Neck pickup to match an A-Bomb in an Explorer

[Dave Sloven]

OK, I like the A-Bomb in my Explorer after disliking it in my SG.

Now I just need a neck pickup to go with it.

I play hardcore punk, '80s style - Doom, Heresy, RDP, SOB, Discharge, Antisect, Deviated Instinct, etc - and the guitar is a backup for my main guitar, which is a Stockholm P-90 equipped SG Junior (also tuned to D standard).  At the moment tonally the Stockholm and A-Bomb are a good match, although the Stockholm perhaps has the edge.  The Explorer will also be used for those rare occasions when I need a neck pickup in this band.

At the moment I'm tossing up between a Stockholm HSP-90, a custom Supermassive in the HSP-90 size, and a Nailbomb HB neck pickup.  Any ideas on this out there?  What are your experiences with these pickups?  I'd prefer a brighter neck pickup.

The only other neck pickup I am considering is the VHII but I suspect that might be too dark.  Rebel Yell would be an outside bet.

[Kiichi]

If you want a brighter neck I would take the MQ over the SM and SH. They are great, but both conciderably fatter than the MQ, which should be able to hold its own as it is know to work with the WP too. I am not very familiar with your styles (too young...and I like Trivium xD) but the MQ sure can scream. My guess is that it can keep up in agression.

[Dave Sloven]

I am not very familiar with your styles (too young...and I like Trivium xD)

I guess this is the most recent video by the most famous active band close to our style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4A1m4flXfg

Not much scope for using a neck pickup there - also, in this band I am the rhythm guitarist - but I guess I like the neck pickup on both the Stockholm and Nailbomb clips a lot, and I'm looking for something that both fits very well with the A-Bomb and Stockholm I already have and can provide aggressive, angular leads.  I don't want to play 'sweet' leads with this guitar, I will save those for the Cold Sweat guitar and for the Warpigs if I find a guitar they work better in.

In some ways though I guess the following band is probably more the direction our lead guitarist's influences are pushing us in, although again my job is mainly the riffs, and the rhythm section will be more in the straight-ahead d-beat vein of the Doom clip above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfsWgwKCjnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXuf1aNXPeQ

We are also influenced by powerviolence though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzInvsnlXzs

That last video just never gets old, ha ha ha

[Dave Sloven]

bump.  And, does anyone know if BKP are taking a break over this period and, if so, for how long?  I was planning to order a pickup soon but if they have annual leave I guess there's no rush

[Dave Sloven]

I wrote to Ben asking about the two pickups that seem most suited to my style of music, namely the Nailbomb and Stockholm necks, while inquiring about when they go back to work and thanking him for all his advice on pickup selection over the year. Apparently they go back to work Monday, which kind of surprised me.  I thought they might all take annual leave at this time, but I guess Cornwall his miserable weather this time of year (it's the middle of summer where I live and I tend to forget).

This is what I asked:

I have switched out the A-Pig in my Epiphone Korina Explorer for the A-Bomb I used to have in my SG and the latter works really well in that guitar, and basically I have tuned that guitar and set it up so that it and the SG Junior with the Stockholm work really well together as backups for each other in the same band.  We play '80s UK hardcore, crust punk, d-beat, thrash, that kind of thing.

The Warpig neck isn't a good match though.  I'm looking to order another neck pickup, probably either a Nailbomb or a Stockholm.  I figure the NB is a no-brainer as a match, but would the Stockholm be better, especially as I have set the Nailbomb guitar up so closely to my Stockholm guitar (which only has a single pickup).

Ben replied as follows:

Yes a Nailbomb neck or a Stockholm neck will both balance - obviously one's a humbucker and one's a single coil. Either will work for the styles you play.

Granted my question could have been a bit more open-ended but I figure I've narrowed it down to two through listening to samples, and I was really just concerned as to whether the Stockholm neck would match with the Nailbomb bridge.

As both of these neck pickups suffer from a relative lack of reviews here, I'm hoping someone who has used the Stockholm can give me some advice on what it is like for cleans, leads, that kind of thing.  It might be the case that it is safer to go with the Nailbomb, in that it is a simple match up, but I am wondering what I might be missing out on if I pass on the Stockholm.

With this in mind I'm revising the poll too, so that there are just two options.  I don't think the others suit the style of music I am using this guitar for that well.

[Kiichi]

I can only comment on the Supermassive neck, which is somewhat closely related. Cleans on that thing are ok. Too modern, fat and hot for my taste, but for a pickup out of that category quite good. The P90 shimmer saves it and takes it above things like the AM neck. If I wanne play clean I usually combine it with the SH bridge using my series/parallel push pull pot, which is more rewarding since thinner and more jangly.

