new guitar incoming. now i need pickups. HELP ME

[littleredguitars2]

just scored a deal on a great Manson MA1 Evo. it'll be a little while before it arrives so i'm curious what sort of pickups might work. i know for a fact i dont like the seymour JB in there and i dont want a cool rails for the neck. i want a single coil. so for help i'm gonna need to find the right humbucker bridge and single coil neck

specs to consider:
alder body
maple neck
rosewood board
bolt on neck

i know BK makes the "Manson" pickups so you'd think those would be great fits. those being the mississippi queen, A5 nailbomb and aftermath but i'm not feeling any of those right now. i dont want to use the juggernauts again. both those and the crawlers are fitted into some of my other guitars. i know both of those would work great though. just looking for a different kind of animal this time

i'm considering the holy diver. its one of the few humbuckers i havent used from the modern range. i'm looking for something that wont be too bright in my guitar and will be on the "fuller/ fatter" side. i'm also considering the supermassive. i've used that in an LP junior before and got great tones. not sure how it would suit this spec though. for the neck i'm thinking maybe irish tour? only single coils i've used from BK were the trilogy suites. which were great. guess it all depends on what bridge i pick

so i dont know. what would you guys think? i'm looking for something relatively high output but nothing crazy hot like the warpig or stockholm. i play mostly fast riffy punk sort of stuff but i dont really want a "raw hairy punk" tone. something a bit smoother and highs that dont get too bright and out of control.

i'm even open to suggestions for other brands. i always like to give BK the chance first though. i was even considering getting something from the seymour duncan custom shop since you can give them your desired tone and other specs and they'll make something special just for you. so thats an option.

any help is appreciated! thanks everyone

[Slartibartfarst42]

Two options leap to mind as far as I'm concerned. The obvious choice is to put a Holydiver in the bridge and a Trilogy Suite in the neck and I think that would work really well but I think the other option you should seriously consider is putting an Abraxas in the bridge and either a Trilogy Suite, Slowhand or Irish Tour in the neck. The Abraxas is a hot pickup with a lot in common with the Holydiver and the use of 43AWG wire arguably means it will do the 80's Metal tone better than the Holydiver. There was a guy on here a month or so ago who took an Abraxas and changed the magnet to AV and he said the result was incredible. I've had a similar experience with my pickups and ended up with a pickup even better than the Holydiver at doing that tone.

[johnny_rock_it]

I have the Manson Evo-2 and a regular single coil isn't gonna fit for the neck pick up.

The cool rails do suck, I tried to swap it with another single coil only to realize it doesn't fit.

The routing for the cool rail is perfectly oval, and the single coils have a tang on the bottom part by the output leads. Maybe you can ask BKP to make a single coil without the tang?

[littleredguitars2]

@slarti    yeah the abraxus was one i wasnt super sure on. ypu certainly dont hear much about it and i've never personally used it or heard it in action.  i dont necessarily need an 80's tone but just something that can tighten up when needed but isnt like aftermath tightness. and will sound "full".  i'll look around for some abraxus clips and see what i can find.

I have the Manson Evo-2 and a regular single coil isn't gonna fit for the neck pick up.

The cool rails do suck, I tried to swap it with another single coil only to realize it doesn't fit.

The routing for the cool rail is perfectly oval, and the single coils have a tang on the bottom part. Maybe you can ask BKP to make a single coil without the tang?

i appreciate the heads up on this! i'll see what i can do to work around it. thanks

[johnny_rock_it]

i appreciate the heads up on this! i'll see what i can do to work around it. thanks

Glad I was able to help.

Let us know what you do, I'm curious myself as I would like to swap out the cool rail too.

[littleredguitars2]

for sure!

[Slartibartfarst42]

It's certainly true to say that the Abraxas has historically been somewhat overlooked, though there has been more love for it recently. I suspect you'll like the Holydiver but the reason I suggest the Abraxas is entirely down to the wire. I eventually drifted away from the Holydiver because I concluded that the 44AWG wire was making the tone more modern and in a way, 'characterless' compared to other pickups I was using. Pickups with 43AWG have more 'hair' to them and seem to capture that aggressive Rock tone better. The Nailbomb, Crawler and I imagine your Juggernaut all have that distinctive Rock growl to a greater or lesser extent. The Holydiver didn't have that so I had a pickup made with 43AWG, an AV magnet and wound just slightly lighter than the Abraxas and I got the most remarkable results. All of the recent love for the Abraxas seems to report similar characteristics to those I've mentioned and I can only conclude it's down to the wire used. Just a thought.

[johnny_rock_it]

For the full disclosure I like the open tone of the A-Bomb or Rebel Yell.

If you're looking for "fuller/fatter" as described in your first post, the HD will certainly fit the bill--but it just wasn't for me in the long run.

I had a Holy Diver in a Strat with similar specs (alder body, maple neck/rosewood fb, bolt on, 25.5" scale) and found it too thick and chunky. Couldn't get it to open up enough no matter how I tweaked the EQ or opened up the tone knob. It just sounded too fat. Single notes sounded really good and buttery, but the chords felt way too thick.

I had it for about a month or two and ended up replacing it for an A-Bomb. I'm much happier (albiet it's not as aggressive as the A-Bomb I'm used to). 

My vote is for the Abraxas since you don't want something too "raw punk hairy" but more of something smooth.

[littleredguitars2]

so i emailed seymour duncan inquiring about their different single coil mounts and they showed me how a bunch of their single coils have the newer modern elliptical mount they call it. rather than pester BK and beg for them to make what i want, i think i'm going to end up going with something like this for a swap on the cool rails

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/custom-stack-plus-strat

as for the humbucker i think i'm going to give the holy diver a shot. you guys gave some really great insight and i truly appreciate it. funnily enough, the characteristics you were both disliking about the HD are seemingly what i will enjoy. i like a really fat sound. like a p90 in a sense. so i'm not worried about it being too fat and full. but we'll see. and to slarti's note, i think a more modern voicing is what i need here. if i want anything vintagey i still have my 335 with the 10th anniversary pickups and that thing can do it all.

[Dave Sloven]

You could consider an Impulse, with a Cobra in the neck.  You would have to do some routing to get the Cobra in.  Otherwise you could rout it for an Impulse neck.  Could be worth it.  Routing would cost the same either way, most likely

Since when do you care about neck pickups anyway?  Just leave that in there and see if you use it

[Lucas]

How heavy can Abraxas actually go? Would it cope with music like Metallica/Trivium without any boost ect?

[Yellowjacket]

How heavy can Abraxas actually go? Would it cope with music like Metallica/Trivium without any boost ect?

I am gunna guess that it depends entirely on the amp.

[littleredguitars2]

i'd love to try the abraxus some day to find out exactly what it could do. but i think its the holydivers turn first

as far as the impulse goes, i considered that as well but theres not much that i've seen demo wise that makes it seem like the right fit for me. and regarding the cool rails "just leave it in there and try it" comment, i dont want a humbucker in the neck. i want a single coil. and i really dont want to have to route it out. even if that means trying a seymour duncan single for the neck.

[Yellowjacket]

Clips  can be deceptive.  I recall liking the idea of the juggernaut but not liking many clips.  Playing them in person was an entirely different experience.  Let me I know what you think of the Holy Diver.  I am curious.