Which BK pickups

[danny82]

Hi,

This is my first post here, and i was wondering if you guys with alot more knowledge than me could please help me out with a few suggestions...

I have a fender fat mexican tele with a poplar body and maple neck, i have a bk mule humbucker in the neck posistion which i find is too dark and bassy, i like it sometimes and think its a great pikup but overall too bassy for the guitar. I have a piledriver in the bridge which i really like but it doesnt work with the mule as the pd is too bright.

 Any suggestions please what humbucker i should look into would be great. Ohhh and i play blues, rock to hard rock (80s rock) but dont do metal and i do (try to) a lot of rock solos in my band but im also a rhythm player. A nice clean sound is also good.

Also i have another guitar an Ibanez roadstar 2 from with 24frets from the 80s which has 2 humbuckers, im thinking about upgrading the pickups ...its basswood body and the fretboard is rosewood. Any suggestions would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Danny

[Telerocker]

What pots and capacitors are in the tele? Maybe a change can brighten up the neck. For a replacement you might have a look at the VHII-neck.

For the Ibanez: Holy Divers provide 80's metal tones. If you like everything a bit more hotrodded PAF Crawlers could fit the bill. I have one in a swampashstrat and it's great. Beefy, quite some mids, but still enough bite in the topend. A little compressed, which is nice for soloing.

Just my 2 cents.

[danny82]

Hey thanks for your advice... from what i can tell the volume is 500k and there are two tone pots stacked onto each other for some reason, and the i think they are 250k each (maybe)  and the cap is .022mfd and there is also a resistor connecting btwn the two tone pots....

I could easily change the cap or resistor maybe to see if it gets any brighter. Cause even with the treble and mids all the way up on my class 5 and sovtek mig 50 the bass way down its to bassy and muddy...

I was thinking of getting a crawler set or nailbomb set for my ibanez, do you think the crawlers would be better suited to my kind of music than the nailbombs?

Thanks again

[Telerocker]

There are some more experienced members here that will chime in when it comes to wiring, pots and capacitors.
The Crawlers can do everything from blues to hardrock. So can the Divers, although they have more of a metal-vibe to them. For me the Crawlers sound like hotrodded Mules.
Nailbombs are to my ears more 90's-metal, very loud, less middy then Crawlers and Divers, aggressive and pronounced topend.
I think you're more after Crawler or Divers. Both are good, but different and the choice is a matter of taste. Divers sound a bit more contemporary then Crawlers, which still have this hotvintage PAF-vibe to them.

[darkbluemurder]

For the tele neck humbucker I would look at the Abraxas neck. Very bright, very open and no mud on the low strings. The output is a bit lower than the VHII so it may better balance with the single coil at the bridge (you do have one at the bridge?).

For the Ibanez I second the Holydiver recommendation.

Cheers Stephan

[danny82]

Hi thanks guys, I have been listening alot to the holy divers and i really like them, they are capable of some good cleans and the rock side of them is sounds great. Also like the crawlers alot, ahhh hard to decide without really trying them.. Tim suggested to me to take a nailbomb set for there diversity...hmmm decisions decisions

In the tele there is a bareknuckle pile driver in the bridge which sounds killer....what do you think of a missisippi queen in the neck instead of the mule?

Thanks

[Telerocker]

The MQ is def. great in tele's. Btw, the Nailbombs are more (90's) metal to me then the Divers. For the styles you describe those would not be my first love, but Tim knows his pickups. I don't question his recommendation.

[BigB]

There are some more experienced members here that will chime in when it comes to wiring, pots and capacitors.

Well, with a 500K volume pot and a .022 cap, it should work fine for a most 'buckers (these are the standard values for buckers), and even for a ultra-hot SC like the Piledriver, so I don't think the solution is to be found here - unless there's something wrong (dead componant, bad solder or other wiring problem, etc).

@OP:
I have experience with both the Mule and Crawler neck on (resp.) a rather dark mahogany guitar and a rather bright maple (neck and body) one. If the Mule don't work for you on this guitar, then I don't think the Crawler will help. A MQ would probably be closer to your needs IMHO (there's a PD bridge / MQ neck Tele clip somewhere in the player section, and it seemed to balance fine tone and output wise).

My 2 cents (and a half)

[darkbluemurder]

Hi thanks guys, I have been listening alot to the holy divers and i really like them, they are capable of some good cleans and the rock side of them is sounds great. Also like the crawlers alot, ahhh hard to decide without really trying them.. Tim suggested to me to take a nailbomb set for there diversity...hmmm decisions decisions

I remember reading that the Nailbomb seems to be the shop's default recommendation and this seems to confirm it. For the styles you mentioned Holydivers or Crawlers seem to be more obvious IMHO but certainly the Nailbomb would work well, too.

In the tele there is a bareknuckle pile driver in the bridge which sounds killer....what do you think of a missisippi queen in the neck instead of the mule?

That's another good option. You probably can ask BKP to make a reverse wound/reverse polarity one so that you get a humcancelling effect when using both pickups.

Cheers Stephan

[danny82]

Thanks again, Yeah im thinking i will go with the mqueen pickup in the neck, That would do i nice clean sound and also nice rock sound... do i still need the reverse polarity if i have a 5 way switch? With pos 1 being the neck and then pos 2 being the neck but split....

When tim suggested the nail bombs to me as well i was surprised as i was not even considering them before that....but he said it will work well in the basswood and could do everything i wanted.. i really like the neck on the guitar and plays really nice... but its got emgs on it at the moment which im tired of and going to sell. So im thinking maybe nailbomb or holy diver bridge and vhII neck...