Info on Ceramic Holy Diver anyone??

[Nephilim]

Lately I've really been interested in getting a Holy Diver for an Alder/Maple guitar, ever since I heard a clip which sounded like the Bullet For My Valentine tone I've been searching for. After looking through loadsa threads on the Holy Diver, I came across a few mentioning the Ceramic Holy Diver; apparantly the first one before it before it cam Alnico, measuring in at about 13k. I've seen more up to date threads with people saying the Cold Sweat is basically a Ceramic Holy Diver, but I just can't see that when you compare EQ charts/DC/etc. They look like completely different pickups. What i want to know about is this 1st Holy Diver that was the 'Prototype'. How does this compare to the Alnico Holy Diver? I'm interested because, although the Alnico sounds really good sound-wise; I'm wondering if a Ceramic Holy Diver might be what I'm looking for (if there actually is any way of me getting it). I don't want it to loose the character of the Holy Diver, regarding fatness, smoothness, etc. I'm just hoping that, even though Ceramic might add a tad more treble and smooth out the mids, it will sound awesome like an Alnico Holy Diver, only tighter for metal. Can anyone help me?

[James C]

I believe that the old ceramic holy diver was tweaked and eventually became the cold sweat.

The current incarnation of the holy diver is quite different and a ceramic version would be closer to the Painkiller i think.

[Lilarcor]

IIRC the old ceramic HD had very little in common with the current alnico HD. So essentially what ManOnTheEdge said.

[Nephilim]

So how would the Holy Diver sound now, if you basically just put a ceramic magnet in it, and rewound it to compensate? Is it possible to keep that Holy Diver sound, only go tighter?

[James C]

Tim or Adam(Nolly) will be the chaps to ask for that one.

I think Antag has one of the old spec. HDs

[Nephilim]

Hopefully they'll see this thread then :)

[Alex]

I'm considering selling a Holy Diver soon btw, in case you are interested. It is battle scarred and normal spaced with black hex bolts.

[Nolly]

A magnet swap is a major, major change to a pickup - it can't be "rewound to compensate". If you want a ceramic pickup with a similar fat tone to the Holy Diver, the Miracle Man would be your best choice.

The old Holy Diver model with the ceramic magnet became the Cold Sweat (without any alteration to the design). It's unrelated to the current Holy Diver.

[ericsabbath]

I think Tim said a ceramic Diver would be a lot like a painkiller (I would guess not as tight and high output, as the extra sides magnets can make a lot of difference)

[Nolly]

Yes, as Eric says, the flanking magnets do change the sound of the Painkiller hugely. Without those it would be a very different pickup indeed.

[Nephilim]

Yeah, you're right! Tim just emailed me back saying it's similar to a Painkiller. So if I like the Holy Diver when I get it, do you think I'd really like the Painkiller when wanting that extra tight tone? Also how does it compare to the Aftermath (the Painkiller)? I just didn't like the Aftermath because it was too dry for my liking :/

[explorer76]

If you want it "jucier" than the PK the HD would be more your taste. Never had an AM, but the PK is dry as f*** to me and has much more edge in the high range than the HD (although, as Tim already told you, both pickups are not that far apart). So you've got to decide what your sound and playing suits more. I'm the type of guy that likes his guitars to be flexible and more "round" sounding. That extra edge for rhythm guitars I get by using my Maxon OD-808 as a boost. For leads I just raise the volume of my lead channel and turn off the Maxon. So I've got that quiet edgy rhythm sound where pinch harmonics just jump out of the cabinet AND a singing, warm leadsound!

[Nephilim]

You might have answered this, but how does HD track on the bottom strings playing fast riffs. Take the intro to Scream Aim Fire by BFMV for example. It keeps alternating between the 6th and 4th string.

[ElectricTurkey4369]

My HD has no problem tracking notes on the bottom strings, but I'm using a boost (Green Rhino Mk II, which has a yon of output). The notes are just a little more round.

[metalmaniac93]

Here is Tim's response to my question regarding the current HD with a ceramic magnet.

 To: metalmaniac93@live.com
> Subject: Re: Holy Diver Ceramic
> From: sales@bareknucklepickups.co.uk
> Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 15:52:03 -0400
>
> The old style HD with ceramic magnet essentially turned into the Cold Sweat and you can get that no problem. Just putting a ceramic magnet under an HD will make it half way to a Painkiller so I'm inclined to say the PK would do it better.
>
> Kindest Regards,
>
> Tim
> --
> Tim Mills
> Managing Director
> Bare Knuckle Pickups Ltd
> United Kingdom
> TEL: +44(0)1326 34 13 13
> WEB: http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk