VHII/Crawler - Irish Tours Question

[sdchando]

Hey guys, new here to the forum, but have been lurking around here trying to soak in the information for a couple weeks.

I know this question gets asked a ton here, but I'm still not sold on a set.

I am looking for an HSS pickup set for my Fender American Standard Strat w/ Maple fretboard. I was initially pretty sold on the Irish tours from a recommendation from Ben. He also recommended the VHII as my bridge humbucker. A lot of people here seem to recommend the crawler in the bridge position and say that the split tone is great. Can anyone point me into the right direction for which would better suit my needs?

For reference, I am a huge highly suspect fan, and if anyone listened to their Spotify Sessions Live in NYC stuff, I absolutely love that tone he has. I want a set that gets pretty dirty, but without going to contemporary and high gain. I would say at heaviest I'd play Highly Suspect or 90's rock/grunge type stuff. I also like cleaning it up a bit from time to time which is why I thought the IT's would be a versatile pup.

So.. IT's + VHII or Crawler?


Also.. I have the fat 50s in my strat now, are the ITs "fat" and full sounding like these? or more thin?

Does anyone have any experience with the backplate on the mid/neck singlecoils?


Thanks in advance for any input!

[Telerocker]

To start with the single coils:

No, the Irish Tours are not like the Fat 50's. I think they're in the ballpark of the BKP Apaches. The IT's are more or less overwound Mother's Milk, a little less woody, more bass, mids and a tad less topend.

A baseplate on the single coils can help to give weak and thin pickups a little more balls, but also enhances the highs. Personally I don't like a baseplate on the neckpickup because it gets quickly quite boomy. On the bridgesinglecoil a baseplate is often a good thing.

For the humbucker:

The VHII and Crawler are totally different pickups, except outputwise. The VHII nearly touches the output of the Crawler.

VHII: quite some bass for a hot PAF, good midrange, clear bright but not shrill topend, noncompressed so can let it scream when you dig in. Pinched harmonics a plenty. A very focussed pickup that imho isn't that versatile as say a Crawler. The split of the VHII in combination with the middle pickup is not as happening as the splits of Crawler/IT-combo.

Crawler: medium-output, fat, huge mids, great solotones also above the 12th fret, cleans up very good (jazz/rockabilly possible) but growls in a unique way when pushed. Versatile pickup with still a enough PAF-pedigree to place it in the vintagehot department, but can handle heavier styles (maybe not the best metalpickup) quite well. Split as a tele-esque quality to it.
I think the Crawler excels in bolt-on alder and (swamp)ash guitars.

[sdchando]

I think you just made my decision much easier. So i'm thinking of going for the ITs/Crawler combo.

Just to wrap up a few options, the crawler is supposed to be covered? or does that not matter?

for the good split tone that you mention, you recommend the RWRP?

then last question.. what volume/tone pots would you recommend? I've seen somewhere that 500k works well for both the crawler and IT, but there's always the 250/500k combo pots. then not sure what to do about tone knobs?

thanks again telerocker

[Telerocker]

I think you just made my decision much easier. So i'm thinking of going for the ITs/Crawler combo.

Just to wrap up a few options, the crawler is supposed to be covered? or does that not matter?

for the good split tone that you mention, you recommend the RWRP?

then last question.. what volume/tone pots would you recommend? I've seen somewhere that 500k works well for both the crawler and IT, but there's always the 250/500k combo pots. then not sure what to do about tone knobs?

thanks again telerocker

You can get the Crawler without cover and I recommend that. BKP compensates a covered pickup with some extra winds, but I have the idea a covered Crawler might loose a bit too much topend/openess. Height is important with scatterwound pickups. Every mm counts. Mine is set fairly low. A bit up provides more agression.

My middle IT is RWRP. Works fine with the splitted Crawler.

There are different ways to wire a HSS-guitar. I have 500k for the Crawler and 250k for the single coils. I have a push-pull on the toneknob for the split. In normal mode I can combine the Crawler as a humbucker with the middle-IT for a full but little more chimey sound. 

There are wiringdiagrams on the BKP-site. You can also have a look at the Suhr HSS-wiringdiagrams (autosplit on the fourth position).


 

[sdchando]

Awesome, thanks tele.

I spoke to Ben and he mentioned that they still offer the pre-wired loaded pickguards so i think i'll go with that. He said they use a 550k vol pot for both the single coils and humbucker. So worst case scenario, if i have to experiment with different pots I can after that.

One last questions, how are the irish tours under gain? I've seen you say they're pretty versatile. I'm not looking for modern high gain stuff, but just curious as to what they're limits really are.

[Telerocker]

Awesome, thanks tele.

I spoke to Ben and he mentioned that they still offer the pre-wired loaded pickguards so i think i'll go with that. He said they use a 550k vol pot for both the single coils and humbucker. So worst case scenario, if i have to experiment with different pots I can after that.

One last questions, how are the irish tours under gain? I've seen you say they're pretty versatile. I'm not looking for modern high gain stuff, but just curious as to what they're limits really are.

Sorry to respond that later, but I was on holiday. Irish Tours handle gain very well. The neckpickup is happening. also for SRV and Chili Peppers. I sometimews throw loads of gain at it and it takes it very well.

550k for single coils could be quite bright. I prefer 250k, but just try it. With a prewired pickguard the pots are easy to change.