software

Has anyone tried this?

I'm thinking of an Invader for my Mahogany Ibanez w/maple cap.

I'm afraid it will be muddy and too dark. I'm going for a Lamb of God vibe.

I think you can accomplish the LOG vibe with that set-up if you've got the amp to go along with it.

I believe James Hetfield had an invader in a mohogany guitar... I've had the invader in a few guitars, but never mohogany.
Rock On

i have the Invader in my Ibanez S540- black metal/ fusion; no problems...

i have the Invader in my Ibanez S540- black metal/ fusion; no problems...

Can you give me some tonal characteristics of the pickup in that guitar? Is there still enough bite and cut in the top end?

It wont be too muddy or dark, it will just sound big and depending on how u eq your amp will depend on the muddyness also it depends what sound your after. The only thing is it wont be as open and airy as a lower output pickup and the trebles are rolled back. Invader = in your face bat chord soloing and compression and huge thick distortion.

if you refer to the tone chart closely, the Invader's midrange exceeds its bass. the reson why it's inherently very boomy is because the treble is severely reduced. so you are left with the mids to cover the top-end as well which isn't adequate in itself.

in my Ibanez S540, under lots of gain, i can still hear lots of single notes definition. the Invader isn't mud-city as many people would have made you believe. it's still one of the best passive pickup for all things metal IMO. I've had an Invader in my Basswood bodied Ibanez RG, and i loved it! Really thick bottom and chrunchy mids, and that really nasty chainsaw-ish top end . I unfortunately had to sell it a month after i got it, to be able to afford some new bass strings :P.

Thanks guys, I think I might give it a try. I've got a JB coming in a week too so I'll see which I like better.

Do you guys have any suggestions for a neck pickup that will match the Invader well?


Originally Posted by bloodswordsif you refer to the tone chart closely, the Invader's midrange exceeds its bass.

Better take another look at the chart -- it clearly shows the bass exceeds midrange and treble. You must be thinking of the Custom Custom.

1 to what Bloodswords said.

I have an Invader in my Explorer and it's not muddy at all.

yeah the bass in the Invader clearly exceeds the mids. I have my Invader paired with '59, great combo. It sounds very acoustic-like clean. I wonder what an Invader would sound like in a Les Paul

I have Invaders in 2 mahogany guitars: A Gibson SG and a Dean Z. They're killer. In the Dean, it quot;makes the amp sound like it's ready to explode (my bass player's quote, not mine)quot;, and in the SG it's huge sounding. Loads of bottom end and lots of mids amp; top as well. It's just a great sounding pickup.

Huge sounding is the only way to describe the Invader. I've tried it in alder strats, mahogany teles, and mahogany SG's. If you're always wondering quot;where's the beef?quot; with your present tone, try the Invader and you'll get quot;the beefquot;, quot;the chunkquot;, quot;the chugquot;, and it just flat out sounds bigger than other high-output p'ups like a Custom or Super Distortion.

I put one in my friends SG, and I haven't heard any complaints.


Originally Posted by ZhangliqunBetter take another look at the chart -- it clearly shows the bass exceeds midrange and treble. You must be thinking of the Custom Custom.

thank you for the pointer. i am acting on the tone specs offered by the hard-copy catalogue, which states the following:

Low: 7
Mid : 8
High: 4

i bought the Invader based on this statistic amp; didn't regret since day 1... if, by any chance Duncans had the Invader revised specs-wise recently, it'd help if they state it here to avoid further confusion.

I use the Invader in alder and combined with a tube amp it sounds terryfying. The pickup isn't muddy at all. It is just that the lower frequencies get distorted because of the high bass output and with the mids and highs making a huge thick layered distortion, the sound feels like an EMG 81 with parametric eq.