Looking to replace Crawler bridge p'up - advice needed

[darkandrew]

Hi, I've recently bought an ESP Eclipse in mint condition, however the previous owner had swapped out the stock Seymour Duncan APH-2 pickups for BKP Crawlers.  Now, I love the Crawler neck and although I can see the bridge has its uses I'm not loving it as much - I'm finding it too hot (which isn't that much of a deal breaker as I can just turn the volume down) but what I'm not so keen on is its mid-range "honk".  In another guitar I have Gibson Burst-Bucker Pros which has a nice "sparkly" bridge which is a good starting point to the sort of sound I'm looking for but is a bit too light weight.  I've emailed Tim at BKP and he has recommended an Emerald bridge as a replacement and looking around the internet, listening to clips etc, I've also found the VHII to be pretty much in the sort of area I'm looking for.

So, your advice please, how does the VHII bridge stack up against the Emerald and how do either of these compare to Burst-Bucker Pros as way of reference?  Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Andy.

[Kiichi]

Hi and welcome.

I cannot comment much on which pickup you should choose, but before you replace the Crawler, have you tried fiddeling with the height? Just asking cause my perception of the Crawler is not honky and it can make quite the difference.
If you have not, go ahead and try (I for one like my PUs really far away from the strings, also makes em less hot).

[Telerocker]

I support Kiichi about the height.
The Emerald would be quite on the other end of the scale. It's quite bright. The VHII is balanced, but has good mids, is punchy, open and somewhat 'dry'. Great for all kind of (hard)rocktones. The question is what tones you're looking for and what kind of music you play. If you're looking for a genuine PAF-tone, look at the Mule. That one has a quite flat eq and is very ''vocal''. If you need more output and treble: yes, then the Emerald.

[darkandrew]

Thanks for the advice, I've already played around with the pickup heights and the problem I have here is that although the Crawler neck has quite a low DC resistance it's surprisingly loud and I've already got that lowered as far as I can so that it's flush with the mounting ring, which in turn means that if I want to keep my neck and bridge pickups balanced there is only so far I can lower the bridge pickup.  As for what sort of music I play, I play all sorts really - I teach music (and ICT)  in a secondary school and end up playing anything from AC/DC and Van Halen to Duran Duran and Chic, so versatility is the key word here, although 99% of the playing is done either overdriven or in a similar high gain mode mostly through a Boss GT-100.

Reading through my original post, I suppose I was rather harsh with the Crawler bridge - it's not a bad pickup and  even though it has a definite mid-range peak, I guess calling it a "honk" is probably a bit of an exaggeration.  In fact I am finding that I can get sounds out of it that I can't get out of any other pickup and so I'm very much in two minds about replacing it.

[Telerocker]

If you decide to replace them or the bridge, at least check out Mules. They have so much depth and dynamic, open vocal character that you can play anything with them. Of course the bridge doesn't push like the Crawler, but with it's flat eq is very versatile. I use Mules for pop, funk, blues, (classic) rock and hardrock. The inbetween sound - Mules bridge and neck - gives you full, but snappy/crispy sounds for funk and soul. I can nail Chics Le Freak, although Nile Rodgers played that with a strat.

[HTH AMPS]

Having owned the Crawler, I know what you mean about the midrange - honk is probably doing it a disservice, but its definitely got a midrange focus.

The Emerald is certainly more vintage and less midrangey, but also in the hot-PAF territory with a nice solid bass end.  I swear by the Axraxas and feel it can do pretty much anything - get a split version.

[ericsabbath]

the vhii sounds great, but not much more powerful than a burstbucker pro
maybe a little punchier, but less compressed, more dry sounding
it definitely would work for the things you mentioned, but you said the bb was a little underpowered for you
my personal choice would probably be a riff raff or mule and a proper booster for heavier rhythms or leads

the emerald sounds like a good advice as more generic rock pickup without mid bumps or going too hot
not nasal and muddy like a gibson 498t
reminds me a bit of the prs dragon II voicing
pretty bright and versatile

[darkandrew]

Having spent a good 4 hours or so playing with pickup height and volume knobs I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'll be keeping the Crawlers in the ESP - the sound I can get from them is pretty unique and it's now really a case of not knowing you need something until you discover it.  The problem I now have is that having researched into the Emeralds and VHiis I want these also!  The thing I like about the Emeralds in particular is that they seem to recreate that late 70's early 80's Yamaha SG sound of John McGeoch (Magazine / Siouxsie and Banshees / PIL), Midge Ure (when he was playing with Thin Lizzy), Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), etc.  I might have to do some pickup juggling or maybe buy another half decent guitar with rubbish pickups with a view to ripping them out straight away and replacing them with BKP Emeralds.

[Telerocker]

I don't know if you have a split option on the Crawlers bridge? A splitted Crawler sounds very nice, like a beefy stratpickup, at least in my swampashstrat.

[Kiichi]

I don't know if you have a split option on the Crawlers bridge? A splitted Crawler sounds very nice, like a beefy stratpickup, at least in my swampashstrat.

Oh yes, it is amazing for a split. Strongly recommend you try it if you have not. Should help a lot with the versatility you need.
The crawler set alone is quite versatile once you "get it", but the splits add another level. I even went overboard and got myself a HSH combo of crawlers with a Slowhand middle. All that on a 5 way switch, splits and a ZVex Superhard on clone (done by Juansolo) build into the guitar, available at the pull of a pot. Additionally I turned the HBs around to get the now outer coils in split mode, so the splits with the middle got more of a tele feel to them. Now I got 2 HB, 2 I HB + single, 3 Strat like and 2 Tele like positions making for 9 different sounding positions and all boostable. So great.