Looking for a vintage neck HUM to pair with Nailbomb.

[Peteshreds]

Hey all,
New to the forum.
I'm looking to upgrade the pickups in my ESP Horizon Standard NT-II. I was thinking of getting a Nailbomb in the bridge position because I love the sound Pin from Sikth gets - I'm also really into Opeth.
But I play alot of Jazz fusion/blues as well, I'm a professional musician not just some kid who's looking to have fun playing cover tunes.
I really love the sound of my Seymour Duncan 59 humbucker because of its vintage sound, but since I want to get a Nailbomb put in I would like to pair it with something the resembles the vintage warm sound, but I'm really not sure about which BareKnuckle to select that would pair well with it.
Any suggestions?
My guitar is setup with 2 humbuckers basically Les Paul style, and it also has a coil tap switch which I dont use often but it comes in handy occasionally.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to your replys.

[il˙ti]

Welcome to the forum, mate.

It has been tried before to pair the Nailbomb with the vintage neck models (Stormy Monday, Mule) but they are generally not powerful enough to match. One way to get around this is to get the bridge version of these vintage pups and put them in neck. Whether you'd prefer Mule or Stormy Monday, I don't know.
Another one to check out is the Crawler neck. It is voiced like a paf but a little hotter. Great clean and blues sound, and when you pile on the gain it gets a very singy shred sound. I highly recommend it for fusion and blues. The Nailbomb bridge is only a little hotter than the Crawler bridge so I think they'd match well.

[TwilightOdyssey]

I would use a Cold Sweat neck.

[Peteshreds]

I would use a Cold Sweat neck.

Thanks for your responses.
I would appreciate it if you could elaborate more on why you would want to use a Cold Sweat in the neck, and if there is power differences when why would you neglect mentioning that? Just curious.
I live in the USA so I dont really have any way of trying out these pups without ordering them. I'm not going to rely on peoples recordings or youtube videos either.
Thanks again.

[Fikealox]

Since you like the Duncan '59, I'd go with a Mule. I believe the Mule, like the '59, is modelled after the late 50's PAFs, so they should be somewhat similar, though the Mule will prove more organic and open sounding if my other Bareknuckles are anything to go by. I have used '59s and loved them, but I haven't used a Mule (though I intend to buy a set for my Eclipse shortly), so I'm speculating to an extent.

One word of caution borne of my experience, though. Keep in mind that the Nailbombs are pretty dark-sounding pickups, even in the bridge position (though less dark than in the neck). They do sound great and they'd definitely have the power to cover the heavier stuff you'll play, but I personally find it too dark for my tastes in a mahogany guitar. If your NT is one of the ash models, it might work better, but I still find the Nailbomb neck I have in my alder strat pretty dark. Again, having not used the Mules I can't say for sure, but I expect they'd be brighter than Nailbombs, and I would find it strange having a brighter pickup in the neck than the bridge.

[noodleplugerine]

The cold sweat neck gets the jazzy, clear, liquid tone, while being hot enough to pair nicely with the nailbomb.

The Nailbomb itself is a particularly organic, and clear pickup, which works superbly clean too, so don't think you're getting a pickup that does the Sikth style stuff alone, its a superbly versatile pickup.

[noodleplugerine]

Since you like the Duncan '59, I'd go with a Mule. I believe the Mule, like the '59, is modelled after the late 50's PAFs, so they should be somewhat similar, though the Mule will prove more organic and open sounding if my other Bareknuckles are anything to go by. I have used '59s and loved them, but I haven't used a Mule (though I intend to buy a set for my Eclipse shortly), so I'm speculating to an extent.

One word of caution borne of my experience, though. Keep in mind that the Nailbombs are pretty dark-sounding pickups, even in the bridge position (though less dark than in the neck). They do sound great and they'd definitely have the power to cover the heavier stuff you'll play, but I personally find it too dark for my tastes in a mahogany guitar. If your NT is one of the ash models, it might work better, but I still find the Nailbomb neck I have in my alder strat pretty dark. Again, having not used the Mules I can't say for sure, but I expect they'd be brighter than Nailbombs, and I would find it strange having a brighter pickup in the neck than the bridge.

If his NT-II is like mine, it's mahogany wings with a maple neck thru and maple top, where the brightness of the maple and ebony particularly cut through, with the mahogany clearly giving the guitar a slightly rounder, deeper sound than a typical alder or maple guitar of the same style. The cold sweat again should work to balance the tone aswell, hopefully not accentuating the top end, and pronouncing the mids the guitar has, its a similar combo to the one that I plan to get.

