Hey, everybody! Long time lurker, first time poster. After quite a while oogling these things, I think I may be pretty close to joining the BKP camp. I'm just a little stuck on what to get, though. I'll try to keep this relatively short since I could babble in circles for a while about it.
I'm getting pickups for a basswood bodied 7-string (Ibanez RG 7421), though I'm already planning to transplant them into a better guitar when I get one... probably something like a maple neck-thru with mahogany wings and hopefully a 27" scale depending on what's available when I'm ready for a new 7.
The bridge is what I'm having the most trouble deciding on. As the thread title implies, at the moment I'm thinking either Nailbomb or Holy Diver. Right now I'm using a Blaze Custom (B:7, M:7, T:6 according to the site, though I could have sworn the site used to say it was something like 6.5, 7, 5.5), and as far as DiMarzio goes, I'm pretty happy with it. I like my bridge pickup to be dominant in the mids with some warm and meaty bass backing it up, but not quite enough to really compete too much with the mids. With the bridge pickup, I like being able to play bone-crushing rhythms, sometimes less crushing rhythms with weird chord shapes and intervals, and big chordy riffs a la Deftones or Devin Townsend. Luckily, I don't think I'll have to worry about note definition/separation in big or strange chords with either choice.
I like the Nailbomb because it seems pretty balanced, does really well with heavy metal, has great presence and definition, and is reputed to be impressively versatile, especially for a pickup that works so well for heavy modern metal. I like the Holy Diver because in all the clips I've heard, it has the same kind of low mid meatiness I like in my Blaze Custom. Not that I'm trying to necessarily get the closest match to my BC here, but that meat is something I've come to really like in my sound in a world where metal is dominated by EMGs. So the HD has the meatiness and girth that I like that seems comparatively lacking in the NB, but the NB has the presence and snarl I like that the HD doesn't seem to have as much of.
It doesn't help too much that the HD is almost always doing classic rock tones that, while great, aren't really what I'm going for. It throws me off, because I'm left wondering if I only think the NB doesn't have enough meat compared to the HD because the heavy metal NB clips are probably mostly EQed with scooped mids and boosted treble while the classic rock HD clips mostly seem to let the mids breathe more.
I seem to tend to prefer ceramic magnets, at least in the bridge position, so how do these pickups act with ceramic magnets? Does it balance the HD out a bit? Does it make the NB a tad too harsh or sterile? What does the NB EQ curve look like, anyway? The descriptions make it sound middy and meaty with just enough bite, but most of the clips make it seem more treble heavy.
While I'm at it, I'm just a tad stuck on which neck pickup to get, too. At the moment I'm thinking either Cold Sweat or Crawler. Right now I have an Air Norton 7, and as far as DiMarzio goes, I love it. Again, I'm not necessarily trying to copy what I already have in BKP form, but that fat, smooth, warm, mid and bass heavy creaminess seems to work pretty well for cleans in the neck position and chords when combined with the bridge pickup. The Crawler seems to be pretty close to having everything I like about the AN7, but the CS, while a bit more PAF than I'd generally go for, seems pretty nice and smooth, too. I guess I'm trying to decide between getting a thick Air Nortony tone or trying something just a tad more open and jingly.
I guess I failed in my attempt to keep it short. Sorry, and thanks to anyone who made it through the whole post!
