Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: YYZ on July 30, 2019, 07:58:40 PM
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I previously posted here about a bad experience trying VHIIs in an Ernie Ball Music Man Axis guitar with Floyd Rose trem. I found the tone to be very thin and sterile in that guitar.
After taking up a lot of Ben's time trying to figure out an alternative choice, I eventually went with his recommendation of Holy Divers, which I originally had specifically avoided in order to go with a lower output pickup. My goals in replacing the pickups had been to tighten up the low end, improve cut and improve note definition with distortion. I thought the VHII clips online were a lot closer to the sound in my head than the Holy Divers.
Anyway, I am happy to report that Ben was bang on with his recommendation. The Holy Divers deliver on all counts and are a great replacement pickup for anyone with an Axis who is looking for a change. There is one area where they aren't quite as nice as the original pickups (IMO), specifically, when you try to clean up a distorted amp by turning down the guitar volume. I think the original DiMarzios sound sweeter in that context. However, for distorted tones, the Holy Divers are excellent. I suspect that they might also be good in other naturally bright-sounding guitars.
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Maybe HD's are the better choice because Music Man guitars can be bright sounding. I have a VHII in an ash Fender and however it's not a bad match, I'm not that overwhelmed. I might swap it fr a HD.
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If you want the pickup to clean up better using the volume pot you might be able to achieve some improvements with wiring changes. I found that '50s style Gibson wiring helps in this regard, although for my usage I tend to prefer modern wiring with a treble bleed circuit.