Crawler Review

[Slartibartfarst42]

The thing is though, the Emerald neck is also AIV yet in the same guitar it seems brighter and there's absolutely no hint of mush at all yet, as I said in the other thread I've started on this, Ben describes the neck Emerald as both darker and fatter than the neck Crawler, neither of which matches my experience of them in the same guitar. The neck Emerald is about as perfect as I think a neck pickup can get.

The issue of not being well matched was part of my concern with this. If I do go to a Mule in the neck, will that mean I'll need an Abraxas in the bridge and if I do that, will the AIV Abraxas, being brighter, give me the fat smoothness I like without any mush? If it won't, does that then mean that I need to have the Abraxas neck to go with the Crawler bridge?

[BigB]

The thing is though, the Emerald neck is also AIV yet in the same guitar it seems brighter and there's absolutely no hint of mush at all

Yeps I saw your other post after I answered this one. Well, if that's not AIV then it's something about the wind / voicing I guess  :?

Anyway I found the Mule and Crawler necks to have the same "soft loose warmth" in the lows which is what I assume you call "mushiness".

The issue of not being well matched was part of my concern with this. If I do go to a Mule in the neck, will that mean I'll need an Abraxas in the bridge and if I do that, will the AIV Abraxas, being brighter, give me the fat smoothness I like without any mush? If it won't, does that then mean that I need to have the Abraxas neck to go with the Crawler bridge?

Sorry just can't answer this one - unless you send some Abraxas here so I can try them out by myself  :lol:

[Philly Q]

The thing is though, the Emerald neck is also AIV yet in the same guitar it seems brighter and there's absolutely no hint of mush at all

Yeps I saw your other post after I answered this one. Well, if that's not AIV then it's something about the wind / voicing I guess  :?

As far as I know the Mule, Abraxas and Crawler neck peckups are all AIV and wound with the same type of wire (very similar DC resistances).  The main differences are probably in the amount of offset between the coils, I'd guess.

The Emerald neck is also AIV but presumably uses a thinner wire, hence the higher DC resistance.  Maybe that's what makes the difference?

[Slartibartfarst42]

Getting another Emerald neck is massively tempting as I know I love it but why have two the same? The other thing with the Emerald is that I already know it's bright and clear in this guitar and I wouldn't want it any brighter but to cope with the bass of the Crawler I've had to switch to Blue Steels instead of my normal Tite Fits and I fear this will tip the Emerald over the edge and make it too bright. This would mean that even though I really like the Crawler bridge, if I went with the Emerald neck I'd need a brighter bridge pickup and that seems to point to the Abraxas which is described as fat, smooth and rich like the Crawler but brighter. Conversely, if I stick with the Crawler bridge I'd need a neck pickup that isn't quite as bright as the Emerald but certainly brighter than a Crawler. Again that seems to point to an Abraxas though I suspect that other things may also work. All this would seem to mean that to get pickups that balance it has to either be Crawler/Abraxas or Abraxas/Emerald or Abraxas/Abraxas.

[darkbluemurder]

How do the Mule, Abraxas and Crawler necks compare?

Can't speak for the Mule but the Abraxas neck is definitely brighter than the Crawler neck, and a tiny bit lower in output.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

I think the Mule-neck will not be outbalanced with a Crawler-bridge. The Crawler in my strat doesn't feel very hot, not that much hotter then the VHII in my other strat. When I switch from Crawler to the IT-neck, the volumedrop is noticable, but not out of line at all. It just drops a littlebit.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm actually swapping things around. I used to have a Holydiver/Emerald set in this guitar (yellow PRS) but they were moved to my new one (purple PRS) and I then put the Crawler set in the yellow one. The purple guitar seems to be somewhat darker and more mellow than the yellow one so I decided to move the Emerald in with the Crawler. The Emerald always sat really well in that guitar and I think its hot vintage tone will sit well with the Crawler in the bridge. For the purple one, I've decided to get a Holydiver neck to go with the Holydiver bridge. I think the brighter nature of the Holydiver neck will work well in the purple guitar and be a good match (obviously) for the Holydiver bridge. I'm hoping to have the new pickup by the weekend so I'll try to post a review of the Holydiver neck by the end of next week.

[shaman]

I love the Crawlers in my LP Custom-it is a big piece of wood, but it certainly isn't in the "dark" category that you mentioned in the early part of your review
-it has bottom,of course, but that sucker is a bright guitar!
the Crawlers really help balance the eq of this particular guitar-and I get a real sweet vintage tone,nice and open when dialed in that way(I like to back off the vol pot )
-dial up the gain and its a balanced,solid rock tone

[Slartibartfarst42]

The bridge pickup certainly has loads of bottom end but is nice and articulate. It has a real sizzle to it when driven hard. Myself and others have talked of the neck Crawler being dark yet Tim and Ben both see it as bright. It's certainly fat and rounded.