OK, I finally got the house to myself at a reasonable hour so I could try some high gain sounds at proper volume levels :twisted: Here are some additional comments:
The Holy Diver has a fantastic thick, full tone for lead work. Lead runs are really smooth & chords just ring out. The extra midrange seemed to help me with sustain - long notes morphed into this wonderful musical feedback that I could really control, but it's not at all microphonic - even holding the guitar right up to the amp didn't produce any squealing.
It doesn't have as much "cut" as the Miracle Man - fast palm muted riffs don't jump out at you like they do with the MM which is probably a better pickup for thrash & death metal type playing. Not that you can't use the HD for those styles, it just sounds a little more "rounded" than the MM for that kind of riffing.
As I stated earlier, it has a little less output than the MM, but it's really not that much. The MM may have skull-splitting output, but the HD is a pretty beefy pickup too.
Using the HD on the clean channel, you get a really warm tone that's just begging for some chorus & delay - somebody send one of these to Alex Lifeson :lol:
The more I play the HD, the more realise:
a) I really like it :)
b) It's nothing like the Duncan JB. They have about the same level of output, but next to the HD, the JB seems more trebly, a bit thin & harsh. In fact, my trusty Jackson might be in line for a new pickup too :lol:
