Pickups for a Jackson Dinky

[crypto]

This is my first time changing pickups ever, so I'm really pumped, and I have a lot of questions.

Basically, this guitar is just for playing metal, but I want some tonal variety.  It's a dinky basswood body (thin, relatively small) with a bolt on maple neck and rosewood fretboard, and has two humbuckers.

My biggest complaint about the pickups right now is that everything above a sounding E5 (12th fret on high string) sounds very thin, which is most of the reason why I'm pulling the trigger on buying new pickups!  But the sound on the stock pickups is a little too "sterile", if that makes any sense?

I like the sound of the Holy Diver in the demo videos, and it seems from the description to be the right choice, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't totally off track.

[Slartibartfarst42]

No, you're not. The Holydiver would work well for what you're after and in your case, I'd also strongly suggest looking at the Miracle Man, which is a bit like a Holydiver moved up a gear. If your guitar is an H-H layout, I'd suggest an Emerald for the neck.

[crypto]

Got it!  I've basically been going back and forth between the Holy Diver and the Nailbomb, but I'll throw Miracle Man into the obsession mix!

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Nailbomb isn't like the 80s Metal sound at all. It's more open so has more of a Rock feel in some ways but it's astonishingly tight and very aggressive indeed. It's a lot more picky about which guitar it goes in compared to the Holydiver or Miracle Man.

[crypto]

Yeah - I'm trying to decide between whether I want that rich 80's sound, or something a little tighter for this guitar... The Miracle Man seems great because it seems a little middle of the road, and the emerald neck seems pretty interesting too, although I might buy a matched set now and get an emerald down the road.

While I'm in there I'm going to copper shield everything and add an individual coil tap to each humbucker - there aren't any of those that don't take well to coil tapping, are there?

Planned diagram: http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WD2HH3L11_02/Guitar-Wiring-Diagram-2-Humbuckers3-Way-Lever-Switch1-Volume2-TonesIndividual-Coil-Taps.html

[Slartibartfarst42]

Neither the Holydiver or the Miracle Man is like the Nailbomb because both have that 80s smoothness. The Miracle Man is certainly tighter, has a bigger bottom end and more screaming highs than the Holydiver but it's still smooth, rich and organic, surprisingly for a ceramic magnet. The A-Bomb is the tightest of the three despite being alnico and has decent cleans like the Holydiver, though the Miracle Man isn't too bad. The Nailbomb is very hairy and aggressive due to the amount of upper mids it has. The A-Bomb isn't just a little tighter and more aggressive than the Holydiver (or even the Miracle Man), it's a lot tighter and more aggressive. If you want something that's just a little tighter than the classic 80s Metal tone, it's the Miracle Man you need as that's exactly what you get.

[Lucas]

I would not call Nailbomb as a 'typical' metal pickup. I`ve been using my Ceramic Nailbomb (ceramic!) for more than 2 years. To my ears it really shines in modern rock, hard rock territory. I especially like it with overdriven sounds, yes it gives modern twist to it and aggression. with my band I can play some Guns n Roses cover song or even 30 seconds to Mars and sounds great.
Why i would not call it 'typical' metal pickup? First of all due to being hairy its not precise, yes it is tight but not precise if you looking for complex riffing, appregios ect. It`s more of a rhythm beast than pickup for technical riffing. What`s more if you want to play some harmony on higher strings under some chord it gets blurry.
Surprisingly it has great cleans for ceramic pickup but it`s not great for soloing, just ok..

[dani]

the holydiver will warm up plinky highs especially for guitars with a trem. one of the more versatile bkps out there.