Which HSS set next? (Swamp Ash Parker Nitefly)

[Piplodocus]

I was playing my Nitefly SA last night and after my other guitars with BKs it doesn't sound as nice. :-/

So HSS set for Swamp Ash body and carbon fibre wrapped mahogany neck. 22 fret. Bolt on (this is the strat-like Nitefly, not the full Parker Fly you may be thinking of).

I already have a mahogany one with Nailbomb, and 2 Irish tours, and another mahogany one (profile pic) with nailbomb, supermassive, and mothers milk. This guitar being Swamp ash I was kinda figuring I'd probably make it slightly less "hardcore" than the others and go maybe 2 mothers milks and a ????

Thoughts? What HB? Abraxas? Rebel Yell? Crawler? I'm not figuring this to be my heaviest guitar. It I still want it to rock a good Alice In Chains/Pearl Jam level though, maybe kinda Tool heavy (although I'm far more likely to.be using a mahogany one with Nailbomb or my other Holy Diver equipped Fly Mojo (not Nitefly). So something a bit different and lighter, but will still rock. 

[Piplodocus]

Oh, or '63 strat sets with something. I also heard good things about the black dog too for humbucker...

[Piplodocus]

Any ideas still for bridge HB with lower output and more bluesy than my other BKP bridges, but still enough balls for AiC/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam and heavy grunge type stuff with my high gain Diezel?

In other news I was pondering the idea of a neck '59 slab board, and a middle slowhand with baseplate for interesting variations in a similar vein to my Nailbomb/Supermassive/Mothers Milk set I'm currently loving, although I then keep flipping between just 59s, or just slowhands, or 101 other combos.   

[Serratus]

VHII could be cool - would be very different to your NB's and HD, but can still get dirty when you want it to!
Abraxas or Crawler might be a bit polite for you, but they would still be a change from your other pickups for sure! Rebel Yell is one of my favourites but it's still definitely a rock pickup, quite similar to the NB just more polite - you'd probably really like it but it's less of a departure from what you have already. Black dog can be lovely but is very guitar dependant so its a bit more of a risk - can sound like a low power HD though so you might like it then! But can be quite trebley in the wrong guitar.
Hahaha, I find it hard to recommend something because I love them all, but VHII would be a real change from what you have.
On a side note - I love my Supermassive and Stockholm bridge pickups, if you want a real change go for one of them, they can sound huge when you want them to but have a different feel to humbuckers on the light gain stuff in particular.

[Piplodocus]

I quite liked the idea of a rebel yell, but kinda got the vibe from round here it'd be better off in a mahogany LP than a swamp ash superstrat though. Dunno if I'm misguided in that though

I kinda want quite polite as usually I'll go to a different guitar probably for heavy, but I'd still like it to be able to rock pretty good. This is where I hear plenty of great rock stuff that I don't think has particularly hot pickups AFAIK, but I never have any real idea! I just know the original DiMarzio custom wound in that guitar in my profile pic was based off a Norton which isn't very high output and I actually really quite liked it in many ways, I think because it kinda sounded more open and lower output (although maybe a little sterile sounding and I'm very pleased I put another Nailbomb in that guitar for its final intended use). This had got me started thinking RY originally as a lowergain Nailbomb, before I then wondered if it was the right guitar, then ended up heading off in the direction of maybe the Abraxas.

I definitely love my supermassive without a doubt, and love it particularly for some sounds. I do find it a bit noisy though *sometimes* with high gain, at least by comparison with the NB, so not sure I want to be "stuck" with single coils/P90s, Also I don't really want a covered pickup due to the current hole in the pickguard. One day though I'd love a P90 bridge in something or other.

The VH-II is a suggestion I may have to read more of again. I read a few reviews of people who didn't gel very well with it, and although I can't remember exactly what it was I read from the hundreds of posts of hundreds of pickups I've now read it kinda put me off it (although some posts equally made me very much fancy trying it in the neck of an HH guitar). What guitar is your VH-II in?

[Dave Sloven]

Crawler could be a good option if the guitar is bright.

[Serratus]

I had a VHII in an ash thru-neck - sounded great, but it can be a bit of an acquired taste I guess - it's got quite a single-coil like feel to it in some ways, which makes it sound very open, but can be difficult to get sounding really thick, imho. It's hard to describe exactly but that was my experience with it.
FWIW my Rebel yell is in an alder bodied guitar and I love it - it's got great high mids that cut through really nicely, it's probably one of my favourite and most versatile BKP's. It's just not as far from your NB's as some other pickups would be! You'd probably love it though  But maybe a Crawler or Abraxas would be closer to what you seem to have in mind for the guitar?
On a side note, I used to use a Diezel all the time and always found I preferred lower output pickups as there was so much gain on tap that I didn't need high output, and the lower output pickups had more dynamics.

[Piplodocus]

Yeah, I think as you point out Serratus the Diezel has plenty of gain: normally never more than 1 o'clock on the lead channel, so maybe the risk of going "lower gain" will never be a "risky" option anyway as long as the pickup retains clarity. Although it's Alnico 4 so more "vintage" the website says the Abraxas is 14k so I'm guessing it's still got quite a lot of welly there?  Correct? And should give some more bottom end and smoothness to bright guitars.

I think someone said Abraxas splits great with the 59 or 63 strat SCs too, and although I'd like it to give some good humbucking balls when required, it's kinda gonna be most standard-strat like guitar and do that job largely when not rocking quite so hard. So I'm definitely thinking more Strat+, than shreddy hard-rock/metal superstrat.

But then Agent Orange points out the Crawler again, which I originally had the idea of this being one of the "predefined" HSS sets of Crawler + 2 Mothers Milks (before more guitars came along first and got upgrades and BKPs while this went on the back burner).

Think I'm gonna do some more head scratching (but more thoughts in the meantime are welcome....)

[Piplodocus]

Yeah, the more I think about this the more I'm leaning towards Abraxas or Crawler as the best splitting ones based on more forum searches to get this really my most stratty guitar when I want it to be, but can then go to humbucking and rock out something harder as required.

So, maybe I should ponder from another angle: I was also pondering a 59 neck, 63 middle + HB. But more recently 59 neck + slowhand with baseplate middle + HB (since I'm guessing this would kinda get me vaguely closer in palette to a lighter version of one of my other guitars SC-P90-HB setup I'm currently enjoying a lot. So, any particular middle SC + split HB combos that stand out for some bluesy rock or funk? Anything goes and I'll then gradually home in on the best all-round centre-ground option by the end probably!

Choosing pickups seems to take me months, but I've always been super happy as a result! :)

(Still torn between crawler/abraxas as the crawler was kinda my original plan, but the abraxas is supposedly more like a ho rodded mule, and although I've never played a bridge mule noodling away on my neck mule can keep a grin on my face for hours).

[ericsabbath]

black dog