SD Black Winter or BK Nail Bomb

teestone

teestone

Active member
You know the story....I have a guitar with pickups that are underwhelming. Want something hot to handle metal.

Reached out to Tone Nerd as his Wicked 8 seemed to fit the bill but he moved to Japan and can't make those right now. Drag, but understandable.

Having read multiple threads discussing high gain pickups, the SD Black Winter and BK Nail Bombs come up a lot....as well as many others.

What are the plusses and minuses of these two sets?
 
I have Nailbombs in 3 of my guitars, which I think says quite a bit. They absolutely delivered in a LP, a singlecut PRS and an older McCarty. Can't say anything about the BWs.
 
Have no experience with the Nail Bomb, but love BW.
Tbh, if you downtune the Nazgul is probably better than the BW for articulation and clarity while sounding nearly identical, imo.
 
Ignoramus said:
I have Nailbombs in 3 of my guitars, which I think says quite a bit. They absolutely delivered in a LP, a singlecut PRS and an older McCarty. Can't say anything about the BWs.
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Guitar is a Dunable R2. Mahogany body and neck....Maple top, Ebony board. 25.5" scale length.
 
2 are in drop d, the other is drop c. I've had them in d standard as well as d sharp standard. They deliver.
 
teestone said:
Would say the BW are solid in all tunings? I'll mostly be in D but on occasion A flat or standard depending on what I'm playing.
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I like the BW better than the Nazgul in standard as the Nazgul can be a bit harsh in the highs at standard, but the Nazgul shines in drop tuning. It's not that the BW is at all bad, it's just that the Nazgul never turns to mush no matter how low you tune since it was designed for 7 & 8 string originally. It's a fine balance of tone (edge to bw) vs note definition (edge to nazgul). If you're only dropping a full step, the BW will be fine, but A? Nazgul will destroy anything, ime. Though there is the Jupiter, but I'm sure you have enough rabbit holes to deal with :ROFLMAO:
 
i have BW in my ibanez RG in Drop B and i cant stand it, just a flubby mess. i have a nazgul in a older yamaha in drop C and its cool. i like the invader the most honestly for passives
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
I like the BW better than the Nazgul in standard as the Nazgul can be a bit harsh in the highs at standard, but the Nazgul shines in drop tuning. It's not that the BW is at all bad, it's just that the Nazgul never turns to mush no matter how low you tune since it was designed for 7 & 8 string originally. It's a fine balance of tone (edge to bw) vs note definition (edge to nazgul). If you're only dropping a full step, the BW will be fine, but A? Nazgul will destroy anything, ime. Though there is the Jupiter, but I'm sure you have enough rabbit holes to deal with :ROFLMAO:
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I've been running Nazgul in standard/drop-D for many years and love it. I've always wanted to try a Black Winter though.
 
I preferred the TB version of the black winter more than SH when I tried them both but they had this high end fizz I wasn't a huge fan of but I haven't played them in ages so can't say how I'd like them with my current setup.
 
FourT6and2 said:
I've been running Nazgul in standard/drop-D for many years and love it. I've always wanted to try a Black Winter though.
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I should add that my main experience with the Nazgul is drop tuning and 7/8 strings with modern high gain amps, so def should have added YMMV. I only have one 6 string with them and it's in B. I should probably try it on something with a bit less gain and standard tuning, not just the latter. :ROFLMAO:
 
FourT6and2 said:
Is there a Nazgul/BW shootout somewhere?
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There's that Mike Stamper guy on youtube who has one that I know of. His tone isn't amazing or anything, but he is consistent and plays the exact same thing with the same amp/settings on every shootout so you can get a good idea of how almost any of the hundred+ pickups he's compared are to each other, even in different videos. I think SD just released a bunch of rail variants too of a lot of pickups. So much to keep up with, but imo if you like the Nazgul, you'll probably like the BW.

 
RaceU4her said:
i have BW in my ibanez RG in Drop B and i cant stand it, just a flubby mess. i have a nazgul in a older yamaha in drop C and its cool. i like the invader the most honestly for passives
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I used to pretty much only use invaders 20 years ago and they seem to have hate towards them nowadays or at least no one talks about them 🤷‍♀️ I like them in the bridge position if it's not too close to, well the bridge.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
There's that Mike Stamper guy on youtube who has one that I know of. His tone isn't amazing or anything, but he is consistent and plays the exact same thing with the same amp/settings on every shootout so you can get a good idea of how almost any of the hundred+ pickups he's compared are to each other, even in different videos. I think SD just released a bunch of rail variants too of a lot of pickups. So much to keep up with, but imo if you like the Nazgul, you'll probably like the BW.

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Nice, thanks.

In that vidoe, BW sounds fuller and more pleasant for clean and mid-gain. Nazgul sounds strident and a bit harsh. But in the high-gain chuggs, the Nazgul sounds tighter and more pissed off. So yeah, I can see how it would hold together more for drop tunings, but that's also why it's a bit harsher for the clean stuff.
 
japetus said:
Dude you are old
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I'm barely even ... :unsure: carry the one, subtract ten ... 30 20.
With my partial Japanese and Native American heritage I should stay that way until I'm 50 at which point I'll become 120 on my 51st if stereotypes are correct.
 
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