Has anyone got a VH II set in a basswood superstrat?

[darkandrew]

Hi, has anyone put a VH II set in a basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard superstrat and what did you think?

[m t soule]

I have the neck with a maple board and I like i t lot!

[m t soule]

It's got a good amount of pick attack that's accented by the maple board
It can be bright if attacked aggressive and a fat/hollow feeling playing cleans (a stratty vibe)
I use it for many things aswell

[Telerocker]

My VHII is in an ash Fender Am. Series HSS. It's a noncompressed pickup and therefore with a lot of pickattack/dynamics. Bright, but not shrill topend, quite some bass, good mids. Oozes rock and hardrock. Pinched harmonics are no problem at all. It screams when you dig in. Some folks will say it's little dry, but with a good tubeamp and a touch of delay it has enough richness for me.

[m t soule]

Yeah agreed there.
It's funny you should say 'dry' because to day I fitted an evolution neck to my jem. I did comparisons with all my BKPs and I noted the it sounded like a my vhii but "squared off".The evo lacked the twinkle the vhii had but with a tighter bass.
I really like them both. I use my vhii for under the bridge sounds and nile Rodgers cleans.
though it's not really suited I use it distorted for a tom morello ish sound.

The vhii splits nicely too.

Tommie

[Telerocker]

Yeah agreed there.
It's funny you should say 'dry' because to day I fitted an evolution neck to my jem. I did comparisons with all my BKPs and I noted the it sounded like a my vhii but "squared off".The evo lacked the twinkle the vhii had but with a tighter bass.
I really like them both. I use my vhii for under the bridge sounds and nile Rodgers cleans.
though it's not really suited I use it distorted for a tom morello ish sound.

The vhii splits nicely too.

Tommie

Nile Rodgers clean tone is a strat on the neckpickup or the second position on the cleanchannel of an F-style amp, so I'm amused you can pull that tone off with a VHII-bridge.
I can get close with Mules though: middleposition has the attack, singlecoil chime and vintagevibe to play soul and funk.

[m t soule]

I get the sound to the point I enjoy it really, position 4 roll off the volume middle single coil screwed low to color the split vhii as little as possible.

[darkbluemurder]

I have not played that combination but I could imagine that the VHII with it's accentuated attack and harmonics works very well in a guitar with a basswood body which is said to have a rather soft attack in general.

Cheers Stephan

[darthphineas]

Hi, has anyone put a VH II set in a basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard superstrat and what did you think?

I have it in an old Charvel Predator.  Basswood with maple neck and rosewood board. 22 frets, strat scale neck with Jackson branded Schaller trem and brass block.

Compared to spat least one of the other more-known VH-themed pickups, I can understand where it can be seen as on the dry side. I'm not saying that,mbut I can see where people would. I did some swapping around at one point with a HD to try to get the HD to work for me before I eventually got rid of the HD and I tried the VHII in an alder super strat with rosewood and got a much better idea of how bright it can be. Not shrill bright, but I think the more 'open' quality lends itself to really coming through.

I don't chase the VH tone, but I do find the hot-vintage class of pickups associated with that tone to be good rock pickups and pretty versatile. I've tried a few from a "big name" company and I've also tried the ones that DiMarzio makes for the EBMM and I am expecting an Arcane 'Brownbucker' to arrive today. Many of the voicings aren't as chewy as people would generally expecting, which leads me more toward the amp and the fingers for the tone that VH gets.

The VHII is pretty versatile.