The combination of 3 large ceramic magnets, hot coils, and 12 black oxide cap screws give the awesome Seymour Duncan SH-8 Invader Pickup bolts of volts for an electrifying force of energy.
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
Ich_Bin_Ibanez, on january 12, 2008 5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 40
Purchased from: A friend
Sound: The output on this pickup is amazing. I put into a Fender Stratocaster HSS and didn't really expect much from it. But once I managed to get it all wired in and ready to be played. I cringed when I turned on the amp. Not, because this pickup is bad. it's the fact that my ultimate test is to do a pinch harmonic on the 3rd fret of the g string. Then turn up the volume on my amp. It was the most ear splitting sound that I have heard in a long time. The last time I heard something close to this is when I plugged a Jackson DKMG dinky with EMG's into the Peavey XXX amp and performed the same test. The output is actually a just muddy enough that it in not perfectly clean but will do the job. It has an insane amount of bass coupled with some amazing clarity in the treble region over-all I would say that this pickup is well balanced. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I am hoping that this pickup will last and I am assuming it will since it is a Seymour Duncan. I can most definately depend on this pickup, I have had it installed in the Fender for almost 9 months and it plays just as it did out of the box. It still even looks Brand New. Everytime I plug my guitar in I still can't get over the fact that my Fender can sound like a true metal guitar. Not, saying a Fender can not sound like a metal guitar, it is just usually they do not. I think that I will have this pickup installed in my guitar until I either can afford a new guitar and put it in that or somehow for some strange reason I no longer own this guitar. // 9
Impression: I love everything about this pickup. There is absolutely nothing that I could possibly hate about. And if you knew me then you should be amazed. I am nit picky about anything and everything. Down to how easy it is to install or why kind of box it came in. And it was all perfect. I have this in a Fender Stratocaster HSS American made and it is in the bridge position. // 9
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on march 22, 2011 3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Sound: This pickup is, in a word, epic.
It has huge amounts of gain, and produces harmonically rich sustain that lasts for days and days thanks to a D.C. Resistance to the tune of 16.8k- that's more than the fabled Dimebucker. The cermaic magnents (there are 3 of them!) do a good job or producing your picking nuances.
If your tone falls flat, or your guitar does not Drive your rig the way you'd hoped, this is a pup worth serious consideration. I know the dude from Avenged Sevenfold uses Invaders for both positions, but I really have to disagree. Even though the neck position has a greatly reduced output, I would highly suggest using it for the bridge position only. This thing is basically made to flatten villages.
*On a side note, I found if you roll the volume back CONSIDERABLY (down to 5 or so) you actually get clear, open Acoustic sounds. Go figure! // 9
Reliability & Durability: This pickup dropped right into the guitar, and within 30 minutes it and I were laying waste. The large pole peices means it'll work with both regular and f-spaced instruments- this things has a huge magnetic field. Seems to be built like a tank. // 10
Impression: I just wanted to say: this pickup saved a guitar's life for me. I had an old Les Paul style DeArmond guitar. I was unimpressed with the guitar as a whole, and was on the verge of selling it. At the last moment, I decided to turn in into a project. Little did I know: redemption was neigh in the form of an under rated pickup (and a few other goodies).
This pickup won't play the guitar for you, it won't do country and it won't hold your hand. However, if you can harness the fury you'll be rewarded with a responsive, explosive sound that few (if any) passive pickups can match. Long live Seymour Duncan, and long live the Invader! // 9
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
Kozlic, on may 01, 2008 3 of 7 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 112.14
Sound: I mainly play punk rock but it suits well for Hard Rock and Metal, even blues. I fell in love with this pickup when I first saw it. It was in a Tom DeLonge signature guitar and since I love his sound I wanted one of those in my SSS Strat. So I put it in bridge position and made it HSS Strat. It a cheap Squier Strat. It has a really really great output and it is great for distortion. Some people say it's muddy and it doesn't sound well with cleans. Well, they're so wrong. I love the clean sound I get from it. I use it in a 130‚¬ Squier Strat and with a Peavey Valve King 212. I love what I get. I use a BBE crusher distortion pedal because I find the distortion on VK a bit too dark for punk rock. I'm really happy with the clean it gives, yeah, it's a bit muddy but I love it. I love when I use it with pedal to get the main distortion and I love it when I use the amp's lead channel for crunch sound. I only played it on bridge position so can't tell you about it's sound in neck position. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I don't know about it's durability cause nothing happened to it yet. It never gave up when I was using it. It works perfectly so I guess I can depend on it. I have never heard of anyone having problems with it so far. It is pretty heavy and thick. So watch your feet when you got that thing in hands in case you drop it. // 10
Impression: Well, I love everything about it. I love the was it looks (cause of those black screws on top), I love the way it sounds. As I already mentioned it is in a 2-way sunburst (I think) Strat with white pickguard, knobs and 2 white single coils. I got it in black because I didn't want to wait another 3 months just to get a white one. Its in bridge position and it really rocks. Thanks to SD for such a great pickup. // 10
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
Paddynbob, on january 09, 2013 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 60
Purchased from: GAK
Sound: Purchased this pickup online having had it suggested to me on a forum and consequently trying out my guitar teacher's - He had his in an Ibanez, I planned to put mine in an Epiphone, so was slightly concerned that it would sound muddy in my LP. What I was looking for was a pickup to do metal with, but, being a massive bohemian kid, didn't want to sound generic and go down the Active route.
