Hey Everyone, Greetings from British Columbia, Canada!(first time here)
I am looking to build a custom guitar, and I need an HSH set that can get me those PAF flavors, but still be able to pull off Strat sounds in positions 2 and 4 on the 5-way, and doesn't sound muddy or over-saturated in a clean setting. I messaged the guys at Bare Knuckle, and they suggested an Abraxas set, since it has the output needed for decent coil-splitting in the bridge, but there aren't any recordings of the coil-split sound, and while I can hear the bigger differences in the samples, the subtle things like dynamics get lost in the mix. It's like they try to make all of their pickups sound the same, instead of highlighting the differences. I was thinking of using a Mother's Milk for the middle pickup, but I was also thinking one of the Irish tour middles, since I want to have it still somewhat balanced with the Humbuckers. The guitar that I am building is going to be a Mahogany body with a Maple top, a Roasted Maple neck with an Ebony fretboard and stainless steel frets, with a Super-Vee double locking vibrato, going through a Blackstar HT-40(marshall-esque/twin reverbish) with a Celestion Greenback 12" (waaaayyyy too much money being spent here). I play mostly a combination of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Duane Allman blues, as well as classic rock and old school metal, but I am getting into Alice in Chains Grunge metal and I love Guthrie Govan's style of fusion. I put all this information here so that I can get the best possible response, but ultimately I know that there is only so much that people can tell me through a forum.
TL;DR I need PAF tone but with enough power to have decent Strat tones when split. Any suggestions?
BTW, I am open to suggestions for other pickup makers, particularly Suhr or Fralin.