Funnily enough you've taken the name "peteshreds", and if this is true than the cold sweat neck will be perfect for you - It has the clarity and smoothness that is definitely required in 80s shred, modern shred, jazz, fusion, and anywhere else where the emphasis is clarity, note definition, and ofcourse, great tone.

Edit: God, I sound like one of those magazine adverts...


And every week you get a beautiful hand crafted component to collect in order to build your own model train.

[Fikealox]

Good point about the effects of the neck-through maple on the tone. I managed to forget what "NT" stood for when I was posting this morning, haha :)

[noodleplugerine]

I think its actually no trem, rather than neck thru... Since they also have an FR-II...

[Fikealox]

Ahh, that makes sense :)

[il˙ti]

I know I'm only judging by clips as I have no first hand experience with the Cold Sweat neck, but it does not sound "vintage" to me. Sure, more vintage than the other high output neck models, but if you really want to capture the vintage quality, BKPs alnico IV based models do it best.

[Peteshreds]

Funnily enough you've taken the name "peteshreds", and if this is true than the cold sweat neck will be perfect for you - It has the clarity and smoothness that is definitely required in 80s shred, modern shred, jazz, fusion, and anywhere else where the emphasis is clarity, note definition, and ofcourse, great tone.

Edit: God, I sound like one of those magazine adverts...


And every week you get a beautiful hand crafted component to collect in order to build your own model train.

Thanks for the advice. I'm digging your NT-II... I'm so jealous of your trans blue model!! I got mine back in 2005 when they first started getting popular. I would KILL for the FR-II in trans purple or the trans blue model.

My name is kind of a joke, well at least its semi-serious. I know alot of players personally who shred like there is no tomorrow and these last few years I've been focusing on good riffs and song writing while maintaining my skills and sounding good. So when I think of Peteshreds I usually think of some dude in the crowd going ... "dude, Pete totally shreds dude", hahahahahaha.
It just seems to me like anyone can go up on strange and shred through some arpreggios or scale runs.

Anyways I digress.

Thanks for the advice, I'll probobly be going for a Cold Sweat or something along those lines.

[Zaned]

Hello Pete, and welcome!

I have the Cold sweat calibrated set in a PRS McCarty. Talking about the neck pup, it's truly a wonderful pickup, and has a clear, detailed and singing tone. But I don't know if I would choose it for jazz..like I said, it's clear, not dark(ish). Depends on the tone you're after. That being said, it responds wonderfully to the tone knob! Makes it smokier and shows a wonderful midrange. It IS very versatile.

But in the end, I strongly suggest you ask Tim for recommendation. He knows his craft and he was spot on in his pup suggestion to me.

Zaned

[Nolly]

the Nailbomb itself is a particularly organic, and clear pickup, which works superbly clean too, so don't think you're getting a pickup that does the Sikth style stuff alone, its a superbly versatile pickup.

Definitely agreed on that. It's relly quite vintagey, like a hot PAF kinda sound. Beautifully pure and clean. I'm fairly sure it would be more than capable for the OP's needs.

[noodleplugerine]

Funnily enough you've taken the name "peteshreds", and if this is true than the cold sweat neck will be perfect for you - It has the clarity and smoothness that is definitely required in 80s shred, modern shred, jazz, fusion, and anywhere else where the emphasis is clarity, note definition, and ofcourse, great tone.

Edit: God, I sound like one of those magazine adverts...


And every week you get a beautiful hand crafted component to collect in order to build your own model train.

Thanks for the advice. I'm digging your NT-II... I'm so jealous of your trans blue model!! I got mine back in 2005 when they first started getting popular. I would KILL for the FR-II in trans purple or the trans blue model.

My name is kind of a joke, well at least its semi-serious. I know alot of players personally who shred like there is no tomorrow and these last few years I've been focusing on good riffs and song writing while maintaining my skills and sounding good. So when I think of Peteshreds I usually think of some dude in the crowd going ... "dude, Pete totally shreds dude", hahahahahaha.
It just seems to me like anyone can go up on strange and shred through some arpreggios or scale runs.

Anyways I digress.

Thanks for the advice, I'll probobly be going for a Cold Sweat or something along those lines.

My NT-II is lurvely, but you shouldn't be jealous - Owning ANY NT-II and being jealous is a crime! We exist only to inspire jealousy into those around us!!!

Here's a pic anyway :P