I have not looked back since. I made completely the right choice going for this passive. It definitely did not sound muddy in my LP, actually (being passive) taking its sound from the guitar, becoming warm and actually quite nice clean, but still tastily high output. The pickup naturally fulfilled my metal needs, but complimenting the guitar rather than having a set in stone tone. It might sound more balls-out in a Jackson or something, but it certainly absorbs the qualities of the guitar.
Naturally, the pickup has a very tight bass response. I play in drop C so this is brilliant for me, however it works in drop D (a la Synyster Gates) and works well in lower tunings. The mids are not overly pronounced, but not lacking either, so you can shape them easily as you please. Cutting treble works very well for lead parts. It works very well in Bridge, I haven't tried neck, don't know if it would be worth your while sticking one in there. // 10
Reliability & Durability: This pickup has shown no sign of wear. The iconic design has lasted well. It does, if I'm nit picking, gather dust very quickly due to the fiddly aesthetic. But then again, who cares? Its never failed me sound wise. There was a short period when it crackled a bit, with the volume dropping. This continued to worsen for a period. I'll be honest though, I fixed it by getting a big screwdriver and hitting the pots with them. Not highly scientific, but hey ho. May not have been the pickup. Go figure. // 9
Impression: Over all, this was exactly the pickup I wanted. I get the output of an active, yet it doesn't castrate the character of my guitar. I gig with this pickup a lot. It really brings my Epiphone up to a very good standard. I record with it, everyone point out my thick guitar tone. Slight background noise, but handled easily with an ISP Decimator.
I play through a Blackstar HT Stage 60, which has two options on the clean channel. A British voice and an American one. This guitar sounds very nice through the Marshally, warm channel, actually passing as a decent clean pickup, but oddly, as soon as I put it through any American voiced clean amp, it begins to sound unpleasant. Just a thought. First class, Seymour Duncan. // 9
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
ebmusicman16, on october 03, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 59
Purchased from: Fret Music
Sound: This is a fantastic pickup that I had fitted on my Ibanez RG370DXL along with another Invader and a HOT Rail. It has a high output level and it suits my playing style perfectly. I am currently using it through a Line 6 Floor POD Plus which is connected to a Line 6 Spider IV. I mainly use a heavy distortion sound which suits the treble end nicely. This pickup is suitable for the neck and the bridge options and I have it in both. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I have had this pickup fitted for 4 months because the original ones which were on the guitar broke after a year or so. For the price I paid it should definitely last and lots of guitarists use them so I think I can depend on it. // 9
Impression: I love the sound it gives when I turn the distortion up and the notes are still perfectly clear. // 10
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
CelebrationDay, on march 03, 2010 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 90.00
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Sound: I recently purchased a Mex Strat, and decided to Switch out the cheap, noisy and bad sounding stock pickups. My first idea was the SD Invader because I had heard it in the bridge position of my friends Stratocaster and liked the tone.
First of all... This puppy is LOUD! The output level is significantly greater than the neck pickup on the Strat, which I haven't switched yet... Keep in mind that this one is a single coil... And the SH-8 is a humbucker. But none the less, the big and clunky magnets in the Invader give it an enormous output.
The tone I got was interesting however. I plugged into my Bogner Alchemist 1X12 Combo (All tube, 12 inch Celestion Gold speaker) with a bit of reverb, some delay and a DOD YJM308 Pre Amp Overdrive pedal with the settings at 10. My amp settings were:
Green Channel (clean/crunch)
Gain: 10
toggle Switch to crunch
Treble: 7
toggle Switch to bright
Mid: 5
Bass: 3
toggle Switch to deep
Master Volume: 3
The tone was raw and dirty, sludgy and muddy. The higher range was very articulate, but if I played any chord other than a power chord with any amount of gain the result was mushy and single notes could barely be heard.
