Help!!! Yet another pickup selection thread!

[omgpacifist]

hello all! I have a custom Mayones Regius 6 coming in a few months. It'll have mahogany wings, a maple based neck thru neck, an ebony board, quilted maple top, and SS frets. I'm extremely excited! That being said I need your thoughts on what would be a good pickup set. I play anything from contemporary worship to prog (cough djent djent djent). I play loads of periphery, intervals, Polyphia, Marco Sfogli, and Andy Timmons. As you can see I need a pickup that sings for leads but retains good rhythmic qualities. I have a set of Juggernauts in my JP6 BFR with alder wings, a bolt on mahogany neck, rosewood board, ss frets, and a quilted maple top. I love them; however, I'm worried that they wouldn't go well in the Mayones because of the tone woods used. I feel as though the Regius will be much brighter due to the neck thru maple and ebony fingerboard. That being said I'll describe what I'm looking for!
Bridge: tight, warm, dynamic, expressive. I like a thick tone and I need to make sure that while it's able to be used for metal, it isn't shrill when playing leads. I had Aftermaths and couldn't stand them.
Neck: liquidy, fluid, FAT, warm. I like a neck pickup that will smack me in the face with how fat it sounds. I also need it to retain its bite. Good cleans are a MUST.

I've contacted Bareknuckle and they suggested the Holydiver set. (Later they said the juggernauts might work too) After listening to many clips it sounds like the ultimate lead pickup! The neck sounds huge. The bridge sounds really nice and thick too! That being said I'm not sure if it's tight enough for material like periphery. Thoughts?

What would you guys recommend? How do the HD's compare to Juggs? I've seen many combos like Abomb/CS, BD/VHII, RY/VHII, HD/Emeralds. What would be good for me? Please help! I've used Bareknuckles for a few years now and the only thing I hate is how all of the pickups are SO dang good! So many fantastic options. Point me in the right direction :) thanks guys.
-Brandon

[Dave Sloven]

Are the Juggernauts in your other guitar the right configuration (mounting etc) for the Mayones?  If so, and assuming you are handy with a soldering iron, I would just take them out of your existing guitar and try them in the new one.  That will at least give you some idea (1) if they are the right pickup for that guitar or (2) what you'd like to be different about them, which would give you some idea as to what other BKPs might work.

I tend to think that the suggestions given by BKP are pretty good.  Given your tastes I am guessing the Juggs are right

[Yellowjacket]

Ha, Juggs ARE awesome!!! 

I'm laughing a bit at 'contemporary worship' since for that, I usually use either a Les Paul or a Godin LG through a Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne.  Most guys use a strat or tele through a vox type amp for that sort of thing and I definitely find that somewhat vintage pickups are best.

The Juggs will hit all the heavy tones for sure and they should be fine in a bright axe.  Do expect that the tone of the guitar will shine through, and that is a good thing. 

[Archlute]

I've been using Holydivers for awhile now, and would agree both with BKPs suggestion, as well as your concern.  They ARE amazing, articulate, fat, hot, lead pickups, and for that, I love them.  However, they do not track as tightly for riffing as other BKP offerings (although they do pretty well), and for that reason I recently ordered a ceramic bridge set of Blackhawks.

For the neck, although I'm using an Emerald nech with my HD bridge, frankly, I think my favorite along the lines of what you've described has been my old Dimarzio Liquifire.  I also like the Suhr SSV neck in my Suhr Modern, which to me sounds quite similar to the LIquifire.  The both have a bit more focus for higher gain lead playing that seems a bit lacking in the Emerald, for my tastes, anyway.

[Alex]

I think those three pickups - Holy Diver, Nailbomb and Juggernaut - are the pickups that also share the most tonal attributes in the BKP contemporary palette.
I have a Juggernaut and a Nailbomb (had a Holy Diver once but replaced it with the Nailbomb). I think the Nailbomb would fit the bill better here. It is such a great pickup if you like things more aggressive. Because it has a has very warm, full and throaty highs (at least the Alnico one) it worked perfectly in my guitar, where other pickups had a tendency to sound thin and weak on the treble strings.