Suitable Neck Pickup complementing Holydiver

[GuitarIv]

Cheers guys

so now that I swapped out pickups and put the Holydiver that was previously in my Strat into my Jackson, I need a good counterpart for the Neck. The Jackson has a Mahogany Body, a Maple Neck and a Rosewood Fretboard and the HD just sits in there perfectly. I've been thinking about the Coldsweat Neck since it's been praised here on the forum for it's lead tone, I like a fluent but defined sound with lots of harmonics and a bluesy character when the volume is rolled down, but the clean sound should also be there. I know that's exactly been said about the CS Neck, however I'd like to have some opinions. Will the CS pair well with the HD? And do you guys have any other suggestions?

Cheers

[darkbluemurder]

I have the Cold Sweat neck together with the HD bridge in the PRS Custom. Great combination and works well with the 5-way rotary.

I once paired the HD bridge with the VHII neck. They worked well as a set individually but the tone with both humbuckers parallel was a bit indistinct from the neck only tone. Could have been the guitar though. The VHII neck is a bit more "vintage" sounding than the CS neck.

Some forum members have found the Emerald neck a great match to the HD bridge. No experience with the EM here.

And of course, there is still the HD neck - good if you want a cleaner tone. 

Finally, the Abraxas neck could also work in this combination but I have not tried that myself.

Cheers Stephan

[case report]

Same dilemma for me...
Cold Sweat, VHII or Emerald on neck?

what's more near to PAF sound? (I mean that kind of PAF used by Dave Murray on the early Maiden)

[Telerocker]

Emerald, I think.

[GuitarIv]

Cheers for the input. So it's down between the Emerald and the Coldsweat. Will do some forum search and listen to the EM Neck, that should help :)

[nkay]

I've never been a big neck pickup fan, but the Cold Sweat Neck in my Fender Contemporary HH Strat is great, just the perfect neck shredder with lots of fluidity and high end to cut through. I have the Holy Diver in the bridge (from our thread on that!) and they match really well.

I've always disliked that typical muddy neck feeling, and the CS is the total opposite of that. Sounds really nice clean too.

[case report]

Cheers for the input. So it's down between the Emerald and the Coldsweat. Will do some forum search and listen to the EM Neck, that should help :)

First I thought about Emerald, however someone on forum talked about too trebly sound for Emerald...

I've never been a big neck pickup fan, but the Cold Sweat Neck in my Fender Contemporary HH Strat is great, just the perfect neck shredder with lots of fluidity and high end to cut through. I have the Holy Diver in the bridge (from our thread on that!) and they match really well.

I've always disliked that typical muddy neck feeling, and the CS is the total opposite of that. Sounds really nice clean too.

About CS I'd like to be sure that it isn't muddy but also not too "cold"...

[darkbluemurder]

No experience with the Emerald but the "trebley" attribute is usually spoken in connectoin with the bridge model.

"Cold Sweat" refers to the Thin Lizzy track which was played by John Sykes. Whether his tone appears "warm" or "cold" to you is your personal preference. The guitars I have (or had) the Cold Sweat neck in do and did not sound "cold" to me. 

Cheers Stephan

[dingleberry]

I like a fluent but defined sound with lots of harmonics and a bluesy character when the volume is rolled down, but the clean sound should also be there.

This is almost a verbatim quote of my description of the vhii neck.  The in-between position of my HDb & VHIIn has a very pleasant quack, especially on the natural channel of my rocker.  I find it quite distinct from the neck position which fatter & richer by comparison.

[GuitarIv]

Thanks for all the input guys!