rebell yells vs holy divers and cold sweats

[dheim]

let's put it this way... i've got no idea about how RYs sound... steve stevens clip is awesome but i think he can make sound a stock ibanez pickup just that awesome...

someone - i think phil king - said that RYs are quite similar to HDs and were infact the original prototype HDs, before stevens decided to put his name on them...

has anyone got both? how can you describe the difference between them?
how they differ from some othe BKP i know? - i wrote CS but i could write many others...

[Daniel G]

I don't own both HD and RY, but i have played both.
Rebel Yells have, to me, seem to have slightly less low end, more highs, and are a bit sharper sounding.
The Holy Diver is a bit more rounded out to me, and has a bit more output.

[Antag]

I don't own both HD and RY, but i have played both.
Rebel Yells have, to me, seem to have slightly less low end, more highs, and are a bit sharper sounding.
The Holy Diver is a bit more rounded out to me, and has a bit more output.

+1

I don't own any RYs (though I have HDs in several guitars, it's my fav pickup), but I have played a couple of Feline guitars with RYs + I tried a RY side-by-side with a HD in some of Tim's guitars & that's basically how I see the difference too...

[gwEm]

check this old thread: http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13079.0

[Philly Q]

Bringing the CS into it, the RY has a much more noticeable upper mid thing going on.  The CS is more balanced.

[dheim]

i took my decisions...
to be honest i can't share gwem's, antag's and eric's enthusiasm for holy divers. the first time i played them was in my POD and they seemed to lack a bit of intensity... i realized (though i'd have said the opposite, some time ago...) that i prefer sharper attacks, that make my guitar "scream" when pushed on mid-high notes. the thick but even too balanced tone of HDs is not for me. it works great for rhythms but i find it a bit weak for solos.
on my tube amp it sounds even worse, in the sense that every time i take that guitar at rehearsals i fail to cut through the mix, i'm forced to raise treble and begin to sound too harsh on high notes.

i'm not throwing away my HDs, though... i'll put them (after a cover change) in my ibanez S320, that's definitely less dark and thick than my hornet (that's an SG shaped guitar but sounds more like a dark Les Paul), and will put a set of RYs in the hornet. it feels great but is becoming my least played guitar, and it's a pity...

i think that this is the best thing to do!

[gwEm]

what guitar did you try the holy diver in out of interest?

sounds like you did the reverse of me - holy diver too dark, so replaced with rebel yell. for me the rebel yell was too bright. they are quite similar pickups in some ways.

i still believe the holy diver is the right pickup for my flying v90. it sounds just how it looks, and it looks and sounds great :)

[dheim]

what guitar did you try the holy diver in out of interest?

sounds like you did the reverse of me - holy diver too dark, so replaced with rebel yell. for me the rebel yell was too bright. they are quite similar pickups in some ways.

i still believe the holy diver is the right pickup for my flying v90. it sounds just how it looks, and it looks and sounds great :)

this one! http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16249.0

HDs really surprised me, because i love Warpigs - and they're often defined as dark pickups, even if i find them quite balanced!

[gwEm]

what guitar did you try the holy diver in out of interest?

sounds like you did the reverse of me - holy diver too dark, so replaced with rebel yell. for me the rebel yell was too bright. they are quite similar pickups in some ways.

i still believe the holy diver is the right pickup for my flying v90. it sounds just how it looks, and it looks and sounds great :)

this one! http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16249.0

HDs really surprised me, because i love Warpigs - and they're often defined as dark pickups, even if i find them quite balanced!

yum - tasty guitar! not surprised though that the HDs weren't right in it. for that sort of tone i would have tried the RY, which indeed you did in the end

[dheim]

what guitar did you try the holy diver in out of interest?

sounds like you did the reverse of me - holy diver too dark, so replaced with rebel yell. for me the rebel yell was too bright. they are quite similar pickups in some ways.

i still believe the holy diver is the right pickup for my flying v90. it sounds just how it looks, and it looks and sounds great :)

this one! http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16249.0

HDs really surprised me, because i love Warpigs - and they're often defined as dark pickups, even if i find them quite balanced!

yum - tasty guitar! not surprised though that the HDs weren't right in it. for that sort of tone i would have tried the RY, which indeed you did in the end

yep. my fault!  :)

[ericsabbath]

didn't know you had it in an SG
it definitely DIDN'T work nice in my SG as well
it was awesome in my two les pauls, thought, and one had the same wood/tone/resonance of the SG plus a dark sounding imbuya top but with the ultra thick mhg body, and instead of sounding dark and loose as it did in the SG, it sounded awesome
I think that pickup needs a certain amount of wood to "push" it
and it definitely works way better with a booster and very close to strings

[dheim]

it's not really like my gibson sg, though... it's much thicker and "focused"...
in my gibson les paul it would sound good, i think... it's chambered and has a bright attack.