What humbucker does anyone think would be good for Heavy metal yet just enough to play softer rock?

Answer 1

i use seymour duncans but i dont do very heavy metal. i think EMG pickups are good for really heavy stuff. you're talking about one humbucker for all this? cos otherwise you could get a cleaner one for your neck and higher output for bridge and depending on the song use either one or both and with coil taps and stuff you get lotsa variations. thats what iv done at least. the official websites as well as some review websites especially with sound samples are pretty useful. or you could pick a band / artist whose sound you like and do some research and find out what hes using.

Answer 2

DiMarzio PAF will do that, it's warm and not too much output - in fact, you can see the specs at DiMarzio.com. But you can control them anyway, I use Evolutions, Steve Vai model, and other extremely high output models and can still play soft, you just reduce the output a bit on the voulme control.
On Seymour Duncan's web site you can hear samples of many pickups, but I personally think they're way lame compared to DiMarzios (but you hear the sound and read the specs, so you know what to expect from DMs) - just a personal preference Satriani, Vai, Malmsten and I share.

Answer 3

I had a 1975 Gibson Les Paul with humbuckers that sounded great on Hard Rock stuff and great on mellow songs too. That was the sweetest guitar I ever had. Damn, I miss it!