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Author Topic: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)  (Read 2752 times)

Cormac

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Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« on: March 05, 2014, 05:44:17 PM »
Hi All,

I'm building a Partocaster on Warmoth and I'll be installing 2 Passive Humbuckers, I'm going to go with a Holy Diver in the Bridge, and here are some details on the guitar and what I'd like to achieve

Body - Alder
Neck - Maple

Looking to get a neck pickup that compliments the Holy Diver (as I will be using either a switch or  blend), while not necessarily sounding the same (if that makes sense).
On my neck I like a full mids, warm, clear notes sound, and with an Alder/Maple build it would be good to get some "chunk" into the slightly narrow sound

Think Metallica style intros (One, Sanitarium) for individual notes, and then on chord work kind of a textured American/Skate Punk rock sound (Pulley, Alkaline Trio, Offspring).
That kind of full Gibson Les Paul esque style sound

My biggest problem is I use too much bring pickup as I can never get a warm sounding neck pickup that has definition in the notes and doesn't go too "round" or "warbbly".
I want a neck pickup that makes me want to use the neck.

And as I say, Ideal world i'd like it to work with the HolyDiver for blending the volume of both pickups.
Through lots of reading here (long time lurker, 1st time poster) I've narrowed it down to the following main contenders:

Crawler
Black Dog
The Mule
VHII
Abraxas
Cold Sweat
Emerald

All advice is welcome, but specifically advice that is most tailored to my guitar build would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Cormac
« Last Edit: March 06, 2014, 10:41:46 AM by Cormac »

Telerocker

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2014, 06:46:58 PM »
I would look at the Abraxas- and Crawler-neck.
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.

Cormac

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2014, 07:16:53 PM »
The Abraxas for the Bridge is it? Not for me, reason being is this new guitar is meant to be my new go-to so I need to keep my versatile rock/metal/thrash sound in the bridge that I currently play (in my band), so hence going for the holydiver as I don't need "screaming" high output, high gain leads, just a regular full sounding, chunky metal tone which I believe the HD will be ideal for.

Telerocker

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2014, 11:14:52 PM »
The Abraxas for the Bridge is it? Not for me, reason being is this new guitar is meant to be my new go-to so I need to keep my versatile rock/metal/thrash sound in the bridge that I currently play (in my band), so hence going for the holydiver as I don't need "screaming" high output, high gain leads, just a regular full sounding, chunky metal tone which I believe the HD will be ideal for.

You got me wrong. HD for the bridge is a good choice. My suggestions are for the neck, based on your wishes.
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.

metale

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2014, 05:22:46 AM »
OP, have a look at the Mississippi Queen. I have a feeling you would like it.
Black Dog (b), Abraxas (b), The Mule (n), Mississippi Queen (n), Trilogy Suite (m)

Had: Riff Raff 7 (b), Painkiller 8 (b)

darkbluemurder

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2014, 10:22:27 AM »
Out of your pre-selection the VHII neck would do what you want. Very full in the low end but quite tight at the same time, tighter than e.g. the Crawler neck.

The Black Dog neck is also a fine pickup but has a very different character from the VHII neck - more modern.

Two pickups you have not mentioned but which are often combined with the HD in the bridge are the Cold Sweat neck and the Emerald neck. Of those I have used the Cold Sweat neck together with the HD in the bridge and found them to be an excellent match. I have not yet played the Emerald neck but that is only a matter of time :)

Cheers Stephan

Cormac

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2014, 10:41:01 AM »
The Black Dog neck is also a fine pickup but has a very different character from the VHII neck - more modern.

Two pickups you have not mentioned but which are often combined with the HD in the bridge are the Cold Sweat neck and the Emerald neck. Of those I have used the Cold Sweat neck together with the HD in the bridge and found them to be an excellent match.
Cheers Stephan

Thanks guys, one the above points, I think I would like a more "modern" sound to be honest (I know that might be a bit of a contradiction with my original post haha) so I'm leaning more towards the  Black Dog  I did see the Cold Sweat mentioned a LOT of threads also. So yeah I'll add that to the original post above and see who comes out the winner :)

Telerocker

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Re: Neck Pickup Recommendation? (Alder/Maple)
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2014, 05:58:38 PM »
The Black Dog neck is also a fine pickup but has a very different character from the VHII neck - more modern.

Two pickups you have not mentioned but which are often combined with the HD in the bridge are the Cold Sweat neck and the Emerald neck. Of those I have used the Cold Sweat neck together with the HD in the bridge and found them to be an excellent match.
Cheers Stephan

Thanks guys, one the above points, I think I would like a more "modern" sound to be honest (I know that might be a bit of a contradiction with my original post haha) so I'm leaning more towards the  Black Dog  I did see the Cold Sweat mentioned a LOT of threads also. So yeah I'll add that to the original post above and see who comes out the winner :)

Cold Sweat matched well with a HD. Sounds modern compared to the Abraxas- and Mule-neck.
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.