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Author Topic: H-S-H suggestions for basswood  (Read 4105 times)

OceanMachine

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H-S-H suggestions for basswood
« on: June 18, 2016, 11:44:57 AM »
Hi,

Based on the recommendations of members of this forum I bought myself a set of Juggernauts afew months back for an Ibanez of mine and I absolutely love them. Many thanks to all who contributed.

I recently picked up a second hand Ibanez prestige and want to give it the BKP treatment as ibanez own pickups are just not great for whatever reason.

Typical Ibanez spec, basswood, bolt on maple neck with rosewood board and locking trem.

I love the Juggernauts but am considering something slightly different for this guitar. As far as the bridge goes I'd like a slightly brighter pickup that would saturate abit more than the Juggernaut. Simaliarly in the neck a slightly more articulate, glassy sounding pickup than the Juggernaut.

I have covers on my current Juggs and it has been suggested that I might get the results I want by getting an uncovered set of the same pickups?

Another suggestion made was a ceramic nailbomb bridge with a vhii or coldsweat neck. Apparently the nailbomb is great for basswood?

As for singles coils for the middle I have no idea, I'd ideally like something that can give me strat like tones in the 2 and 4 positions that has enough output to match well with the humbuckers.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers for looking.

Kiichi

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Re: H-S-H suggestions for basswood
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2016, 12:01:53 PM »
I am wondering if a Painkiller bridge may work here. IIRC it is brighter than the Jugg and certainly has a good amount of power behind it with a hard hitting bottom, so it might saturate equal or more than a Jugg.
For a glassy neck the Impulse HB comes to mind as it is designed with a single coil quality in mind. Look is different though. The bridge Impulse might also be interesting, but I know too little and am not sure about the saturation part, though the brightness should be there. Perhaps a Blackhawk bridge to match tone and look? That would also make a SC choice easy with a cobra.
BKPs in use: 10th set / RY set / Holy Diver b, Emerald n / Crawler bridge, Slowhand mid MQ neck/ Manhattan n
On the sidelines: Stockholm b / Suppermassive n, Mule n, AM set, IT mid

Slartibartfarst42

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Re: H-S-H suggestions for basswood
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2016, 10:02:05 AM »
I've been thinking of this thread for a while and wondering what to suggest. While I appreciate that an open Juggernaut would be different to the Juggs you already have, I can't bring myself to suggest the same pickup as my gut tells me that if you want something a bit 'different', you go with a different pickup. I decided to start by thinking of the characteristics of the Juggernaut you might like as well as saturation and it seems to me that people talking about the Juggernaut often talk about some fairly classic Metal tones that are warm, smooth and organic. I can see why Kiichi suggested the Painkiller but as it's often described as more 'ice-picky', I wonder if it will tonally be too far removed from the Juggernaut. I can also see the logic behind the C-Bomb but to keep the warm, smooth and organic element, I'm going to go with either a Holydiver or Miracle Man. The Holydiver has the alnico smoothness of that aspect of a Juggernaut while the Miracle Man has the tightness of the Juggernaut's ceramic element. Both remain warm, smooth and organic, surprisingly so for the Miracle Man given that it's ceramic. The Miracle Man does, in fairness, retain a strong bottom end but it's not as scooped as the EQ chart suggests and also has some tremendous highs. It's a bit like a Holydiver on steroids with the mids taken a little way either side of the middle.

For a humbucker in the neck I'd say either Cold Sweat or Holydiver but instead I'm going to suggest something a bit different. The glassy, articulate tones you refer to is something I associate more with the singlecoil neck pickup on my Strat so why not try a P90 in there? A P90 in the neck can produce some incredible tones, especially for lead work. I think either a Nantucket or Mississippi Queen neck pickup will work well but you might also consider using a Mississippi Queen bridge model in the neck position of your guitar as it's a bit hotter and the AV magnet will help to keep things more articulate.

