Bridge pickup for this explorer

[fr33man1]

I finally got my custom explorer (bubinga body, maple neck and ebony fretboard, 26' scale).

Tried out the good ol gibson 500t on it and its really shrill, agressive and ear percing. Im looking for something growling, powerful, fat and thick since the axe is full of pick attack and response and very bright sounding.

Adding Id rather want it A5 powered and not ceramic to change a bit since I had ceramics on all my axe. I bet holy diver could fatten it a bit up ?

[MDV]

A: I havent seen you around before, so welcome. (Or dont remember it)

B: Thats a gorgeous guitar!

C: You're pretty much on the money with the HD, imo. Get that or a nailbomb.

[solniger333]

You are right on the money with the Holy Diver dude. Nailbomb has a looser bottom end and is brighter than the HD. Might work though, I dont know exactly HOW bright your guitar is. I'd say the Holy Diver would kick ass in that guitar.

[ericsabbath]

You are right on the money with the Holy Diver dude. Nailbomb has a looser bottom end and is brighter than the HD. Might work though, I dont know exactly HOW bright your guitar is. I'd say the Holy Diver would kick ass in that guitar.

my Nailbomb is definitely tighter than the Holy Diver I had
I prefer the Diver, though
I miss a bit of midrange with the Nailbomb

[FernandoDuarte]

Who build the guitar?

[solniger333]

You are right on the money with the Holy Diver dude. Nailbomb has a looser bottom end and is brighter than the HD. Might work though, I dont know exactly HOW bright your guitar is. I'd say the Holy Diver would kick ass in that guitar.

my Nailbomb is definitely tighter than the Holy Diver I had
I prefer the Diver, though
I miss a bit of midrange with the Nailbomb

I heard the nailbomb in quite a deep sounding guitar and the bottom end did not hold together at all. My Holy Diver is in a very tight sounding guitar so thats probably where our experience differs

[fr33man1]

http://www.slide.com/r/yoPfTinO2j8xx0UiU3nKvtcGDa34qhI_?map=2&cy=ms Eric Stiegler build the guitar. A french 'luthier' (dunno the word in english) and friend of mine so I got it at good price ;). Was a bit sick of all mahogany ones, loved explorer shape and natural finishes, ken lawrence style and wanted a nice maple neck with no paint and here it is :).

As for brightness the axe is very middy/top end souding with a lot of punch and grind. it cuts like a razor and even in downtuning ( its a half baritone one) it sounds a bit shrill on the ex d string tuned in B now.  I really want to give it more body and add some more low mid but remaining this alnico feel to the sound.

Antag is an holy diver freak here, i read about all his posts on how it gave body to his jackson rr1t and I think I'm in the same case. My guitar is in the ballpark of an alder strat with mapple neck so I bet the holy diver would do wonders for my axe ?

And youre drop C tuned clip Eric made me want an holy diver more. It had that fat low mid sound and thickness with grind, it suited KSE tone perfectly.   :)

[Zaned]

If you want a bit more PAF sound on it (the HD is 'modern' sounding), how about the Crawler. Thick and growly, and would most probably work very well with bright and attacky nature of your guitar.

LOVELY guitar btw.

-Zaned

[fr33man1]

Well Im hesitating on those options aswell.  I already have an sg with a nbomb neck and a second hand riff raff oncoming so I'll leave PAF to this axe . I bought a baritone to make noise so I'll keep it this way ;).

[solniger333]

Seriously the only BKP I've tried that smoothes out an invasive top end but still has the thickness output and punch for heavy shitee is the Holy Diver. I have experience with the Cold Sweat/Painkiller/Nailbomb/Holy Diver and the HD was by far the best choice for a brighter upper middy guitar. Seriously man it rules.


Great choice of tonewood for your Explorer by the way. That headstock is pure Hetfield :-)

[IntenseJim]

.
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Seriously the only BKP I've tried that smoothes out an invasive top end but still has the thickness output and punch for heavy shiteee is the Holy Diver. I have experience with the Cold Sweat/Painkiller/Nailbomb/Holy Diver and the HD was by far the best choice for a brighter upper middy guitar. Seriously man it rules.

Very helpful post! Thanks. I'm going to order a HD next week.

[The Sorbz]

Do it!!!!!   The H-D is an awsome pickup.

[fr33man1]

remember this one ?

Finally got it loaded with a cs neck nbomb bridge set, same look, black open poled ones. simple but tone tasty !

The nbomb fattened up the whole axe, its really percussive, tight, juicy and squealies really jump out of fretboard. If the diver is fatter and punchier than that, it will be my next bridge pickup in my custom les paul.

Cs neck is really warm and fluid, nice chime for cleans and leads, distorded riffs arent a problem aswell, woods are bright, middy and tight so its possible to play metal riffs on neck position. Dont care for middle position really, cs neck is really tasty on clean and solo sounds and the bomb, well its name says it all.

 :)

nice job tim ;).

[Madsakre]

I would say warpigs. But i have warpigs in two of my axes now. And i would say that i could not be happier with any pickup.

[solniger333]

I can say that, in the right guitar.. (Dark and bassy guitars need not apply) the ceramic warpig is my favourite pickup. This is after trying Rebel yells cold sweats painkillers and ceramic nailbombs. The cpig is unbelievable it really is the cream of the crop IMO