Holydiver lacking the beef

[darrenw5094]

Little late night experiment:

Don't know how valid this is as I used my Vox Metal Amplug and Headphones, but hightening the HD worked... actually really well. I played around a bit with the screws and from a certain point on not only did the sound become fully saturated but I tried to go over the top and it even became sizzling. Now I found the sweet spot... for the Amplug and Headphones. Will try the same through my Micro Terror (not sure how legit that little thing as a reference point is but oh well my Valveking's still dead) and see how it turns out.

Really unusual for a pickup to be that sensitive to height, at least I haven't experienced something like this with Duncans before. I'm surprised!

How many mm's is the pickup from the strings?

[GuitarIv]

Less then half a centimeter, so pretty close. The magnetic pull doesn't kill any sustain, but then again, I'm playing 10-52s tuned to E-Standard.

[FELINEGUITARS]

That is still miles away - try getting the gap down to 2mm or less

I often use a couple of picks stacked lying on top of the pickup, hold down the strings at the last fret and raise the pickup till the picks touch the underside of the string.

The I raise the middle 4 polepieces a little to match the fingerboard radius

[GuitarIv]

Interesting no one mentions stuff like this on a regular basis :P

[FELINEGUITARS]

Interesting no one mentions stuff like this on a regular basis :P

I mention it a fair bit , and I do it every day on the guitars I set - up
Let me know if it helps

The polepiece raising I feel opens up the sound of the pickup and gives a slightly more crisp edge to the sound

[drawnacrol]

The polepiece raising I feel opens up the sound of the pickup and gives a slightly more crisp edge to the sound

Cheers for the tip!

[ericsabbath]

That is still miles away - try getting the gap down to 2mm or less

I often use a couple of picks stacked lying on top of the pickup, hold down the strings at the last fret and raise the pickup till the picks touch the underside of the string.

The I raise the middle 4 polepieces a little to match the fingerboard radius

I like most bridge bkps around that close
the miracle man and nailbomb sounded better a little lower, though


but what if the picks are 3mm big stubbies?  8)

[GuitarIv]

Yeah well I guess one never stops learning. As said Duncans aren't that picky when it comes to height and I have only played those before I got the Diver. Happy that it works now the way it is supposed too, thanks guys! :)

[nkay]

I did some more experiments and might have to backtrack, in the practice I used the SD-1 as a boost, and I think that's what was causing the thinness in the overall mix. While I got the output boost I needed, it was cutting the balls.

The Holy Diver is really clear, like, imagine a combination of the Dimarzio Super Distortion with the JB, but with very clear clarity, no extraneous distortion noise, all the strings really stand out in a chord, and there is fluidity that is not created out of sheer output. The drawback to this is that yes, it's less output overall. And on my Marshall JVM 410 HJS, it's not quite enough to get the OD channels into the healthy saturation that I want. Cranking up the amp gain just gets bassy and woofy.

Should I be trying a clean boost instead of an overdrive to get that output back? Will that help tighten things up? I'm thinking of something simple like the EP Booster here. I've only ever used the SD-1 but I want to retire it because the SD-1 through a Marshall is such a staple recognizable 80's sound that I just don't want anymore. And with the new pickups, I want to retain some of that 80's vibe, while getting fresh tones.

[Fourth Feline]

The polepiece raising I feel opens up the sound of the pickup and gives a slightly more crisp edge to the sound

Cheers for the tip!

Yes, thanks Jonathan!  :)

 Despite being very happy with all my B.K.P. as they are ; your comment dooms me to an obsessive weekend, surrounded by BKP'd  guitars and cups of tea. If I'm not out by Monday,  please send a Red Cross parcel. 

[JimmyMoorby]

I did some more experiments and might have to backtrack, in the practice I used the SD-1 as a boost, and I think that's what was causing the thinness in the overall mix. While I got the output boost I needed, it was cutting the balls.

The Holy Diver is really clear, like, imagine a combination of the Dimarzio Super Distortion with the JB, but with very clear clarity, no extraneous distortion noise, all the strings really stand out in a chord, and there is fluidity that is not created out of sheer output. The drawback to this is that yes, it's less output overall. And on my Marshall JVM 410 HJS, it's not quite enough to get the OD channels into the healthy saturation that I want. Cranking up the amp gain just gets bassy and woofy.

Should I be trying a clean boost instead of an overdrive to get that output back? Will that help tighten things up? I'm thinking of something simple like the EP Booster here. I've only ever used the SD-1 but I want to retire it because the SD-1 through a Marshall is such a staple recognizable 80's sound that I just don't want anymore. And with the new pickups, I want to retain some of that 80's vibe, while getting fresh tones.

The Xotic EP Booster is a very nice pedal but its 'very' subtle. It definitely makes a nice difference with cleans and with an overdriven sound makes a slight difference but as a metal player I didnt think it was good enough as a booster live.  I've resisted the urge to sell it though because it can make things sound 'nicer'.

An Ibanez tubescreamer might be the obvious suggestion and with good reason.  If youre on a budget id suggest a Digitech Bad monkey.

If you want to stick with Xotic who are amazing maybe look at the BB range?

Alteratively a good old eq pedal.

I should add I personally use a Wampler Pinnacle 2 for gigs and recording.  Everything I read indicated this shouldnt be what its used for but I think its great as a booster/overdrive unit.

[schantist]

'Nuff said...

[nkay]

Ok thanks about the EP Booster info, I was thinking that might not be the right tool.

I don't really want another overdrive pedal, they all pretty much do the same thing right? I can't say I've done a lot of experimenting, but any tubescreamer type of pedal will be the same as the SD-1, boost output and some mids with a bass cut? Or do they all color their own way? There's just something about the way the SD-1 focuses the mids that gives that distinctive sound, and I really just want more output to hit the preamp.

I'm lucky that on my Contemporary Strat, it has a TBX tone control that when cranked gives more output. That worked out well on top of the Dimarzio Superdistortion to get enough saturation with my amp without an overdrive pedal, the Holy Diver needs more than that unfortunately.

[GuitarIv]

For me personally the Ibanez TS-9DX I own works wonders. It just gives the amp the tightness and the balls it misses, so I think that one might work for you. It also has 4 different modes so you can fatten up the sound if you want to.

[ericsabbath]

well, I have a maxon od9 analogman classic (808 circuit), an oliver sd-10 (roland licensed sd-1 exact clone from late 80's), and had a ts9dx and a couple od808's about a month ago

all of them sound 95% the same in a band context
I could only tell the difference at home
the od808 is certainly more transparent and crunchy instead if compressed, and just a little fatter on leads, but if the sd-1 sounds thin, an od808 won't make it considerably fatter

the ts9dx sounds very punchy on the plus mod and you can get a quite fuzz-like distorted tone with the hot mode on mid gain channel of an all tube marshall
the ts9 mode sounds pretty close to a regular ts9 (it should sound exactly the same, but it doesn't)

I used to love the mxr wylde overdrive with the diver in one of my les paul copies
then dumped it for a vin tagemaxon 6 band graphic eq, which worked better for some crunchy and tight metal tones
the eq added some nice focused mids and output without the compression of an overdrive

I'm having pretty good results with a juansolo baby boobtube as a clean boost on my bands recording sessions
it puts out a lot of output and tends to expand the frequencies instead of narrowing them

but for that juicy boosted tone without the all the screamer-like bass cut, the fulltone OCD does the job really well, and it's the most popular overdrive among stoner/doom bands that need to keep lots of low end
great and quite natural sounding pedal for dirty tones
won't make your tone sound like modern metal or 80's hard rock