Nailbomb has a bit too much metal edge, replacing.. (update: pickups installed)

[ventura]

PK's....???

V.

[Zaned]

PKs? Nope :) Not for this guitar, not for these purposes.

-Zaned

[HTH AMPS]

Crawler? Holy Diver?

[Zaned]

Already decided on the Holydiver, HTH  And most probably a Trilogy suite for the neck.

Will probably order while I'm on the trip, and have the pickup(s) waiting for me when I get back.

-Zaned

[Zaned]

I ordered the Trilogy suite for the neck and Holydiver for the bridge (to replace the Nailbomb and Irish tour) while I was on a trip, and installed them.

The HD is absolutely awesome! Compared to the Nailbomb, it doesn't have that 'edge' on this guitar that had started to bother me. However, it's not a dark pickup, like I once mistakingly thought. The description on the pickup packet said something like 'vintage tone with contemporary power and edge' and that's exactly what I got. I can play something like 'Rainbow in the dark', with a powerful, aggressive, thick and articulate tone..and go straight to something like Led Zeppelin's 'Rock n' roll'. Mind you, it's not a copy of that Page tone, it just has that clang and twang I like when playing that sort of a riff. All without changing settings on the amp, just changing the way I attack the strings. It's open and very articulate, the guitar now sounds like I want it to sound!

I also had this little fear that the HD would make my guitar sound more like an LP, but no. It's still a Strat through and through. BKPs are sensitive to the guitar they're put into, and this is definitely another proof of that. It also cleans up nicely, I expected it to be more compressed.

About the TS neck pickup: compared to the IT, it's darker, thicker and higher output. Much more bottom. The IT had a very SRVish sound on this guitar, but the TS takes it a lot more in that Yngwie direction, and balances very nicely with the HD. I love it :) I said that it's darker, but it doesn't get muddy. At all. Just a powerful, thick and clear tone. Naturally, it's not as 'woody' as the 'custom 62' pickup set that I have in another strat, but that's a whole another world.

I'm happy 8)

-Zaned

[ericsabbath]

glad you like the diver  :D

did you reach doug's tones after all?

[Zaned]

glad you like the diver  :D

did you reach doug's tones after all?

It gets close to Doug's tones too, if I want that. BUT,  I wasn't after that tone exactly, more like between that and the Van Halen tone. IF I wanted to go for Doug's tones on this particular guitar, I suspect that the Crawler would fit the bill. But like I said, that was not my goal. There is a certain thing about the high end / upper mid that has a VH quality, and I absolutely love it. What can I say, mission accomplished  :lol: The last thing is an interaction between the pickup and the guitar, it just works. Thanks a lot for you advice, Eric. A wonderful pickup.

I've gotta add about the TS neck; I said it's darker, but there's no lack of high end. It still has a single coil cut and character, unmistakably. Awesome, pure and simple.

There is a certain clarity to all the BKPs I have. It's actually jawdropping at times, like with this HD. I just hit a certain chord and heard all the notes, without harshness. It's something I have not experienced with the duncans and Dimarzios and whatever I've had.

-Zaned

[asianaxeman]

too true, it's the clarity that we all love. I've had better results with altering pickup height, esp with the mm neck, sounds fuller and bassier now and surprisingly had awesome results with the MM set in an alder esp guitar RR shape.