Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Pos on June 29, 2015, 11:52:42 AM
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Hi everyone. I'm new, my name's Cristian, and I live in Italy, near Venice.
I'd like to ask a pup suggestion, if someone can help.
I recently bought a PRS Tremonti Custom SE in limited edition, with ebony fretboard and EMG 81-85 set. I didn' like te EMG that much, they're great to pley Metallica, but they lack in almost everything else. I know a lot of people like 85 clean sounds too... but I don't.
So, I decide to change evreything and swap to passive. I found a PRS 59/09 treble at very good price for the bridge position, and I used a DiMarzio Paf 36th Anniversary that I originally had in another guitar for the neck position. This coupling sounded killer to me, I liked very much the 36th in the other guitar, and the 59/09 bass would have been way too expensive.
Anyway, while the 59/09 treble sounds really wonderful, probably the best bridge pup I've ever played, the 36th in neck position seems a little bit flat now. Maybe it's because of the cover I put on it? The wiring is OK, the luthier turned the mag inside the 36th to avoid counterphasing, and he did an excellent job. The middle positions are great, so it works really well with the PRS; but when i play the neck alone it's like it lacks something...
So, I'd be willing to replace it. I originally had it in a Chapman ML-2 (great guitar and excellent value for the money!), with a Duncan Custom in the bridge. They were a great pair. But I was looking for a "Petrucci" sound, so i replaced them with a Cold Sweat in the neck and a Crunch Lab in the bridge. The CS is just awsome; the CL sounded very aggressive and punchy in the first times, but soon I got tired, it was too muddy and "c--ked wah", even turining it upside down. So I went back with my old Custom, and I found the perfect combo for that guitar.
Now, for the PRS, I was looking for a "modern PAF" sound, organic and smooth but with an aggressive twist. The PRS 59/09 bass would be great, but it's too expensive. So I was considering another BKP. As I told you, I love the Cold Sweat, but I would prefer different sounds on my gears. My idea is a "middle way" between the Paf 36th sound and the CS, a modern paf with a "liquid" twist. Something that could work covered, since the 59/09 treble is a "squabbins" model, and pairing it with a regular pup would be quite unbareable to watch.
Any suggestion? Is the Mule too vintage? Black Dog? The Crawler? Anything else?
Thanx to everyone!
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neck vhII?
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^ this does seem like a good suggestion
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Thanx for your suggestions... Could you please say something more? Why VHII? I read somewhere that it's a little too scooped and dark in neck position, while there are a lot of Crawler (or Abraxas) enthusiasts...
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it's certainly not middy and bright like a neck cold sweat, but not scooped or dark either
it's like a fatter neck mule
the neck crawler sounds like a good idea, though, but I never played that one
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Thanx! :grin:
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I'd go for a mule in that guitar over a vhii personally.
Mule neck in a single cut > Any thing else
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Thanx. A Mule would be a convenient solution, since I could buy one in second hand close to my home. But wouldn't it be maybe too vintage sounding? Isn't it flat when covered? I would mainly play hard rock and heavy rock, some metal, and occasionally classic rock and blues.
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Emerald fits the bill perfectly
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Thanx, Buddy. Why do you suggest Emerald? In which way is it better than The Mule or VHII?
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The beauty of the emerald is from the way it combines the vintage style AIV magnet for a sweet, natural sound with a modern wire and wind giving it contemporary cut and presence. It is the absolute in between meeting of vintage and modern in that way. It delivers great cleans, rocks blues sounds, and yet is also one of the best modern shred pickups, always retaining character. Fluid, warm, and sweet, yet with more modern attack, sustain, definition, etc.
Itīs a great one, that is for sure. With BKPs you pretty much always face the issue that there is no one choice. There are always multiple pickups that will do the job greatly, perhaps even equally amazingly, but all in different ways, with different flavors. =)
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I thought about the Emerald but it doesn't seem to appeal to people who want something 'shreddy' like a Cold Sweat. VHII neck seems like the only one in the more vintage style that falls into that category with the Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell.
The Emerald is a great pickup if your lead style is more like Brian Robertson than John Sykes.
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Finally, some arguments. Thank you so much. It seems it's VHII vs Emerald, then... :D
I like both Skyes and Robertson, maybe my style is more on the Robertson's side...
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I agree with what Kiichi says about the Emerald, having installed one in a friend's Les Paul, it is very fluid and suited to 'singing' type leads. The Cold Sweat (which I have in my SG Standard) is more of an '80s shred type pickup if that makes sense, great for hammers, sweeps, that kind of thing. From what I've heard about the VHII it is somewhere between the two. All of them should give nice cleans.
Emerald neck 2:48 (gain) 3:52 (clean)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6OAohhfm5Y
VHII neck clean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTGpBNX5iu4
VHII neck gain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhOl9MHbwjc
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Thank you so much for your comments and for the videos! They really really help!! :afro:
You really made me curious about the Emerald, guys. I think it would be the way to go. :grin:
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Sorry, I forgot one important question... do someone klnow about wiring? Are the BKP necks in phase with PRS bridges, or following the standard wiring they would go in counterphase?
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There's another thing I noticed... Emerald neck has 9,6KΩ, more than PRS 59/09 Treble bridge, that's 9,3KΩ. Shouldn't neck pup *never* be more output than bridge? By the other hand, The Mule is 7,3KΩ, just as the Paf 36th that I actually have. The original 59/09 Bass is 8,4KΩ.
EDIT
The Mule bridge has a DC res of 8,4KΩ, the same as 59/09 bass. What does it change between neck and bridge pups? It's just the DC res? If you look at the Mule page on BKP website, you'll see just one eq chart... does it mean the the 2 versions share the same eq? If so, shouldn't be a bad idea, putting a bridge version in the neck position, if the DC res is well-balanced with the birdge position, right? Or am I missing something?
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BKP have never given the EQ charts for the neck pickups. EQ for the neck is often completely different. An Emerald neck is much darker than an Emerald bridge. The EQ chart is no help at all.
I was thinking that the Emerald neck might overpower your bridge. People usually use an Emerald or Holy Diver bridge with an Emerald neck.
A Mule or even Stormy Monday neck is probably more in the range you are looking for, unless you are prepared to change the bridge as well.
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There's another thing I noticed... Emerald neck has 9,6KΩ, more than PRS 59/09 Treble bridge, that's 9,3KΩ. Shouldn't neck pup *never* be more output than bridge? By the other hand, The Mule is 7,3KΩ, just as the Paf 36th that I actually have. The original 59/09 Bass is 8,4KΩ.
That is because the Emerald neck is wound with thinner wire. Thinner wire provides more DC resistance but what actually determines the output is the number of turns on the coil.
I second the VHII neck suggestion. It is hot enough to keep up with a stronger bridge pickup, very clear on the low notes and fat on the high notes. What it does have compared to the Cold Sweat/Rebel Yell/Holydiver necks is a certain smokiness which some like and some not so much.
Another alternative would be the Abraxas neck which is more traditional sounding. I currently use the calibrated set in a Tele Gib guitar but I also used it with the Cold Sweat bridge in a different guitar where it worked very well, too.
However, I cannot give any comments to the sound of the Emerald or Mule necks because I never played either.
Cheers Stephan
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Thanx, Steph! :D