The pickup put out a lot of low end and mid range tones, but pushed through when I would play a solo. It had a fantastic metal, sludge metal, early rock and roll or believe it or not, blues sound. Currently I'm using it to play Sabbath song at are in C# with my band and its working quite well.
I also feel like the Invader made my Strat sound 10x more like a Strat than it did with the stock pickup in it if you catch my drift. You could really hear the resonance of the wood and the thin maple neck with the Invader in...which is why I put this pickup high on my list of great blues guitar pickups.
I recommend this pickup for either the neck or the bridge position, because as I said, there is quite a lot of low end and mid range coming off of it. I was unhappy with the saturation of bass at first and tried to correct this by switching the "deep" toggle Switch under the bass knob on my amp off. This didn't really help much, so I've accepted that its a bassy pickup, and am now utilizing it accordingly.
Lastly, the clean tone on the pickup is surprisingly warm and not very muddy or hot like its overdriven counterpart. The ceramic magnets give it a surprisingly shimmery tone that I was very pleased with. My clean settings were the same as my overdrive settings, I just turned off the Overdrive pedal and switched the channel toggle to clean instead of crunch
Overall I give it a 7... Just because its so dirty and bass prominent... It can really only be used for sludge riffs or blues solos. // 7
Reliability & Durability: The Invader is built like a tank, and I can't imagine it breaking. I installed it myself, it took no more than 30 minutes, to get it in there and wire it up... My only problem was that Seymour Duncan didn't include a wiring diagram for an HSS Stratocaster... Just for a 2 Humbucker Les Paul or Jackson Rhoads V style axe.
I totally trust in the Invader at a show to do what it needs to do. As I said in SOUND, the pickup is tremendously loud... And on top of that it never cuts out or clips. // 10
Impression: As I said, I installed it in my Strat... I had to drill two new holes in the pickguard to mount it, because the stock humbucker had a strange mounting configuration. (this caused me to burn myself with a soldering gun! But its all for rock and roll right? )
I give it a 7 in the bridge and an 8 in the neck on over all tone and a 10 on durability in any position. // 8
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
guitarguyryan94, on december 22, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 85.50
Purchased from: Warmoth
Sound: This is a VERY hot pickup. It has loads of bass so be prepared to re-equalize your amps. I currently am using this pickup in a Fender Highway One Strat played through a Line 6 Spider Valve 112. The tone is bassy as I said above. The pickup, in general, has anything you could possibly wish for in a heavy metal pickup if you don't mind sacrficing the clean tone.
I play a lot of punk, metal, and alternative music and in my opinion, I like the clean tone. The pickups bass helps contribute to a nice clean tone, but because this is such a high output pickup, you get a little dirt even on the clean channel. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I wired this pickup myself and it was an easy install. Top notch wiring diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website. The pickup is very quiet and can handle loads of distortion quite well. The pickup has lasted me for the time being and I don't expect any problems from the Seymour Duncan quality. // 10
Impression: This is a very good quality pickup. I love everything about it when I have it on my distortion channel, but if they could find a way to make the clean tone more "clean" then this would be the perfect pickup for me. The alder wood in my strat is a counterweight to the Invader because of the wood's brightness and all of the pickup's bass.
It's one of those pickups you just have to try. It doesn't look like any other pickup out there and has a very unique sound. If you have some spare time and money, I highly recommend at least trying this pickup out. // 8
SH-8 Invader
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on april 18, 2011 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 66
Purchased from: PMT
Sound: When I first got this pickup I was praying that it would sound worth the cash I saved up for it and it pleased me to no end I installed it on my PRS SE Singlecut and plugged it into my Marshall Valvestate 2000 amp I set it up with my usual tonal set up of:
10 Gain
8 Bass
5 Middle
10 Treble
I was shocked at the shear crunch it gave me it was a huge step up from the korean stock pups and it was a good one it was really loud and really dirty on the ton but I loved it and if I switched to the clean channel although it was still quite dirty it was good cause it gave that nice classic rock tone I love. Its definitely a balanced pickup that gives off really clear notes and supplies my valuable tone. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I have no doubt this pickup will outlast even the guitar its in and I will continue using invaders in any guitar I acqire. I've gigged it time and time again no cut outs no issues whatsoever and everytime someone asks me to play a guitar with standard pups i tend to get upset when the crunch dont reach my sweet spot. // 9
Impression: I originally bought this pickup based upon its unique look and because everyone told me this was THE distortion pickup now im writing this after about having it a year so I can be sure of it. I love the looks for a start it just looked nice to have a pup that didn't just look like all the others I see on the shelf I wanted different so I bought it and the guitar i equiped with it is my PRS SE Singlecut in the bridge great pickup and I would no doubt get one for any other guitar I would get. // 10
actually this pickup is considered one of seymour duncans worst pickups ever made. id rather put a emg in my guitar it has better tone...and i hate emgs. this review was probly made within the week of you using these.
