Carvin Bolt + pickup advice

[carvin14]

Greetings from Oregon. My first post. Yay!
I have a Carvin Bolt+ with a hard maple body, bolt on maple neck with ebony fingerboard, double locking Floyd trem/Brass big block mod, and stainless jumbo frets. I play from 80's hard rock to modern progessive metal. I emailed Bareknuckle, and they suggested a Holydiver set. I was curious what the people on the forum thought of the Holydiver in a bright guitar, and if they had any other suggestions for my circumstances. I have a second Bolt+ with an alder body that has the Aldrich set in it, and I really like them. But, I want this one to have a little more edge to it. Any thougths, suggestions, insults etc. would be welcome, since I have no experience with Bareknuckles.

Have a great Holiday Season,
                                               Matt

[metalmaniac93]

Well most people as would I would recommend the Holy Diver for this guitar since maple is very bright, but you also need to list what rig you play thru.   I had a set of HDs in my Carvin Alder Bolt+ with a Wilke, bit I found them somewhat warm through my set-up with a little too much mids for the low end riffs.   Great lead pickup and I am mostly a lead player, but I want the best combo.   I  really love my Carvin Bolt-T+.

[carvin14]

Thanks for the reply. I play through a Mako Amplification MAK4 four channel tube preamp into a stereo Carvin poweramp into two sealed 1x12 cabs of my own making with classic lead 80's. Lots and lots of gain. I also use a T.C. Nova Repeater, Boss GE-7 EQ ( this is really the secret weapon every guitarist should have), and an ISP decimator. I also have a Peavey Classic 30 I use quite a bit. The EQ pedal in the effects loop of the Peavey really turns it into a modern sounding amp.

matt

[darkbluemurder]

I have an Aldrich set and I have the HD but I never tried them in the same guitar so I cannot give a direct comparison. The HD should sound excellent in a bright guitar. Whether it has more edge than the Aldrich I don't know - the Aldrich set does not seem to have much edge to me but then the HD would not be my first choice if I wanted edge specifically - that would be the Cold Sweat. But for a bright guitar I would choose the HD over the CS.

Hope that helps,
Stephan

[Telerocker]

HD's and bright guitars are usually happy couples. I you want edge and organic tone maybe Rebel Yell's, but they are quite bright and it could be too much in maple. You might consider Nailbombs too. They are more agressive in the uppermids then HD's.

[carvin14]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it much. Hopefully, I'll be buying some pickups after payday.
I might hassle Tim one more time before I purchase to ask about the Nailbomb etc. He said they could swap polarity of the neck pickup if I wanted to use a P-model schaller megaswitch. That's what I used in my other guitar, and I really liked it.

[ericsabbath]

You might consider Nailbombs too. They are more agressive in the uppermids then HD's.

not really in the upper mids
in my experience, high end was definitely edguer and more aggressive and bass was tighter and punchier, but the upper mids were subdued compared to the diver in the same guitar
my recommendation would be the nailbomb as well

I'm not sure that would be hotter than the aldrich, though
maybe a ceramic NB or miracle man, then

[carvin14]

The Aldrich is like a really hot PAF to me. Great pickup, but I want this guitar to be a different animal than my Alder bodied bolt+. It would be nice if it had more tight definition on the Low E string, but not too shrill in the high registers.

[darkbluemurder]

All BKPs I had so far were tight in the low registers and not shrill in the upper registers. Both A-Bomb and HD would do it.

The Suhr Aldrich is Alnico. To be really different you will need to go Ceramic - insofar I second Eric's suggestions.

Cheers Stephan