Which pickups to choose?

[Peterku]

I have an ash Strat w/ rosewood fretboard and HH pickup configuration. It's a bright sounding guitar acoustically but I use rather heavy strings. I'd like to order covered humbuckers for both, or at least for the neck position.

I'm not into very heavy styles of music. I'd need the neck pickup to be very clean, friendly-sounding (sweet perhaps?), and detailed for some laid-back blues and jazzy clean picking.

However, the bridge pickup should handle high-gain leads quite well. It doesn't need to have high output. I don't like trebly and aggressive lead sounds but I do need definition.

I'd be thankful, if someone could recommend me a model or two.

[TwilightOdyssey]

I can elaborate on that ... Peterku plays beautiful, clean, very introspective music ... kind of reminds me of Adrian Legg/Leo Kotke.

[Tim]

I have an ash Strat w/ rosewood fretboard and HH pickup configuration. It's a bright sounding guitar acoustically but I use rather heavy strings. I'd like to order covered humbuckers for both, or at least for the neck position.

I'm not into very heavy styles of music. I'd need the neck pickup to be very clean, friendly-sounding (sweet perhaps?), and detailed for some laid-back blues and jazzy clean picking.

However, the bridge pickup should handle high-gain leads quite well. It doesn't need to have high output. I don't like trebly and aggressive lead sounds but I do need definition.

I'd be thankful, if someone could recommend me a model or two.

I would suggest a pair of Mules with Alnico IV magnets-for all round versatility they can't be beaten. We've fitted them to Strats, Vees, PRS all sorts as well as my own LPs and they just sing.
I wind them based on original PAFs with offset coil windings and plain enamel wire-this helps keep the highs really clear and the mids fairly flat but articulate and dynamic. Alnico IV is simply the best Alnico of the lot IMHO-again you've got to work for it, there's nowhere to hide but the reward is the hugest tone ever.

For more power but similar vibe there's the Geoff Whitehorn Crawler humbuckers-they're fatter and a touch brighter with unpolished Alnico V magnets. Geoff has to play everything from Kossoff to Huff and if you can use your volume knob well, all the tones are in these.

[HJM]

I can elaborate on that ... Peterku plays beautiful, clean, very introspective music ... kind of reminds me of Adrian Legg/Leo Kotke.

Didn't expect to see Leo Kotke mentioned here!!!

For clean....(I play clean through a Super Reverb)

How about a StormyMonday??? Does the biz in my PRS neck pos.

Or at the other extreme my neck Nailbomb can create some great clean tones....even hardened members of the Jazz mafia have turned to ask and look (and run away when they see it's loaded on an Ibanez RG!!!)

Neither sound muddy or lack dynamics.

[Peterku]

I can elaborate on that ... Peterku plays beautiful, clean, very introspective music ... kind of reminds me of Adrian Legg/Leo Kotke.

Thanks man... I'm really not worthy of those words. :oops:  8)

[HJM]

I can elaborate on that ... Peterku plays beautiful, clean, very introspective music ... kind of reminds me of Adrian Legg/Leo Kotke.

Thanks man... I'm really not worthy of those words. :oops:  8)

Got a link??

[Peterku]

I would suggest a pair of Mules with Alnico IV magnets-for all round versatility they can't be beaten. We've fitted them to Strats, Vees, PRS all sorts as well as my own LPs and they just sing.
I wind them based on original PAFs with offset coil windings and plain enamel wire-this helps keep the highs really clear and the mids fairly flat but articulate and dynamic. Alnico IV is simply the best Alnico of the lot IMHO-again you've got to work for it, there's nowhere to hide but the reward is the hugest tone ever.

For more power but similar vibe there's the Geoff Whitehorn Crawler humbuckers-they're fatter and a touch brighter with unpolished Alnico V magnets. Geoff has to play everything from Kossoff to Huff and if you can use your volume knob well, all the tones are in these.

Thanks Tim, again. :)

[FredD]

.

[Telerocker]

I have Mules in an bolt-on mahogany Saint Blues and a Crawler in an MXG Custom swampash HSS-strat. Mules are very allround, from blues to metal. The PAF-tones from these are to die for. Touchsensitive, dynamic, defined, all the BKP-treasures you will find in them. The Crawler has more output, but it's not so much difference with the Mules, Don't let the dc-resistance influence your decision too much. The Crawler is warm, has serious mids but is balanced. It's a bit compressed which is nice for searing solo's. It's a great allrounder that has still that PAF-dna in it.

[BigB]

I have the Crawlers on my rather bright Vox Custom 24 (maple going-thru neck, maple sides, rosewood fretboard), and a Mule neck on my SG.  The Crawler neck and Mule neck are obviously related, and both have warm clean tones to die for, with enough clarity to cut thru. The Crawler might be a wee bit hotter and more compressed, but you have to understand the "more compressed" in the BKP context - it's still one of the more dynamic and open-sounding neck 'bucker I've ever played.

Can't comment on the Mule bridge obviously... The Crawler bridge is everything Tim and Telerocker said, and even more - vintage vibe with a bit more fatness and volume, chimey cleans and warm, singing lead tones, tight present lows, and works fine from pristine clean to bluesy crunch to fairly hi-gain.

The icing on the cake is the in-between position, which is kind of best of both worlds. As Tim said, playing with the switch and the volume(s) pots, you can pretty much cover all the bases - except possibly for the more extreme metal stuff (don't do metal so I can't really say).

[Telerocker]

In the playerssection you will find some metalclips from Nolly playing Mules. You'd never expect a vintagepickup to crunch so nice and tight.

[ericsabbath]

bloody necromants

[Loomer]

bloody necromants

Yeah.. When this thread was started I was but a long-haired young 'un that still thought EMG's sounded good. Blimey...