pickup suggestion???

[darthphineas]

a local shop is working on a new build for me.  I'd like to see if I can find a set of BKPs that would work well for this guitar.  here are the specs of the new guitar:

sapele mody
maple neck
maple board
FR double locking trem
bourns pot
Switchcraft jack
Switchraft 3-way
hum neck
hum bridge


if it helps, I recently put a set of A-Bombs in a Strat with a poplar body and maple neck with maple board and FR and I'm liking how that is working out.  maybe trying to figure out something like that would translate to the different body wood.

[Lucas]

What sort of a tone are you trying to achieve? What kind of music do you play? That might help as well.

By the way, how do you find neck Nailbomb as recently we had a discussion about NB neck here.

thanks

[darthphineas]

2nd question first answered....  I like the neck Nailbomb a lot in that setup - I did a review a bit ago on my FB page ( facebook.com/darthphineas).  I have to hunt high and low for neck models that work for my goals and the A-Bomb neck is a good fit for that poplar body, maple neck/board guitar.


have to say, that I've not always had the best luck when trying to describe the voices I'm looking for in a BKP.  for example, the Emerald neck and the HD bridge seemed good on paper and are always highly recommended, but they ended up better in different guitars than the ones I wanted them to be in because the tones didn't match up as expected.  so....that's why I started by going with how the A-Bombs are what I'm looking for in that poplar body guitar and how I'd like something that would translate similarly for a sapele body.  lol!  it sorta seems like I'm making 3 left turns to go right, but there's a method at work.  ;)

here's an example of my concern...I ran down a list of bands I like to one guy for a suggestion for the poplar strat, one band being Whitesnake.  all he hears is Whitesnake and suggested a CS for that same poplar strat.  I have a CS in a all mahogany Epi Lester and know it would have not worked at all for what I wanted in that poplar strat.

[ericsabbath]

I'm not sure how poplar sounds
I know sapele is that pretty looking and quite dense african mahogany wood that ibanez uses in the custom shop models

probably a miracle man/vhII, holy diver or rebel yell set would work, but everything depends on the direction you wanna go

[darthphineas]

poplar is a little brighter than alder, but not as bright as maple.

there is really no way I'd go with another Holy Diver.  highs are too soft.

I have the VHII and the RY and was interested in something different for this build.  more mids generally work out better for me, negating the MM and some of the other contemporary models.

[ericsabbath]

well, that doesn't leave much options
I suppose the abraxas might be too soft too

painkiller?

I don't think the miracle man should lack mids on a mahog body / full maple neck superstrat

[Slartibartfarst42]

Black Dogs?

Crawler?

[ericsabbath]

Black Dogs?

Crawler?

well, those should be at least as soft in the high end as the holy diver

by elimination, the remaining options are: riff raff, emerald, blackhawk, aftermath, painkiller and juggernaut

[Lucas]

As far as I know either Painkiller or Emerald will be far way too bright with that wood combination.
Alnico Black Hawk would be my guess then

[darthphineas]

Tried an Emerald neck in a mahogany guitar. It had some high end, but the lows were not as defined as I was hoping for.

The aftermath and the black hawk models are on my radar. I've been told the aftermath can be really harsh on clean settings, but I don't know if they were wiring it up for split or parallel for clean tones?

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Emerald neck is VERY different to the Emerald bridge, which is tight enough in the bottom end to take some very low tunings and loads of gain BUT it is also a very bright pickup. Certainly it's a LOT brighter than the neck Emerald. The Crawler I would agree is probably too soft but the Black Dog seems to be rather tighter, though I'm unsure how it compares to the Holydiver in that regard but I don't immediately see why it follows that just because the Holydiver is too soft in the top end that the Black Dog should also suffer from that issue.

[ericsabbath]

well, the dog does have a pretty soft and round top end, despite of being generally more less compressed and more articulate than the holy diver

[ericsabbath]

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=32803.0

[darthphineas]

when thinking about the neck positions of the

Aftermath
Painkiller
Miracle Man
Black Hawk

....how do you think they clean up on a clean amp setting, both in series and in parallel and/or split?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I don't think really hot pickups like that are ideal for cleaning up well, especially the Painkiller as that's ceramic. How about a Cold Sweat neck? That's a popular choice with guitarists playing modern shreddy styles but it's actually quite versatile and cleans up well.