How Brutal Are The Blackouts

[@DustinAlford]

Tearin it up with the blackouts today! Let me know what you think of these pickups in the comments!

[@MetalMayhem1978]

Yesss! I had these in my ESP Eclipse ! Loved them !

[@DustinAlford]

They scream! The Eclipse is a great looking guitar.

[@Anjohl]

I found Blackouts to be the best "metal" pickup I ever played. I played a Laihi LTD V with them in it, and I felt like a better player playing it!

[@DustinAlford]

I totally agree they are the most metal pickups I ever used. They are soooooo hoooottt! They clip everything you plug into. It's either ride or die with these puppies. I felt like a better player using these as well, they have soo much sustain! I had to go to rehab for sustain abuse after I moved back to EMG's shortly after this video.

[@ricksanchezito8972]

I've learned that you can roll your volume back and get some great cruch/rock tones. Roll the volume back up and you're back to modern metal. Very versatile pickups that are underrated imo.

[@DustinAlford]

I agree, a lot of passive pickup purist feel that only passive pickups can do this but active can as well and it's enough for someone like me who occasionally likes old school crunch/rock tones.

[@THE_JACKAL666]

I have the AHB-2 ( Metal ) for 5 years and I can assure you is brutal beyond belief. I had all sorts of bareknuckles, Dimarzios and EMGs and NONE can get close to it, PERIOD ! The AHB-2 Is absolutely vicious and tight, without being compressed like the EMG.

[@jacoblima3175]

When I was 18 I had a sector ATX blackjack and I had these stock in it hands down my favorite pickups ever produced besides the demarzio deactivators

[@DustinAlford]

I'd love to try the Deactivators one day, do you think they are as good as the blackouts?

[@jacoblima3175]

@@DustinAlford deactivators are good I have played a Ibanez xiphos and they had the deactivators in there I wouldn't say they are as good the blackouts but they definitely have a unique sound and they're equally killer you can get some real good distorted tones out of it

[@DustinAlford]

@@jacoblima3175 Nice, thanks for the info I might get some one of these days.

[@zombiemosher1139]

Great demo, i have the original bridge Blackout (AHB-1) & also an old Livewire Metal which is what the AHB-2 is based on. The Livewire Metal doesn't have the jumper like your one so its full output all the time, so no cleans but i also dont need a boost in front of my rig like all my other guitars. The standard Blackout is very high output too but at least it does cleans. I'd love to get hold of an AHB-2 as well.

[@GothicXlightning]

must install those little Devils in my Black SG's Bridge of Honor glad that DRACULA Agrees

[@iamgribs]

Very hot and responsive pickups.

[@DustinAlford]

They do the job!

[@jacoblima3175]

If you crank down the volume on your amp the master volume and you run mid volume on your amp and you crank down the volume on the guitar you get a really good saturated creamy blue sound

[@DustinAlford]

Thanks for the tip Jacob, I've never tried that before.

[@astromuzik48]

İ’ve theese in my viper 300 fm and its awesome! I also put the guitar's stock pickups (81-85) into the epiphone slash model. That was great too.

[@Flat-Kat]

I’ve been running the same set of first gen AHB-1’s since first week of release and I can confidently say I’ve never played a guitar that you will struggle to NOT clip in a lot of AI’s. They are insanity HOT and I love them. They’re my absolute favorite!

[@DustinAlford]

They are very unique in that way. They are brutal!

[@acutemadness]

Was there an earlier model called HB-1? I used to have a guitar that came with the AHB-1b/AHB-1n set which still got clean tones like EMG 81/85 despite being so hot.

[@DustinAlford]

I think my model is the earlier one. It clips no matter what. I purposely bought this model for the bridge, the neck doesn't clip. I might try my hands at the newer versions later since I no longer am a fan of the clipping.

[@acutemadness]

@@DustinAlford I’ve never heard of the HB-1, but I remember the AH-3s having a compressed sound though not really clipping which I’m sure is the case with the AHB-1s; the clipping sucks if you’re trying to get a clean tone which is why I don’t care if the neck is lower output as long as I have two volumes and obviously a switch since I don’t use a foot-controller or a computer mapping out all of the tone changes with a click track.

[@walpurgisnacht9234]

Great playing man. Seriously sick leads.

