Are you looking for the best pickups for death metal? Well, in this short article, we have compiled for you the top four death metal pickups available on the market at the moment.
For practicing popular heavy metal subgenres like death metal, black metal, or glam metal, you’ll need the perfect combination of bass, amp, effects pedals, and pickups.
Pickups tend to be a crucial cog of your setup regardless of the subgenre of heavy metal you specialize in. You know that you’ve chosen the right pickups if your death metal tunes have massive and pronounced bass and sustain.
Heavy metal players, by and large, opt for humbuckers for dialing in the dark, aggressive, and crunchy death metal tones. So when it comes to selecting top-notch humbuckers, you can pick and choose from EMGs, Seymour Duncans, DiMarzios, and Gibsons.
Best Death Metal Pickups
| Image | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| EMG 81 Active Guitar Humbucker (Top Pick) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan Black Winter Set (Close Runner-Up) | Check Price |
 | Gibson Dirty Finger Humbucker | Check Price |
 | DIMARZIO 206999 DP 220FBK D Activator | Check Price |
EMG 81 Active Guitar Humbucker (Top Choice)
The EMG 81 Active Guitar Humbucker continues to be one of the bestselling humbuckers of EMG for death metal music. This active humbucker makes the most of its integrated beefy ceramic magnets and narrow aperture coils for delivering tones with full intensity, plenty of high-end chops, and flowing sustain. But, of course, if you’re looking to replace simply the pickup in your bridge, then you do not need to look any further.
When it comes to consistently repeating your heavy metal solo chords and arpeggios, the EMG 81 is your best bet. Metal bassists usually use the EMG 81 in the bridge and the EMG 85 in the neck position. A highly focused attack typifies the signature response of EMG 81, and the high output becomes noticeable when driven by a powerful tube amp.
Besides the solderless mounting, which renders replacing stock pickups a breeze, the EMG 81 is also very energy-efficient, making it practical for roving bassists. Rounding up the EMG 81, this active humbucker enables the playing out of tunes ranging from high-decibel metallic squeal to chunky booming growl.
Pros
- Proprietary Quik-Connect header with mating cable for quick and hassle-free installation
- Painstakingly designed to directly replace stock pickups in your electric guitar’s bridge and neck
- Heavy-duty ceramic magnets and fine aperture coils for juicy sustain, massive high-end cut, and thorough intensity
- Sweltering sonic regardless of whether pickup is in bridge or neck
- Ideal for metal players using a tube amp with the distortion cranked up
- Works best when paired with EMG 60 or EMG
Cons
- Installing on a V-shaped bass is an issue
- Less presence
Seymour Duncan Black Winter Set Humbucker (Close Runner-Up)
The Black Winter Set Humbucker by Seymour Duncan, characterized by the sharp attack and extreme muddiness and grunge, has been designed exclusively for metalheads. Packing a punch in an ultra-compact package, the Black Winter Humbucker pair is a split-coil passive pickup revered for its incredibly high output and intensely forceful tone.
This Seymour Duncan humbucker set adds versatility to your metal style, reinforcing exposed ceramic pole pieces embedded in a ‘soap bar’ mount wrapped in naked coils.
As the terminology implies, the Black Winter humbucker was initially designed and created for black metal bassists. However, with time, these humbucker pickups have been pressed into service by other extreme metal subgenres’ specialists (including, of course, death metal) to good effect.
This humbucker set has been tuned up and configured impeccably for underscoring the highs vis-à-vis the low and midrange frequencies.
So there’s a good likelihood that your tone will feel excessively vivid and intense provided you fine-tune your instrument, amp, and effects pedals appropriately.
Pros
- Configured neck and bridge pickups for six-string basses
- Helps deliver balanced highs, mids, and lows for letting deal-in articulated solos to killer riffs
- Fulfills requirements of extreme metal players: forceful saturation, demanding mids, and devastating distortion
- Tailored for booming leads and thunderous riffs
- Calibrated pair of humbuckers for a well-balanced attack
- Vacuum wax-potted for noise-free operation
Cons
- You might need an extra active pickup if you’re not pleased with the output of Black Winter.
Gibson Dirty Finger Humbucker
The Gibson Extreme-Output Dirty Finger Humbucker for bridge is an ideal replacement for the stock pickup in your electric bass. The Dirty Finger Humbucker set is making a comeback following a 20-year hiatus on the Epiphone Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333 Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitar.
The mahogany-blocked semi-hollow maple body of Tom DeLonge delivers a deadly bite and mellowed sustain thanks to the ultra-hot Gibson Dirty Fingers the in bridge.
Players of different heavy metal subcategories increasingly favor the inordinately aggressive and insistent tone of Dirty Fingers. The Dirty Fingers Humbucker pickups include a 4-conductor lead for multiple wiring options and are wax-potted for eliminating unwarranted microphones.
At the same time, these humbuckers come with a limited lifetime warranty like all other Gibson replacement pickups.
The “Dirty Fingers” Humbucker pair is a carbon copy of the celebrated super-hot humbucker that Gibson introduced in the 70s. Equipped with three heavy-duty ceramic magnets and over-wound nevertheless well-balanced coils, the Dirty Fingers lets you tweak each string’s output.
Pros
- Passive bridge humbucker offers exceptional clarity and more volume
- Ultra-output for an immensely extended and aggressive response
- 4-conductor leads for wiring in series, parallel, and coil-split
- Wax potted for eliminating microphonics and prolonging longevity
Cons
- Turning up the volume considerably leads to a squeal that is quite irritating.
