Another HSS Strat Question!

[nostrovia]

Brand new to the forums! I'm going to try and keep this as brief as possible as I tend to create a nice wall of text that nobody really wants to read. And I can't blame them.
Basically, I'm outfitting a MIM Strat with a maple neck. I want BKP to wire me up a pickguard because I'm really unsure about pots and all of that stuff when it comes to humbuckers with single coils. Ben recommended me a Holy Diver with Slow Hands in the middle and neck positions. I trust him, but I have a few more piddly questions and I'm nervous jumping into something so expensive without really knowing for sure what I am getting myself into. I just didn't want to keep bothering the guy, so I thought I would bother you good people!

For single coils, I'm not super familiar with what I like. I think the neck position sound on Opeth - Devil's Orchard is my favorite strat sound, so definitely something like that. I have a feeling that might just be a vintage pickup ran through a Marshall though. I wouldn't mind the ability to get a little bit nastier if needed.

Humbucker wise, I'm really nervous about the Holy Diver. I really want something that sounds beautiful and vintage but can get nasty when pushed. I really don't want a modern metal sound in the least. I'm more into bluesy prog rock and psychedelic music coming out of Sweden these days but wouldn't mind being able to bust out some Opeth or King Diamond on the same guitar.

As always, any help is appreciated. I'm totally expecting you guys to tell me that Ben was perfectly correct. This is just my main guitar now and I want it to be perfect.

[Telerocker]

I think Ben's done a good recommendation. The Slowhands are beefier than any of the singlecoils, with quite some mids. They still sound vintage but definitely with more balls.
The Diver is great for hardrock/early metal, but can do more if necessary. Middy with round topend. Should beef up your strat.

You could explore the Crawler too. It's fat and huge sounding and does great in alder/ash bolt-on guitars. I have one a swampashstrat and play everything with it. It's has a tad more vintage character than the Diver, but does hardrock and some metaltones. You want thick solonotes and a unique growl, look at this one.

[nostrovia]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

[Telerocker]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

The beefed up Slowhands are quite middy and therefore not a classic vintage singlecoil, but still with vintagecharacter. I prefer Irish Tours in my strat, but for your styles the Slowhand will do fine, if you prefer vintage flavour in a single coil. If not inspect the Trilogies. They sound more contemporary. Quite fat for single coils.

I would not drop expensive pups in an Affinity. I would trade it in for a Squier Classic Vibe that has very decent pickups and for a budget guitar a quality feel . Supernice neck. I bought one (CV Custom tele) for my nephew.

[Alfi27]

Regarding the bridge humbucker: the Crawler sounds very good for heavier rock, extremely ballsy sound with thick mids. Not my #1 choice for metal though, too loose in the bass response. It is described as a PAF on steroids, which I do not agree 100% with as it is much more bass and mid heavy, and a tad less treble as well. The Holydiver supposedly sounds a bit more modern than what you might think, and is quite a bit tighter than the Crawler. I would guess the Diver can do very nice metal tones as well, especially 80's metal.

I really want to buy myself a nice strat again just to try out some Bare Knuckle singlecoils, and Slow Hands are quite high on the list! Do not think you can go wrong with those.

And by the way: if you take a look at the recording section of the forum you can find a thread where I am comparing several pickups, three BKPs and one Suhr (singlecoil). The second section of the clip is the Crawler in an alder strat playing Metallica's Battery-riff! Personally I think the Crawler sounded the best in the clip.

[nostrovia]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

The beefed up Slowhands are quite middy and therefore not a classic vintage singlecoil, but still with vintagecharacter. I prefer Irish Tours in my strat, but for your styles the Slowhand will do fine, if you prefer vintage flavour in a single coil. If not inspect the Trilogies. They sound more contemporary. Quite fat for single coils.

I would not drop expensive pups in an Affinity. I would trade it in for a Squier Classic Vibe that has very decent pickups and for a budget guitar a quality feel . Supernice neck. I bought one (CV Custom tele) for my nephew.

\

Excellent. I'll definitely give the Slowhands a go. Would you prefer the CV Teles over a MIM Tele? Just curious. I really fell in love with the feel of the neck and am thinking about trying to scoop one up for cheap. I really want to try the Piledriver or BG50s pretty badly too.

[nostrovia]

Regarding the bridge humbucker: the Crawler sounds very good for heavier rock, extremely ballsy sound with thick mids. Not my #1 choice for metal though, too loose in the bass response. It is described as a PAF on steroids, which I do not agree 100% with as it is much more bass and mid heavy, and a tad less treble as well. The Holydiver supposedly sounds a bit more modern than what you might think, and is quite a bit tighter than the Crawler. I would guess the Diver can do very nice metal tones as well, especially 80's metal.

I really want to buy myself a nice strat again just to try out some Bare Knuckle singlecoils, and Slow Hands are quite high on the list! Do not think you can go wrong with those.

And by the way: if you take a look at the recording section of the forum you can find a thread where I am comparing several pickups, three BKPs and one Suhr (singlecoil). The second section of the clip is the Crawler in an alder strat playing Metallica's Battery-riff! Personally I think the Crawler sounded the best in the clip.

Dude, I'll definitely take a listen to your clips. I am really starting to lean towards the Crawler bridge. It sounds like exactly what I want. I'm sure the Holy Diver can do 80s metal better, but I'm willing to sacrifice that a bit in exchange for a beefier classic sounding pickup.

[Telerocker]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

The beefed up Slowhands are quite middy and therefore not a classic vintage singlecoil, but still with vintagecharacter. I prefer Irish Tours in my strat, but for your styles the Slowhand will do fine, if you prefer vintage flavour in a single coil. If not inspect the Trilogies. They sound more contemporary. Quite fat for single coils.