When I add gain however I really love this thing. Neck P90s are wonderful lead PUs. Here the fat hotness makes it feel thick and fluid, but it is still open and deep in feel. The perhaps most lovely thing for me is the single coil attack. Added in the with the earlier things it really makes playing fast a joy as notes feel nicely separated, yet connected. I feel it is about as much of a stream as a good neck HB, but the added attack between notes makes playing seem even faster.

You can also turn it down to sing too, does that in a lovely manner as well. When you just let it scream however it has more agression than HBs and pinched harmonics are easier too. On my other guitars when I wanne add pinched harmonics to a lead line (up to around 12th fret on the high strings) I need to switch to the bridge. With the SM I can actually pull them off on the neck for a great sound. Still not as easy as on the bridge (SH spits harmonics), but quite doable and amazing sounding.

[Dave Sloven]

Harmonics are something that I tend to do in the middle of rhythm playing, not so much with the 'pinch' technique as a pick harmonic.  I guess I might like to use them in lead playing on the neck pickup too though once I get the hang of the wah pedal, which I do have but which I have not been able to experiment with very much.  To be honest in my current band the chances of me playing on the neck pickup are very remote, so I guess what I am looking for is something that would be fun to play at home in my spare time.  I spend most of my time handling the riffs, while the lead guitarist gets to do other stuff over the top of that.  Hey, someone has to do it, right?  I like being the one who's driving the song forward anyway.

Where the neck pickup might come into play is if I had another hardcore band where I was the only guitarist.  Then I might play some leads.  Or if I used this guitar to play in a Slayer or Possessed type thrash metal band, with two lead players.  If it would work well for that it would also be good.

On this guitar I suspect I will pretty much always be playing with a certain amount of overdrive, if not flat out distortion.  Thus clean sounds are not so important.  What I do want though is a pickup that screams and is a very aggressive lead pickup, rather than a 'beautiful' lead pickup like my Cold Sweat.  When I want to play nice stuff in standard tuning like old school heavy metal I will just use my SG with the Cold Sweat, and I do hope to put my Warpigs into another SG eventually for Masters of Reality type downtuned Sabbathy stuff.   I just found them overly dark in the Explorer, whereas the Nailbomb suits it perfectly

[metale]

Personally, I would do it as a set, with a push-pull for putting the two neck coils on parallel, giving you 2 clean tones. The Stockholm sounds too modern to me for cleans.

[Dave Sloven]

Personally, I would do it as a set, with a push-pull for putting the two neck coils on parallel, giving you 2 clean tones. The Stockholm sounds too modern to me for cleans.

I already have a push-push pot in the guitar, using it as a bypass for the volume pots, but that was really only useful with the darker Warpig pickups.  I also have a SD Triple Shot pickup ring laying around; I was going to use that with the Warpig neck but I could use it for the Nailbomb neck too.

I'm leaning toward the Nailbomb neck simply because of the 'no-brainer' aspect of a calibrated set.

[Dave Sloven]

I played it safe and ordered a matching Nailbomb neck pickup.

[darkbluemurder]

The only neck pickups I tried with the A-bomb bridge were the VHII (very good) and the Crawler (also good but I preferred the VHII). I am looking forward to your report on the Nailbomb neck.

Cheers Stephan

[Dave Sloven]

The only neck pickups I tried with the A-bomb bridge were the VHII (very good) and the Crawler (also good but I preferred the VHII). I am looking forward to your report on the Nailbomb neck.

Cheers Stephan

I haven't received it yet; I'm assuming it will probably arrive around next Monday based on previous times. I did play the Explorer at band practice the other day and it was an obvious difference from when it had the A-Pig in it.  Whereas previously the consensus had been that it 'sounds like a bass' with the A-Pig and C# standard tuning, with the A-Bomb and D standard tuning they all thought that it sounded 'brighter' and 'more cutting' than the Stockholm in the SG Junior.  That might be due in part to the difference between the now somewhat dull D'Addarios in the SG Junior and the less well-played Ernie Ball strings in the Explorer but it is also consistent with the better qualities I noted with the A-Bomb in the SG Standard but with more bottom and less middy honk than it had in that guitar.  Output wise the Stockholm and A-Bomb are on a par, but the Stockholm has more highs and lows whereas the A-Bomb has more mids and low-mids.  I'll be interested to hear the Nailbomb neck, even though I don't use neck pickups much at all and never get the chance to use them in this band.