Major pickup swapping needs help

[jorgercrosa]

Hi everybody!

I've been checking this forum for some BKP wisdom for quite a while, and decided ti write my first post. I am sorry for another "which pickup should go where" thread, but I really could use some help at this point.

I have a mahogany custom tele with a Charvel neck being made, Miracle Man on the bridge, and I am considering putting a Trilogy Suite on the neck of this axe. However, I also got an alder body/itauba top custom tele with a Fender baritone neck, Painkiller on the bridge, that could use this Trilogy Suite I got. On top of that, I got my hands on a Nailbomb neck, and I was wondering if it belongs with the Painkiller, but what I really like to do is to get a Warpig bridge and start another project.

These are my concerns:

Will the difference in the output level between the Warpig bridge and Nailbomb neck be too much? Are there any tricks involving pickup height that might help me pull it off?

Shall I just drop the Warpig/Nailbomb idea and stick to the Miracle Man/Trilogy Suite and Painkiller/Nailbomb combos?

Which one would be a better match for the Trilogy Suite, the Miracle Man or the Painkiller?

I play mostly brutal death metal and HC (NY style), and tune to B and Ab standard, respectively.

Thanks, guys!

Regards from Brazil!

[jorgercrosa]

Come on, guys! Help a brother out! =-)

On top of that, I have a shot at trading the Trilogy Suite for a VHII.

So many options...

[Dave Sloven]

I guess people haven't responded because it is all a bit confusing.

Is the VHII a neck pickup too?  Or a bridge one?

The Nailbomb neck with the Painkiller bridge might work.

I don't think the Trilogy Suite would be a good match for the Miracle Man - a couple of people here have used MM with two bridge model Sinners and still found the Sinners a little underpowered relative to the MM.

The Trilogy Suites might also work with the Painkiller.

[jorgercrosa]

I see... Thanks for the input!

To make things simple, my options are:

MM/TS
PK/NB

or

MM
PK/TS
??/NB

I guess I should try to move the Trilogy Suite then... The VHII would be a bridge one that I wanted to use on the neck, paired with the MM. Not much of a shredder myself, it would be used for cleans and complex chords.

What do you think?

[Dave Sloven]

Personally out of all of those I think the PK/NB combo is the most likely to work well, based on output and the character of the pickups, but I will wait to see what others say regarding the PK/TS combo.  I don't know about using a bridge VHII in the neck with the MM bridge.  What I would say is look at the resistance measurement on the neck pickup that is normally paired with a bridge pickup, and the other way around.

For example:

MM neck: 17.4KΩ
VH2 bridge: 8.9KΩ

This is a big difference!

Although the PK neck is considerably hotter than the NB neck the PK bridge is around the same output as the NB bridge, which makes me think that the NB neck might be okay in terms of output paired with the PK bridge.

[jorgercrosa]

Thanks for the input, Agent! I am with you on the PK/NB combo, so the PK/TS will be plan B. I am looking forward to trade the TS though, not much of a single coil fan.

As for the MM/VHII (bridge on the neck), I am kind of curious, since the Cold Sweat neck, which seems to be the favorite match for the MM bridge amongst users of this forum, is 8.3k, which is less than the VHII bridge.

I've read some posts here in which basically people tend to think that the CS neck is more of a full bodied lead pickup, but the VHII has a better clean tone.

I am really looking for some wisdom on a CS neck vs. VHII bridge on the neck comparison. I know at least one forum user has tried that in the past, but I can't seem to find that post.

[Dave Sloven]

If you have a spare humbucker guitar, a pack of strings, and a soldering iron it would be easy enough to try the MM/VH2 combo out in *something* and it would help you decide whether it is worth setting up a different guitar for it.