I would not drop expensive pups in an Affinity. I would trade it in for a Squier Classic Vibe that has very decent pickups and for a budget guitar a quality feel . Supernice neck. I bought one (CV Custom tele) for my nephew.

\

Excellent. I'll definitely give the Slowhands a go. Would you prefer the CV Teles over a MIM Tele? Just curious. I really fell in love with the feel of the neck and am thinking about trying to scoop one up for cheap. I really want to try the Piledriver or BG50s pretty badly too.

I think the CV is hard to beat at this pricepoint. Only the inputkack and maybe the pickupselector are weaker parts, the rest is very ok. I like the CV-pickups way more than the ceramic ones in the MiM. I have a 2000 American Series Tele, which is very nice guitar, but the CV doesn't sound four times cheaper at all.

[nostrovia]

Alright, I'm listing a guitar some time this week to help fund the pickups for this strat. I think I have changed my mind a little about some stuff.

I listened to some clips of the Black Dog and kind of fell in love. I'm just worried about there being not QUITE enough output, and I'm also worried that the clips were probably of the BD in a Les Paul and I'll be putting it into a strat.
Any of you guys have some experience with a BD in a strat? How does it hold up for stuff like Opeth's death metal sound? I'd really like to hear clips of it get really nasty but in standard tuning.

The single coils, I keep going back and forth. I have a very classic-sounding strat already and I'm kind of wondering if I should just go balls out with this one since I'm selling my last humbucker-equipped guitar. If I don't mind sacrificing a lot of the single coil sound, what would be a better option for the middle and neck position?

[Serratus]

Funny that you really like the Black dog clips - in my opinion the Black dog and Holy diver are very close in terms of tone and feel, with the HD just being higher output and therefore a bit more compressed, whereas the BD is more open. But they are very much in the same ballpark in terms of overall tone, and are both probably my favourite BKP bridge humbuckers so far!! (I've tried a lot but not all of them yet!).

It's completely just my opinion, but I would go for a HD bridge and Trilogy suite neck and middle if I were you. The HD covers a lot of territory, from classic rock through 80's rock to modern metal, and the Trilogy's are still completely genuine sounding single coils, but can handle more gain better without getting that thin weediness that lower output singles can get when the gain is cranked. If you want more open feel and lower output but similar tone then BD and slowhands or irish tours depending on the amount of mids you want from the singles.

(the only other comment I would say is that my BD is in a korina single-cut and it's fat and middle-y, really warm - sounds great. But I have seen some people say that it's really toppy in their guitars, so I wonder if it is a bit more dependant on the guitar it's put into than some other pickups).

[Telerocker]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

The beefed up Slowhands are quite middy and therefore not a classic vintage singlecoil, but still with vintagecharacter. I prefer Irish Tours in my strat, but for your styles the Slowhand will do fine, if you prefer vintage flavour in a single coil. If not inspect the Trilogies. They sound more contemporary. Quite fat for single coils.

I would not drop expensive pups in an Affinity. I would trade it in for a Squier Classic Vibe that has very decent pickups and for a budget guitar a quality feel . Supernice neck. I bought one (CV Custom tele) for my nephew.

\

Excellent. I'll definitely give the Slowhands a go. Would you prefer the CV Teles over a MIM Tele? Just curious. I really fell in love with the feel of the neck and am thinking about trying to scoop one up for cheap. I really want to try the Piledriver or BG50s pretty badly too.

I think the CV is hard to beat at this pricepoint. Only the inputjack and maybe the pickupselector are weaker parts, the rest is very ok. I like the CV-pickups way more than the ceramic ones in the MiM. I have a 2000 American Series Tele, which is very nice guitar, but the CV doesn't sound four times cheaper at all.

[Telerocker]

Thanks for the response man. I appreciate it.

The Holy Diver and the Crawler both sound like they could be what I am looking for. Any argument for or against either one? I try to listen to sound clips that people post on here but I keep getting a 404 error. I think the only reason I felt a little apprehensive about the Slow Hand single coils is because they really seem to be the least popular single coil offered as there are very little demos.

The soundclips on the main site are good, don't get me wrong. I just always found it way more helpful to hear a pickup play a style of music that it isn't particularly made for. The Slow Hand has a blues demo, but it'd be pretty cool to hear a clip with some real overdrive in front of it.

Side note, I just picked up a Squier Affinity Telecaster. I had actually never even played one before, and I am really digging it. I bought it as a project guitar and think once I upgrade the pickups and give it a proper setup, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing it. I don't know if I can justify dropping $200 worth of pickups into a $100 guitar, but we'll see...

The beefed up Slowhands are quite middy and therefore not a classic vintage singlecoil, but still with vintagecharacter. I prefer Irish Tours in my strat, but for your styles the Slowhand will do fine, if you prefer vintage flavour in a single coil. If not inspect the Trilogies. They sound more contemporary. Quite fat for single coils.

I would not drop expensive pups in an Affinity. I would trade it in for a Squier Classic Vibe that has very decent pickups and for a budget guitar a quality feel . Supernice neck. I bought one (CV Custom tele) for my nephew.

\

Excellent. I'll definitely give the Slowhands a go. Would you prefer the CV Teles over a MIM Tele? Just curious. I really fell in love with the feel of the neck and am thinking about trying to scoop one up for cheap. I really want to try the Piledriver or BG50s pretty badly too.

I think the CV is hard to beat at this pricepoint. Only the inputjack and maybe the pickupselector are weaker parts, the rest is very ok. I like the CV-pickups way more than the ceramic ones in the MiM. I have a 2000 American Series Tele, which is very nice guitar, but the CV doesn't sound four times cheaper at all.

Black Dog in a strat is not the obvious choice for most HSS-players here. I would go Crawler or HD.