The right bridge humbucker for my American Deluxe Stratocaster HSS

[MetalGuitarGuy17]

I currently own a 2015 Am. Deluxe strat that has an alder body, maple neck and maple fingerboard. The pickups it came with are two N3 noiseless single-coil in the neck/middle and a Shawbucker in the bridge. The styles I mainly play on my strat vary as much as between funk/soul/jazz to hard rock/metal/progressive and the Shawbucker isn't cutting it for me. It's not wax potted wich means it squeals everytime I hit the distortion on my amp and it's a too weak for my taste, around 7k DC.

I asked Ben that I wanted a versatile bridge humbucker that's tight, has good clarity with lots of distortion, not too high output and warm since it's a quite bright Strat. He suggested the Abraxas but also mentioned that the Crawler or the Nailbomb could also work but I have a hard time deciding wich one to buy since it will be my first BKP experience.

What do you guys recommend?

[Telerocker]

Go Crawler. I have one in my swampash/ebony board HSS MXG (made by Patrick Eggle) and I play everything with this workhorse. It really fattens up strats. Big muscular sound with solonotes that keep weight above the 12th fret. The Crawler has a unique growl when pushed. Never heard that in another BKP. But the Crawler also cleans up very nice. The clean tones are happening, so are the splits. I have the Crawler coupled wit two Irish Tours. The F-quack on the fourth position is happening. Splitted the Crawler-coil has a tele-esque sound.

Ok, so far my advertisement. The Abraxas will do too. It's just a bit less of everything compared to the Crawler, except the Abraxas has more chime, although the Crawler really cuts very good in a strat and has really enough chime for me.

[MetalGuitarGuy17]

Thanks for the tip! The Crawler really looks good on paper and the fact that it's designed after a well-rounded session guitarist makes it all the better :) But I've heard good things about the Holydiver for strats as well, any opinions on it?

[Telerocker]

Thanks for the tip! The Crawler really looks good on paper and the fact that it's designed after a well-rounded session guitarist makes it all the better :) But I've heard good things about the Holydiver for strats as well, any opinions on it?

The Crawler sounds a bit bigger than the Diver,  and has still PAF-pedigree, so it's more classic, where the Diver is a little more modern and tighter. Both are good pickups, just different. You can see the Crawler as an uber-Mule, where the Diver is to a certain degree the hotrodded version of the Black Dog.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Telerocker is spot on here in my opinion. I had a Crawler in a PRS SE Custom 24 and it was an incredibly versatile pickup being great for Blues Rock, Classic Rock and early Metal. As it's one of the darker pickups I can see it working even better in a Strat. I don't see it as quite a Funk/Soul/Jazz pickup but certainly perfect once you start moving to slightly heavier styles. To a degree, I see the Abraxas as being just slightly the other way. It is cut from the same stone as the Crawler in many respects and is also extremely versatile but as Telerocker says, everything is just dialled back a touch so it's a bit brighter and a bit sweeter with less of the growl a Crawler has. I think the Abraxas would be a bit better at the Funk/Soul/Jazz thing while the Crawler would be a bit better once you move into your heavier styles. Both are superb and both will do a job for you.

The Holydiver is superb in a Strat and would easily be your best choice for that 80s Metal sound but not as versatile as the Abraxas or Crawler.

The Nailbomb is a complete non-starter in my view. I wouldn't have suggested that in a million years.

[Dave Sloven]

The Nailbomb is a complete non-starter in my view. I wouldn't have suggested that in a million years.

+1

I can't see why anyone would take a punt on an A-bomb in a Strat unless the objective was a very aggressive sound

[Telerocker]

An HSS-strat offers various wiring-options. I have a push-pull to split the Crawler, but I also can use the full humbucker together with the middle Irish Tour. In that mode I have an extra layer of chime compared to humbucker only. 

[MetalGuitarGuy17]

About the various styles I play, I mainly use the two single-coils for the softer styles. The Deluxe has the S-1 switch wich let's me wire the single-coils in series and turn it into a neck humbucker. The bridge humbucker will be used for the more harder styles in combination with the single-coils for the softer styles so the Crawler would a good bet :)

[pac90]

Great thread, thanks, very informative

[darkbluemurder]

Since I own both the Crawler and the Abraxas I usually chime in on such threads but in this case everything has already been covered. You can't go wrong with either.

Cheers Stephan

[fdesalvo]

If you need versatility, you have to go Crawler or Abraxas.  I found the HD to be brilliant for heavier styles, but a bit one dimensional in that it doesn't cover the ground the Abraxas or Crawler can.