I do love the grain and character of those Classic 57 pickups but the output is just low and the sound is muddy and lacks clarity and the trademark BKP note separation.
I won't detune it or maybe just a step lower in D. I'm more looking for an uber boosted vintage pickup with more character. I' dont want uber tight sound, think SOAD first tunes, massive but still grainy and organic.
The MMan was too smooth for me, the nailbomb is a too easy choice, I love them but I had like 4 sets of nailbombs already.
Also tried the cold sweats and even if they are balanced and cool pickups I'm finding the bridge too crispy with too much high end for my tastes.
Endly I had RYells too and I'm sad to say they were the BKP I disliked the most, too Steve Stevens for me to sum up.
Oh forgot the Holy divers that are awesome pickups but my les paul was dark so it did not match very well with my ex custom.
I'd rather go alnico with clear, tight but not surgical pickups. Good output, nothing crazy, for a solid heavy rock/metal sound. I think saying I'd like a warm thick sound with good balance of frequencies that does not go messy when dialed with some gain would sum it up the best.
I was about to forget infos for the neck pickup, as long it shines in clean (not too sparkly nor too dark) and can pull out some creamy thick lead sounds with some balls and output (more in the 8/10k zone, i tried alot of pickups below this output and was never really happy)
damn... PAF character + output, less smooth than a miracle man, not as bright and crispy as a cold sweat, tight, alnico, warm, thick
VHII set?
as a Nailbomb fan, maybe you would enjoy the Riff Raff
it has a similar voicing (thick bass, not too much mids, biting top), but in an authentic PAF format with more bite
I can't comment on the output cause mine has a thicker magnet, so it sounds as punchy as the Nailbomb, but without all the compression
you can ask Tim if he would make another one like mine (8.47k, 4 mm alnico 5 magnet), but I doubt that
it was his own suggestion after I described what I wanted (a thick and biting PAF style pup) and that I needed something capable of pushing the amp HARD