I tried these pickups in a custom strat & they sound great , but EMG fricken rules , all the big bands use EMG-81 & 85 & both my axes have them...And that dude that says he hates EMG-s has to be whacked or a banjo picker!
agree, some EMGs do sound shallow. I reckon the best EMGs are the EMG 60s they have such a nice crunchy sound and with a dimebucker in the bridge, Its a sweet combo it works great on my ESP Explorer.Though on my Gibson Explorer 90 i swapped gibson the pick-up to a duncan invader and it rules and i think its a much heavier sound the my ESP.
I'd take DiMarzio anyday, but EMG's are damn good even though they sound exactly the same on any guitar/wood etc.... but still the Invader's are still pretty good
I tried these pickups in a custom strat & they sound great , but EMG fricken rules , all the big bands use EMG-81 & 85 & both my axes have them...And that dude that says he hates EMG-s has to be whacked or a banjo picker!
so what? is everybody trying to sound like your "big bands". some people want to sound original, and not everyone buys gear solely based on the gear that their favorite bands use.
I rekon EMG's sound better run at 18V not 9V. I have gone back to passive pickups - more tonal texture and emotion in them. But hey I don't play metal I play rock. So go ahead and hack on that but remember thats my opinion from experience - you don't have to agree.
I don't really trust the opinions of the people posting these reviews, I don't want to hear about your blink 182 fanboy tendencies...
I'm looking for a good metal pup, and I think that maybe I could find a better quality seymore duncan but i'm gonna reserve my opinion till i can actually hear one for myself.
you are all wankers, all the brands posted here seem probably have ass pickups and great ones, you have to check out the quality level.
Convictionless is an idiot. Anyone that hates EMGs has to be either brain damaged from lack of metal or just a country ****er.
Or someone who likes tone. Look, EMGs have a pretty good and balanced sound and all, but i would never use them. They sound too.."clean" with distortion. They sound fake, you don't get the same tone you would with passive. Not every heavy band ever uses EMGs too, just so you know.
I rekon EMG's sound better run at 18V not 9V. I have gone back to passive pickups - more tonal texture and emotion in them. But hey I don't play metal I play rock. So go ahead and hack on that but remember thats my opinion from experience - you don't have to agree.
Definitely. There are tons of heavy bands that use passive pickups too. You don't have use a certain type of gear to play the music you like.
Every time someone put a review on a pickup thats not EMG, everybody goes "EMG is the best". Well I say f*ck you, the choice of pickups is totaly individual. I have EMG 81 and 85 in my Les Paul, and a Gibson 500T in my SG and I can tell that i like passive pickups more than active ones.
Active EMG pickups sort of... takes the character out of the guitar. I haven't tried active pickups from some other brand than EMG, maybe other brands are better.
And a thing to have in mind in the war between passive and active pickups, In the early recordings of Nile they used passive Jazz-pickups and the sound they got is much heavier than many bands out there with their pretty little EMG 81/85 set.
On topic, I've wanted to try the SD Invader for a long time, just becouse many says that it is a damn good pickup and some says that it's the shittiest SD ever made. And as we say in Sweden "The taste is like the butt, parted".
I have Invaders in my Ibanez Artist and I love them...
And pickups are all a matter of preference...One person may think EMG's are the best and somebody may think Duncans are the best...So insted of bashing somebody else, then you should respect other guitarist's preferences...We are all in the same boat here...
I love Duncan and Dimarzio, they are my personal favorites...but just because EMG isnt my favorite, doesnt mean I am going to bash them...
The only thing's we guitarists should all bash is First Act guitars and Line 6 Spider amps...
:-D
Just Kidding...I suppose you have a right to like those two.
lol
I have Invaders in my Ibanez Artist and I love them...
And pickups are all a matter of preference...One person may think EMG's are the best and somebody may think Duncans are the best...So insted of bashing somebody else, then you should respect other guitarist's preferences...We are all in the same boat here...
I love Duncan and Dimarzio, they are my personal favorites...but just because EMG isnt my favorite, doesnt mean I am going to bash them...
