VHII users. Your opinions please.

[Gary_Goo]

After initially disregarding these, I'm now giving serious consideration to putting a set of VHII's in my 1978 Les Paul Custom.
I had pretty much settled on getting a set of Abraxas in there as its a bit of a brighter guitar, but after a lot of consideration I find the Abraxas bridge a little over-saturated sounding and not really as open sounding as I'd like. My second option was Mules, but I think I'd like the neck to have a little more bite than the warm and flutey Mule neck, hence my consideration of the VHII.
Ben from BKP originally suggested VHII's as an option (which I probably stupidly ignored due my general bad results with alnico V pickups and the fact I always assumed they were a bright pickup) and Tim rates them as a good all rounder that will do anything from Jazz to Metal and anything in between, so they must be worth a look I guess.
My questions would be as follows:
How do you rate the clean sounds from these pickups?
Are they as versatile as everyone suggests?
Are they nice and open sounding without being overly bright?
General observations and opinions would be good too.

I'd like this guitar to cover a fair bit of ground from pop to rock (maybe even a bit of classic metal, but only really at home and not in a band context) & punk rock.
I know it only makes a marginal tone difference, but I'll most likely be getting these as a covered set.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm afraid I've never used the VHII so can't comment but I'm surprised the Abraxas had too much saturation. It's another one I've never used but I've always wanted to own and in all the time I've wanted a set, the idea of them having too much saturation never once crossed my mind. For maximum versatility I use a Holydiver/Emerald combo but if the Abraxas had too much saturation, I assume the Holydiver will too.

[gwEm]

i've got the bridge model in an alder/maple hardtail jazzmaster, which will be very different to your Les Paul of course. Nevertheless:

How do you rate the clean sounds from these pickups?They are first rate

Are they as versatile as everyone suggests?Yes, pretty much, I do like Mules more for versatility, but the VH2 is right up there.

Are they nice and open sounding without being overly bright?They are *really* open and PAFfy sounding. Not quite as open as The Mule, but still extremely open. I don't find them overly bright, there is a Fendery quality to them, and the low end is relatively strong.

[ericsabbath]

i've got the bridge model in an alder/maple hardtail jazzmaster, which will be very different to your Les Paul of course. Nevertheless:

How do you rate the clean sounds from these pickups?They are first rate

Are they as versatile as everyone suggests?Yes, pretty much, I do like Mules more for versatility, but the VH2 is right up there.

Are they nice and open sounding without being overly bright?They are *really* open and PAFfy sounding. Not quite as open as The Mule, but still extremely open. I don't find them overly bright, there is a Fendery quality to them, and the low end is relatively strong.

+1 to everything
did a direct comparison from mule set to mule set in my les paul copy

that's kinda cool  :lol:

[Gary_Goo]

Thanks guys.
I haven't tried and don't own the Abraxas, but listening to the clips I noticed that at the bridge it sounds more saturated and a lot less open sounding than the VHII. I also didn't like that the neck and middle position don't sound that different from each other.
I like the Mule, but like the Brown Sugar in my Tele I'm liking the idea of something vintage hot in my LPC. My main worry was that the VHII would lack in clean tones, be too hot and not be as versatile as some of the other pickups in the BKP range.
From what you've said it sounds like a winner though.

[Telerocker]

VHII is more focussed then a Mule. I have one in an ash Fender. Non-compressed and very touchsensitive, really screams when you dig in. Quite balanced eq, highs are prominent, but not shrill. Great rockpickup.

[Gary_Goo]

How confusing is pickup choice sometimes. Ask about VHII's and everyone mentions the Mule in their answers.
Maybe I should just be getting a Mule set says a little voice in the back of my head.

[dingleberry]

FWIW I have a mule neck and a vhii neck, the vhii sounds amazing at what that guitar does, but I like the mule more :)

[JTG]

How confusing is pickup choice sometimes. Ask about VHII's and everyone mentions the Mule in their answers.
Maybe I should just be getting a Mule set says a little voice in the back of my head.

My problem is that I have too many voices in my head to logically decipher what BKP I want. lol

Hmm.....Nailbomb Alnico, Holydiver, BlackDog or VHii? So confused. Oh well, seems like any of the BKPs are going to kick ass, so maybe I should just throw darts.  :lol:

[Telerocker]

How confusing is pickup choice sometimes. Ask about VHII's and everyone mentions the Mule in their answers.
Maybe I should just be getting a Mule set says a little voice in the back of my head.

I tried to describe the difference as I have both pickups, in different guitars though. The VHII is truly a very good rockpickup, that cleans up well too. Way hotter then the Mule to my ears. The Mule is back to the late fifties PAF's, the VHII is more the seventies, you could say.

[Gary_Goo]

I agree with you JTG. I think we all have a sound in our heads and sometimes describing it or finding it in a pickup description can be a difficult task.
Telerocker, my last post wasn't a criticism by the way, so I hope it didn't come across as that. Its actually really useful when people who actually use the pickups chime in with their comments and opinions.
To be honest either the VHII or the Mule would probably work for me, they both have their positives. I could do with ordering both for comparisons sake really and see which one works best for me, but I'm not sure that's an option. My one problem is that whatever I buy I will want heavily aging as this guitar has seen a lot of action and has a fair bit of gold plating and paint missing, which means no returns according to BKP.
Anyway, thanks again for all the input. Its been very useful, even if it hasn't really narrowed down my options to just one pickup.

[darkbluemurder]

I only use the VHII neck.

Clean tones: yes, very good.

Versatility: yes, works great for blues to shredding (if I could do that properly  :) ).

Nice and open tone without being overly bright: yes, absolutely, and no mud on the bass strings (which is very important to me).

I had the VHII bridge also but exchanged it for a Crawler which I liked better for that particular guitar. I would not say that the VHII was overly bright but it lacked the warm midrange and creaminess I wanted for this guitar.

Cheers Stephan

[Gary_Goo]

Thanks Stephan. One thing I liked about the VHII neck in the sound clips was the extra bite compared to the Mule neck.
As you mentioned it in your post, the Crawler is one of the few in the BKP range that I really disliked. I found it too middy and lacking in top end. I can see why people might like it, but both the bridge and neck just didn't do it for me. Maybe that's a good indication that I'll like the VHII bridge.

[darkbluemurder]

Yeah, it seems that the Crawler bridge is to you what the VHII bridge is to me. And if the Abraxas is too compressed for you then the Crawler will definitely be too compressed.

Another option (which I did not try) would be the Emerald bridge with the VHII neck. I believe forum member hunter has one guitar with that combination and recorded a youtube clip with it.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

Crawler excels in alder/ash-bolt on guitars, but can choke the tone in mahogany based axes.