Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: ericsabbath on November 20, 2008, 03:43:22 AM

Title: Holy Diver + Alnico 8: yes, we can! :D
Post by: ericsabbath on November 20, 2008, 03:43:22 AM

so... I loved the Holy Diver in my lawsuit les paul, but it didn't work that well for rhythm in my gibson sg, cause it got a bit boomy and dark (but still great for leads and harmonics)
I was thinking of moving the bridge cold sweat  from the les paul to the sg, but it would be a pain in the S to unsolder everything, swap pups, then setup two guitars

so I had this alnico 8 magnet bar laying around (I used to have it in a duncan sh-5 custom)
I never tried it in the holy diver cause the diver already had a similar voicing to the duncan custom 8 and I thought the alnico 8 would be too much for it
I always was afraid that it might get muddy and overcompressed due to extra mids and bass...

I was wrong!
I couldn't test it in my amp yet (cause it's on "surgery" this week), but I played it through my peavey rockmaster preamp straight to the soundboard and the difference is already noticeable
the pickup definitely sounds hotter now, with a brighter top (but still smoth) and the low end is a lot tighter (almost ceramic tight!)
it still sounds like a Holy Diver, but slightly boosted and more defined on picking

I made some (useless) tests to compare the magnet field pull strenght
the alnico 5 bar needs about 5 mm to pull a screw from a surface, while the alnico 8 pulls it from a whole centimeter  :lol:
I've read somewhere (seymour duncan faq, I think) that the alnico 5 was actually stronger, but that's definitely not true

I can't tell how it will sound in a full amp setup yet, but I'll post again after I try it

 :D :D :D

Title: Re: Holy Diver + Alnico 8: yes, we can! :D
Post by: rohlfo on November 20, 2008, 11:29:53 AM

please do! I didn't know alnico 8s were used that much? Surely if they were that good more people would use them?

Title: Re: Holy Diver + Alnico 8: yes, we can! :D
Post by: ericsabbath on November 20, 2008, 11:33:41 AM

most people don't even know that alnico II is a magnet type and not a slash signature pickup  :lol:

Title: Re: Holy Diver + Alnico 8: yes, we can! :D
Post by: CJ on November 21, 2008, 12:42:38 AM

Quote from: Eric Hellstyle on November 20, 2008, 11:33:41 AM

most people don't even know that alnico II is a magnet type and not a slash signature pickup  :lol:

i never thought about that... why the hell did they name their pickup after the magnet used in it?