[@douglasvaughn9349]

I have these in my Jim root Squier tele

[@DustinAlford]

Nice! They probably sound pretty dope in the Tele.

[@Jxotic631]

Thought this was matt shadows for a hot sec

[@DustinAlford]

Ha ha, we're identical twins separated at birth.

[@WholeLottaBulldog]

Seriously massive output. Do you like their tone? Would u say their normal output is higher than an emg for example?

[@DustinAlford]

It's definitely more the Emgs. I actually went back to using Emgs because they are most flexible to use then the blackouts. The blackouts are awesome for shearing gain though.

[@jackbootshamangaming4541]

Just replaced my duncan designed blackouts that came in my demon 7 with Fishman moderns, love it. But I want to get a set of real Duncan made blackouts and have them in one of my seven strings

[@DustinAlford]

You'd probably get a super brutal sound doing that. 7 strings and active pickups go together like PB and J!

[@JokerCat9]

The real blackouts are much better than the duncan designed ones.

[@Ilmd86]

Are these pickups good for thrash metal

[@DustinAlford]

Definitely, they rip!

[@Ilmd86]

@@DustinAlford OK thanks man have a good day

[@Encrypted_God]

Dude....I really, really need your help. I bought one HB-1 for my ax. I took pictures as I was stripping it down for notes. But I am only going to use the new HB-1 for now. Ooops...I have a Striker HSS. Anyways....if you can contact me that would be fuckn awesome. I mean that way I can send you pics of whast I'm doing. Thanks Dustin! \m/

[@rainegingerfish8860]

I have a stock HSS fender strat and I love it, I really want to customize it and make it to the exact spec I want I’m just scared of fucking up my guitar, but I definitely want these pickups

[@DustinAlford]

I've been there man, I have screwed up a lot of guitars in my day. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose ha ha. It might be worth buying a new guitar specifically to put these pickups into without screwing up your HSS strat.

[@ajayb4651]

Mine don't sound like that at all! I've got em in a gibson Epiphone my brother bought me for Christmas, but they sound so dull and void of any gain or distortion. Help!

[@ericv215]

Change the battery

[@ajayb4651]

@@ericv215 sorry for the late reply, but yeah that was the first thing we did. Now it looks like checking the wiring and pots when I get the free time, so I'll have to download some example diagrams. Passive pickups are way easier, even with a Floyd rose to deal with!

[@hankhill5409]

Have you tried the 18v mod for those pickups yet?? It's killer, and super easy to DIY

[@DustinAlford]

I haven't yet, heard it's cool though. I'll have to look into it. Does it extend the life of the pickups or improve the tone?

[@hankhill5409]

@@DustinAlford It improves the tone. Not sure about extending the life of it, but that is an interesting question! I have the 18v mod on my Blackouts and on my EMG 81/85 set. I'll admit it was more of a drastic improvement for the EMG's than it was for he Blackouts but it did improve the tonality of the Blackouts. The harmonics sounded better and it also improved string separation. The 18v mod sounds like throwing an OD pedal in front of a hot amp. But, it also improved the clean sound, made it more articulate. Anyways, I think you can buy the double 9v battery clip on Amazon now for like $5 but I made my own, it was super simple.

[@DustinAlford]

@@hankhill5409 That's awesome. I might put it into a future guitar build, thank you.

[@SimonMedia666]

@@hankhill5409 I confirm this - I have 18 or 24 volts in all my EMG guitars :)

[@gouthamreddy2587]

How to produce more highs with these

[@DustinAlford]

You might want to check out a 10 band eq to add some high end.

[@EePingLiang]

What's the ping sound whenever you stopped playing?

[@DustinAlford]

The pickups are extremely hot, they have a tendency to do this.

[@EePingLiang]

@@DustinAlford I see. Sounds like from springs, I wonder if you put some foam around them will keep them quiter. I'm installing ahb1 sets on my guitar soon, after I clean and level the frets. Your playing are amaizing and I love the tone!

[@DustinAlford]

@@EePingLiang Thank you and thanks for the tip it probably was the springs.

[@Highrollinhunter]

Blackouts are way better than EMG's in my opinion they sound fuller and meaner.

[@DustinAlford]

I totally agree! They rock!

[@virtuosomaximoso1]

You really want them to scream. Get the 24volt mod.

[@Angry_hamster]

terrible