the mule neck + holy diver bridge

[LaoTzu]

will these go well together? im thinking either a nailbomb bridge or a holy diver. ill be fitting them into a Jp100 sterling musicman  http://www.brightonguitars.co.uk/sterling-jp100-tbk?language=en&currency=GBP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products i want to be as versatile as possible aswell as have a great lead tone on the bridge pickup for rock/80s metal tones (think dio, toto,Rush, satriani, vai etc.) and the neck pickup to be warm bluesy ala gary moore. i listened to the nailbombs and they have a very flat sounding eq nothing my ears go ahh i like that. its more of a pickup you have to work hard with to get a good sound. which isnt a bad thing. but when i want to pickup this guitar i wanna just play a chord and go ROOOCK!!!. i do want alot of dynamics as im going to be running it through my cornford roadhouse 50 watt + zilla fatboy cab. which has soo much bass. so bass from a pickup wont be a major concern.

so do the mule and the holy diver go well together?

[Nez]

I was torn between the Nailbomb & Holy Diver originally. I'm doing up both ibanez's with BKP at the present time and I decided on the Naibomb. I felt the soundclip of the Holy Diver sounded flat to me. Compare the Progressive clips of Nailbomb/Holyy Diver/Alnico Black Hawk, and you'll see what I mean. Actually, compare the alnico black hawk and nailbombs prog. clip and you'll hear the Nailbomb has so much more presence and cut. I found the A-Black Hawk to sound bland. But then again that's my opinion. Everyone has their own taste.

[Mr. Air]

I don't know if the holy diver and the mule will pair up nicely, but if you want something that screams rock you might want to check out the VHII or the emerald. A set of holy divers might work on their own. A lot of forum members really like the HD neck.

[LaoTzu]

I was torn between the Nailbomb & Holy Diver originally. I'm doing up both ibanez's with BKP at the present time and I decided on the Naibomb. I felt the soundclip of the Holy Diver sounded flat to me. Compare the Progressive clips of Nailbomb/Holyy Diver/Alnico Black Hawk, and you'll see what I mean. Actually, compare the alnico black hawk and nailbombs prog. clip and you'll hear the Nailbomb has so much more presence and cut. I found the A-Black Hawk to sound bland. But then again that's my opinion. Everyone has their own taste.

i was advised to go with the nail bomb from the guy on the phone. but listening to the sample clips and working as a producer i dont know if they compressed and/or eq'd them or not. so its hard to tell it would be nice if they had some sort of disclaimer stating what was done in the production process.
to me the nail bomb sounds chunky i want a bit more of a mid range bite. with a very sensitive playing dynamic aswell as rock to metalica type metal tones. or surfing with the alien type metal tones. basically my stunt guitar when im not using my strat. my strat is warm mellow tonefull i want something in contrast to that.

[Nez]

After spending all last night and today researching this forum, I believe the clips are all recorded on the same LP through an Axe=FX. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong?

And your second description to me (after researching) screams the Nailbomb :)

[LaoTzu]

After spending all last night and today researching this forum, I believe the clips are all recorded on the same LP through an Axe=FX. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong?

And your second description to me (after researching) screams the Nailbomb :)

what kind of research?

[Nez]

After spending all last night and today researching this forum, I believe the clips are all recorded on the same LP through an Axe=FX. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong?

And your second description to me (after researching) screams the Nailbomb :)

what kind of research?

Well I spent all last night reading loads of threads comparing the Nailbomb to the Holy Diver. I like to play the same type of music as you and I originally thought the HD would be my best bet for this guitar. My style is very lead guitar based so the the HD's description sounded great regarding thickness, etc. But after a couple of hours, I read a few times that the Nailbomb has that bit of extra weight in the lows and low mids that give singlenotes that weight, whilst keeping aggression for rhythms.

I read a few threads were people said the HD was more versatile than the HD and vice verse, so I guess it's down to personal opinion aswell.

