What to pair w/ Nailbomb in bridge for chimey, midwest emo/math rock?

[ndamelio4]

Hey folks - first post, big fan of BKP after fitting my first custom Tele with Piledrivers. I'll be building my first fully custom (ie, non-Partscaster) guitar in March during an intensive lutherie course, and I'm starting to plan out the pickup situation. Some data points...

• The guitar will almost certainly be fully mahogany w/ebony fretboard, with a small chance of going with swamp ash for the body. Electronics-wise, I'll have a push-pull for coil splitting and a 3-way switch. I'll also be going for a tremolo, maybe a FR if I can convince the guy running the course to let me go for it.
• I generally play hard rock/prog/punk/hardcore. My main influences are Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria and Daisuke Ishiwatari of Guilty Gear fame (iykyk) and therefore I know I definitely want a Nailbomb in the bridge of this guitar. I'd like to be able to get heavy, but the odds of me ever going beyond a full step below standard are slim, and I think the Nailbomb is a no-brainer here.
• At the same time, the other main style I play is post-rock/math rock/midwest emo. I want to be able to achieve some American Football style cleans (the classic example:https://youtu.be/VG9VhC0hiTg?t=10) with this guitar as well, so I'm trying to determine what neck humbucker, split or not, can produce this kind of sound.

So that's the main question. I've researched from a neck Nailbomb, to a VHII, to the Crawler, to Cold Sweat... Frankly I've bounced all over the internet trying to figure out what way to go here. I realize it's difficult to offer advice w/o all the details but would love to hear some opinions!

[RobAbrams84]

Believe it or not, but the Holydiver neck humbucker is one of the brightest and chimey-est humbucker I've ever tried.  Not really high output, either.  I would definitely NOT choose the VHII or Nailbomb neck for this kind of sound. 

I'm sure that there are more vintagey neck pickups to choose from, but I have less experience with those neck humbuckers from BKP.  Possibly the RIff Raff?  Even the Seymour Duncan Jazz or Sentient might work well here, or a Suhr Thornbucker from other brands.  But I think that you would be pleasantly surprised with the Holydiver neck, it's quite a bit brighter and more jangly than almost any other neck humbucker I've tried.  Well not brighter than a Jazz, but more jangly for sure.

[ndamelio4]

Believe it or not, but the Holydiver neck humbucker is one of the brightest and chimey-est humbucker I've ever tried.  Not really high output, either.  I would definitely NOT choose the VHII or Nailbomb neck for this kind of sound. 

I'm sure that there are more vintagey neck pickups to choose from, but I have less experience with those neck humbuckers from BKP.  Possibly the RIff Raff?  Even the Seymour Duncan Jazz or Sentient might work well here, or a Suhr Thornbucker from other brands.  But I think that you would be pleasantly surprised with the Holydiver neck, it's quite a bit brighter and more jangly than almost any other neck humbucker I've tried.  Well not brighter than a Jazz, but more jangly for sure.

Wow, I had not considered Holydiver in the neck at all, that was actually my other contender for bridge if I went off-script on the Nailbomb...interesting! Gonna check that out.

[RobAbrams84]

I think that Bare Knuckle does a poor (practically non-existent) job of explaining their neck humbucker, unfortunately.  Those B/M/T charts that you see, for instance, are only for the bridge pickups.

The Nailbomb and Holydiver pickups are voiced very differently to me.  The HD is warmer, fatter, smoother, and possibly more compressed to me.  The demos I've seen of it under gain are fair representations.  Single notes carry a ton of weight in the upper registers.  It's fairly high output but not that aggressive to me.

The Nailbomb is possibly tighter.  It might be less compressed, and it's definitely more aggressive.  In fact for me it was too aggressive: kind of like a Vintage 30 speaker, it has some serious upper mids and presence that's always there and impossible to dial out.  It always seemed to want to explode into nu-metal or something to me and I didn't find it very versatile.  Other people love it.

