hsh strat pickup choice for splitting

[bandmaster188]

hi all, i'm giving my strat a bit of a makeover and will be changing pickups too. i'm going for an hsh setup.
bridge pickup is probably going to be a crawler. my problem is the neck pup. i want something that will split nicely and balance with the middle single coil. it's currently got a vhII in the bridge and 2 single coils. ( was possibly thinking of moving the vhII to the neck?)
has anyone got a strat with hsh setup and what pups are you using.
alder body strat with maple neck. playing mostly blues and southern rock.

[Cpt_Gonzo]

I have a Maple neck Strat, too (ash body though) and the Holy Diver neck sounds AWESOME split. Better than my Fender Texas specials or any other single coil I've played, really. I'd go as far and say that I would prefer the split HD over any "real" single coil.

I soldered a 500k resistance in so that effectively the pot value is reduced to 250k, that helps a lot, too!

[bandmaster188]

cheers for that!
i was looking at the emerald neck to pair up with a crawler in the bridge, but i wiil check out the specs on the hd.
does it work nicely with the middle single coil too?

[Cpt_Gonzo]

Sorry for the late answer!
Oh yes it absolutely does that. I run split aswell as full HB with the middle pickup and both sound absolutely stellar. "Unsplit", it's sort of a modern clean sound which you could use for 80s stuff or newer "athmospherical" cleans.
Split, it's a vintage tone machine. Absolutely beautiful sounding.

The Holy Diver neck on it's own also sounds stellar for any application. Really nice, sparkly and lots of punch but sings like no other if you push it!

[itamar101]

I've also had great experiences with the Holy Diver Coil-Split in the bridge actually. I don't have a neck holy diver but the bridge coil split is seriously the best sounding bridge single coil that I've ever tried in person pther than a BKP mothers milk and the "unsplit" mode is beast! I also like it a lot in the middle position on a les Paul matched with a coil split emerald neck. It gives a very tele like twang.

Here's the full review:

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=27532.0

[Telerocker]

cheers for that!
i was looking at the emerald neck to pair up with a crawler in the bridge, but i wiil check out the specs on the hd.
does it work nicely with the middle single coil too?

Both will split and balance very nice with the middlepickup. I have a Crawler in a swampash strat and the splitted tones are stellar. I've wired it the way I can use full Crawler with middle-IT for thicker cleaner tones, and splitted for F-quackie tones. Does the job well.

[bandmaster188]

cheers advisory panel!
i'm still leaning towards the emerald neck as its got a bit more output than other neck pups and so should blance better with the middle single coil when split. thats what i'm reckoning anyway!

[Cpt_Gonzo]

DC res =/= Output. The HD neck has plenty of "loudness" and punch and it balances beautifully with the middle PU. Def. sounds like a vintage hot singlecoil split.