The only thing's we guitarists should all bash is First Act guitars and Line 6 Spider amps...
:-D
Just Kidding...I suppose you have a right to like those two.
lol
Well written. EMG's are not bad pickups neither is SD, Dimarzio, Bill Lawrence, Gibson, Ultra-Sonic and all other brands. It is TOTALY up to each everyone of us to choose the pickups that has the sound for our individual style of music.
And on the Line 6 Spider thing... they actually sound like crap, so let's all bash 'em. (but I'm sure there is someone out there who likes 'em)
I have Invaders in my Ibanez Artist and I love them...
And pickups are all a matter of preference...One person may think EMG's are the best and somebody may think Duncans are the best...So insted of bashing somebody else, then you should respect other guitarist's preferences...We are all in the same boat here...
I love Duncan and Dimarzio, they are my personal favorites...but just because EMG isnt my favorite, doesnt mean I am going to bash them...
The only thing's we guitarists should all bash is First Act guitars and Line 6 Spider amps...
:-D
Just Kidding...I suppose you have a right to like those two.
lol
you know not all first act guitars are bad?
they make high end custom ones for some guitarists that sound really good.
and line 6 spider amps are certainly not the best, but they are great begginer practice amps(the 15 watt ones, anything is a waste really)
so how about we just dont bash anything. id rather be a great guitar player with shitty gear than a shitty guitar player with great gear.
The problem with EMGs is they dont come in enough flavors like Duncans or DiMarzios imo. They sound great in Les Pauls (EMG 81/85) for metal but they werent so hot in a 1990 Ibanez RG570 I used to have (81/SA/89). And the cleans of low/mid output passives like a 59, jazz, or Air norton cant be had in the EMG catalog.
Everyone with EMGs - run them at 18V and you will get rid of the slightly squashed sound that you get. Yes even you metal/thrash guys. They can run up to 27V but there is little gain over 18V head room wise.
Its all in the fingers and your attack on the strings - not whose pickups you use.
any metalhead who says this pup is crap hasn't heard it used for anything but blink 182. and tom uses a strat through a boogie dual rect with the treble and presence cranked, obviously its not gonna sound apealing cuz he has a really high end eq. go listen to a7x's last 2 albums to hear just how good it can sound with a more balanced setup. (its in the syn gates custom.)
I have Invaders in my Ibanez Artist and I love them...
And pickups are all a matter of preference...One person may think EMG's are the best and somebody may think Duncans are the best...So insted of bashing somebody else, then you should respect other guitarist's preferences...We are all in the same boat here...
I love Duncan and Dimarzio, they are my personal favorites...but just because EMG isnt my favorite, doesnt mean I am going to bash them...
The only thing's we guitarists should all bash is First Act guitars and Line 6 Spider amps...
:-D
Just Kidding...I suppose you have a right to like those two.
lol
Hey I dont find anything at all wrong with my Line 6 amp and i got the half stack. I dont find it a waste at all. And ive been trying to see wat would be betted the SD Invader or Blackout.
Convictionless is an idiot. Anyone that hates EMGs has to be either brain damaged from lack of metal or just a country ****er.
EMG's don't always sound good. It depends on the guitar, and especially the amp. ou almost have to have something like a high end Randall or Boogie to get good tone with EMG's. I agree with everyone else that they can make the sound a bit cold as well.
I tried these pickups in a custom strat & they sound great , but EMG fricken rules , all the big bands use EMG-81 & 85 & both my axes have them...And that dude that says he hates EMG-s has to be whacked or a banjo picker!
so what? is everybody trying to sound like your "big bands". some people want to sound original, and not everyone buys gear solely based on the gear that their favorite bands use.
+1
eveyone i know is concentrated on sounding like nothing else. Something original. Sure, we use bands we like as reference to our own music but when you LIKE a band that is completely different than BEING another band. oh and on the EMG's... I would never own them.
Every time someone put a review on a pickup thats not EMG, everybody goes "EMG is the best". Well I say f*ck you, the choice of pickups is totaly individual. I have EMG 81 and 85 in my Les Paul, and a Gibson 500T in my SG and I can tell that i like passive pickups more than active ones.
Active EMG pickups sort of... takes the character out of the guitar. I haven't tried active pickups from some other brand than EMG, maybe other brands are better.
And a thing to have in mind in the war between passive and active pickups, In the early recordings of Nile they used passive Jazz-pickups and the sound they got is much heavier than many bands out there with their pretty little EMG 81/85 set.
