Swapping a HD for a VHII

[herbychimp]

I have been thinking for a while about making some changes to my BC strat. At the moment I have a HD in the bridge with the standard DiMarzio Chopper / BC1 (or is it 2?) in the neck. I love the HD and even if remove it for a change of sound I will never sell it. A gent on ebay is selling a VHII bridge and I was wondering what difference this would make to the sound if I bought and installed it. What I would expect is a) a more open, vintage tone b) less output means turning up the gain on my amp c) from trawling the forum I might expect a drier tone. I am also wondering how it would work with the existing DiMarzio p.ups - would they overpower the VHII. I would be grateful for any comments, do's or don'ts. P.S the strat is a hardtail.

[CanadianMetalhead]

Based on just my experience with the 2 The VHII is "drier" sounding, less bottom heavy and doesn't have the mid hump the HD has. The trebles are very forward and present sounding vs the sweet sounding HD. I remember someone on forum saying the VHii has a slight mid scoop but I personally just think its rather balanced sounding lol. The output isn't bad at all and just gets before the point of over saturating the amp.

/2cents :P

[ericsabbath]

Based on just my experience with the 2 The VHII is "drier" sounding, less bottom heavy and doesn't have the mid hump the HD has. The trebles are very forward and present sounding vs the sweet sounding HD. I remember someone on forum saying the VHii has a slight mid scoop but I personally just think its rather balanced sounding lol. The output isn't bad at all and just gets before the point of over saturating the amp.

in my guitar, the vhii defini had more bass than the hd
I agree with everything else

[darkbluemurder]

I remember someone on forum saying the VHii has a slight mid scoop but I personally just think its rather balanced sounding lol. The output isn't bad at all and just gets before the point of over saturating the amp.

That was me. It is a very bright pickup with good output. It was just too bright for the guitar I bought it for. Certainly a very different tone from the HD.

Cheers Stephan

[Brian_D]

What tonewood is the body made from? I bought one to put in my Frankie clone, but it was just too bright and thin with the hard northern ash body. I took it out and put it in a Charvel with a basswood body and it just kills in that guitar. Very balanced and just right on the top. The body wood's gonna dictate whether or not it's a good fit.