charvel build

[lyon76]

okay doing a san dimas build, 1 volume and 1 humbucker with a original floyd alder body, maple neck and maple fretboard guitar, which pickup to play anything from thrash, heavy, and classic. van halen, rhoads, pantera, megadeth,sepultura, are some of the music i like to play! any help would be appreciated, and should i split coil the humbucker to play bluesier stuff? thanks.

[ShotgunInnocence]

I did a similar build recently, with the exception that the body was solid maple instead of alder.  Has a ceramic Holy Diver (current spec, not the original one) in the bridge that I wired for series/parallel.  In series, it has a really aggressive character that will cover your thrash and heavier needs.  Switch to parallel, and you cut the gain for a more "classic" sounding 'bucker (nice for stuff like VH, Rhoads, old school 80's metal, and even some blues).  The tone (in series OR parallel) has a rich low end, the mids are thick and grinding, and the highs cut through with no icepick-in-the-ear.  My other vote would be the Nailbomb, but I'm not a voice of experience with it, since I've not yet got a home to put one in......

[MDV]

Nailbomb perhaps.

[lyon76]

okay forget the classic rock sound, i will build another charvel copy for that, i just want a bridge pickup for the heavy stuff, good harmonics, tight bass response, no muddiness, any help? thanks.

[MDV]

Miracle man.

[lyon76]

anyone think the warpig would be too much?

[lyon76]

since ive never had a covered pickup, whatever bkp pup i get, would the covered ones affect the tone, im really diggin the black covers? thanks.

[MDV]

The cover does, allegedly, affect the tone. But its marginal and likley unnoticable. Its a tiny attenuation of high end, some what like moving a presence control about 1/4 down (as in 1/4 of the divisions 1-10, not 1/4 of the way round - and even thats from me having covered and uncovered pickups of the same type in*different* guitars, so I cant be utterly sure).

yes, warpigs are overkill. Do not underestimate the power of the mid to high teen DC resistance pickups. You havent refferenced any bands that need any overkill high gain sound - the pigs are psychpaths, and the music youre after may be a bt nuts but it doesnt call for them, IMO. I play much heavier, more aggressive stuff (or try to at least) on c-bombs and a custom pickup thats closest to a cross between them and painkillers. I used to use pigs - I stopped because I didnt need the gain and needed more clarity. You certainly dont need to hit your preamp that hard to get the sounds you've mentioned.

[ericsabbath]

what's your distortion source?

[Davey]

VH2 or that raygun thingy that steve stevens uses :P ... what's the name again??? rebel yell?.. yes that.
the rebel has harmonics out the wazoo and a realllly nice sound. a holy diver IMO would work well too