On topic, I've wanted to try the SD Invader for a long time, just becouse many says that it is a damn good pickup and some says that it's the shittiest SD ever made. And as we say in Sweden "The taste is like the butt, parted".
this guys right. its all about individual taste.
some people like emgs others may preffer dimarzio.
who gives a flying **** let them like whatever they want to!!
these are the ones syn from A7X uses arent they?
call them what you want to, he's got great tone
yeah his are slightly different but basically the same. ive got the synyster custom and love invaders. easy pinched harmonics and deep heavy riffs are easily acheived.
i'm thinking about putting one of these in my epiphone G400 with a pearly gates in the neck, so i can have clean and gain sounds. i dont use the middle setting.
any metalhead who says this pup is crap hasn't heard it used for anything but blink 182. and tom uses a strat through a boogie dual rect with the treble and presence cranked, obviously its not gonna sound apealing cuz he has a really high end eq. go listen to a7x's last 2 albums to hear just how good it can sound with a more balanced setup. (its in the syn gates custom.)
or lamb of god
but my opion is that its to muddy i love other peoples invaders but i bought one put it in a kelly then a esp mh250nt now its back at the shop i bought it. i just couldnt find a lead tone with it now rythm players will love it i think
EMGays I played with every EMGay and they all suck. There is no tone. I have the invader because it cost less(78.99) and sounds great compared to an EMG 60(109.99)the EMG 60 is the only EMG I whould get if the price whould drop to around 60 dollars.
The only thing's we guitarists should all bash is First Act guitars and Line 6 Spider amps...
I have a Line 6 Spider Valve head and the tone the i get out of it live is clear! fat! and tight like the virgin mary herself. I will admit I use a E.Q. pedal and a noise gate but other than that its a great product for its price range! I run that with my ESP Alexi Laiho Custom shop pink sawtooth and my ESP Custom Shop Eclipse both with blackouts.... these pickups are insane!!!!!
There seems to be a lot of tarts bitching about how much better EMG 81/85s are than the Vader. Tone is player's choice f**knuts! Fair enough if you "prefer" the tone but if you basically just rely on using what every metal band and their mothers use then you need to find a new instrument. I stuck an Invader in the bridge of my PRS SE EG and it sounds top. Especially when combined with the SCs. I'd happily pit this against an EMG 81/85 combo for versatility any day!
My SD Invader should be arriving in the mail any day now. I'll be putting it in the bridge position of my LTD M-100fm with a push-pull so I can go series or parallel. Has anyone here tried that with this pup? I'll be tuned down 1 step because this is my "Crue" guitar. I'm really looking forward to hearing this thing... people seem to either love them, or hate them... not much in-between, kinda like Glocks. Compared to the stock ESP pickup, I'm sure I'll be pretty happy. I've played EMGs before and don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure, they sounded good, but not enough to make all other pickups sound like "garbage, crap, junk, etc." I'll post a review after a few weeks of getting used to it.
never used these, but am considering buying one to put in one of my guitars. I think u people who say they sound muddy when used clean are on crack. blink 182 always had great guitar tone, clean and distorted.
HELLSHREDD is a ****ing moron, please disregard anything he says about anything, ever. He sounds like every other bandwagon fan who is afraid to say something else besides EMGs are the best pup ever made.
Try a set of Blackouts in any guitar that will fit them, and you wont be disappointed. I have a set in my Epi SG and they sound utterly delicious. I have used EMGs before, and I have to say, they sound a little diluted.
blackout r amazing they blow emgs out of the water. i had emgs they r okay but no clean sound and everything sounds the same(except solos they amazing)but i think emgs sound the same in evry guitar.now back on topic the invader is awsome, i dont like avenged sevenfold syn(he has the invader) has great tone and zacky is an amazing rythm playing. and i luve tom delonge's tone. i have also tried this pup it is really good but u do need 2 clean it up a bit, igets pretty muddy when on clean. wpould recomend a single coil in the neck of guitar for cleans.like trey from morbid angel
actually this pickup is considered one of seymour duncans worst pickups ever made. id rather put a emg in my guitar it has better tone...and i hate emgs. this review was probly made within the week of you using these.
no actually I'm using it for a year now (almost) and it still is the best pickup ever!
No iv found that the best location for the pickup is in the bridge. It boosts ALL of my solos and phrasing to the max. In my opinion this is 2x better than the EMG 81/85.
You could even have one pickup in your guitar with this one, i dont even use the EMG that i have in my neck because this one is so much of a beast!
iv got an ibanez RG with INF3 pickups wich i think are gay,iv never bought pickups seperatly n havnt a clue what to look for,i jus saw tht sinister gates uses them and thought they must be gud,are they?( for rock,metall)or is it worth stiking to INF3?
hey ppl i desperatly need someones opinion on wether its worth getting this pickup(bridge) coz ive got an banez RG that came with INF3 pickups, personaly i think theyr crap but i dont have a clue bout pickups.i need a rock/metall sound.
