Pickup selection help

[9X3]

Hi,

I'm looking to find a set of BK pickups to match a PRS Vintage Bass and HFS.  After doing some research, it looks like a matched pair of Cold Sweat pickups or a Cold Sweat in the neck and Aftermath in the bridge.  Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Telerocker]

Mind you, the Aftermath is very tight and somewhat dry, ideal for lower tunings. The CS-neck is a good idea, for the bridge I would look at a Nailbomb or (less agressive, but thick and fluid for leads) a Holy Diver.

[asianaxeman]

if you're replacing those pickups in a standard 24 cold sweat or painkiller calibrated sets sound ideal. My standard 24 was very bassy and lacking high end, these pickups have that extra treble response you'll need.

[9X3]

They're actually going into a 25.5" scale, neck-through, chambered Talman style custom guitar.  The wings and top are mahogany, the neck is a 5 piece wenge-mahogany neck, and a maple fretboard.  It will most likely be tuned to Drop B/Open B/B Standard.  I really like the sound of the HFS and Vintage Bass, so I'm trying to find a BKP equivalent.  

[Telerocker]

BKP's are the quintenses of pickups, but I you like your current pickups, why don't you stick to PRS-pu's?

[ericsabbath]

well, BKPs are clearer and clean up better :D

cold sweat set

[kevinr]

I don't think that there is BKP equivalent to HFS and VB, any BKP will be far superior to those things!

[Slartibartfarst42]

While I may be wrong, I'd have to disagree with some parts of this. While I'm happy to say that BKP are superior to a HFS or VB, that's not to say they're without merit. I find their core tone to be really good and when I get my new pickups, it's certainly a point of reference I'll use as well. While far from being a guitarist I really like, I find Orianthi's tone using the HFS and VB combo to be fantastic and I'd love to try a BKP equivilant to get an even better tone than that.

I'd also have to say that in my experience, having owned a set of Cold Sweats, that's not the set to go for to achieve that tone. The neck pickup, fair enough, I think that would be a good choice but the bridge just isn't right in my opinion. I don't get the impression it's as hot as an HFS, it's not as fat and it's not as screaming. It's a great pickup and I enjoyed owning it but I honestly don't see it as the best BKP option for that sound. Now having said that, I don't have enough first hand experience with the entire range to say absolutely which one is best but my first thought would probably be Nailbomb.

[darkbluemurder]

I mentioned it here a few times but I replaced the HFS/Vintage Bass combo in my PRS Custom with a Holydiver bridge and a Cold Sweat neck. I found the HFS too nasal and the Vintage Bass to boomy in that guitar. The BKPs retained the character of the guitar (which is loud, big and punchy sounding) while at the same time eliminating all of the problems I had with the HFS/Vintage Bass combo. Highly recommended.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yes, the Holydiver in the bridge would have been the other option I'd have thought of as well as the Nailbomb. In fairness I've played neither of them so far but from what I've learned so far I would have expected it to be one of those two. Which one would be best may depend on the guitar it's going into as I notice the OP only mentioned the sound of the HFS and VB pups but didn't specify the guitar that is being used. It may not be a PRS at all.

[darkbluemurder]

as I notice the OP only mentioned the sound of the HFS and VB pups but didn't specify the guitar that is being used. It may not be a PRS at all.

Well he in fact did in post #3 of this thread, and indeed it is not a PRS.

[Slartibartfarst42]

My mistake  :D

[9X3]

Thanks for all the input everyone! 

I'll try to elaborate a little bit more on what I'm looking for.  I'm going for something close to Mikael Akerfeldt/John Petrucci/DTP era Devin Townsend for leads and rhythm.  I like to use lots of extended chords so the most important thing I'm looking for is clarity in lower tunings whether it's a clean tone or high gain.

[darkbluemurder]

so the most important thing I'm looking for is clarity in lower tunings whether it's a clean tone or high gain.

In that case I would first of all recommend to steer clear of anything similar to HFS/Vintage Bass unless your guitar turns out to be extremely bright. And instead of the combination I suggested above the Cold Sweat set may work better for that application.

Cheers Stephan

[9X3]

After looking through some older threads, it seems like the CS neck and Nailbomb bridge combo is a fairly tried and true set up.  Any thoughts on the Alnico V vs Cermic Nailbomb bridge?  I'm also looking into doing some coil tapping for the neck and possibly the bridge pickups.  Are there any clips kickin around the forum that someone could post a link to?