Humbuckers needed for custom Jaguar

[Elessar [Sly]]

I see. I have a nailbomb in the bridge of my Ibanez S series and I'm not sure I like it (I'm pretty sure it is ceramic). Would the cold sweat be a better option for the bridge?

[Telerocker]

CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.

[Elessar [Sly]]

Ahh I see. I'm just worried because I don't like the Nailbomb in the bridge of my Ibanez, and altohugh I know it is a different guitar and different wood (Mahogany with flame maple top), I don't want it to sound similar to it.

[Elessar [Sly]]

CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.

I have a SH5 in my Gibson SG standard (apparently similar to the cold sweat) and I have the cold sweat in antoher guitar that is why it came to mind. I find the Nailbomb is too harsh in the bridge of my Ibby... so I am put off by the nailbomb.

[Telerocker]

CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.

I have a SH5 in my Gibson SG standard (apparently similar to the cold sweat) and I have the cold sweat in antoher guitar that is why it came to mind. I find the Nailbomb is too harsh in the bridge of my Ibby... so I am put off by the nailbomb.

The CS balances perfect in a big lump of mahogany, but is a bit of a bright guy for a lot of ash guitars. And about the Nailbomb in your Ibbie: did you try different heights?, cause it makes a lot of difference.
Personally I like vintage(hot) pickups in F-type guitars to keep things dynamic and open. Hence my VHII-recommendation. If you want higher output with a round topend that would be the Diver. In ash that one would do very nice too.

[Elessar [Sly]]

The CS balances perfect in a big lump of mahogany, but is a bit of a bright guy for a lot of ash guitars. And about the Nailbomb in your Ibbie: did you try different heights?, cause it makes a lot of difference.
Personally I like vintage(hot) pickups in F-type guitars to keep things dynamic and open. Hence my VHII-recommendation. If you want higher output with a round topend that would be the Diver. In ash that one would do very nice too.

That makes sense.  There aren't any vids or clips of these pickups in a Jag =/ Maybe when I make a decision I should do a youtube vid or something.

So the choices I'm thinking are:

Bridge          Neck


VHII                  Stormy monday

Nailbomb           Holy Diver/nailbomb

Mule                   Mule/Stormy monday





Do you think that a rebel yell would be better suited than a nailbomb? since the main page says they are similar.     

[Telerocker]

The RY is one of the brightest  BKP's with a pronounced uppermidrange too. In Les Pauls this one kills, in ash with bolt-on neck the RY will be quite or too bright.

I would look into these combi's that fit an ash/bolt-on guitar:

- calibatred VHII-set (the neck is less bright then the HD-neck and praised much here on the forum).
- calibatred Abraxas-set
- Abraxas + Mule-neck (both AIV, nice balance)
- Holy Diver + VHII-neck
- Nailbomb + VHII-neck

[Elessar [Sly]]

The RY is one of the brightest  BKP's with a pronounced uppermidrange too. In Les Pauls this one kills, in ash with bolt-on neck the RY will be quite or too bright.

I would look into these combi's that fit an ash/bolt-on guitar:

- calibatred VHII-set (the neck is less bright then the HD-neck and praised much here on the forum).
- calibatred Abraxas-set
- Abraxas + Mule-neck (both AIV, nice balance)
- Holy Diver + VHII-neck
- Nailbomb + VHII-neck

How do the nailbomb neck and VHII neck compare?

[Telerocker]

Nailbomb-neck: more modern and brighter then the VHII I understood. The VHII is smoother and gets a lot of praise here. I don't have experience with both though, just recapturing what I read on the forum. Maybe there are owners here to comment on this.

[Elessar [Sly]]

Nailbomb-neck: more modern and brighter then the VHII I understood. The VHII is smoother and gets a lot of praise here. I don't have experience with both though, just recapturing what I read on the forum. Maybe there are owners here to comment on this.

thanks. I am trying to avoid brighter pickups since it will be an Ash body.

[Elessar [Sly]]

Yeah I won't be going with Nailbombs, I'm leaning more towards the Mules/Abraxas now.

[Telerocker]

These are very ''vocal'' pickups. I love my Mule-bridge and the Abraxas has a lot of fans too here. I would pick the Abraxas-bridge considering the timbers.

[Elessar [Sly]]

Shame I can't actually try these out, I just have to do a little research and take the leap!  :shock:

[Telerocker]

Shame I can't actually try these out, I just have to do a little research and take the leap!  :shock:

I have the Mule in mahogany and it excels with this timber, but I think the extra mids and push of the Abraxas fit ash a bit better. Both have this open, vocal character.

[lamp]

I have a Jaguar, and it has gone through many pickup configuration changes.  Alder body, standard bridge, various pots, from the standard 1meg down to 250k and back again.
After the original, and not so good, MIJ pickups I put a Nailbomb in the bridge, which was cool, and I love the NB.
Later on I had a switch around and put an SH-5 in there - was fine, but reminded me why I like BKP better.
Then I put a BKP92 in the neck, and a little later one in the bridge too. These were AMAZING.
Lastly I reverted to standard configuration, but got Tim to rewind some Jag pups for me, and it sounds ace now.
I have to say that the P90s were probably my favourite, and I had it wired to run them either in parallel or series which was superb.  Don't discount them, I know that they don't do BKP92s any more but I would really recommend checking out the new P90 range, seemed to really suit the Jag.