My jackson has this pickup!(white though) But i've never really heard it's full potential cz the potentiometer was messed up.(from the previous owner), now i've bought a new potentiometer and i get it all wired up i'll be able to hear this baby!
Arnster wrote: hey ppl i desperatly need someones opinion on wether its worth getting this pickup(bridge) coz ive got an banez RG that came with INF3 pickups, personaly i think theyr crap but i dont have a clue bout pickups.i need a rock/metall sound.
I played an RG with the same pickup in the bridge, and compared to my standard RG it sounded amazing, awesome heavy sound, good amount of bass, a bit muddy but worth it if you want crazy riffs or a good rock/metal rhythm sound
^ not bad for lead either, just not clear enough for my taste, excellent dist. not that great clean (just my opinion though)i'd go with a balanced neck PU for clean sounds
Anyone know any good settings for tone with these.
if you want a punk sound (realy common with these babies), put the conture up fulla nd you lead on 3 -4. but i have a marshall jcm 900 high gain dual reverb, and it dosnt have a conture knob so i just chuck the gain up full and it blows peoples minds away
Every time someone put a review on a pickup thats not EMG, everybody goes "EMG is the best". Well I say f*ck you, the choice of pickups is totaly individual. I have EMG 81 and 85 in my Les Paul, and a Gibson 500T in my SG and I can tell that i like passive pickups more than active ones.
Active EMG pickups sort of... takes the character out of the guitar. I haven't tried active pickups from some other brand than EMG, maybe other brands are better.
And a thing to have in mind in the war between passive and active pickups, In the early recordings of Nile they used passive Jazz-pickups and the sound they got is much heavier than many bands out there with their pretty little EMG 81/85 set.
On topic, I've wanted to try the SD Invader for a long time, just becouse many says that it is a damn good pickup and some says that it's the shittiest SD ever made. And as we say in Sweden "The taste is like the butt, parted".
To those wanting a bit more headroom in your clean tone when using this pickup, dial back the bass on your clean channel and try lowering the pickup or its pole pieces so they are farther from the string. May not totally resolve the issue but it will help. If your amp's EQ is shared between channels try an EQ pedal.
SEYMOUR DUNCAN ROCKS!! The Invader (though not for everyone) is no exception.
I've been using a Duncan Invader for well over a year and I am much happier with it's tone than the passive EMGs that I replaced. You can say anything sucks but when it comes down to it, it's your own personal opinion. Active EMGs are too muddy for my taste and I use Seymour Duncans now for better clarity and tone. I took out the stock EMG 81/60 set from my ESP Eclipse and replaced them with a Seymour Duncan SH2 in the bridge and a SH4 jazz in the neck and it's tone is amazing compared to what the EMGs brought to the table.
xMikeyxMetalx wrote:
you know not all first act guitars are bad?
they make high end custom ones for some guitarists that sound really good.
and line 6 spider amps are certainly not the best, but they are great begginer practice amps(the 15 watt ones, anything is a waste really)
so how about we just dont bash anything. id rather be a great guitar player with shitty gear than a shitty guitar player with great gear.
You are right about the first act guitar's. Some of them are not bad but they have a lot that are very cheap. Personally, even a great guitar player can sound like poop if he is playing on poop gear. A lot of what makes a guitar player great, is what he/she plays out of.
I just bought an invader yesterday I am interested in how it will sound. I bought it for my Schecter C1-Elite to swap out the stock "duncan design" passive pick ups. My friend had put EMG's in his C1-Elite to basically, make it a hell raiser. I have a hell raiser too so I wanted to try and see what a passive "metal" pick up might sound like on my C1.
When it comes to active pick ups, personally i prefer the Seymour Duncan black outs for metal. EMG's are great but the black outs are insane.
I really wanted to get some Bare-Knuckle Warpig pick ups. They were a little out of my price range at the time though. So i'll see what this invader can do. If it isn't that great, I'll sell it on ebay and snag a warpig when i can.
Here comes one more tirening "will this be good", but I can't help it. I was thinking of this in the bridge position and a distorsion in the neck, I think it'll sound pretty hot. Any ideas/pointers?
