Pimp my Cheapo / HSS Set wanted

[rallax]

Hi Guys,

I got or bought another challenge. A sparkle gold cheapo w/ alder body, maple neck, rosewood finger board (no veneer) HSS PUs and a bigsby trem. Stock PUs sound muddy and I want to replace them with BKP to get a versatile rock sound.
After my expirience w/ nailbombs I thinking about to install now a vintage or vintage hot PU in bridge position in order not to get out of balance w/ the 2 single coils.
In detail I'm  thinking about a VHII and 2 Slow Hands. Any expirience w/ this combination?
Any other recommendation?
And what about the pots? I've 1 vol and 1 tone. Shall I replace them w/ 2 550k oder shall I use an other combination?

Thanks you very much in advance.

Greetings form Germany,

Ralf

[darkbluemurder]

Hi Ralf,

Haven't played the VHII bridge or any of the BKP single coils but I would not necessarily take a bright bridge pickup together with SCs with many mids. Irish Tours would probably match better with the bright VHII.

I think Telerocker here on the forum has a guitar equipped with a VHII bridge and two Mothers Milk and loves this combination.

Cheers also from Germany
Stephan

[Telerocker]

Yes I have this combo in an ash American Series Fender HSS-strat. Works very well. The VHII is a great rockpickup that doesn't sound thin or weak in an bolt-on guitar. It's bright but not shrill. Balance is good. It rocks and screams in the best way and cleans up to a a nearly singlecoil vocal quality. It's very easy to get the pinched harmonics jump out.

Compared to this set the Crawler/Irish Tours-set in my other strat is a little thicker, with more meat in the bassdepartment. The IT's sound gritty and handle drive very well. They sound less woody then the MM's. If you turn the vol.knob on the guitar a tad down, you get close to the MM-sound (think Frusciante).

It's matter of choice with singlecoils you like, both IT and MM work well with the VHII. I think Slowhands might be a tad too middy if you autocoil the VHII to pair it with the middle-singlecoil. I have now a Fendery quack there, but that's mainly due the MM I guess. If you wanna go total safe: VHII and IT's.

[roland_rat]

HI,

I have a Feline dinky with a VHII in the bridge and Mother milk in the middle and neck. Combination works well.  I have used an irish tour neck too and to be honest would think that would be a nice combination too. The slowhands I have only used the middle pickup in a RG.  From what I remember of it it was far darker (less bright)sounding than the MM and Irish tour.  For me I would not match slowhands with a VHII.

[rallax]

Thanks to all for your comments.

I think I'll take telerocker's combination. A crawler and 2 irish tours to beef up my cheapo.

@telerocker
What pots do you use for your HSS sets? 3 x 550k (500k) or a mix of 280k (250k) w/ 550k (500k)?
What a about tone cap? 0.1 .047 or .022uF?

Thanks you very much in advance.

Greetings from Germany,

Ralf

[Telerocker]

500/250 in the Crawler/IT-setup
All 500k in the VHII/MM-setup.
Both guitars are wired different with an extra push-pull in the Crawler/IT-combo for more combinations. I have vol. and tone on that guitar.
The VHII/MM is exactly the wiring diagram you can find here on the site under the button Support/ wiring diagrams.
It has classic Fender layout: vol/tone/tone.
Capacitors I don't know exactly. Didn't wire them myself. If you doubt, there a lot of users here that have more knowledge about this than me.

Btw, the Crawler cleans up great too and splits wonderful. It's a great allroundpickup.