Pickups for Carvin build

[PullMeUnder]

Just a quick hi to the forum. I'd say I'll keep this short, but I guess I won't know exactly what to write until it's done, so please bear with me...

I'll start with the guitar...

It's a Carvin Bolt Plus. Alder Body with a Maple Top and a Maple Neck/Fingerboard. It is Floyd equipped with 2 direct-mounted humbuckers.

Now for the sound I'm after...

I think what I'm exactly looking for is a bit complex. I'm a big fan of instrumental guitar players such as Neal Schon, Neil Zaza, etc. Whilst being a fan of players such as Marco Sfogli and John Petrucci, I'm just sick of the Dimarzio equipped guitar into the MESA Mark V tone. There's too many players out these days that sound exactly like Petrucci. His tone is fantastic don't get me wrong, it's just become too overdone and I want to find something unique.

Neal Schon did a cover of My Heart Will Go On (I'll post a link below if you'd care to listen) and I'm looking for a pickup which provides all the touch sensitivity you can hear in his playing and ability to clean up with the volume pot. I'm more of a player who likes to let my fingers and picking hand do the talking. I like to feel the notes as to them just feel sterile. But of course I'd like it be be musical and vocal...capable of really singing. As I mentioned before with the volume pot, I may go through an entire song on 1 channel, turning up the volume pot as the song becomes more powerful to to control the saturation and power of the sound. Again the link to the Neal Schon should describe exactly what I'm after.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Mikael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMiP64A1b74

[Telerocker]

Hi and welcome!

I would look at the vintagehot-line. I would definitely consider the Abraxas or the Crawler, regarding the bolt-on neck and timbers. The last one seems hot, but has not much more output than a VHII and is warm, fat and beefy, yet transparant. Those solonotes the Crawler delivers in spades, but this pickup cleans up great too, but never will sound tinny. Also the splitted tones are satisfying. The Abraxas is a little less hot, with a tad less mids and a bit more topend chime. Where the Abraxas is a sort of hotrodded Mule, the Crawler is the uber-Mule. Hope this helps a bit.