Pickups for HSS Fender Stratocaster

[Tappivanukas]

So I'm going to buy Fender American Standard Stratocaster. It has alder body, maple neck and maple fingerboard. I've got already Nailbombs in my Gibson Explorer, so I would like to try something less hot for Strat.
First for the humbucker. I'm interested in Vintage Hot series, especially VHII and Black Dog. I can consider Vintage and Contemporary series too if you think they would suit my needs better. From Vintage series I'm interested in The Mule and Riff Raff and from Contemporary series Holy Diver, Crawler and Rebel Yell. For single coils I was thinking Irish Tour or Slow Hand. If somehting else would be better, tell me.
I mainly play traditional Heavy Metal like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Accept, Angel Witch, etc... So I think I don't need too much gain even all those bands have distorted/overdriven guitars. I also play some 70's hard rock like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Rainbow and some blues too.
The pickups should have good clarity, sound big and edgy, tight but not too tight, singing and screaming leads and have good dynamics. Good cleans would be plus too.
So guys tell me what pickups would suit my need best.
I hope my English is good enough that you can understand me.  8) Thanks!!!

[darkbluemurder]

Hi and welcome!

For the bridge pickup VHII would tick all the boxes you listed. If you want more output, go Rebel Yell.

For the single coils it depends if you want to split the VHII in the #4 position (#1=neck, #5=bridge) or keep it as a full humbucker. If you go VHII and split, Mothers Milk would be a good combination - I think Telerocker has that. If you go VHII unsplit or Rebel Yell, Irish Tours would be a good match according to the description.

I am yet to try the BKP singles, however so I am going purely by description and what I have read in the forum.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

Hi and welcome!

For the bridge pickup VHII would tick all the boxes you listed. If you want more output, go Rebel Yell.

For the single coils it depends if you want to split the VHII in the #4 position (#1=neck, #5=bridge) or keep it as a full humbucker. If you go VHII and split, Mothers Milk would be a good combination - I think Telerocker has that. If you go VHII unsplit or Rebel Yell, Irish Tours would be a good match according to the description.

I am yet to try the BKP singles, however so I am going purely by description and what I have read in the forum.

Cheers Stephan

Yes Ihave VHII and Mothers Milks in my Fender American Series HSS-strat. Ash body and rosewood fretboard. With a maple neck I would prefer Irish Tours or Slowhands (more mids, still good cleans). The VHII is really balanced in a strat. It provides wicked leadtones when you dig in. Very touchsensitive pickup, punchy and cleans up well too. Splitted tones are good.

In my other customstrat (swampash, maple neck, ebony fretboard) I have a Crawler and IT's. This set sounds a bit bigger. The Crawler is fat, with a round but not dull topend (enough treble). Really growls when pushed. Leadtones above the 12 freth keep their weight. A PAF on steroids. Splits very well with the middle IT. I have it wired that I can use Crawler full with middle IT and splitted with middle-IT.
There are more good combo's:

Abraxas (a leaner, bit more chimey Crawler) + Slowhands or Irish Tours. Or an IT in the middle and Slowhand in the neck.
Holy Diver (more modern sounding) +  Slowhands or Irish Tours.

Choiche is for all a matter of taste.
I think a Holy Diver/Slowhands combi would fit your musicstyle.



I would not put a Rebel Yell in this strat. I think the RY excels in darker sounding guitars (mahogany). Could be too bright in a strat.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I'll always be the first to praise the RY, but they're not in their comfort zone in bright guitars. Then again, some eq'ing and height adjustments could fix that. Riff raff could work, as well as VHII. I'd personally go VH

[WhiteRam]

I've realized over the years that buying something with the mindset "I'll change/do this or that to fix it" has left me with empty pockets and a new problem.

I'm an American Strat alder maple/maple diehard.  Stay away from the RY, RR and god forbid you ever put an Emerald in there, unless you want to invest into a parametric EQ.  The highs are gonna take your head off or at the least irritate your ears.  When you try to fix it, you'll also be taking away other frequencies that need to stay...unless you want to invest in a world class parametric EQ, just so you can have that particular pickup?

All the suggestions and combinations Telerocker has stated will be quite lovely in your guitar performing your listed tone desires. Listen to clips too, but IMO you'll love the varieties he has suggested.

Good luck. :)

Edit: grammer.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm interested in Vintage Hot series, especially VHII and Black Dog. I can consider Vintage and Contemporary series too if you think they would suit my needs better. From Vintage series I'm interested in The Mule and Riff Raff and from Contemporary series Holy Diver, Crawler and Rebel Yell. For single coils I was thinking Irish Tour or Slow Hand. If somehting else would be better, tell me.
I mainly play traditional Heavy Metal like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Accept, Angel Witch, etc... So I think I don't need too much gain even all those bands have distorted/overdriven guitars. I also play some 70's hard rock like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Rainbow and some blues too.
The pickups should have good clarity, sound big and edgy, tight but not too tight, singing and screaming leads and have good dynamics. Good cleans would be plus too.
So guys tell me what pickups would suit my need best.
I hope my English is good enough that you can understand me.  8) Thanks!!!

If you want Vintage Hot, I think you're probably on the money with either the VHII or Black Dog. I'm not at all convinced the Vintage range would suit what you want but if you fancied the Mule, you should certainly look at an Abraxas, which is largely a Mule with a hotter wind so would suit your Rock stuff better and is also arguably more versatile than many of the others. However, based on your description, I'd go for a Holydiver in the bridge. It's voiced perfectly for that era of music, has excellent clarity, sounds big and is tight without being extreme. It will add a lot of body to a Strat. It's also one of the best lead pickups BKP do. The Holydiver really does tick a lot of your boxes.