The clip which sold it for me though was this. Listening to loads of clips I found this one quite bright, but you get a very good idea of what to expect feel-wise and how organic it is from this.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=753161&songID=7821880&showPlayer=true

Again I haven't played them, I'm only speaking theoretical.

[richard]

From your description and the guitar you're I'd be tempted to go for the HD set. I use a Cornford Roadhouse with a RY equipped guitar and I know how good the amp EQ is for fine tuning your sound. I'm forever messing around with the EQ on my amp, particularly the mids and treble, just to appreciate all the different sounds I can get.

[Nez]

I think the HD is thick, whereas the Nailbomb is weighty. I could be wrong though. I'll have experience with the NB in a couple weeks. Just deciding on whether it's the NB neck I want as well.

[ericsabbath]

how about a rebel yell?

[Miracle Man]

My 2c: I have a Mule neck/Holydiver bridge set in my SG Supreme, and honestly, while the Mule sounds great on it's own, it's nowhere near as agressive as the Holydiver. It sounds very sweet, warm and round, but lacks cut and bite (compared to the HD). Initially, I had a Mule set in this guitar, which sounded good and very balanced pickup to pickup, but the bridge Mule didn't work well with the maple top and ebony board. The HD replaced the bridge Mule and now I'm considering a neck HD. First I thought it would be nice to switch to a lower output neck pickup for clean tones and I could always boost it with a pedal for more gain. But the feel changes radically when going from bridge to neck pickup. Now my gut tells me that matched sets give the best results.

[Cpt_Gonzo]

I feel that the HD neck has a very vintage-ey vibe to it. Have the HD set in my Les Paul and my Strat and although the bridge is quite aggressive, they cover a lot of ground really well and don't sound out of place in any of the guitars.

The neck pickup on my Lester still sounds like the clishee Les Paul neck pickup, but with a better balance regarding the bridge HD.

[richard]

I could easily have said RY myself because I'm a big fan and they're the only BK buckers I own. However, mine are in a Gibson Firebird Studio - huge lump of mahogany, set neck. The impression I've got over the time I've spent on this forum is that for the 80's rock sound in a Gibsonish guitar go RYs, for a similar sound in a Strattish bolt-on go HDs.  A sweeping generalisation I know because plenty of folks seem to love HDs in their LPs. I don't recall anyone on this forum putting RYs in a Strat type guitar but I came across this which sounds great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHqiuF36mc8

[LaoTzu]

I could easily have said RY myself because I'm a big fan and they're the only BK buckers I own. However, mine are in a Gibson Firebird Studio - huge lump of mahogany, set neck. The impression I've got over the time I've spent on this forum is that for the 80's rock sound in a Gibsonish guitar go RYs, for a similar sound in a Strattish bolt-on go HDs.  A sweeping generalisation I know because plenty of folks seem to love HDs in their LPs. I don't recall anyone on this forum putting RYs in a Strat type guitar but I came across this which sounds great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHqiuF36mc8

they do sound really nice maybe too much character from the pickups? as in no matter how you play it will still sound a certain way. where as i like character but i want my playing to come through.

[LaoTzu]

My 2c: I have a Mule neck/Holydiver bridge set in my SG Supreme, and honestly, while the Mule sounds great on it's own, it's nowhere near as agressive as the Holydiver. It sounds very sweet, warm and round, but lacks cut and bite (compared to the HD). Initially, I had a Mule set in this guitar, which sounded good and very balanced pickup to pickup, but the bridge Mule didn't work well with the maple top and ebony board. The HD replaced the bridge Mule and now I'm considering a neck HD. First I thought it would be nice to switch to a lower output neck pickup for clean tones and I could always boost it with a pedal for more gain. But the feel changes radically when going from bridge to neck pickup. Now my gut tells me that matched sets give the best results.

can you go into how it was having the mule and the hd bridge together. like jumping from one tot he other is there a huge amount of difference? can you get away from going from a mule ryhtym tone to an hd bridge lead rockin tone. without much of a spike in volume increase?