crawler split or parallel and single coils combo?

[Dave Sloven]

You might also want to consider the Holy Diver for the bridge

[Telerocker]

Diver is an option too, more modern than the Crawler, less huge and less bass. Both have serious mids and do eigthies metal, just in different way.
For the OP: the IT-neck is more tele than the MM-neck, which has a genuine early sixties sound with all the famous sparkle, hollowness and woodiness.

[Iced Dragon]

ok, thanks. I think I'll stick with a crawler.

Didn't mean 80's metal, but 80's pop ;)

So, I'm still doubting between MMilk and IT.

Say I'd want a typical '80s sound (think the rythm guitar in Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, Madonna's Who's that girl or Nick Kamen's Each Time You Break My Heart), that's single coil, right? (no P90). Quite percussive.

Which would suit better?

Thanks

[fdesalvo]

80's pop production is full of great, clean and sparkling strat tones.  You'll want the MMs in that case. 

ok, thanks. I think I'll stick with a crawler.

Didn't mean 80's metal, but 80's pop ;)

So, I'm still doubting between MMilk and IT.

Say I'd want a typical '80s sound (think the rythm guitar in Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, Madonna's Who's that girl or Nick Kamen's Each Time You Break My Heart), that's single coil, right? (no P90). Quite percussive.

Which would suit better?

Thanks

[Dave Sloven]

BKP sell 'Crawler humbucker & 2 Mother's milk single coils' as one of their HSS sets.

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=119

[Telerocker]

BKP sell 'Crawler humbucker & 2 Mother's milk single coils' as one of their HSS sets.

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=119

Yeah and I have the Crawler/IT's which is a wicked combo. I also have a VHII/Mother's Milk combo, where BKP recommends VHII/Irish Tours, which I think fit better to the Crawler. They can't put all the combo's on their website: by example no Abraxas in the HSS-sets and that is, like the Crawler, a great pickup for bolt-on guitars.
Anyway you can order whatever combo you like at BKP or your dealer.

[Iced Dragon]

Yeah, well, I checked out the Abraxas on Youtube, and it's interesting, to say the least.
How is it split compared to the crawler?

Heard a nice combination with slowhands ...

So now, I'm doubting even more ...
To recapitulate, I want my Hamer Centaura (swamp ash (probably) and maple board) to be an allround pop/rock/blues guitar, mainly pursuing an 80's sound (not metal per se, I have other guitars, but shred would be a plus), perhaps some Nashville/tele or jazzy sounds too ...
I want nice sc strat-like cleans (until I realised that there are several strat sounds  ), sparkly, twangy but dirty blues too ... funky 80's rhythm as heard with Madonna, Michael Jackson, ...; not overly bright though.

SC sounds: jimi hendrix, RHCP, Robert Cray, Chris Isaak, SRV ...

Humbucker: I generally don't like clean bridge humbuckers sounds. Perhaps never played the right one. They never seem 'full' or defined. Hard to define, really. I do want a nice warm, full, 'liquid' lead tone, and a nice not too bright split clean.
I would also like to combine the split humbucker with the neck SC to have some tele-like sound.

So, I'm doubting between

1. Crawler/IT/IT
2. Crawler/IT/MMilk
3. Abraxas/IT/IT
4. Abraxas/IT/MMilk
5. Abraxas/SH/SH
6. other????

Does the middle SC has to be RWRP?
Do you pay full price if you compose your own HSS set?


thanks

[fdesalvo]

Abraxas splits beautifully - if not on par with the Crawler, then maybe - maybe a notch below it.  I have two Abraxas loaded guitars.  Haven't looked back yet.  Got a Crawler/MM going into my current build.

[Telerocker]

Abraxas splits beautifully - if not on par with the Crawler, then maybe - maybe a notch below it.  I have two Abraxas loaded guitars.  Haven't looked back yet.  Got a Crawler/MM going into my current build.

