toward people that don't know much about guitars and get them because they look cool. Getting better pickups will not help that guitar much.
Keep in mind that since it is marketed to people who don't know much about guitars, it is reviewed by people who don't know much about guitars. The reports you're reading about the pickups being bad are most likely being caused by the fact that the reviewers are playing through a little 15 watt practice amp and blame the thin, tinny sound on the guitar instead of the amp. Those same people probably have several guitars that have "terrible pickups" and it never dawns on them that maybe the amp they are playing through is the problem.
And in most cases, the people doing the review are comparing them to their first guitar, which was likely a Squier or a First Act or something similar. Naturally, it will be awesome compared to those guitars. If you can find even one professional musician who plays a Warbeast, I will be very surprised.
2) If you're getting a $1300 guitar soon, why are you bothering with this one? For the record, Floyd Rose is the name of the type of bridge the guitar has, most likely NOT the name of the company that made the guitar.
3 If you're dead set on buying the Warbeast despite my warning, look into the following brands and models of pickup:
Seymour Duncan: Duncan Distortion, Invader, Dimebucker, JB. The Invader and Dimebucker are a little thin sounding for my taste, but you might like them.
DiMarzio: Dominion, Crunch Lab, X2N, D-Activator, Super Distortion, Breed, Evolution. Of that group, I like the Dominion and D-Activator the best.
Bare Knuckle: Warpig, Aftermath, Painkiller, Cold Sweat (these are very expensive, I'm just including them for completeness)
All of those pickups are humbuckers, which is 2 pickups placed side by side so the magnetic fields cancel each other out and eliminate unwanted noise from the pickups.
4) You really should wait until you actually have the guitar and know what it sounds like before you plan to change the pickups. Doing it the way you are is like buying a car and getting a new engine for it before you've ever driven it.
EDIT:
I'd opt for something like this over the Warbeast: http://www.guitarcenter.com/In-Store-Used-USED-LTD-MH1000-DELUXE-TRANS-BLACK-QUILT-108832711-i3123533.gc
Goes for $800 new, Guitar Center has a used one for $549. And it already has an EMG 81/85 pickup set, so no changing of pickups will be necessary. So, you could buy the Warbeast for $500 and spend an additional $200 changing the pickups, or you could just buy the ESP for $549 and be set.
I actually kind of like the Synyster Gates signature model. It's not a bad guitar. I think it looks a little goofy, but it's a quality axe underneath the gaudiness. I have a Schecter Avenger myself, which is the body style his signature model is. It's surprisingly comfortable to play, even with the upper horn sticking out like that.
String swapping on a Floyd Rose isn't hard, but I can see how string tension would be a pain in the butt.
If you got one of these you wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, basically turns a Floyd Rose into a fixed bridge, and you can unlock it if you want to use the tremolo again: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Allparts-Tremol-No-Tremolo-Locking-Device---Pin-Type-H71947-i1820306.gc
Here's a video that might help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzBLysvmPy0
I change my strings one at a time so I don't have to block anything off, but the way he's doing it works just fine.
Note: If your friend is selling his Schecter cheap because he doesn't understand how to adjust the bridge on it.....JUMP ON IT NOW BEFORE HE FINDS ONE OF THESE VIDEOS!
You can drop tune just fine with a Floyd, you just have to make sure you adjust your spring tension to counteract the change in string tension and gauge.
Watch the video I linked you to, and when your friends are idiots and buy expensive guitars they don't know how to work on, you can get them cheap because you'll know what they don't :P
If you have questions about how to change tunings with a Floyd, ask here and either I'll try and walk you through it or someone else who knows about them will (Ask in Performing Arts, that's where the serious musicians hang out)
(I wasn't trying to be a jerk about my answer, I was just having a bad day so I was a little more sarcastic than usual)
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