Gravity Storms or Holydivers in PRS Cu22

[mkh02]

Hey guys

Was going to change the pickups in my custom 22 a while ago and decided to stay and work with the Dragon II's

I have given them a fair run but I was playing my strat alongside it the other day which has a red lace sensor in the bridge and Irish Tours in Middle and neck and it terms of fatness and thick tone the strat wipes the floor with the PRS whihc is ridiculous considering the quality of the guitar!

So I am looking for something to beef up the PRS considerably. MId to high gain but with musicality retention!

The neck is a carved one piece rosewood like the modern eagles and so brightens the guitar more and reduces mids and bass considerably!

I am thinking either the Holydiver set or the Dimarzio Gravity Storms whihc seem to be getting ace reviews at the moment for being thick and great under gain!

I must admit I am a big fan of Dimarzios for their rock and high gain applications! Whilst Bareknucles retain excellent separation and musicality I find they never seem to kick out the gain I like!

I have Nailbombs in my Les Paul and they are great for 70's classic rock but have nothing in them in terms of gain and compression!

ANy thoughts would be great!

[darkbluemurder]

If the Alnico Nailbombs do not give you enough gain then the Holydiver will not have enough gain for you either. It's the Aftermath or Painkiller in the BKP range you should consider if you want the highest possible output and gain. If you have a bright guitar, Warpigs are an option, too. Haven't played either of those so I hope the folks with first hand experience will chime in. I have never seen them described as having "medium to high gain" - that would be Abraxas, Crawler and Rebel Yell zone.

DiMarzio makes some fine pickups - I used the Area series, the Air Norton and Bluesbucker all with good results. I always preferred them to Duncan but that is pure personal preference. I must say I don't like the high output DiMarzios as much - the ones I have tried (Super Distortion, Breed, ToneZone) all have that artificial sizzle on top and a slightly nasal midrange but they are definitely powerful and have much more punch than say a Duncan JB. I have no experience with the Gravity Storms however.

Cheers Stephan

[mkh02]

Thanks for the reply and info mate!

Yeah I find that the Nailbombs are very thin and mid gain...great for say free but certainly not up to modern rock standards.

Looking for something with a lot of mids and really thick gain tones..!

Funnily enough I have a Ceremic Cold Sweat in one of my super strats and it is superb! Lots of gain...far more than the Les Paul and nice and clear at hihg volumes.

Was looking for something similar but with a tad more mids!

[Zaned]

Thanks for the reply and info mate!

Yeah I find that the Nailbombs are very thin and mid gain...great for say free but certainly not up to modern rock standards.

Looking for something with a lot of mids and really thick gain tones..!

Funnily enough I have a Ceremic Cold Sweat in one of my super strats and it is superb! Lots of gain...far more than the Les Paul and nice and clear at hihg volumes.

Was looking for something similar but with a tad more mids!

That comment about Nailbomb for 'Free' and being mid-gain..how close do you have it to the strings? 2mm from the strings when pressed from the last fret is a good starting point.

If you're looking for a cold sweat but with tad more output and mids, that's essentially the ceramic Nailbomb, funnily enough :) It's basically an overwound cold sweat, so it has a bit less highs and more mids. But if your guitar is really bright, Warpig is definitely an option too.

-Zaned

[ericsabbath]

nailbombs were the first pups I tried ad in my '73 les paul custom
they were hot as f***
it was the only bridge pickup I had to get further from the strings
not even the warpig required that (in a gibson V, though)

you could try the alnico miracle man (you gotta order the neck model. it's the same as the bridge, but alnico instead of ceramic.)
voicing is somewhere between the diver, warpig and nailbomb
big low end and lots of mids

[nkay]

The gain/output is something that bugs me too with my Holy Divers and BKP's in general. Maybe it's the definitions we use of gain, saturation, and output, the Holy Divers are very "saturated" gain-wise, but the output power seems low. I use to use Dimarzio Super Distortions and JBs, and I switched to the Holy Diver to get the characteristics of both in the same pickup, and while it does do that, it's missing the power and punch, and I find I have to use a boost pedal to the HD where I want it, but it's still not the same.

The Holy Diver has it's own qualities of course that are improvements: clarity, holds up under high gain, smooth saturation, fluid leads etc... but they are also very polite sounding for lack of a better term. I keep missing my Dimarzio's for the sheer power.

[ericsabbath]

well, you can tell by the huge magnet strength of the super distortion there's no way the mild field of the holy diver could produce as much output as the dimarzio
this difference very noticeable
I had a dimarzio k10 (original super 2), which is 9k and it has a lot more output than an alnico warpig

[mkh02]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Yeah that has always been my experience with BKP as well. Their musicality and tone is unquestionable! Beautiful and then when the crunch sits in they sound superb especially for classic rock.

