Neck pickup to go with HD in Bridge. Thinking Abraxas?

[sixgunsovertombstone]

Hello all. I'm looking for a neck pickup to go with a holy diver in the bridge. I play a lot of everything, but mostly stick with heavy metal. I do most of my distorted playing on the bridge so for the neck I'm just looking for a big clean singing machine... so to speak. I like a really big, full clean tone with a little bit of chimey-ness... After listening to the sound clips, I've been drawn towards the Vintage hot line, namely the VHII, Abraxas, and Emerald neck pickups.

So far the Abraxas is my favorite of the clean clips with the VHII close behind, but I've really heard nothing about these pickups (in the neck anyways). Can anyone chime in with their experiences of the abraxas or VHII in the neck for clean work? also how does it sound split? And finally will it gel with the Holy diver in the Bridge?

The guitar its going into is a very hard, dense maple neck through w/ floyd. Its very bright naturally and has a lot of attack, so I'm looking for something not too bright but more beefy.

Thanks

[darkbluemurder]

The guitar its going into is a very hard, dense maple neck through w/ floyd. Its very bright naturally and has a lot of attack, so I'm looking for something not too bright but more beefy.

In that case the VHII neck would work better than the Abraxas neck.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

+1 for the VHII.

[Nolly]

Honestly, for what you've described I'd recommend the Holy Diver neck.
The VHII has body, but also a strong attack that might not be what you're after when paired with a very bright guitar. The Abraxas has a smooth top end and soft bass, but the actual pick attack is still prominent and the low end extension isn't overly deep.
The Emerald would be great, since it has the hotter wind so generates deeper low end with a lower resonant peak. However, the Holy Diver neck does fat and warm tones very well, with plenty of definition but not enough to be overbearing in your bright guitar - I'd say save yourself a little bit of money and get the calibrated set.

[sixgunsovertombstone]

Hmm well that does sound interesting, as I was also looking at the HD neck before I started exploring the lower output models. Unfortunately I already have the HD bridge! so I cant save any money by purchasing as a set.

Also I have the Nailbomb neck. so far i think its alright but Im not crazy over it

Last night I was looking at the Riff Raff neck, and now I like that the best from the clean clips... Any thoughts on that neck pickup?

[Philly Q]

Riff Raff neck is bright.  So if you're wanting a not-too-bright neck pickup for your bright guitar, it may not be the way to go!

[Nolly]

Yep, as Philly says, the Riff Raff is one of the brightest neck pickups in the range!