Which pickups?

[doubleshotmusic]

I have a Jackson SL-1(stock pickups) and an Ibanez Steve Vai Jem(hated the stock bridge pickup) which I currently have a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position of both.  Seriously thinking about making the jump to BKP and was wondering.....
(1) Which BKP pickups are the most like the JB's.
(2) Which BKP would be most like Duncan Distortion pickups.  I'm finding the JB's arn't quite hot enough at times for the music I play.  May want something slightly hotter than the JB.  Hmmmm. 

[gabor]

excellent question  :D sorry, don't want to hijack your thread... (btw cheers everyone :drink:)
Same here with Jackson sl1 (maple neck-through, alder wings, ebony board, floyd etc)
(Although I'm in a different tuning: dropH, and Nailbomb was too agressive for me, with my rig)
So I would also like to know, if there is a similar voiced pickup as a JB in the BKP arsenal, that does rock, has enough mids... oh well I might as well start a new thread, until then I'll see where this one goes...

[BigK]

Welcome! What type of sound are you after? What amp/s are you using? possibly a holy diver or nailbomb might suit you depending what style you are going for...

excellent question  :D sorry, don't want to hijack your thread... (btw cheers everyone :drink:)
Same here with Jackson sl1 (maple neck-through, alder wings, ebony board, floyd etc)
(Although I'm in a different tuning: dropH, and Nailbomb was too agressive for me, with my rig)
So I would also like to know, if there is a similar voiced pickup as a JB in the BKP arsenal, that does rock, has enough mids... oh well I might as well start a new thread, until then I'll see where this one goes...

HOLY DIVER for you my friend

[doubleshotmusic]

I have a CAA (Custom Audio Amplification) OD 100SE+ Amp(head) with straight Bogner 4/12 with Celestion Vintage 30's.  Signal path as follows....Guitar-custom A/B/Tuner box- (A) Budda Wah-Cusack Screamer into front of CAA Amp.  From effects loop out of CAA to Script Logo MXR Phase 90-TC Electronics Chorus-Hughes&Kettner Replex(delay)-ZVex SHO(clean boost)back into effects loop in.  That's my distortion set-up.  By stepping on my custom a/b/tuner box I can switch between that distortion rig into (B) Another TC Electronics Chorus-T-Rex Replica(delay)-straight into a 65' Fender Super Reverb(re-issue) for my clean sound.  When I step on the "tuner" switch of my a/b/tuner box the signal stops going to either amp into a Korg Pitchblack Tuner.  Completely silent tuning on stage.  All wired with Monster Cables and George-L cables.  I figure it's worth mentioning I'm a huge George Lynch fan.  Tone wise I liked his Dokken "Back For The Attack" sounds and Lynch Mob "Wicked Sensation" tones the best.  I'm headed into that vein with my sound.

[doubleshotmusic]

I'm guessing from what I've researched that I'm probably looking at a 'Holy Diver' or 'Nailbomb' for my Jackson Soloist SL-1 and Ibanez Steve Vai Jem, but now that I've posted my multi/amp rig maybe someone could tell me different or someone could tell me for sure which BKP bridge pickups to go with.  I'm a newbie here, so any advice would be great.  I'm looking at strictly bridge pickups for the time being.

[doubleshotmusic]

Bump

[MDV]

Holy diver and miracle man, respectively.

Both shite all over the duncans though.

[kartar]

I have a Jackson SL-1(stock pickups) and an Ibanez Steve Vai Jem(hated the stock bridge pickup) which I currently have a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position of both.  Seriously thinking about making the jump to BKP and was wondering.....
(1) Which BKP pickups are the most like the JB's.

Nailbomb and Holydiver

(2) Which BKP would be most like Duncan Distortion pickups.  I'm finding the JB's arn't quite hot enough at times for the music I play.  May want something slightly hotter than the JB.  Hmmmm.  

Miracle man and old ceramic-Holydiver are said to be pretty similar as Duncan Distortion. Old HD is not available anymore...

I'm huge Lynch fan too (especially Back for the attack!). I can get nice Lynch-sound with using my Jackson Soloist (Holydiver-set) and 1959HW (modded to hot 2203 + resonance-pot and fat/bite-switch) boosted with boss GE-7 as middle-booster. HD's are maybe little a bit too fat for Lynch sound but my amp's Bite-swich gives me that missing "ceramic-bite".

[Excruciator]

As already stated, the standard spec Holy Diver is closest to the JB as it's sold nowadays, except it's a much nicer sounding pickup.

The current Holy Diver (the 16.2k one), but with a large ceramic magnet rather than AV (on paper at least) would be closest to a Duncan Distortion in my opinion - same gauge wire, similar DC resistance, although the wind is possibly/probably quite different. The DD is just a pair of JB coils from the higher end of the DC resistace tolerance scale with a large ceramic magnet, as far as I know.  I've never tried this myself, so it would be somewhat experimental on your part, probably best to run it by Tim. The Painkiller is somewhat close too (on paper), same gauge wire, but slightly lower wind and 3 ceramic magnets instead of 1. It does however, sound infinitely better.

[doubleshotmusic]

Thanks for the input!

[gabor]

"The current Holy Diver (the 16.2k one)" do you happen to know what the overall difference is?
I ended up buying a HD today, actually received a temporary one from the shop to try out. The paper that came with the pickup says it's Alnico V, 15.6k, would this mean it's an older version? If so, I would like to know how the newer version would sound.
Anyway aside from the colour and the fact that the one I tried is standard spacing instead of wide spacing (doesn't seemed like a big problem to me yet) first impressions are that this is pretty much what I'm looking for (need to test it in a band situation this week though), so I'm thinking of getting one in the right colour and size. 8)
Thanks for all the help so far, and good luck to doubleshotmusic PDT_002

[doubleshotmusic]

Thanks!  Keep me updated on your thoughts after you play in a band situation.

[ericsabbath]

the holy diver is not as hot as the JB, but it's definitely heavier and cleaner sounding
the nailbomb is hotter than both, but no near as middy
I found the nailbomb to be somewhere between the custom and the custom V voicings, but hotter and punchier than both
it sounds nothing like a JB, despite of its specs
the painkiller has a similar voicing to the distortion, but the distortion is quite grindy and dirty (muddy), while the painkiller has a very clean midrange
I like the idea of a ceramic (new) holy diver, but I don't know if Tim would make that
I tried alnico 8 on a holy diver and the pup sounded louder, tighter, crunchier and brighter, but lost a lot of its mojo

[Antag]

"The current Holy Diver (the 16.2k one)" do you happen to know what the overall difference is?
I ended up buying a HD today, actually received a temporary one from the shop to try out. The paper that came with the pickup says it's Alnico V, 15.6k, would this mean it's an older version?

No, that's the current spec Holy Diver.  The DCR seems to vary slightly, I've had some as low as 15.1k & as high as 16.4k.  Not sure whether Tim redesigned them again after the change to A5 or whether there's just a natural variance between hand made pickups, but all six of the ones I have sound equally awesome :)

The old-spec Holy Diver is a Ceramic magnet, ~13.6k IIRC (don't have a card for either of the two I have...)

[gabor]

Thank you Antag. :good:
BTW I guess we have similar amps, (U:Engl Savage I:Engl Sovereign-hooked up to 412 V30 Cornford).
Did you try other pickups in your maple neck-through Jackson?
With the return policy the shop offers, I might as well try other BK pickups as well.