Black Dog vs VHII for bridge (or other suggestions..)

[Lucifuge]

I'm looking for a replacement bridge pickup for my Schecter Tempest (mahogany body, maple neck, 24.75 scale.) Actually, I'd eventually like to replace the neck pickup as well, but I'm a bit skint at the moment, so can probably only afford 1 for now.  :?

Currently it has a Seymour Duncan JB, which I find too muddy in the low mids, too bland sounding when clean, and more output than I really want.

The kind of sound I want is bright, a bit scooped in the mids (but not too scooped or bright. A good comparison is the Duncan 59, which I think is too scooped and too bright, but is somewhere close to what I'm looking for - so something like that but with a bit more beef in the mids and a bit less harsh in the treble.

I'm looking for a good bright clean sound, through trashy rock & roll up to punk/grunge, but not metal or shred; however, the sound I like the most is that just-breaking-up tone, where I can get clean sounds by hitting the strings gently, or some distortion by playing harder.

I mostly use modeling devices (boo!) as in my experience a good modeling product sounds better than a mass-produced valve amp, and I can't afford a boutique amp (though obviously I haven't tried every amp on the market.)

From my reading and listening to clips, the VHII seems like it might be what I'm looking for, but I'm also wondering about the Black Dog, though from the clips it probably has more mids than I'm after. I'm interested in the differences between these two pickups, as the specs seem very similar, though details not listed in the specs could also make a big difference, eg wire gauge.

Any other suggestions for a pickup that would be more appropriate would be welcomed, and I'll probably email Tim to see what he suggests as well.

Thanks

[Telerocker]

Black Dogs have more midgrowl then VHII's. I think VHII is more what you want, but you can also consider Mules for big classic PAF-tones.

[ericsabbath]

The kind of sound I want is bright, a bit scooped in the mids (but not too scooped or bright. A good comparison is the Duncan 59, which I think is too scooped and too bright, but is somewhere close to what I'm looking for - so something like that but with a bit more beef in the mids and a bit less harsh in the treble.

that's the riff raff

[Lucifuge]

I have been thinking about the Riff Raff; from the specs and description the VHII seems something like an overwound Riff Raff so I thought it might have a bit more power in the mids. But I haven't found any clean clips for the Riff Raff, and liked the ones I heard for the VHII which made me tend towards that.

I'm thinking about a Mule for the neck when I get round to replacing that.

[ericsabbath]

e-mail tim with a precise description of what you're looking for

but I'd definitely go with the riff raff (well, I already did)
I was looking for the riff raff edge with a bit more power, so I was going to order the VHII, but Tim talked me down and suggested a riff raff with a thicker magnet
it sounds huge
but I guess a regular riff raff would be just as fine, but less punchy (nothing that a clean booster wouldn't "fix")

[Nolly]

The VHIIs could work well for you: with their large coil offset the midrange is smoothed out in favour of outright clarity (though I wouldn't call them scooped). You could also consider the Emerald - similar mids to the VHII but with a brighter resonant peak and less low end.

The Black Dog has some serious midrange growl, so might not be an ideal choice based on what you've said.
Riff-Raffs are great, very punchy and tight. Not really that related to the VHIIs though, due to the wind being much more symmetrical.

[Lucifuge]

I forgot to mention that it would also be great if it had a good coil-split sound for versatility, though that's not as important as I have other guitars for the single coil sound.

Anyway, I've emailed Bareknuckle, so let's see what Tim says...


Edit: Actually, another reason why I was drawn to the VHIIs is because the humbuckers I have used before are either Seymour Duncans or stock pickus, which presumably have very symmetrical winds, so I am intrigued to try the more asymmetrical winds to see what difference it makes.

[Nolly]

You'd need to to be looking at pickups in the 11+kΩ range to get split sounds that have enough heat to get close to a true single sound (and a fairly weak one at that), and add in that we're talking about a bridge position here and you'd want to go hotter still so give some body to the naturally weaker position. The VHII's asymmetry does mean it has a hotter outside coil, so provides a more output in split mode than most pickups around the 9kΩ mark.
Unfortunately, with the smaller footprint and fundamental construction differences between a humbucker coil and a standard single coil it's simply not possible to get one to sound and react exactly as the other even if the outputs are similar. However of course, the split-coil sound is a usable one in its own right.

Perhaps something to consider is sticking in the vintage/vintage-hot output range, but doing the treble-bleed mod on your volume pot by adding a capacitor across it. This means that as you roll back the volume the treble stays intact, yielding a clearer and brighter tone that could work well for your clean tones.


EDIT: I believe the standard SDs are entirely symmetrical, but bear in mind that the scatter-winding process Bareknuckle use also has a big impact on the clarity and detail their pickups offer (as does the quality of the components), so it's not possible to attribute the differences solely to the asymmetry.   :)

[Telerocker]

The Crawler splitted will give a good single coil tone and will in humb-mode provide great fat tones, from blues to heavy rock/hardrock, with still that PAF-character.

[Lucifuge]

I know a split humbucker doesn't sound exactly like a single coil, especially if it's vintage output, but it would be nice to have a little extra versatility in this area.

Actually, the split sound is the one thing I quite like about the JB and may miss when I replace it; pity the humbucking sound leaves something to be desired.

[Lucifuge]

Update: I emailed BKP, giving basically the same information as above, and Ben got back to me recommending Mules in both neck and bridge; he seemed to think the Riff Raff would be too bright for the description I gave.

[Sifu Ben]

I know a split humbucker doesn't sound exactly like a single coil, especially if it's vintage output, but it would be nice to have a little extra versatility in this area.

Actually, the split sound is the one thing I quite like about the JB and may miss when I replace it; pity the humbucking sound leaves something to be desired.

Yeah, the split sound is the only thing I like about my JB.

[Telerocker]

Update: I emailed BKP, giving basically the same information as above, and Ben got back to me recommending Mules in both neck and bridge; he seemed to think the Riff Raff would be too bright for the description I gave.

Since the neck is maple, I think Mules are the way to go, especially when Ben says so. Nevertheless I would consider Crawlers too.

[Lucifuge]

Thanks for all the advice guys - I think I've decided to take Ben's advice and go with the Mules. My only question now is: Is there a big disadvantage in ordering a bridge pickup now and the neck later when I can afford it vs buying them as a calibrated set?

[Telerocker]

You'd better ask the BKP-team.