For the single coil, I'd go with a Trilogy Suite as although it's not exactly 'true singlecoil' in tone, it still has a stong flavour of a traditional single coil while also having a touch of P90 about it. That should mean it fits well here. If you wanted something more obviously singlecoil in nature, it would be an Irish Tour.
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Bridge - Emerald; Cold Sweat; Crawler; A-Bomb; Holydiver; Miracle Man; Sinner; Trilogy Suite

Neck - Emerald; Cold Sweat; Crawler; Holydiver; Sinner; Trilogy Suite

northlane.josh

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Re: H-S-H suggestions for basswood
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2016, 08:26:33 AM »
I am wondering if a Painkiller bridge may work here. IIRC it is brighter than the Jugg and certainly has a good amount of power behind it with a hard hitting bottom, so it might saturate equal or more than a Jugg.
For a glassy neck the Impulse HB comes to mind as it is designed with a single coil quality in mind. Look is different though. The bridge Impulse might also be interesting, but I know too little and am not sure about the saturation part, though the brightness should be there. Perhaps a Blackhawk bridge to match tone and look? That would also make a SC choice easy with a cobra.

An impulse set should actually do just what OP is after here based on his description. They're certainly brighter and more saturated than the juggs but won't push the mids as hard in any particular spot, which isn't so bad in basswood.

To add to that, if you ask, the BKP guys can wind an impulse middle SC to go with the humbucker set. The SC was designed to keep up with the bridge humbucker when installed in the neck in a H/S guitar. It's not yet gone full "public" but exists in my guitars as my #1 neck preference, actually developed before the neck humbucker. It's very, very thick, hot and almost sounds like a P90 with it's rolled off highs and lows. Should make for huge tones when blended with a split neck or bridge coil. Because of it's voicing it takes better to 500k pots than most singles I've tried which will make it ideal in this guitar.

For a bridge pickup option, the Ceramic Blackhawk will be a bit closer to the jugg in terms of low-mid voicing, and is definitely a more metal-oriented voicing than the impulse. I wouldn't say the Ceramic Blackhawk is brighter than the Jugg but it has more cut in the top end. Comparing to the C-hawk the Impulse has smoother, thicker highs, like a rebel yell and neutral mids, I daresay tighter lows and it's clearer sounding, overall brighter and it's a little less hot. The two frequencies we cut the most out of when we voiced it, comparing to the C-hawk were the low mids and top end of the treble region. Both the 'hawks and impulses have about the same amount of saturation which is more than the Jugg. Both work great in basswood. With a rosewood fretboard, and if you're playing mostly metal I'd be inclined to recommend the Ceramic Blackhawk for the bridge position for a bit more cut and chug, but if you want something that will be more versatile the impulse wins, especially for mid gain tones, warmer cleans and driving a lot of effects.

The impulse neck certainly could be described as glassy as I tried to retain the elements of the neck SC that I enjoyed, it's an asymmetric wind like the VHII, which also means it's great for splitting if you use the hotter coil. Won't sound harsh. There's a great example of that bright neck characteristic in this video at about 2:06:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-5Ysauhjw4

As far as other options go, from my experience the painkiller can get a bit honky in basswood, The only other pickups I've really gotten along with in basswood were the miracle man and aftermath. The aftermath will probably be too dry for if you want something more saturated than the Juggs, and based on what you've said if you went for a MM bridge you'd probably want to pair it with a trilogy suite in the middle and a Cold Sweat in the neck.

Can't really comment on the HD as I don't have enough experience with it to give proper advice here but a lot of folks love it in basswood.

In summary, I'd recommend an Impulse HSH set or C-hawk B/impulse SC/Impulse N or Miracle man B/Trilogy Suite/Cold Sweat N
« Last Edit: June 21, 2016, 08:28:58 AM by northlane.josh »
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Dave Sloven

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Re: H-S-H suggestions for basswood
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2016, 11:25:34 AM »
I have to say that I love that video of the Impulse neck pickup!
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