I've found these pickups to be really good. I like them better than EMG 81/85 or 81 TW/89 that I have had in my guitars before - not to say I disliked the EMG's at all. They are pretty bass heavy, but if you look at the EQ on SD's website, the have more midrange than anything else, which I love. The only issue they can have is that they distort cleans a little bit, but this can easily be fixed by having coil-tapping on your guitar. And when split, they have amazing clean tone.
I loaded the Invader in the bridge of one of those old Drive WildFires and couldn't be happier. Bright, but heavy at the same time. I play mostly punk, which this pickup is great for. It can easily be used for blues, hard rock, and metal sounds too. The clean sound isn't as awful as some say. It sounds very bright and twangy, almost even Gretsch or Telecaster-ish. Am I the only one who bothered splitting the coils? The split sound is reminiscent of a Texas Special. The people who hate it usually went and put it in a heavy-sounding guitar and got mud out of it. My absolute favorite humbucker.
I've recently just got a schecter synyster custom with invaders already installed, I've been using the classic EMG 81/85 setup for years in a jackson king V and must say the invaders are a breath of fresh air. As much as I love the EMG's the invaders provide a completely different sound and the output is insane! My advice to anyone wondering about these pickups is to definitely buy some and give them a shot or try your local guitar shop and test them there before if you're still unsure.
since we're talkin about line 6. i seriously hate my spider 4 75w.it sounds decent but it died once a month after i bought it , repaired under warranty and now it acts up again. using a jackson dinky with sd blackouts . sounds decen tin a cheap guitar.
I do think that bands which use EMG's all their tones sound a bit simular. Im not saying their bad its just from hearing tones from this pickup and the way Syn's lead lines sound tonally this pickup seems awsome. Depends what your looking for. And if you getting this pickup chances are you not too worried about the clean a good pedal would make a big difference to it though i guess
I have one in the bridge pos my 006 elite. Killer! Down right brutal when maxed out and cleans up well when you roll back to 3-5. On a good tube amp there is no need to switch from clean to gain....just roll the volume knob.
The only issue I have with it is the magnants are soooo strong you need to have the pickup set farther away from the strings or else it will kill you string sustain....really! You really need to hold on to your screwdriver too the pickup WILL pull the screwdriver out of your aim and fingers.
i have invaders in my bridge and neck. I do alot of finger picking and these pickups sound great clean, not sure why eveyone hates these. Lots of bass and lots of treble, best pickups ive ever played
^ Dimarzios are awesome! I tried two guitars, both Charvel Pro Mods. So Cal model had Dimarzios and San Dimas had Duncans. So Cal had much richer and fuller sound and it was great for my style. Maybe if you play metal, you don't want that much of midrange (that I think the Dimarzios had more than Duncans). But my Tone Zone and Evolution are great pickups. Especially the Evolution in the neck position. It's not muddy, it's very clear sounding. And Tone Zone is a great bridge pickup. This is just my opinion and the Duncans weren't bad but Dimarzios were just better for me.
I tried these pickups in a custom strat & they sound great , but EMG fricken rules , all the big bands use EMG-81 & 85 & both my axes have them...And that dude that says he hates EMG-s has to be whacked or a banjo picker!
Dear Numbnut... I have several guitars with EMG's and I love them just like I love the SH-8 Invader in combination with 2 hotrails in my kramer striker 211... yet I also play banjo. Now what? still wanna wack me?
it all depends on what sound you like and what you want to play. Not what all the big bands use...
Just ordered an Invader to go with the JB Jr. I have in the neck of my strat project. 2 vol, no tone, 3 way gibson switch mounted in the bottom tone hole on the pickguard.
These pups are killer, had it in a Schecter oo6elite.
Loved it, I hate my sh6 I have. The sh8 is way better. I had no problem with cleans, turn your volume down and get a treble bleed circuit if you still cant get a good clean.
And DO NOT GET THEM to close to the strings. They WILL pull on the strings and cut into your sustain.
Guitarguyryan94's review of this pickup is right on, it has loads of bass. I put the Invader in my Jackson RR5 Rhoads (bridge of course, alder body) and I had to lower my gain and bass on my amp slightly to compensate for the Invader. But I am getting massive, wide & fat sounding metal tone. Single notes runs and tremelo lines sound absolutley monsterous with this pickup, and the rhythm is mean and heavy. Power chords are HUGE. On the clean channel lowering the volume dulls out the sound so I always flip over to middle or Jazz in the neck for cleans. But it has loads of bass so in the bridge with too much gain your metal tone will turn farty. The Invader is always a pleasure to play on any amount of distortion... from blues to death metal. After using this pickup for a while, it's no wonder Nile's guitar tone is so precise present and accurate, despite tuning down so low.
