Pickups for HSS Fender Stratocaster

[Telerocker]

VHII and Slowhands is not the ideal combo, pick IT's in this case. For more bass and lowmids you can order baseplates.
I think the Diver does the mentioned styles quite well, but if you want to go more vintage(hot) a Abraxas/Slowhand-combo serves you well too. The Abraxas closes the gap between classic PAF and contempory rocktones. You can easily play Satriani-stuff with it and it does classic rock and hardrock in the best way. And this one beefs up your strat too.

[Tappivanukas]

Ok thanks for everyone's recommendations. I'm still gonna ask one question. :lol: Which one would be better for me: VHII and Irish Tours or Black Dog and Slow Hands? What kind of lead tone Irish Tours and Slow Hands have? I know that VHII and Black Dog have enough output for me. I couldn't find so much clips someone playing Black Dogs, but much VHII. I loved that clip where Steve Stevens played VHII. So raw sound. That kind of tone I'm after. Can Black Dogs do that?

[Telerocker]

Black Dogs have more centermids. I don't have experience with them. I don't know if they fit the bill in a strat. They are picked for LP's usually (Page, classic rock). Because your strat has a maple neck I thought Abraxas/Slowhands would be a nice beefy set for all kind of rock/light metal. Nevertheless, VHII and IT's would be a great combo. I love the VHII, it can scream really bad, has clarity, a balanced voicing, superb harmonics and touchsensitivity. The IT's are gritty and smokey and handle gain very well. I play lots of solo's with the neckpickup. They clean up good too. Maybe take 300k pots to balance the tonal spectrum. 500k could make the IT's a little too bright.

[WhiteRam]

I went back and re-read your original post that started this thread...please disregard my two earlier posts. :oops:

You want the Holydiver bridge and Trilogy Suite middle/neck HSS set, no doubt in my mind. :)

[Roboten]

I just bought a set of slowhands with a holydiver i the bridge for a maple neck strat, and here's what i have to say about it:

The slowhands are really bitey, very uppermiddy and cutting, no singlecoil 'sag' but a very immediate and responsive feel. Very nice cleans and good lead tone, very good pickups, but i was expecting they'd have a bit softer feel to them. Now, i have 500k pots since a bought a prewired kit from bkp, so that might explain it, but i'd say that if you buy a pair of slow hands dont expect to get mellow jazz pickups, but angry cutting rock pickups!

The holydiver has a nice throaty midrange and can handle heavy distortion really well. They are that kind of pickup that sounds good in any gain setting, but 'feels' the best with lots of distortion. A bit more compressed than i'm used to, but if you want to play heavy metal on a strat they are a very good choice.

The pickups arent the greatest combination, they have a very different sound and feel to them. I pick that combo because i wanted both a metal strat and a rock/blues strat, and decided to combine them in the same guitar, and i will probably never use them both on the same song. So to me thats the perfect combo, but if you want pickups that go well together, pick another setup. Trust the HSS suggestions! :D

[WhiteRam]

Trust the HSS suggestions! :D

+1000

[Philly Q]

Trust the HSS suggestions! :D

+1000

Unfortunately there isn't a suggested HSS set for every humbucker!

Nothing for the Abraxas, for example.  I went for Abraxas and Slow Hands... when I ordered from Tim he didn't make any comment as to whether that was a good combo or not, so I assume it'll be OK.  :lol:

[Telerocker]

Trust the HSS suggestions! :D

+1000

Unfortunately there isn't a suggested HSS set for every humbucker!

Nothing for the Abraxas, for example.  I went for Abraxas and Slow Hands... when I ordered from Tim he didn't make any comment as to whether that was a good combo or not, so I assume it'll be OK.  :lol:

Crawler/IT's are listed, so why wouldn't Abraxas/Slowhands work. Choices/combinations depend on the guitar (rosewood/maple board etc) and the styles you want to cover with them. There are no absolute rules.

[WhiteRam]

There are no absolute rules.

I completely agree with that. :)

My opinion on staying with a factory set is based on this being the OP's first BKP HSS.  Equally as well I stand by my HD TS/TS suggestion based on the original post.

I would be interested to know Tim's recommendation if he read the OP's telling of an alder maple/maple Fender Strat and coping those bands/tones.

[Philly Q]

Crawler/IT's are listed, so why wouldn't Abraxas/Slowhands work. Choices/combinations depend on the guitar (rosewood/maple board etc) and the styles you want to cover with them. There are no absolute rules.

I agree, absolutely. 

But given the fact that BKP does offer "standard" HSS sets, it's interesting to see that - for example - the Crawler set has Mother's Milks and the VHII set has Irish Tours.  You'd almost expect it to be the other way round, based solely on the relative output of the pickups (I'm not saying those choices are "wrong"!!!  :P  )

[Slartibartfarst42]

I went back and re-read your original post that started this thread...please disregard my two earlier posts. :oops:

You want the Holydiver bridge and Trilogy Suite middle/neck HSS set, no doubt in my mind. :)

This has been said by you, me and others on this thread but for whatever reason I can't understand, the OP seems dead set against it. Neverthless, what he describes is undoubtedly still a Holydiver/Trilogy Suite  set.

[Tappivanukas]

I went back and re-read your original post that started this thread...please disregard my two earlier posts. :oops:

You want the Holydiver bridge and Trilogy Suite middle/neck HSS set, no doubt in my mind. :)

This has been said by you, me and others on this thread but for whatever reason I can't understand, the OP seems dead set against it. Neverthless, what he describes is undoubtedly still a Holydiver/Trilogy Suite  set.

The reason why I'm not interested in Holy Diver and Trilogies is that I want lower output. I already have Nailbombs in my Gibson Explorer and that's for more extreme things. But anyway my decision is done finally.  :lol: I'm gonna buy VHII and Irish Tours. In my opinion they are closest to what I want. I hope I'm not wrong.  :lol:
Thanks for everyone's patience and help!!!

[Slartibartfarst42]

Well I'm sure you'll like them a lot, though I would point out that the Holydiver is VERY different to a Nailbomb. I made my decision on new pups some time ago but sadly I can't act yet as I'm making some major changes to my rig first.

[WhiteRam]

Crawler/IT's are listed, so why wouldn't Abraxas/Slowhands work. Choices/combinations depend on the guitar (rosewood/maple board etc) and the styles you want to cover with them. There are no absolute rules.

I agree, absolutely. 

But given the fact that BKP does offer "standard" HSS sets, it's interesting to see that - for example - the Crawler set has Mother's Milks and the VHII set has Irish Tours.  You'd almost expect it to be the other way round, based solely on the relative output of the pickups (I'm not saying those choices are "wrong"!!!  :P  )

Ha! I've always wondered why it wasn't the other way around too Philly. :)

I've also given the Abraxas/Slowhands more thought, originally I figured the Abraxas would be too toppy with Slowhands...but! we're dealing with the ol' trick of pot resistance in combining singles with buckers, and from countless hours of doing this myself over the last 2 years with BKP HSS sets, it could be a sweet set indeed!

[Philly Q]

I've also given the Abraxas/Slowhands more thought, originally I figured the Abraxas would be too toppy with Slowhands...but! we're dealing with the ol' trick of pot resistance in combining singles with buckers, and from countless hours of doing this myself over the last 2 years with BKP HSS sets, it could be a sweet set indeed!

I was thinking of mucking about with a combination of 250k and 500k pots, plus resistors..... but at Tim's suggestion, I actually went with three 300k pots - naturally, being me, the guitar's not put together yet so I don't know how it sounds.  :lol:

I was more worried about compromising the sound of the single-coils than the humbucker, so I think the 300ks will probably be fine for me.