I'm not familiar with the artists that you mentioned at all so the Nailbomb may be what you want, but it shouldn't be hard to decide between the two as they are voiced very differently.

Hope that helps.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I can highly recommend VHII pickups, they are great for superstrats and have a decent output enough to be split and still not sound too thin. I think nothing beats actual single coils though if you want that sound.

[ndamelio4]

I think that Bare Knuckle does a poor (practically non-existent) job of explaining their neck humbucker, unfortunately.  Those B/M/T charts that you see, for instance, are only for the bridge pickups.

The Nailbomb and Holydiver pickups are voiced very differently to me.  The HD is warmer, fatter, smoother, and possibly more compressed to me.  The demos I've seen of it under gain are fair representations.  Single notes carry a ton of weight in the upper registers.  It's fairly high output but not that aggressive to me.

The Nailbomb is possibly tighter.  It might be less compressed, and it's definitely more aggressive.  In fact for me it was too aggressive: kind of like a Vintage 30 speaker, it has some serious upper mids and presence that's always there and impossible to dial out.  It always seemed to want to explode into nu-metal or something to me and I didn't find it very versatile.  Other people love it.

I'm not familiar with the artists that you mentioned at all so the Nailbomb may be what you want, but it shouldn't be hard to decide between the two as they are voiced very differently.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for this insight! Your take on the Nailbomb is pretty much what I'm looking for in the bridge end of the spectrum, haha. The HD does maybe sound like a decent pick, and I'm sure it'll probably sound solid in parallel with the NB bridge...

I can highly recommend VHII pickups, they are great for superstrats and have a decent output enough to be split and still not sound too thin. I think nothing beats actual single coils though if you want that sound.

Yeah, I'm getting the vibe that I may be trying to "do too much" with this guitar and maybe I should just settle in with the hard rock pickups and go VHII/NB, HD/NB or NB/NB. I mean, I literally just built a Tele to get the chimey cleans, so like...I have that, and I went hot with those pickups so it can *kind of* do really high gain stuff. Maybe trying to create a guitar that does everything just OK isn't the route.

Lots to think about. Guess maybe I'll have to build a few more guitars in the future to sort all these options out :)

[JJretroTONEGOD]

it depends, for live playing I like to have the extra option of coil tap but only with the right pickups, on my mule for example there is not enough output for it to be honest without using a compressor on the pedalboard to boost the signal, and I'd have been better off just not having coil tap in that case, even though it gives me more sounds it's not always a good thing, I'm sure this could be fixed by using a higher output p/up like the VHII instead as a replacement.

[skolphy]

I have a swamp ash super strat I built from Warmoth and have the Abomb bridge and the Emerald in the neck. Highly recommend that combo. The Emerald is beautiful on cleans and articulate under gain but doesn't make you work too hard. Reacts nicely to the volume knob as well to add some range to the neck voicing as well. Plenty of output from the AIV magnet.

[timmy_pix]

verThe obvious choice to match a Nailbomb bridge is the Nailbomb neck - they do the calibrated sets for a reason, and it'll ensure the character of the guitar is consistent.

That said, I'll echo what's been said about the Holydiver neck - it's bright, clear, versatile, and is voiced in a way that it sings very nicely for lead work. I don't see why it wouldn't match well with the Nailbomb bridge, particularly for cleaner parts and the example you posted. But I'd still call the Nailbomb neck your first, or safest, port of call.

I do have a Nailbomb set lying around but haven't installed them yet, so I'm afraid I can't be more definite than that! Other options to consider:

• True Grit neck - the point of the Boot Camp range is to be versatile and do what they say on the tin, so that will also be a safe bet. Reviews are generally that it's good, without having any distinctive characteristics beyond being a good, mid-output neck pickup that does what you want it to do
• VHII neck seems to have historically been a popular choice to pair with the Nailbomb, but again, no experience here.