Neck pickup

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm looking for a neck humbucker that will be thick, articulate and creamy. When I think of the sound I like, I invariably think of early Iron Maiden recordings when Dave Murray was using a humbucker in the neck. It needs to be able to do fast solos with plenty gain but also do a nice heavy Blues tone (Gary Mooreish) and clean up well. The bridge pickup is likely to be a Holydiver and the guitar is mahogany with a maple cap.

[Telerocker]

The Fender Dave Murray has the PAF® 36th Anniversary  in the neck. It's alnico V with 42 gauge wire and around 7.3 Kohm. Specs are close to a Mule-neck, that is a little different cause it has a AIV magnet. I thinke the Mule-neck comes close. You could also consider the Black Dog-neck. Different wire but a creamy PAF too.

[HTH AMPS]

You'll want an alnico 5 neck pickup for that Dave Murray tone and to retain the note clarity. 

Riff Raff neck is exactly what you want.  The VHII and Black Dog neck pickups would get you in the same ballpark, I doubt there is a massive difference.  Rebel Yell if you want it a bit hotter, or Holy Diver - all A5 pickups in the 7.4k - 8k kinda range, nothing too hot.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I knew he liked the PAF type sound and although I have generally always used quite hot pickups, years ago I had a Ritchie Sambora Strat with a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge that sounded wonderful. I deeply regret selling that guitar. There seems to be a lot more choice here than I expected. I confess I had assumed the Holydiver would be too modern in tone but it seems I was wrong. I had also assumed the Riff Raff would be too bright and not creamy enough and the Black Dog would be too 'aggressive' given its description. Perhaps the descriptions on the website ate based only on the bridge model. I know nothing at all of the VHII. This is clearly going to be a tougher choice than I thought.

For those who have seen my other threads, I was going to be putting an Abraxas in this PRS but the more I thought about why I loved the Holydiver in my Jackson, the more I thought it would sound fantastic in the PRS. As yet I'm undecided if I should just put a Holydiver in them both and let the guitars themselves provide a different tone with the same pickup or change the Jackson to something else. I hear good things about the Warpig in a Soloist and that was a consideration when I chose the Holydiver so I'm tempted to try that.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Just got a reply from Ben to say that they could remove the cover on my Holydiver and turn it into a zebra humbucker for £40 plus carriage, which sounds reasonable to me if I were to put the Holydiver in the PRS. So, the question now is, should I move the Holydiver into the PRS and put something else in the Jackson (thinking Warpig as I still want it warm, thick, fluid and articulate) or am I better just having a Holydiver in both and letting the woods make the difference?

I play in a Rock covers band and I play with quite a bit of gain compared to the original versions with the heaviest songs we do being Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica etc. I'm not a slave to those band's tone by the way. I'd like my Jackson to do the heavier stuff with the faster, more shreddy solos (Heavy Rock - Metal) and the PRS doing everything from Cleans to Heavy Rock and early 80s Metal.

[BigB]

I had also assumed the Riff Raff would be too bright and not creamy enough

The RR neck is indeed brighter and more focused/punchy than the Mule neck, but it still have loads of this "creamy" vintage vibe. Can't tell if it would fit your needs (I'm definitly not a NWOBM expert) but it's a great neck PU if you're looking for both the vintage vibe and enough focus to stand higher gains.

Just my 0.02 cents...

[gwEm]

You'll want an alnico 5 neck pickup for that Dave Murray tone and to retain the note clarity. 

Riff Raff neck is exactly what you want.  The VHII and Black Dog neck pickups would get you in the same ballpark, I doubt there is a massive difference.  Rebel Yell if you want it a bit hotter, or Holy Diver - all A5 pickups in the 7.4k - 8k kinda range, nothing too hot.

i agree, A5 neck of some kind. i always reckoned the Cold Sweat set sounded very Maiden, but it might have been the combination of that and the maple-through neck guitar my set is in.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I suppose this has actually turned into two questions:

1) Will the Warpig (ceramic or Alnico V?)do what I want it to do or am I better just having a Holydiver in both guitars?

2) Which neck pickup will match with a Holydiver and do what I want in the PRS? I agree that AV may be best as I like good articulation and note separation but that still leaves VHII, Black Dog and Holydiver to choose from as well as possibly Cold Sweat or Rebel Yell.

[darkbluemurder]

1) I think the Warpig will be too hot - I would stick with the Holydiver bridge.

2) I recently bought a Holydiver neck which is a very clear humbucker with low output and has a very nice tone. I once played a VHII neck in combination with a HD bridge and thought the VHII neck was a bit too dark. Of course the Cold Sweat neck also matches well with the HD bridge. Have not tried a Black Dog neck but the specs are very similar to the Holydiver neck. I would go with the HD set for the PRS.

Cheers Stephan