Yep, the old-spec/original Holy Diver had a ceramic magnet (13.2k IIRC). I have two of them & really like it. Tonally, it sits quite close to the Cold Sweat & power-wise it's in the same ballpark, but it has a little less low end & more mids (a bit like the current HD, though not quite as thick). It reminds me a bit of the Duncan Distortion (which was my favourite pre-BKP pickup).
That sounds awesome!...
As to the question "Why not", I guess the answer is that the "gap" between A5 HD & Painkiller is not so wide that you really need to fill it with another BKP, i.e. you could decide which of those two does what you want best & be very happy... :)
There's definitely always a gap to fill (esp when you consider uniqueness in wood combinations), or else there'd be no need for custom orders. Tim can't predict the market for what everyone wants out of a pickup sound, it's just not possible. A shining merit of this company is their ability to cater to the player's need and desired tone, with custom options.
That being said, maybe there isn't a need for this pickup to be in the stationary lineup, but custom available yes, that would be great. For instance, this sounds appealing to me, as i don't need a ton of lows, really like a broad and fat midrange with a slightly bright top. The only thing that fills this role is pickups that have feature extremes in this range - PK has HUGE, undissmissable high mids, your pick attack always shows no matter what. RY has the same extreme pretty much, but is just notched down lower in the range of mids, centrally resonant within that range - both great pickups, but not necessarily for
everyone.
What you described about the Ceramic Holy Diver sounds like what i was looking for - basically one that's not quite as aggressive but still has plenty of mids, and stays linear with the brightness. I asked Tim about an underwound Painkiller which he said he had never done, and had tried many different combinations to get what he was hearing as the
right PK sound. Objectively it may be
right, but
subjectively it may not be for everyone, hence why people look for creative options to better cater their needs as a player.
