Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: case report on January 05, 2013, 12:40:45 PM
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Hi!
for an Iron Maiden tribute band I play a Jackson Fusion Pro HSS and a Charvel San Dimas Style 1 HH (both Floyd Rose). Jackson is basswood body, maple neck/ebony fretboard... Charvel is alder body, all maple neck; both bolt on
so far Jackson equipped with Holydiver (B) + Trilogy Suite, Charvel with SD JB (B) + '59 (N)
For sure I wanna take off Duncans...
because I can get a DiMarzio SuperDistortion (bridge) for free, I have a doubt about where to mount it...
better Charvel or make an exchange and put on Jackson?
what's difference between HD and SuperD?
where they can work better?
Thank you!!!
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They are very similar in certain ways. The Super Distortion is ceramic magnet, more punchy (primarily low-mids), crunchy, and more output. The Holy Diver has less output, but the distortion character is more smooth and saturated like a JB. the Super Distortion gets a little messy and harsh at higher gain levels, but Iron Maiden levels is fine. The Holy Diver can handle higher gain just fine, and it is very clear, organic, and the string to string separation on a chord is amazing. (You have one so you know). Super D has pretty good separation too, but the more gain you add the worse it gets. So they sound similar, but you get a more flexible contemporary sound with the Diver.
I consider the Holy Diver to be a good half-way and improvement on the characteristics of the Super Distortion and JB. You get the tight rhythm sound of the Super D with the more singing quality of the JB for leads.
You can't go wrong with the Super D, it's still an extremely popular and great pickup, and one of my favourites. Be careful with the Charvel though. Is it one of the newer Japanese Pro Mods with the direct mount pickups? The pickup cavity is too shallow for a Super D (it's a very tall pickup because of magnet size) so it would have to be routed a bit to fit. I ended up leaving the Duncans in my San Dimas because they sound perfect in it. I didn't like Holy Diver in the San Dimas, but again I didn't take the time to get the height right because of the direct mounting.
I would say the Super D would be more suited to your Jacskon because of the basswood body. The Super D tends to overtake the wood with its punch and power. But only as long as you could properly fit the Diver close to the strings on the Charvel. With a Pro Mod you would need to shim it to get it high enough, the Diver is shorter than the JB. If I were you I would just leave things the way you have it. The JB is perfect in the Charvel.
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Thank you nkay for your interesting and exhaustive reply!
About my Charvel everything you said is right, I'm pretty sure I'll follow your advices...
Because I usually play Charvel more than Jackson, I'm sorry I can't use Holydiver often :(
...if this can be fine on bridge... what about Charvel neck humb? My target is Dave Murray soloing sound and SD '59 on first impression seems not to be what I'm looking for... Any advice?
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I like to think of the SD as a distortion pedal and the HD like a good heavy overdrive. Nothing wrong with either of them, just depends what your preference is.
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A Charvel and a JB is perfection! They install that pickup from the factory for a reason. I would stay away from the SuperD. Like they said, it falls apart the more you crank the gain.
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A Charvel and a JB is perfection! They install that pickup from the factory for a reason. I would stay away from the SuperD. Like they said, it falls apart the more you crank the gain.
seems to be right!
maybe I'd like to find replacement only for neck... any idea?
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...if this can be fine on bridge... what about Charvel neck humb? My target is Dave Murray soloing sound and SD '59 on first impression seems not to be what I'm looking for... Any advice?
you need something fluid for his legato style. try a cold sweat neck
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Thank you nkay for your interesting and exhaustive reply!
About my Charvel everything you said is right, I'm pretty sure I'll follow your advices...
Because I usually play Charvel more than Jackson, I'm sorry I can't use Holydiver often :(
...if this can be fine on bridge... what about Charvel neck humb? My target is Dave Murray soloing sound and SD '59 on first impression seems not to be what I'm looking for... Any advice?
No problem, the reason I could be so detailed as I have very similar or the same guitars you have, and worked with the same pickups for the last few months so I've done a lot of trial and error already. As for the neck pickup on the Charvel, I'm pretty sure Dave Murray historically used a Dimarzio PAF (I think in his recent signature strats, it is the Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary). PAF Pro would also work well.
You're right in that the SD '59 isn't going to be the same, I never really use it on my Charvel, I stick to the JB bridge. It's probably more useful for cleans and light bluesy stuff. I don't know what pickup would be the SD equivalent of the Dimarzio PAF. You need something punchy and fluid. I've heard some people replace it with the SD Jazz which is supposed to be more fluid than the '59 but I've never tried it.
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the neck cold sweat is somewhat similar to the paf pro
the old spec dimarzio paf would be closer to a neck riff raff
the 36th version sounds darker and fuller, more like neck vhII
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the neck cold sweat is somewhat similar to the paf pro
the old spec dimarzio paf would be closer to a neck riff raff
the 36th version sounds darker and fuller, more like neck vhII
about neck
cold sweat: I'm afraid it could be too bright on charvel (alder body/all maple neck)
riff raff: too vintage???
VHII: honestly it's what I'd like more at the moment...
What about Emerald?
someone told me it could be too "trebly", sounding "single coil style"...
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the neck cold sweat is somewhat similar to the paf pro
the old spec dimarzio paf would be closer to a neck riff raff
the 36th version sounds darker and fuller, more like neck vhII
about neck
cold sweat: I'm afraid it could be too bright on charvel (alder body/all maple neck)
riff raff: too vintage???
VHII: honestly it's what I'd like more at the moment...
What about Emerald?
someone told me it could be too "trebly", sounding "single coil style"...
Emerald might be treble city in that axe. Sounds like the VHII would suit you better.