Coverband musician - One Guitar that does it all? - Mule, Riff Raff, HD BD?

[gwEm]

for a gigging guitar i would prefer parallel wiring to splits as it is hum cancelling. Gives you a similar sort of tone.

[Cboysen]

for a gigging guitar i would prefer parallel wiring to splits as it is hum cancelling. Gives you a similar sort of tone.

Note taken.

How would the combo of a Crawler in the bridge and a Mule in the neck be - Will the Mule be too low output for the crawler? - Should I maybe go with the abraxas instead, since it's the same magnet, with higher output? Especially worried about the cleans-factor

Kind regards

[darkbluemurder]

Will the Mule be too low output for the crawler? - Should I maybe go with the abraxas instead, since it's the same magnet, with higher output?

You don't really need as much output in the neck position since the string vibration is greater there. And the Crawler, while definitely hotter than a typical PAF is not a super high output pickup. A Mule neck should keep up fine with it.
I doubt that the Abraxas neck has higher output than the Mule - higher midrange is what I read.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

Will the Mule be too low output for the crawler? - Should I maybe go with the abraxas instead, since it's the same magnet, with higher output?

You don't really need as much output in the neck position since the string vibration is greater there. And the Crawler, while definitely hotter than a typical PAF is not a super high output pickup. A Mule neck should keep up fine with it.
I doubt that the Abraxas neck has higher output than the Mule - higher midrange is what I read.

Cheers Stephan

+1. The Crawler doesn't feel very hot. I would say mediumhot, close to the output of a VHII, maybe a little more. Should keep up with the Mule-neck, which is fantastic in every respect.

[Cboysen]

Will the Mule be too low output for the crawler? - Should I maybe go with the abraxas instead, since it's the same magnet, with higher output?

You don't really need as much output in the neck position since the string vibration is greater there. And the Crawler, while definitely hotter than a typical PAF is not a super high output pickup. A Mule neck should keep up fine with it.
I doubt that the Abraxas neck has higher output than the Mule - higher midrange is what I read.

Cheers Stephan

+1. The Crawler doesn't feel very hot. I would say mediumhot, close to the output of a VHII, maybe a little more. Should keep up with the Mule-neck, which is fantastic in every respect.

So, final words - Crawler Bridge, Mules neck, in a neck-through maple guitar with alder wings and ebony fretboard, to cover anything from coldplay to iron maiden and back again to Led zeppelin, keeping the vintage tone - is this what i should do?

Just making sure. 

Thanks for all the great responses by the way, been very helpful!

[Yellowjacket]

Where are you located?  In Europe?  In North America?

Over here, used Godins can be had on the cheap which is why I mentioned them.   I picked up a Godin superstrat in almost mint condition for $380 CAD so the entire outfit was not prohibitively expensive. 

But I understand, cash is tight.  In the least, keep your current pickups that you have in your axe.  Long term, you'll want a piece of wood more suited to what you want to do.  Just saying.

[Cboysen]

Where are you located?  In Europe?  In North America?

Over here, used Godins can be had on the cheap which is why I mentioned them.   I picked up a Godin superstrat in almost mint condition for $380 CAD so the entire outfit was not prohibitively expensive. 

But I understand, cash is tight.  In the least, keep your current pickups that you have in your axe.  Long term, you'll want a piece of wood more suited to what you want to do.  Just saying.

Yeah living in Denmark (europe), but i'll look into it anyhow, thanks a lot!

[Twinfan]

You could always just keep your guitar as it is and buy a Classic Vibe Tele, then you can cover everything with two guitars....

[_tom_]

I used to play in a cover band with just the one guitar - a les paul with Mules. Always sounded great but I could never be bothered getting specific sounds for each song. Just one clean-ish sound and one distorted sound with a wah and/or eq boost for leads. I dont think anyone either knows or cares if you dont use a singlecoil guitar if the original used it! Just have a few good sounds that arent offensive to the ears.

The Mules are probably my favourite bkps I've tried and kept, had em since about 2005/2006! Really versatile, I've used mine for everything. Got em in my SG now and they sound great in that.

[38thBeatle]

I've come to this rather late but I play in a cover type band a lot and I have a choice of Strats, Gibson ES 339 & a Tele. The Tele is my weapon of choice as it covers so much ground- I thought I'd just throw that pebble into the pond.

