Wanna get BK HSS set for Warmoth Strat, concerned about noise and hum of singles

[nyne]

Hi guys!
I just built a Warmoth strat of my dreams and then realized i should have just bought a stock hi end Fender or Suhr....

Shape: Strat
Body: Walnut with Satin finish
Neck: Ebony, 22 fret
Fretboard: Ebony
Bridge: Hipshot USA Contour

Current Pickups: Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues (Neck)/Dimarzio Area 67(Middle)/Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary Bridge

These pickups sound good but as the guitar techs are quite clueless in my country, we are still experimenting with pot values and capacitors.

This is my main guitar and i need it for versatility in the stage and studio. The bridge humbucker is really great, its vintage but has great bite through my Marshall JVM410H.
I am getting decent 2, 4 tones on clean, but nothing like the youtube demos of  mother's milk. The neck position is very important for me. All my solo's, clean and shreddy are on the neck position.

I went with Dimarzio's because they were noiseless. I know other manufactures have noiseless singles too.
Also the guitar in itself is very bright with such bright woods.

Questions:
Which BK single coils would give me glassy, bold, clean tones in the neck and also take hi gain overdrive well.
Which one in the middle would give me the best 2,4 tones.
Which Bridge should i choose for classic rock to higher gain playing, matching the singles as close as possible and also for a bridge/middle clean tones.\
For a traditional Strat pickguard, can you also suggest pot and cap values please.
Does BK make pre-wired HSS pickguards on order ?

My biggest concern is noise/hum from the single coils.....how do you all and the pro's who play Strats live and loud tackle this issue.
My guitar is shielded but that would not entirely eliminate the hum. I have stayed away from true singles because of the noise issues but i feel tone always gets sacrificed........

ps: The Holydiver/Irish Tour HSS set looks great to me!

Thanks guys! Bless you all and happy playing!
Faisal

 

[Telerocker]

Of course true single coils will hum more than noiseless pickups, but I must say that my Mother's Milk and Irish Tours are very quiet, even with high gain.

My guitar has a 500k pot for the bridge and 250k for the single coils. It''s an MXG Custom Strat (made by Patrick Eggle) with swampash body, maple neck, ebony fretboard.

If you need to replace the pickups (I would look first a pots, capacitors and correct wiring), I suggest you:

Crawler - Irish Tours, which is very versatile set, especially when you can split the Crawler. The Crawler should sweeten the tone, in regard to the used timbers.

The HD is good too, but more modern and less big sounding than the Crawler. Maybe a little more focussed in the (upper)mids.

[Slartibartfarst42]

BKP singles aren't bad for noise but it is there. I tried a few but they're not for me so I eventually went elsewhere for singlecoils and I'm happier. Horses for courses.

[nyne]

How is the Irish Tour neck under hi gain ? I like Yngwie's tones from Odyssey! But i also really like the classic rounded full neck single tones of Gilmour etc.
As i mentioned versatility is a huge concern as i don't own too many guitars.
Also, with an Irish tour neck, would a MM middle or Sultan middle help in better 2 and 4 position clean tones ?
I love the mark Knopfler quack but from the On Every Street album, not the vintage Knopfler. I find his later quack tones to sound much bigger, fuller.

Curious, which other single coils did you move to after trying out the BK's. You said, you moved along elswhere...

[Telerocker]

How is the Irish Tour neck under hi gain ? I like Yngwie's tones from Odyssey! But i also really like the classic rounded full neck single tones of Gilmour etc.
As i mentioned versatility is a huge concern as i don't own too many guitars.
Also, with an Irish tour neck, would a MM middle or Sultan middle help in better 2 and 4 position clean tones ?
I love the mark Knopfler quack but from the On Every Street album, not the vintage Knopfler. I find his later quack tones to sound much bigger, fuller.

Curious, which other single coils did you move to after trying out the BK's. You said, you moved along elswhere...

The combination of the neck and middle Irish Tours is very good, at least in my guitar.

The IT's are in fact overwound MM's, so if you turn down the volumeknob on the guitar a tad, you're end up in MM-terrority, like RCHP. They have a little more bass, mids, and a tiny bit less woodiness than the MM's.

The IT's ooze Rory, but are great for Hendrix and SRV too (with the right amp of course). They handle gain very well.

If you want a Gilmour type of tone too, you maybe want to inspect a Slowhand-neck. Or cleaner, yet full sounding: Apache.

[nyne]

The Crawler/IT/IT combo is looking good!
I am going to see if i can get a prewired pickguard from BK. At least i'll know they are all wired correctly!

Any idea about the Ilitch Noise reduction backplate for Strats ? Apparently they work really well.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Curious, which other single coils did you move to after trying out the BK's. You said, you moved along elswhere...

I don't normally mention who else I use as it's a BKP forum but as Tim doesn't make any noiseless singles I don't suppose it matters. I went to DiMarzio and found the Area series of pickups to have a great singlecoil tone while being completely noiseless. I use an Area 58 in the middle and Area 61 in the neck with a Virtual Solo in the bridge. I've never really bought into the idea that a 'proper' singlecoil pickup can't be noiseless but I equally respect Tim's decision to stick to that traditional formula. He argues that they sound like neither true singlecolis or humbuckers and to a degree, I agree, which is why I respect his choice. I've used singlecoil sized humbuckers and they don't sound like proper singlecoils but if they still give you the tone you're after, what's the problem? I didn't want a singlecoil tone and I didn't want a full humbucker tone either so they worked for me. With my current singlecoils I did want true singlecoil tone but I also wanted them to be noiseless and the Area pickups do that for me. If I'd wanted traditional singlecoils I'd have gone for a Trilogy Suite/Slowhand/Slowhand but that's not what I wanted. If Tim made noiseless pickups like the Area series, I'd have happily bought from him as I trust what he does but he doesn't do what I wanted and that's fine. I don't think he tries to have a BKP alternative to every pickup out there so naturally he accepts that in some cases people decide to go elsewhere.

[Telerocker]

My guitars are shielded well and on my strat I don't use a backplate. I play in three bands on many different stages and had no hum-issues.