Finally got my Holydiver installed

[Sancho]

After a couple of weeks of sitting on the shelf, waiting for my tech to come back from vacation, I finally got my Holydiver installed monday.
First impression : it's a whole different type of tone than I'm used to. It's smoother, quieter in a way, than the humbuckers I normally use (JB and Gibson 500T mostly). It actually balances out with the Cool Rail that's in the neck position, rather than overpower it. Which is a bit weird, especially when run through the clean channel.
Lots of harmonic content, vibrant but not piercing and indeed quite dependent on height. Not a lot of low end chunk.
Overall I do like the sound, but on my next visit to the tech I'll take her to have DC resistance measured, because it really seems rather low in output.

[darkbluemurder]

The HD is not a fire breathing monster in terms of output. I don't know the Gibson 500T but the JB and the JB and HD should have similar outputs. 

Keep also in mind that strings vibrate more in the neck position so that a weaker output pickup may have a similar perceived output - this is the reason for calibrated sets BTW.

Mine measure both 14.5k but I found that my meter tends to read low.

Cheers Stephan

[Ephemeria]

How does the Calibrated Miracle Man work then? They're both like exactly the same output :S

[Philly Q]

How does the Calibrated Miracle Man work then? They're both like exactly the same output :S

They have the same DC resistance, but the bridge is ceramic and the neck is alnico V.  I must admit I'm still surprised the neck doesn't overpower the bridge - you'd need to ask Tim what magic he works there. 

Generally speaking you need a relatively underwound pickup for the neck position to get the volume balance right.

[Telerocker]

I experienced the same with the Crawler. It's doesn't really blast away the IT's in my HSS-strat. For me the balance is very nice, but I can imagine people would expect more considering the dc-resistance. I have the VHII in another HSS-strat and that one seems to overpower the Mother's Milk a bit more. I think it's partly due to the frequencies of the VHII.

[ericsabbath]

the holy diver feels lower output than the jb cause it's much cleaner and less abrasive
and the gibson 500t is one of the highest output pickups in the market, despite of its medium/not-so-high DC resistance, so that comparison would be pointless

if you're missing output and low end, try getting it as much close to the strings as you can without touching strings

[Zaned]

the holy diver feels lower output than the jb cause it's much cleaner and less abrasive
and the gibson 500t is one of the highest output pickups in the market, despite of its medium/not-so-high DC resistance, so that comparison would be pointless

if you're missing output and low end, try getting it as much close to the strings as you can without touching strings

Right on. JB has that peak in it's frequency response that seems to overdrive cleans no matter what.

Mess with the height.

-Zaned

[Sancho]

if you're missing output and low end, try getting it as much close to the strings as you can without touching strings

I'm not missing output. I wanted a pickup that better matched the Coll Rails, so I'm not disappointed at all.
It's a different sound than what I'm used to hearing, that's all. A good one, at that.
It's as close to the strings as it gets while still sounding good. It actually sounds fuller when it's down a bit.

[Telerocker]

I fiddled with the height of the Crawler and the VHII and it gives different result. The fatsounding Crawler a bit more up for extra edge and pinched harmoncis, the VHII a bit down to smooth out in an ash strat.