I'm less sure about neck and middle positions because I have less experience of single coils but when I got mine, my first thought was Slowhands but Antag mentioned he'd paired Slowhands with a Holydiver and found them a bit underpowered, suggesting Trilogy Suites instead. I talked to Tim about Slowhands and he also said that Trilogy Suites were a better option so that's what I went for and I haven't regretted it. They're very versatile pickups and will suit your music perfectly.

[Tappivanukas]

Ok now I'm fighting between VHII and Holy Diver. Can't decide which on. For single coils I go for Slow Hand because it has more mids.
I've got few new questions for single coils. Should I get vintage stagger or flat magnet profile? Quote from FAQ: "A vintage stagger handles the heavier 7 ¼" radius of a vintage fingerboard and works well right up to @ a 10" radius. Flat magnet profile gives better string to string balance on modern radius finger boards of 10" and flatter." American Standard Stratocaster has 9,5 radius, so maybe vintage stagger? Is there any difference in voicing? Second question is about baseplate. There is no talking about baseplate under neck pickup, but I would like to try it. What you guys think about it? Would it work? Usually it's used under bridge pickup, but in FAQ there says: "Whilst it is most common to fit one to the bridge coil only, the zinc plated steel baseplates work well on middle and neck coils too."

[WhiteRam]

IMO you should get the flat profile, much better string to string balance on the 9.5 radius.

I would not get a baseplate for the neck, plenty of bass there, you can control the bass voicing with the pickup height.  BKP are very sensitive to height adjustment...very. :)

I personally would go for the Black Dog with the Slow Hand, they'll work good together EQ, voicing, and gain.  If you did that combo, order the Black Dog open poled (no cover).

If you click the ordering page for HSS, you'll see all the sets BKP recommends, there are lots of them...I'd go with one of those sets.

All the above is my opinion from experience with the same guitar and woods you have...your results may differ, good luck and hope I've helped. :)

[Slartibartfarst42]

Trilogy Suites have plenty mids and the Holydiver certainly does.

[the_atmosphere]

I've got a Crawler in my bridge - good mids  :)

[Slartibartfarst42]

I agree, there are good mids in the Crawler and I've always liked the tone of it but I think the Holydiver is better suited to his style of music.

[WhiteRam]

I agree, there are good mids in the Crawler and I've always liked the tone of it but I think the Holydiver is better suited to his style of music.

+1.  I completely agree ^

I was thinking and should have mentioned that in my last post, but he seemed so set on the Slow Hands. 

Yes, the Holydiver fits his desires for the rock style and gain he'll need...it rolls off nicely, splits well, and the Trilogy Suites would be the preferred choice for the single coils. 

The Trilogy Suite rolls off much nicer than most would think and the in-betweens are lovely, perfect set for him really.  However and again, if he's set on the Slow Hands, I stand by my recommendation of the open poled Black Dog.

[Tappivanukas]

I agree, there are good mids in the Crawler and I've always liked the tone of it but I think the Holydiver is better suited to his style of music.

+1.  I completely agree ^

I was thinking and should have mentioned that in my last post, but he seemed so set on the Slow Hands. 

Yes, the Holydiver fits his desires for the rock style and gain he'll need...it rolls off nicely, splits well, and the Trilogy Suites would be the preferred choice for the single coils. 

The Trilogy Suite rolls off much nicer than most would think and the in-betweens are lovely, perfect set for him really.  However and again, if he's set on the Slow Hands, I stand by my recommendation of the open poled Black Dog.

I'm worried about that Holy Divers and Trilogies might sound too modern to me.  Those bands I mentioned in my first post doesn't have the most modern tones.

How would VHII work with Slow Hand? I have to listen some clips about Black Dog.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I mainly play traditional Heavy Metal like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Accept, Angel Witch, etc...

They're not modern tones as we might understand them today but even though the Holydiver is in the contemporary section, it doesn't have a particularly modern voice either. It's a VERY flexible pickup and its primary home is these sort of sounds.

I also play some 70's hard rock like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Rainbow and some blues too.

I'll grant you, this is more Vintage Hot territory but the Holydiver will cover this easily. I play Deep Purple, Rainbow, Free, AC/DC, Eagles, Animals, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore and plenty others beside in my band and I use the Holydiver for the lot and it does it brilliantly. For what it's worth, I also play Motorhead, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy with it too. Although Eric Clapton and Gary Moore is the only Blues we do, when I play at home, I almost exclusively play Blues and again, it's the Holydiver that does it.

The pickups should have good clarity, sound big and edgy, tight but not too tight, singing and screaming leads and have good dynamics. Good cleans would be plus too.

You just described a Holydiver/ Trilogy Suite HSS set  :D

By all means look at the others and they may well work for you but the set you described is Holydiver/Trilogy Suite without a doubt.

[WhiteRam]

This ^

How modern or old school you want them to be...can and will be controlled by your amp &/or pedals if you use them.

I would not combine the Slow Hands with the VHII, their respective EQ curve will not let them work together as you switch between them on the fly...they are not EQ'd or designed to work as a set IMO.

Slartibartfarst42 has kindly laid it out for you, quit fighting it :) we're trying to save you a headache, time and money.

You got great opinions here, it's the best we can do from this perspective, good luck and enjoy.