Opeth/Porcupine Tree style pickup choice

[Shadowvault]

Hello guys,
half a year ago i made a thread because i wanted to choose some pickups for a guitar that my father would build for me.Now the guitar is almost ready and i need your opinion
http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f20/duality-7-replica-build-warning-pic-heavy-129606.html
My favorite bands are Opeth/Porcupine Tree,but i also like Nevermore,Symphony X,Beyond Creation and prog stuff in general.I also like to play some Guthrie Govan stuff.The guitar is a 7string so im very confused.What would you advice me to buy?
Thanks in advance!

[Arthurus]

I would recommend you the Holydiver for the bridge position. For prog sounds, it's pretty cool. It's versatile, so it should let you play fast riffing as well as open chords and mind-blowing solos. Including Guthrie Govan solos. FYI, this pickup is inspired by the old Jeff Beck from Seymour Duncan. But it has that unique BKP touch. I loved it in my Ibanez RG 3120, and the woods are a bit similar to those of your guitar. Beautiful, by the way !

By the way, I love your father's mustache. It's glorious ! Have a great day !

[ericsabbath]

alnico nailbomb bridge/vhII neck for the guthrie govan thing
the alnico nailbomb is also the most common choice for Opeth
but I'd go ceramic for the other stuff

[Dave Sloven]

That's a beautiful guitar.  Your father is a fine craftsman.

I don't know prog that well so I don't have any really good suggestions but I would think that you would probably be looking at something from the vintage hot range for the neck, maybe a VHII or an Emerald?  And maybe either a Holy Diver, Cold Sweat, or Rebel Yell for the bridge?  An alternative might be a Black Hawk but I really don't know much about them.  I would tend to avoid the more aggressive sounding pickups like the Painkiller, Nailbomb, Aftermath, etc.  It really depends on the wood.

The Rebel Yell bridge & VHII neck combination has been well tested by the guys at BKP so you might want to strike up a conversation with them about it via email. If you tell them more about the construction of your guitar and the sounds you are looking for then they should be able to say either that that combination is the one for you or that given your style/setup some other combination/set would be better.

Here's a video of that combination in an 8 string, compared with an Aftermath set:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ppjENE6J8

[ericsabbath]

I would recommend you the Holydiver for the bridge position. For prog sounds, it's pretty cool. It's versatile, so it should let you play fast riffing as well as open chords and mind-blowing solos. Including Guthrie Govan solos.

to my ears, govan has a more open and less massive midrange
and a big part of his tone comes from his constant knob rolling, but he uses a SSH+ pickup, which is pretty hot and low mid heavy like the nailbomb
I really think the nailbomb gets way closer than a holy diver, although it's a more aggressive pickup
and his neck tones sound a lot like the vhII (rather than the cold sweat or something)
I personally like the holy diver better, but the nailbomb is spot on in this case

[Slartibartfarst42]

My instinct would be Holydiver but I've read lots of threads saying the A-Bomb is best for this style. Very different pickups so I guess it depends how smooth or how aggressive you want things.

[Shadowvault]

Thank you all for your answers but im still confused.Everybody says a different pickup XD

[JimmyMoorby]

alnico nailbomb bridge/vhII neck for the guthrie govan thing
the alnico nailbomb is also the most common choice for Opeth
but I'd go ceramic for the other stuff

I agree the nailbomb would be perfect for Opeth all those complex chords under hi gain the nailbomb is brilliant for this.  I like all those bands but I cant get into porcupine tree or beyond creation........yet.

Im very much into progressive metal and the alnico nailbomb bridge/cold sweat neck work very well for me but I could also see the vhii neck working.

[Shadowvault]

But is it ok to break the sets and use a different one for neck and bridge?

[JimmyMoorby]

But is it ok to break the sets and use a different one for neck and bridge?

Depending on the combinations yes.  The nailbomb bridge and cold  sweat neck are a very popular choice re combinations and if you buy direct from BKP they can ensure they match as well as can be.

[Dave Sloven]

Yes, but the sensible thing would be to ask BKP for their opinion on any proposed combination to see if they foresee any possible issues for you.

