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Author Topic: Help me decide which Pickups I want...  (Read 7300 times)

Cpt_Gonzo

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Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« on: May 19, 2011, 11:56:55 AM »
No, seriously. Since this is my first post, hi all. Cpt_Gonzo here, from Germany.
I play everything Rock/ Hard Rock/ Metal from the 60s to the early 90s.

I currently have a Swamp Ash/ maple neck/ fretboard Strat for that.
It's loaded with DiMarzio minihums, Super D bridge, chopper middle, Air Norton neck.
And I don't like them.

Since the guitar is routed for an HSH setup, I thought I might aswell go the Fullsize-hum route now.
The Super D is bearable, but just not my style. It's kinda weird, since the full-size Super D is a very nice Pickup to me - has to be something with the singlecoil size. The middle has WAY to much power and doesn't deliver the famous 2 and 4 position sounds a Strat does usually, even with split humbuckers. The neck is way to hot, too, and is lacking Sustain.

The overall clean tone is also not what I consider "clean". It's quite distorted, has no top-end, whereas I like well defined, warm clean tone with a little "sparkle" on top (neck position and/or split, that is).

So I've been thinking about the Holy Diver set and a Single Coil for the mid position.
Would that work? What single coil can you recommend for the middle?

thanks in advance!

BTW, here's the fiddle in question:
« Last Edit: May 19, 2011, 12:19:20 PM by Cpt_Gonzo »

kevinr

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2011, 12:31:39 PM »
I think that guitar is screaming out for Holydivers! maybe with a Irish Tour centre single coil, you will get very good split coil sounds from the HDs as well.

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2011, 12:36:51 PM »
Yeah I was thinking that the Holy Divers go well with my obsession for 80s metal...Iron Maiden, Scorpions. You get the idea.

Also, I like the idea of having a set of Zebra pickups on a black pickguard/ orange finish guitar. Sort of like Seymour Duncan's "TeleGib".

Alex

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2011, 02:18:22 PM »
Yes, that should work really nice with a Holy Diver in the bridge!
Current BKPs: Miracle Man, Nailbomb, Juggernaut, VHII
Past BKPS: Holy Diver, Trilogy Suite, Sinner, Black Dog

Telerocker

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2011, 03:24:54 PM »
First: that's a nice guitar!
Second: I recommend the Diver too. This one will beef up (ash is a percussive tonewood) your guitar, being quite middy, but will not be overwarm in ash. The middlepos. could be an IT. I have the Crawler/IT's in an swampashstrat and it's a great combo. I use pos. 2 + 4 (Crawler splitted) very much. These deliver the classic Fender-quack. The Diver splits great too. If you want a bit more mids in the middle, look at a Slowhand.
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.

Slartibartfarst42

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2011, 04:39:07 PM »
The Holydiver is the best pickup I've ever played without exception and would be perfect for what you want. I'm sure Irish Tour and Slowhand would work really well with a splitted Holydiver. I use Trilogy Suites myself but then my Holydivers are never splitted.
BKP owned:

Bridge - Emerald; Cold Sweat; Crawler; A-Bomb; Holydiver; Miracle Man; Sinner; Trilogy Suite

Neck - Emerald; Cold Sweat; Crawler; Holydiver; Sinner; Trilogy Suite

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2011, 04:58:12 PM »
Looks like a Holdy Diver and the Irish Tour will be it for bridge/ middle.

How is the Holy Diver in the neck position? I understand that it has less output and is somewhat modeled after the SD SH2?

ericsabbath

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2011, 08:12:17 PM »
red strat screams Vivian Campbell
like a bloody rainbow in the dark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRX5nQPWUEA

(I know that wasn't a strat)
Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2011, 09:38:09 PM »
God, how I love that era of DIO.
And that song in particular.

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2011, 03:13:34 PM »
Bump, does anyone have detailed information about the neck Holy Diver? How does that one sound? It has quite a lot less resistance than the bridge model so I'd expect it to be quite a clear pickup.

kevinr

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2011, 11:19:01 PM »
It's a great match for the bridge model, and one of the favourite neck pups in the BKP range, you wont be dissapointed!

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2011, 09:19:21 AM »
Up from the dead! Why?

This is why:


Thanks for your help fellas, really looking forward to getting these installed!

Telerocker

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #12 on: July 13, 2011, 09:48:31 PM »
Congrats! Hope you like them.
Mules, VHII, Crawler, MM's, IT's, BG50's.

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #13 on: July 14, 2011, 05:46:01 PM »
They'll be wired up in a rather complicated way, with automatical pot value split (so the split HB sees 250k and the HB 500k potentiometers...) and a neck blend pot.

So I'll be able to get pretty much any sound out of it. Went for a Slowhand in the middle, too. Wanted it a tad smoother.

Cpt_Gonzo

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Re: Help me decide which Pickups I want...
« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2011, 05:03:56 PM »


Allright, the only thing I wanted was a decent set of Pickups for my Strat. Doesn't sound too hard, eh?

What I got though...totally blew me away in any aspect. I'm of course still honeymooning with it, but MAN, I didn't know my Strat could sound that good. I'm amazed. Full humbuckers are pure rock, neck pickup is "teh creamz", split sounds are wonderful...just wonderful...

Thanks Bareknuckle Pickups, this journey was definately worth it.

Period.