Holydiver VS Old spec Holydiver

[Ribboz]

Well I have had the holydiver for awhile now, and I really enjoy it. But I wanna know more about the old spec holydiver.
Please compare the old to the current :D

Oh and I'm sorry this has probably been discussed before.

From what Ive heard people say a Ceramic Old spec Holydiver is very george lynch-ish.
But please compare them. :D

[ericsabbath]

Well I have had the holydiver for awhile now, and I really enjoy it. But I wanna know more about the old spec holydiver.
Please compare the old to the current :D

Oh and I'm sorry this has probably been discussed before.

From what Ive heard people say a Ceramic Old spec Holydiver is very george lynch-ish.
But please compare them. :D

I think the cold sweat already covers that ballpark pretty well

[gwEm]

i never tried an original spec, but theres probably a very good reason why they're custom only now..

[Ribboz]

Please just compare them. :)

[Ribboz]

Lame how fast my topics die. :\

How much do you guys think it would be to send in my HD and have Tim change the magnet to ceramic?

[FELINEGUITARS]

Your topics don't die fast - it's Xmas and people are busy doing stuff

Anyway
The windings of the two pickups are very different - not just the magnet choice

The current HD is much hotter as well as being an Alnico 5 wind
The old spec was maybe closer to the Rebel Yell winding wise (although not the same) and had a ceramic magnet
The old spec is more open sounding and works well for EARLY 80s metal riffs

I would say the closest spec to a George Lynch (Dokken) tone would be a Miracle Man, but like the Cold Sweat the old spec holy diver does well for that punchy tone heard in riffs like on early Dokken stuff whilst maybe being a bit thinner on the lead stuff


Antag has a one of the old spec Divers in at least one of his guitars and also has the current spec Diver in others so he will be the best to give a back to back comparison

[Antag]

Sorry, meant to comment on this yesterday, but busy at work + home broadband died.  I have 2 old-spec ceramic & 6 new-spec alnico HD bridge pickups.

I posted my first impressions in my Feline NGD thread here

The old-spec HD has a lot of the same midrange push as the new one, but is brighter with a little less low end.  You can tell there's a ceramic magnet in there, it has that "sharpness" about it.

Compared to the CS, it has more mids (much fuller/fatter), a little less top end, & less low end.

Power-wise, it's in the same ballpark as CS/HD - my initial perception was that it has a little less outright power than the new HD but I'm not entirely convinced about that now, depending on the settings, it can drive the amp just as hard as those pickups.

In general terms I'd say the old HD is somewhere between the new HD & CS, perhaps closer to the CS.  It also reminds me a lot of the Duncan Distortion but with much more clarity - for me, that's a good thing as I LOVED the DD before I discovered BKP.

Hope this helps...

[Ribboz]

Hmmm. Well thank you for your advice, everyone I mean. I'm still not 100% sure.

Which pup would you say has the best singing quality to it, but also with aggressive vocalization? All depending on your picking.

[ShotgunInnocence]

For what it's worth, I originally purchased the current version of the HD and while I loved it's overall tone, I was looking for a little more "oomph" out of it.  I had a ceramic magnet lying around and swapped it in place of the alnico magnet (super easy to do).  It essentially made the HD sound like an HD on steroids.  VERY similar tonally, but tighter, thicker, more aggressive, a little more cut........generally just "MORE."  While not quite a sweet clean as the alnico version, it still cleans up VERY well.  Yes I realize I voided my warranty by doing the job myself, however I can say the results coming from my amp are sublime.   :D

[kartar]

For what it's worth, I originally purchased the current version of the HD and while I loved it's overall tone, I was looking for a little more "oomph" out of it.  I had a ceramic magnet lying around and swapped it in place of the alnico magnet (super easy to do).  It essentially made the HD sound like an HD on steroids.  VERY similar tonally, but tighter, thicker, more aggressive, a little more cut........generally just "MORE."  While not quite a sweet clean as the alnico version, it still cleans up VERY well.  Yes I realize I voided my warranty by doing the job myself, however I can say the results coming from my amp are sublime.   :D

I ask Tim maybe year or two ago about that current HD's magnet swap (A5 --> ceramic) and if I remember right he told that result would be very close to Painkiller (or was it darker Painkiller...).

Maybe I got to try that too.

[Ribboz]

Hmmm that sounds very intriguing :D
Thank you. I think I have what I need to know :D