New pups for my Suhr S2

[hhcave]

Hi,
 Im playing a suhr s2 (alder body, maple neck, HSS strat design) and im looking to replace the pickups as im finding them a little dull compared to the bkps ive tested before (MMs in a les paul and a Mule in a strat). The type of tone im looking for is something a bit hotter and more vintage sounding than the current stock pups. I play through a modded marshal dsl 401 (with hotter tubes) and a mesa F-50 so clearly high gain amps which makes it difficult to get that husky, vintage open sounding tone as the current pups sound very modern and compressed throuh these amps. I know im being very demanding but i also need these pickups to be versatile - i play a lot of styles with my band ranging from intrumental rock ( zaza, satch etc) to jazz / fusion and funk. I suppose an artist with a very similar tone to what im looking for would be guthrie govan (though of course i know he plays throuhj a cornford!). I guess what im trying to go for is something similar to govans tone in terms of 'voice' (as in that airy, gritty, open sound) though i may go for higher gain settings.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

[hhcave]

In addition to above, i love pickups with 'bite' when you dig in! I guess, responsive pickups :) thanks

[HTH AMPS]

maybe something vintage-hot like the VHII would suit you with two Mothers Milk singles.

[Telerocker]

Alder-body, maple neck and bolt-on ask for a balanced bridge-hb with enough mids. Something like the VHII and RiffRaff are great to cut through in mahoganyguitars, but could be a tad too bright in a superstrat. I would look for something a bit hotter and middier, so the HB will split well with the singlecoils. Take a look at the Abraxas, which has a balanced eq with a enough mids. Still sounds open and dynamic. Would be great pairing with Mother's Milk.

[hhcave]

Thanks for the advice, at the moment im having trouble deciding because in addition to that more organic, woody henderson or govan type tone i would also need the pickups to cover saturated territory as well especially in the neck pickup (think shawn lane in grey pianos flying).. Would it be better to just throw an SD double-rail pickup in there or do you think there is a BKP single coil that can mimic a saturated humbucker type tone when needed if pushed with gain?

EDIT: Just remembered - eric johnson in cliffs of dover has a hugely fat and saturated tone using single coils - which bkp neck and middle single coils would be able to replicate this? Would i have to go into the higher output modern range like trilogy suites?

[Telerocker]

Trilogies for sure. But you can ask Tim for advice.

[Nolly]

If I were you I'd be looking at a Nailbomb paired with Trilogies. On the surface that may seem like output overkill, but they are very dynamic and open-voiced pickups. The Nailbomb is particularly versatile, with an excellent classic voicing and response despite the savage name. The Trilogies will give you a great fluid lead sound without losing the true single-coil character, though it's worth mentioning that the studio recording of Cliffs of Dover was performed with a Gibson ES335.

[Telerocker]

I don't have experience with the NB, but wouldn't it be quite cutting in alder/maple neck/bolt on?

[Nolly]

I don't have experience with the NB, but wouldn't it be quite cutting in alder/maple neck/bolt on?

I don't think so at all. The Nailbomb is certainly an articulate pickup but it has plenty of body as you'd expect a fairly hot wind. I personally feel the Nailbomb is one of the most balanced pickups in the range and would be at home with it in almost any guitar.

[hhcave]

I understand when you say that i'd need to use much higher output, more modern pickups to get that cliffs of dover / shawn lane type sound but im worried that the guitar will turn into this Tyler i have which is basically an all-out heavy rock guitar because the pickups are just sooooo hot and i cant even get an overdriven tone out of the amp with it. Even at very low gain it still sounds like saturated distortion  :? my other problem with the Tyler is that when played unplugged, the whole body vibrates like crazy which suggests monster tone but after i plug it in, it just seems a bit dead and lacking character because, im pretty sure, the pickups are  very much a  1 trick pony and only really offer that hard rock, saturated, compressed sound.

Maybe im wrong though about my thoughts on higher output pickups with modern voicings? Have you guys been about to get more organic, less saturated tones out of these pickups when turning the gain down on your amp?

PS: Does Tyler make a noiseless single coil system?? Im pretty sure the tyler i have has some sort of noise cancellation but havent heard anything about him putting it in his guitars..?

[ericsabbath]

airy, gritty, open sound

riff raff

you could mod the amps for less saturation, though
just a couple extra resistors can make wonders to the JVM lack of openness

[Telerocker]

I don't have experience with the NB, but wouldn't it be quite cutting in alder/maple neck/bolt on?

I don't think so at all. The Nailbomb is certainly an articulate pickup but it has plenty of body as you'd expect a fairly hot wind. I personally feel the Nailbomb is one of the most balanced pickups in the range and would be at home with it in almost any guitar.

A few players on the forum recently exchanged the NB for a HD, because of the (too bright) topend. In both cases non-mahogany guitars. That's the reason why I asked, but I'm for sure no expert in NB's.
Besided that I sense HHcave is looking for a something more vintagehot-paf pu.

[Slartibartfarst42]

A few players on the forum recently exchanged the NB for a HD, because of the (too bright) topend. In both cases non-mahogany guitars. That's the reason why I asked, but I'm for sure no expert in NB's.

Yep, I'd be one of them. I won't go into a review of the Nailbomb here as I've already written a long review on a seperate thread but I would say that if you're looking for a balanced pickup with a vintage-hot character I'd ask HTH Amps about his experiences with the Abraxas. I've never tried one myself but I've read enough of his posts to know that it's his favourite BKP and he finds it extremely versatile. In fairness, I've always envisaged the Abraxas as smooth rather than gritty so my other suggestion, based soley on what I've read, would be the Black Dog.

As for the single coils, I've just put Trilogy Suites in my Jackson and they can cover a lot of ground tonally. They can certainly give you a saturated and creamy lead tone and I also found it child's play to get a great Blues tone out of them.

[hhcave]

Im pretty sure at this point i'll be going for the HD / trilogy suite set as i realised i think i DO need the more modern, compressed pickups in order to get that modern fusion sound which is a big part of my playing (as well as a lot of the intrumental rock stuff).

Just a couple of final questions before i pull the trigger - how do the sinners compare to the suites? Also, do i want to reverse the middle pickup to reduce the hum in pos 2 & 4 or does this not work well with this particular set of pups? Oh, and, does a pickup cover really make a noticable difference?

Nolly i decided to go against the NBs because ive heard a lot of negative reviews about it in brighter guitars (i saw the sam coulson reviews in a les paul and they sound UNREAL in that guitar!). Im hoping a holy Diver in a maple neck/alder body superstrat guitar will sound somewhat similar to an NB in a les paul! (no seriously... that sam coulson tone is ridiculous.)

[Slartibartfarst42]

Im hoping a holy Diver in a maple neck/alder body superstrat guitar will sound somewhat similar to an NB in a les paul! (no seriously... that sam coulson tone is ridiculous.)

I know exactly what you mean; that particular clip did more to push me in the direction of a Nailbomb than anything else. Awesome tone.