DiMarzio 206999 DP 220FB K D Activator
Though active humbuckers are distinctively clean and authoritative with amazingly taut lows and exceptional harmonic overtones, they sound lackluster when you push them hard. So in 2006, technicians at DiMarzio teamed up to design near-flawless humbuckers for bridge and neck with minimal downsides.
The DiMarzio 206999 DP 220FB K D Activator neck/bridge pickups are reinforced with all the benefits of active humbuckers but without drawbacks.
To put things in perspective, the DP 220FB K D Activator pickup captures the traditional humbuckers’ thunderous yet sparkling sound. But, on the other hand, these DiMarzio passive humbuckers are incredibly receptive to gentle and forceful guitar picking.
Death metal players also warm up to the 206999 DP 220 to take full advantage of the humbucker even without batteries.
At the same time, this electric guitar humbucker pushes your amp to the limit enabling you to dial in an intensely focused attack without sounding overly loud. And unlike active humbuckers, the DP220 furnishes you with plenty of headroom and lots of dynamics when you drive them hard. While turning down the volume knob allows for natural sound cleaning, attacking aggressively does not flatten a signal.
Pros
- Passive humbucker for neck/bridge that replicates an active pickup’s output without the latter’s raucousness
- It can be operated without batteries
- Better harmonics and enhanced response
- It offers you better control compared to the majority of active humbuckers
Cons
- The humbucker for the neck does not deliver the full midrange or coil-split tunes.
FAQ About the Best Death Metal Guitar Pickups
Are Active or Passive Pickups Better for Death Metal?
Apart from the instrument, amp, and effects pedals, pickups play an influential role in picking strings for extreme metal. More often than not, many heavy metal bassists experience the dilemma of whether to choose active or passive pickups. Should you go for active pickups or passive versions for strumming, plucking, and brushing aggressive, overflowing, and high-gain black metal notes?
To put it honestly and as briefly as possible, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In other words, the particular metal subgenre you play and your personal preferences will, for the most part, influence your choice. So evidently enough, the selection aspect is mainly subjective, depending mainly upon the metal subgenre and the guitarist’s predilection.
That said, both passive and active humbucker pickups work well for heavy metal, especially the extreme metal genre (including black metal, thrash metal, and death metal subgenres). Of course, you’ll inevitably feel the noticeable and subtle differentiations in function and tonality when you switch from active to passive models. Nevertheless, the majority of heavy metal bassists prefer active humbuckers over their passive counterparts as the former tend to be high-output
Alternatively, passive humbuckers offer more versatility concerning tonality than active models due to the former’s broader frequency range. The task becomes easier if you pay close attention to aspects like bite and cleaning-up capability, note articulation and response, sustain, bass, overall tone, etc.
To conclude, passive pickups are the way to go if you have a penchant for warm tones and use an instrument capable of playing various musical genres.
On the other hand, if you wish to focus exclusively on heavy metal, don’t look beyond active humbuckers.
Do You Need Humbuckers for Death Metal Music?
Generally speaking, you can take your pick from various pickup types for heavy metal or simply metal, including single-coil, tapped single-coil, humbucker, mini-humbucker, and many others.
But if you’re looking to play thrash-, doom- or death metal, humbuckers should be your priority. Humbuckers are indispensable for ringing in the aggressive, dark, and high-octane sounds you’d associate with the above extreme metal genres.
Additionally, humbuckers are just what you need for dialing in those characteristic solos as well as improvised riffing.
Can You Play Death Metal On a Strat?
If you’re a death metal specialist, then you indeed rave about blistering beats, saucy solos, menacing growls, and palm-muted riffs. At the same time, it does not bear emphasis that you practice extreme metal style on an instrument that:-
- Features a body suitable for palm muting
- Is compatible with delivering solos at high-speed
- It is suitable for accepting humbuckers for that signature sound
- Is very amenable for drop tuning at D, C, or sometimes even B
The following electric guitars fulfill all the above requirements or specifications:
- Fender Blacktop Stratocaster HH
- Schecter Hellraiser C1
- ESP LTD EC-256
- ESP LTD EC-1000 VB Duncan Vintage
- Ibanez RGR5220M Prestige
- Jackson JS32 Rhoads
- ESP LTD FRX-407
Of course, the above listing is not exhaustive.
Can You Play Death Metal With a Tele?
Again there is no right or wrong answer here-it all depends upon the Telecaster type/model (J5 or a Tele 72 Classic Series), amp (tube is preferable), pickup type (humbucker), and pickup position (preferably bridge). But, by and large, Telecasters tend to sound remarkably harsh and vivid with plenty of high-gain and treble, which doesn’t cut for death metal.
Why Are EMG Pickups Good for Death Metal?
For most heavy metal and hard rock guitarists, EMG ‘active’ pickups tend to be their default pickups, and for good reasons. As active pickups, EMGs offer higher gain and output in comparison to their passive counterparts.
Additionally, owing to their higher gain, EMG active pickups furnish excellent string transparency and clarity, have pronounced bottom-end and nice bass response for chunky tones.
So, The Best Death Metal Pickup Is…
So there you’ve it-three passive humbuckers- one each from Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, and Gibson, and one active humbucker from EMG. Now whether you’ll go for an active or passive humbucker (for extreme metal) will largely depend upon your rig.
Active pickups sound clearer and quieter, offering superior note segregation even without amplification. At the same time, passives can attain high volumes, albeit with a bit of unwarranted distortion when driven by a high-powered amp.
Our winner in “the best death metal guitar pickups” category is the EMG 81 humbucker. It’s the best humbucker (and overall pickup) for death metal music.