i have an uber sinner bridge, paired with two overwound trilogies, they are fitted to an ash strat with maple board neck. the overwind on the trilogies was suggested by Tim, and the bridge has a baseplate. a few neck blender configurations have been tried, before i settled on my favourite
i've quickly decided this is my favourite bkp strat set 8) one of the new strat sets Tims working on may yet beat it, but i've obviously not tried one of those on my rig.
so what so great about it? lets start with drive sounds. i could just about get away with a baseplated slowhand set direct into my 2204 with curly lead - really one needed a treble booster pedal in that configuration to get more drive and shape the tone. the sinner drives my 2204 really well with just the curly lead - its a bright tone, but nothing like ice picky, and it drives with the same sort of level as a vintage hot humbucker. its surprisingly far away from bass heavy, and its only moderately compressed - much less than a holy diver, for example. one can throw down classic power chord riffs all day long with this thing. briefly tried it without the curly lead, and i soon switched back, theres still a bit of strat treble in there which will catch out the 2204 circuit. even considering the obscene wind and baseplate, it still sounds instantly like a strat. every note in a chord is clear.
moving on to the neck with drive, its pure neo-classical shred. i couldn't help but play cheesy solos in a melodic minor key. tried some sweep picking for laughs - but i'm rubbish at that ;) its fluid, and thick yet amazingly defined. yngwie indeed..
the middle strat pickup is not my thing, but its probably just the ticket if you are. however, i do like the in-between positions using the middle pickup, and they sound very fendery - not quite a classical strat in-between though, but you won't forget what you're playing!
clean sounds are surprisingly very good too - everythings just a smidgen compressed, but just a smidgen. one can play funky strat style, full chords slightly dirty and all the things one associates with a strat, they sound really good.. perhaps not having quite the sparkle of an apache set, or the mellow woodiness of a mothers milk - but its a great strat clean still.
this is not simply a fire breathing set by any-means, in fact i'd go so far it say it has the versatility of something like the mule. it covers all the low gain strat bases one expects, maybe lacking the merest touch of complexity.. however the trade off is truly glorious performance with medium and high gain - especially on a bright amp like my 2204.
with the wiring set up right, one can roll down the volume pot a couple of notches and get a clean un-muddied sound without fuss, just like any other BKP. its a ballsy set for sure - but its still purest stratocaster. any strat fan playing with a bit of drive would enjoy this set in my opinion... its not just for SSS fans who want to play metal.
