Happily
The Cold Sweat, like many neck pickups from BKP, is quite different to the bridge version. For a start, it uses 42.5AWG wire, which is a bit more vintage than the 43AWG used in the bridge version but the AV magnet helps to keep things very articulate and it will take loads of gain happily while also offering excellent cleans. It's not a particularly bright pickup and is quite creamy and fluid. This combination of fluidity and articulation makes it an excellent pickup for shredding. This is one of my favourite neck pickups and uses my preferred pickup wire in a neck pickup.
The Emerald is a slightly different route to a similar end. This time the vintage element comes from an AIV magnet while the wire is the more modern 43AWG. Although the DC resistance suggests a hotter pickup, there's not actually much in it and if anything, I think the Cold Sweat is a bit hotter. The Emerald is also a bit brighter. Like the Cold Sweat, the Emerald is very articulate and fluid with a thicker tone, which is rich and sweet. Cleans are excellent. I love the improved tone the AIV magnet seems to give you while 43AWG wire prevents it getting vague under gain. This idea of mixing more vintage magnets with more modern wire seems to work really well for me as you get a very strong PAF feel from the pickup but with far greater articulation than a full PAF offers.
Overall I prefer the Emerald myself but then the older I get, the less interested I am in shredding. Both will shred quite happily but the Cold sweat has the edge while the Emerald offers superior tone. I also love the Holydiver neck, which is a modern voiced pickup with strong PAF undertones and is nice and bright. I've pasted my review of the neck Emerald below:
Neck EmeraldThe neck version of the Emerald is a real keeper; no doubt about it. Let me start by saying that this is not my first decent neck pickup. In the past I've used a few different Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio products in the neck as well as a Cold Sweat and Trilogy Suite from BKP. Needless to say, the offerings from Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio don't even come close to what the Emerald will do so I won't bother with those as a comparison. As the Trilogy Suite is single coil I'll also ignore that and base my comparison on the Cold Sweat as that's a very popular neck option so it will serve my purposes well.
The Cold Sweat is good and I mean, REALLY good so I very nearly just ordered another one of those but I'm glad I didn't. To my mind, the Emerald is a better neck pickup even than the almighty Cold Sweat and I assure you, I don't make that claim lightly. It's one of the main reasons why I haven't written this review before now as I've been asking myself if I really feel the Emerald is that good. It is, and here's why:
It does share a number of characteristics with the Cold Sweat in that it is very articulate, not too compressed, very fluid and quite creamy. The thing is, the Emerald is all of that and more. In terms of articulation, there's nothing in it and the Emerald is a bit more open than the Cold Sweat but it is also noticeably more fluid in its lead tones and significantly creamier too. You could play early Dave Murray leads with this thing all day long, when he was using PAF pickups instead of those awful Hotrails. Leads are thick, creamy and fluid all over the neck and NEVER turn to mush, even with quite a bit of gain. The alnico IV magnet really helps I think as the pickup has about the sweetest tone I've ever heard on a neck pickup and I'd have to say that it is a lot sweeter than the Cold Sweat. Like the bridge pickup, it's bright but it's nothing like as overpowering as it is in the bridge model. I now have a Holydiver in the bridge and the Emerald neck pickup is a perfect match, giving you a huge range of tones. As long as you don't have a very bright guitar, you'll probably find the neck pickup more balanced than you'd expect. It's bright but the smooth, thick, fluid creaminess means it's also completely captivating in the tone it produces. I'm using this pickup for anything from high gain solos to Blues and clean strumming. It never disappoints.
The biggest difference between the Emerald neck and the Cold Sweat is in the clean tones. I always loved the Cold Sweat cleans but compared to the Emerald, I'd have to say it's a bit sterile. There is a richness about the Emerald and a sweetness to its tone that the Cold Sweat just can't match. Strum a clean chord on the Emerald and you'll get a chord that is rich and warm with loads of harmonics in it. It's the nearest thing I've ever tried on an electric guitar to playing an acoustic and it's the rich harmonics that are in there that do that.
For once I have no quibbles with the description on the website. It's perfectly accurate and actually, doesn't really do justice to what this pickup can do. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the Holydiver and it really does work well in my PRS but I'm finding I'm constantly switching to the neck pickup for solos so I can get a load of that beautiful Emerald goodness. I even look forward to playing the boring lighter songs with more strumming and less solos because the Emerald is so good. There's a few people on this forum who have said how good the Emerald neck is and they're honestly not lying. Until getting this Emerald, the Cold Sweat was the best neck pickup I'd ever tried by quite a long way but I honestly think the Emerald is better, and not just marginally so. If I could only have one neck pickup to do everything, it would be an Emerald without hesitation. Couple it with a Holydiver in the bridge and there's very little you wouldn't be able to play convincingly. I sincerely hope that more people will give the Emerald a chance because you've no idea what you're missing.