I had a Cold Sweat neck with an A-Bomb but felt they didn't always sit together well tonally.  I would tend toward the Rebel Yell neck with an A-Bomb if I were to look for that kind of neck pickup again, as the Rebel Yell set seems to be closer to the Nailbomb set than the Cold Sweat set is in that respect.  The Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell necks are very similar, except the RY neck has been changed to sit better with the RY bridge. People describe the RY neck as a CS neck with a bit of VHII in there as well.  The Nailbomb neck has a quite different character but I like that one too.  The RY and CS neck pickups are much more in the 'shred' vein than the NB neck though.

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Nailbomb neck doesn't get mentioned much so I'm honestly not sure what it's like. How is it different to the Cold Sweat/Rebel Yell and what is it good at?

[Dave Sloven]

I'm not sure what it's good at but to me it seems to have less of that 'neck pickup' character, if that makes any sense.  On the other hand the Cold Sweat neck is rounded, fat and dark sounding to my ears.  It seems to be slightly less so since I turned it around but not much.  I've really only heard the clips on the website but in the part where it switches to the neck pickup I really like the overall tone of the pickup although I think the style of lead played on it doesn't really suit that pickup.  It seems to have more 'bite' that your usual neck pickup and is nowhere near as 'smooth' sounding as a Cold Sweat.  In general just from the clips (and of course my own experience with the Cold Sweat) I prefer the sound of the CS neck for clean sounds and the NB neck for overdriven/distorted sounds.  I think that's very much a personal opinion though.  BigB did a review of the neck but didn't really say much about it other the fact that it is a great match for the bridge pickup; listening just to the clips I would say that the NB probably would appeal more to someone like me who tends to avoid the neck pickup, encouraging them to use the neck more.  A person who is very happy going to the average neck pickup for leads might not like it so much.

[JimmyMoorby]

Yes, but the sensible thing would be to ask BKP for their opinion on any proposed combination to see if they foresee any possible issues for you.

I had a Cold Sweat neck with an A-Bomb but felt they didn't always sit together well tonally.  I would tend toward the Rebel Yell neck with an A-Bomb if I were to look for that kind of neck pickup again, as the Rebel Yell set seems to be closer to the Nailbomb set than the Cold Sweat set is in that respect.  The Cold Sweat and Rebel Yell necks are very similar, except the RY neck has been changed to sit better with the RY bridge. People describe the RY neck as a CS neck with a bit of VHII in there as well.  The Nailbomb neck has a quite different character but I like that one too.  The RY and CS neck pickups are much more in the 'shred' vein than the NB neck though.

Mate the lads already said hes confused with all the suggestions and the nailbomb and cold sweat work very well together  and are a popular combo. I had recommended to me being into thrash and progressive metal and they even split really well.  Cant be bad if Chris Broderick was using them who was a guitarist in nevermore for a bit and the nailbombs work well for opeth and dream theater stuff.  Also if you dont like neck pickups or the nailbomb isnt it hard to advise what works together?  Progressive metal isnt normally subtle guys like jeff loomis and michael romeo rip and the cold sweat would be ideal. The nailbomb is also good for heavy riffs and unusual chords under hi gain

In the nicest possible way ive got time for what any one says on here its all relative and personal and I value everyones opinion but asking you pair ^ about the nailbomb kinda seems like asking Hitler who his top 10 Jews were.

[ericsabbath]

the neck nailbomb is like a heavily underwound version of the bridge model
a lot brighter and very scooped and uncompressed
it's very articulate and twangy, but it's not like a hot paf or something
I could compare it to a duncan '59 (regarding the heavy midscoop) , but it's louder, a lot treblier and more focused than that
I could use that for funk or power metal solos, but I really didn't enjoy it for my styles
I think it was the only bkp model I really didnt bond with at all

I think the neck vhII would sit way better with the bridge nailbomb
it has a similar low mid thickness to the bridge nailbomb, open midrange without going superscooped and a nice sparkly top without getting trebly
like a big sounding overwound paf

the neck cold sweat is about as hot as the vhII, but has a different voicing
lot less bass and low mids, more center and upper mids
still not a middy pickup, but the mids sound more dense and less open, and has a slightly better articulation

both vhII and cold sweat would work pretty well
if you want a more classic sound like govan's, the vhII definitely does a better job at that, but for the regular dimarzio-like modern prog sound like DT and SX, the cold sweat may fit better