[Telerocker]

I've come to this rather late but I play in a cover type band a lot and I have a choice of Strats, Gibson ES 339 & a Tele. The Tele is my weapon of choice as it covers so much ground- I thought I'd just throw that pebble into the pond.

A tele or  HSS-strat is the ideal guitar for a coverband that plays a lot of different styles. However my Mules-loaded Saint Blues is quite versatile too. The middle position can copy the Nile Rodgers-sound a bit.

[Cboysen]

Getting a new guitar would probably be ideal, but at the moment, lets keep it to pickups.

I think I'm pretty set on a calibrated Crawler set, now that my guitar is fairly bright.


I was wondering though, some reviews claim the Crawler to be somewhat compressed, thus why Tim chose to put them as contemporary pickups.
Now I come from EMG81's, so nothing really gets more compressed than that, but will the crawlers still have plently of dynamics, or would it be better to just get a low-output mid-heavy pickup that would sit well in my maple-neckthrough / alder body guitar, and then boost it with a clean boost instead when needed?

An alternative, could be a mules set, with a lowered valueput, say 380k, to get a more open dynamic sound without getting too shrill. Or the inbetweener, the Abraxas?

Whats the difference really? Clean boost + Low output vs Medium output pickup? I'd suspect a heaver wound, higher output pickup will have a fatter, mid-heavy tone signature compared to a lowput pickup, that would be more natural and bright? Or am I completely wrong on the subject?

[Yellowjacket]

OK, I need to clarify something for you and I must apologize for overlooking it sooner.  My bad.

So, your guitar has EMGs in it.  This means that you will have to do the following to convert to passives:

2) You will need to replace the tone and volume pots, the cap, and you will need to install a ground from the bridge to the back of the volume pot.  There are schematics available to help with this.   So, this will inflate the cost of your mods and you may need to modify the instrument. 

I switched out EMGs from my Redline III and replaced them with a Juggernaut set.  I ended up redoing the wiring, replacing the jack, the pickup selection  (5 way super switch from a 3 way) and, of course, installing a ground wire.   
You're looking at least $100 for this on top of the pickups.

Looking at the guitar you have, I'm half tempted to recommend a Holy Diver set.  You can install a 5 say super switch for series / parallel wriring or for coil tapping.  Either will give you those single coil sounds as well as the humbucking tones.  Such a bright axe would do well with really phat pickups.
I think the Crawler set would work as well so you're on the right track with that.   Either way, I think either series / parallel wiring or series / coil tap will really get you the tones you want. 

[Cboysen]

OK, I need to clarify something for you and I must apologize for overlooking it sooner.  My bad.

So, your guitar has EMGs in it.  This means that you will have to do the following to convert to passives:

2) You will need to replace the tone and volume pots, the cap, and you will need to install a ground from the bridge to the back of the volume pot.  There are schematics available to help with this.   So, this will inflate the cost of your mods and you may need to modify the instrument. 

I switched out EMGs from my Redline III and replaced them with a Juggernaut set.  I ended up redoing the wiring, replacing the jack, the pickup selection  (5 way super switch from a 3 way) and, of course, installing a ground wire.   
You're looking at least $100 for this on top of the pickups.

Looking at the guitar you have, I'm half tempted to recommend a Holy Diver set.  You can install a 5 say super switch for series / parallel wriring or for coil tapping.  Either will give you those single coil sounds as well as the humbucking tones.  Such a bright axe would do well with really phat pickups.
I think the Crawler set would work as well so you're on the right track with that.   Either way, I think either series / parallel wiring or series / coil tap will really get you the tones you want.

Thanks a lot!  I do know that I need to change out most of the electrical components in the guitar, but thanks for clarifying.

I did look into the Holy Diver, but for my purpose, playing mostly clean pop-rock/souly/jazzy tones with the band, I think the crawler will be a better choice - Mostly due to how well the Crawler splits and does cleans

[Yellowjacket]

If you are ever in the market for a Phat Strat, you can regift a crawler set to it and try a Juggerset in the ESP.  They're awesome pickups but unfortunately, much too modern for what you are doing.