Agreed. Both split very good. Btw, the OP doesn't need to worry about the cleans from these pickups. They both produce very nice cleans. Everytime I'm surprised how the Crawler in full humbucking mode cleans up when I turn down the volumeknob. It can even jangle a bit that way. On the other hand, if you turn the toneknob on the guitar, I can pull off some great jazzbox-tones. I even play Setzer on that setting. Setzer on a strat, I should be  ...

[Iced Dragon]

hmmm, difficult, but I think I'll stick with the Crawler/IT combo.

Does the middle need to be RWRP?

Special needs for the humbucker to make the wiring possible?

[Iced Dragon]

Would it have a large impact soundwise if the guitar was alder instead of swampash, and would it affect pickup choice?

[Iced Dragon]

Hi all,

sorry to bother you guys again. I've taken a more in-depth listening to the single coils.

I was wondering if the Apaches could be mixed with a Crawler bridge?

When listening to the Irish Tours on youtube, I like them. there's definitely still a quack and a pronounced bass and dynamic, but when listening to the demos here, I think it sounds quite compressed and the bass seems tighter, while the MMilk, Apache and PAT seem to be more dynamic (fuller sounding?).

Another song I associate with the typical single coil sound I'm after: Big Log by Robert Plant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT7sJkBejc
Can this still be achieved with Irish Tours and playing with the tone pot (and perhaps resistors and caps)?

It's a hard decision. BKPs don't come in cheap, and I want to make the right choice :)


Thanks

[Iced Dragon]

Just had a chat, and I was already considering the '63 veneer board SCs, but Ben French also suggested them. I guess this is more the Robert Cray, James Calvin Wilsey (Chris Isaak), ... kinda sound I'm after.

What do you think about this in combination with a crawler?

Could I still get the tele sound out of bridge+neck?

[Iced Dragon]

Hi guys,

last week I received my crawler/'63 HSS set.

I installed them with an autosplit and through a push-pull pot coil split+selection of this coil, meaning that when it's split I can combine it with any of the other pick-ups (in theory).
I haven't got the time to really test them thoroughly, but here's a first impression.

The crawler (nearly) blew me away. I've never encountered a bridge humbucker which I liked clean. They often sound kind of nasal to me. The crawler has it just a little bit. Seems like a very balanced pick-up, but might have had a tad more bass, though. With distortion, it's very clean, ideal to get rid of sloppy playing ... Nice, fluent leads. Shred is no prob. Reminds me of Jason Becker's Perpetual Burn but perhaps less drive/output?
The split coil is indeed nice (for so far I have experience with single coils ...).

The '63 veneer board set: wow! In my guitar, nice, warm cleans. Truly single coil sound, but not 100 % what I was after. It might be the guitar having plenty of mids by itself, but at least the neck might have been a bit more scooped, a little more bass and somewhat hotter. They should be clean but have a little more edge to them (does this make sense?). They lack some quack/twang to me. I can get the 'Wicked Game' sound, but less Robert Cray, or, Chris Rea, which I've been exploring recently. But still, very nice sounding, I like them, and are generally what I was looking for, and perhaps I need some tweaking with height and amp settings?
Perhaps MMilk would indeed have been better, but then again perhaps too much treble and over the top twang? Irish Tours, don't know, even more mids?
Or a baseplate?

My splitting options. These add quite some combinations, but I'm not sure if wiring works out 100 % ok. I would expect that position 2 (autosplit) would sound the same as with my coil split + positon 3, but the autosplit sounds fuller, warmer, slightly louder so I'm not sure if the autosplit works with the current wiring (I originally installed everything without coil split, and it seemed (!) different). I don't think different coils are used when autosplit or coil split, right?

But in general, very nice sounds, quit versatile. Shredding with the '63 is no problem too. I mainly miss some twang and output, but amp settings might help a little.

[Kiichi]

Nice to hear mate. With the SCs IŽd definetly experiment with height first, it should do a lot. After that my thought would be baseplate, which should do just what you want.