Schecter Tempest needs upgrade

[DaveyHoran]

Hi Forum Peeps! :-)

I am going to order 2 new pickups for my Schecter Tempest Custom to be used as a rhythm guitar (mostly). The stock pickups are Duncan designed. I believe their newer models were improved with SD Custom Custom and SD 59’ Humbuckers set....

GuitarConstruction: Set Neck withUltra Access / Body:Mahogany / Top: Flame Maple / Neck:3-Piece Mahogany / Scale:24.75 inch / Fingerboard: Ebony / Frets:22 Medium... The Tempest is a little bit lighter in weight than a Les Paul and I play in standard tuning or drop D but never any lower.

Sounds I’m looking for:

Neck – Clean or almost clean tone (through a VoxAC30 with a bit of reverb). Really warm clean sound, possibly with a vintage aspect.

Bridge – Somewhere between a dirty hard rock VOXAC30 tone and heavy Muse or even Billy Talent type sound – basically chords, riffing and palm muting with a more modern tone.

Please let me know what you think would work :-)

Cheers,
Dave

[Mr. Air]

I'm tempted to say Alnico Nailbomb for the bridge. It can certainly give you some good modern distortion sounds like Muse and if you roll back the volume it can do dirty hard rock as well. You could also go for the HB sized p90 Stockholm which also delivers modern heavy tones.

For the neck I'm not so sure. I think you could pair the Nailbomb with most of the vintage hot section necks. I got a Black Dog neck and a Nailbomb bridge in a LP copy and they work well together, but I'm tempted to try another neck pickup like the VHII which should be really good. A lot of people love the Cold Sweat neck, but it might be too moderne sounding. Maybe the Nailbomb neck would work as well?

I'm sure others will come forth with their opinions soon.

[Telerocker]

The Stockholm/VHII-combo would work well, as Mr. Air mentions.

[Grim]

An AV Mule in the bridge will do the trick.

[darkbluemurder]

but I'm tempted to try another neck pickup like the VHII which should be really good.

I have the VHII neck in combination with an A-Bomb in one guitar, and that combination works really well. VHII would be a good choice for what the OP is after.

Cheers Stephan

[DaveyHoran]

I went for a Alnico nailbomb in the bridge and a cold sweat in the neck... wont be ready until late Jan as I asked for a fancy pants engraved covers... gagging for them already :-)