Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: vejiita on December 27, 2008, 01:36:38 PM

Title: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: vejiita on December 27, 2008, 01:36:38 PM
Ok i need help deciding which pickups to get.
I need a bridge humbucker to have killer distortion as well as a warm clean tone.

which BKP has the best 500k full bridge clean tone ?
Holy diver, nailbomb, painkiller, miracle man?

thanks
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Antag on December 27, 2008, 01:49:05 PM
which BKP has the best 500k full bridge clean tone ?
Holy Diver by a mile :)  NB a distant second, then PK, then MM...
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Antag on December 27, 2008, 02:01:26 PM
FWIW, here are a few clips I've done:

Clean (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6459.0)
Clean/Crunch/Heavy (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=12997.0)
Heavy (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=9744.0) (actually, the remix (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=9744.msg124744#msg124744) on Pg2 is better...)
Heavy (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6461.0)
Solo over a clean backing (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6608.0)
Mega filth! (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=14365.0) :twisted:

Enjoy :)
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: HairyChris on December 27, 2008, 02:23:03 PM
Only piece of advice I have is not to choose the MM unless your amp has an outstanding clean channel...
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: gwEm on December 27, 2008, 03:11:51 PM
its not saying much, but i agree with all the comments so far.

i think the painkiller has pretty good cleans, obviously the holy divers better in this regard
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: dave_mc on December 27, 2008, 04:20:33 PM
Only piece of advice I have is not to choose the MM unless your amp has an outstanding clean channel...

+1

only one i've tried is the MM, but it won't really do what you want.
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Alex on December 30, 2008, 12:49:53 PM
Ok i need help deciding which pickups to get.
I need a bridge humbucker to have killer distortion as well as a warm clean tone.

which BKP has the best 500k full bridge clean tone ?
Holy diver, nailbomb, painkiller, miracle man?

thanks

Well you can rule out the Miracle Man. It does cleans ok, but not very warm.
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: northlane.josh on December 31, 2008, 03:31:04 AM
i have a painkiller 7 in the bridge on my modded up 7420 and its cleans are really nice, on the hot side, not too bassy which is great for the low B and very crisp. It doesn't overdrive my clean channel (5150) and retains bite when you turn down the volume, without a treble bleed mod.
i use a cold sweat in the neck & have petrucci style wiring, the middle position for cleans is sheer bliss!

i would recommend it for metal style clean cleans, its too sharp sounding for smooth lo-gain stuff and i cant seem to get it to work well for jazz tones either.

edit/hijack: pics of the mentioned axe up in pics of bkp's in your guitar
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Antag on December 31, 2008, 09:57:59 AM
i have a painkiller ... bridge ... and its cleans are really nice, on the hot side, not too bassy which is great for the low B and very crisp. It doesn't overdrive my clean channel (5150) and retains bite when you turn down the volume, without a treble bleed mod.
i use a cold sweat in the neck & have petrucci style wiring, the middle position for cleans is sheer bliss!

i would recommend it for metal style clean cleans, its too sharp sounding for smooth lo-gain stuff and i cant seem to get it to work well for jazz tones either.
That's a really good description of the PK clean sound.  It is a good, useable clean sound, but not ideal for ballads or some of the softer cleans you might find in, say, Opeth style music (then again, what do you expect from a pickup called "Painkiller"?!? :twisted:)

I guess that's why I like the Holy Diver so much more - it's warmer, more versatile yet still has the grunt I need for high gain :)
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: rbd on March 17, 2009, 01:58:20 AM
which BKP has the best 500k full bridge clean tone ?
Holy Diver by a mile :)  NB a distant second, then PK, then MM...
where does the cold sweat fit in here? i'm struggling myself to choose BKP's for my future Rg1527. i was pointed out to MM but seems to be the worst choice for cleans and although i play some melodic death metal, i like my cleans very much, and leads too...
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: ericsabbath on March 17, 2009, 03:32:32 AM
I need a bridge humbucker to have killer distortion

bkp's do not come with built-in distortion  :lol:
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Antag on March 17, 2009, 09:53:13 AM
which BKP has the best 500k full bridge clean tone ?
Holy Diver by a mile :)  NB a distant second, then PK, then MM...
where does the cold sweat fit in here? i'm struggling myself to choose BKP's for my future Rg1527. i was pointed out to MM but seems to be the worst choice for cleans and although i play some melodic death metal, i like my cleans very much, and leads too...
It's a good question - I didn't include it because I don't have a CS bridge & the original poster didn't ask about it.

Judging by the descriptions of others, it has a decent clean tone, better than MM...
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Twinfan on March 17, 2009, 12:51:45 PM
The CS has quite a sharp clean tone, with a touch of warmth.  From my experience, and the BKPs I've had I'd rate them:

Warm ---------------------> Cold
HD................VHII...RR....CS
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Antag on March 17, 2009, 01:18:24 PM
The CS has quite a sharp clean tone, with a touch of warmth.  From my experience, and the BKPs I've had I'd rate them:

Warm ---------------------> Cold
HD................VHII...RR....CS
Apologies for threadjack

Twinfan, how are you finding the Holy Diver?   I remember reading that you'd just got some recently... :)
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Twinfan on March 17, 2009, 01:28:56 PM
I'll let you know after I've cranked 'em up tonight  ;)

First impressions?  They're a beefy, warmer VHII although that may be because of the guitar they're fitted in too...
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Philly Q on March 17, 2009, 01:52:07 PM
The CS has quite a sharp clean tone, with a touch of warmth.  From my experience, and the BKPs I've had I'd rate them:

Warm ---------------------> Cold
HD................VHII...RR....CS


Just out of interest Dave, if you did the same exercise for the neck models, what would you have?  I suspect it would be rather different.
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Twinfan on March 17, 2009, 02:44:09 PM
Good question Phil:

Warmer -----------> Colder/Less fat
HD......CS...VHII......RR

The range is a lot smaller, with less obvious "ends".
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Philly Q on March 17, 2009, 03:17:33 PM
Cheers Dave, that's roughly what I expected, but didn't know where the HD would fit in.  :)

So it looks like the CS set has the biggest variation between neck and bridge, which may be one of the reasons I like it so much.
Title: Re: Holy Diver/Nailbomb/Painkiller/Miracle Man Clean tone?
Post by: Twinfan on March 17, 2009, 04:55:57 PM
Yep - those were my findings too  :)