I guess it depends what you hear in your ears... I was playing my Les Paul with Nailbombs in the other night straight into my Marshall YJM100 Plexi.

With both channels on '10' it was a nice overdrive and crunch...I find to get any real thick gain for soloing I need to put a tubescreamer on full tilt into the front of the amp...even then it is mid gain ...same with my cold sweat in my strat ...more gain and thicker sounding but certainly not high or modern gain.

As an easy comparison when I plug my Jem7V straight into the amp I pretty much already at a higher gain level than any bareknuckle pickup even without an overdrive pedal.

I think all pickups have their voice and characteristic ...for me the bare knuckle have tons of clarity, soak up loads of gain and wont compress...whihc is very useful for many applications in a live setting.

For compressed saturated gain for legato and arpegios the Dimarzios definately take over! You can hear the nuances and similarities in say Vai or Satriani that for me just are not there in the BKP's.

But yeah both have their uses...my warmoth strat has Irish Tours in the Neck and Mid which are absolutely perfect for that undeniable creamy/ hendrix/ Clapton tone but I put a red lace sensor in the bridge which is much wilder and really screams for intense solos!

I guess a mix is better!

Definately edging towards the Gravity Storms ...played a mates guitar the other night and they growl like a monster absolutely superb for 'that' sound....a different beast to BKP's

[Zaned]

With both channels on '10' it was a nice overdrive and crunch...I find to get any real thick gain for soloing I need to put a tubescreamer on full tilt into the front of the amp...even then it is mid gain ...same with my cold sweat in my strat ...more gain and thicker sounding but certainly not high or modern gain.

You didn't answer the question about the pickup height  8) BKPs are very particular about it.

Off-topic, but this is Tim playing a Nailbomb-equipped Ibanez RG to a JCM800. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC6EB-7GRjU

-Zaned

[Tim]

Bare Knuckle pickups will easily match any other pickup in terms of output when height adjusted correctly. The Holydiver certainly doesn't lack power when put against any other similar Alnico V powered humbucker and can drive an amp extremely hard.

[mkh02]

Hey guys once again thanks for the input!

My Les Paul with Nailbombs was measuring 5mm at the bridge depressed at the last fret and 6mm at the neck.

I have raised to 2mm at the bridge and 3mm at the neck...will try through the Plexi and through the AFD100 and see if there is any difference in terms of output/ gain!

[ericsabbath]

3 mm should make a very considerable difference in the amount of bass and mids

[Zaned]

Hey guys once again thanks for the input!

My Les Paul with Nailbombs was measuring 5mm at the bridge depressed at the last fret and 6mm at the neck.

I have raised to 2mm at the bridge and 3mm at the neck...will try through the Plexi and through the AFD100 and see if there is any difference in terms of output/ gain!

Heh, thought so :) You can try setting the neck pickup to the same height too initially, I assume your pickups are a calibrated set. Meaning, neck pickup is lower in output, and you won't have to adjust it lower because of that. I just attach two 1mm plectrums together and use them to make a starting point. Golden advice by Felineguitars.

Thin and distant is a common description of BKPs set too far, and 5mm is still really far.

-Zaned

[Tim]

As you can hear in the soundclips on the product pages of the site, Nailbombs and Holydivers have plenty of output and don't sound at all thin(we recorded all the clips using the same LP for reference). It's also worth checking all the clips in the players room here on the forum and on Facebook and you'll clearly hear how powerful these pickups are as well as excellent for legato style playing as demonstrated in a lot of the great solos you can hear.

I do work very hard when it comes to the strength and quality of magnets we use to make sure that our pickup voicing remains dynamic and clear - this does mean that you will get a very clean tone if you set your pickups a long way from the strings(overly powerful magnets can produce a lot of output but they will also cause compression which can choke the dynamics of the pickup). The closer you bring the pickups under the strings the more power and bottom end response you will reproduce through the pickups. As a general guide 4mm under strings for the bridge(without fretting) is a good starting point.

[nkay]

The Holy Divers definitely aren't thin. In fact, when I was playing them today, I found it really nailed the sound of Criss Oliva from Savatage circa Hall of the Mountain King, definitely a lot of saturation and thickness.

I guess what I was referring to compared to the Dimarzio Super Distortion (or even the JB) was that when you strike the strings it was just noticeably not as powerful. It's hard to describe, more like "output force". I understand why by design, it is different. And why it might be like that to get the clarity and uncompressed smoothness. It's just when I first tried them, that's the first thing I noticed as a direct comparison. But I also realized how damn clear they were too and how every string rang out without being muddled. I just think there is some trade-off there, that's all, and I had to boost it more than usual to compensate.