Schecter Stiletto-6 FR - recommendations?

[Telerocker]

I'm talking about the Schecter.

[Dave Sloven]

Miracle man in a strat isn't too similar to a NB in an explorer IMO.

I am still getting my head around this guitar.  It is mahogany so not quite the same a strat.  It does have the bolt-on neck though which tends to favour the Holy Diver.

I haven't pulled anything out yet but when I do I will check whether long leg pickups will fit in the bridge slot (I'm not optimistic).  If they do I can test An A-Pig and a Miracle Man in it, just borrowing them from my SGs

[Dave Sloven]

Here are some photos of the pickups, cavities, etc

You can definitely fit a long-leg Gibson style humbucker into it.  That means I could test my A-Pig, A-Bomb, Miracle Man, and Cold Sweat to see how they sound.

It has 500K Alpha pots, with a 5-position switch.  Shared volume and tone.

I gave it a good clean, restrung it, adjusted the Floyd Rose (the claw needed adjustment), and tuned it today.  I also moved the bridge pickup up slightly.  We'll see if that makes it sound better!

[Dave Sloven]

The EMG-HZ in the bridge has ice pick highs and is quite sterile sounding.  I'm not sure if that is a general problem with this pickup or it reflects the fact that it is in this particular guitar.

The neck single coil is too bright.  I would prefer a darker neck pickup.

I personally find the middle pickup to be kind of useless. I am tempted to delete it

[stratguy23]

The EMG-HZ in the bridge has ice pick highs and is quite sterile sounding.  I'm not sure if that is a general problem with this pickup or it reflects the fact that it is in this particular guitar.

The neck single coil is too bright.  I would prefer a darker neck pickup.

I personally find the middle pickup to be kind of useless. I am tempted to delete it

Strat scale length and a Floyd Rose both in my experience make a guitar brighter than Gibson scale and a TOM/wraparound bridge, so the guitar could be inherently bright especially compared to your Explorers. I haven't played EMG-HZ pickups, so I do not know if they tend to sound harsh though. I will be interested to hear your thoughts on which Bare Knuckles you like in the guitar. It's a very cool looking instrument.

[dxlxntxxlxr]

Replace that licensed floyd man!

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah until I have the new FR it will be hard to tell what the guitar might sound like with new pickups.

My first priority is to replace the Schecter licensed FR with a Gotoh, with brass block and Gotoh locking nut, and possibly a Tremol-No to make string changes easier.

I would use the Gotoh studs and keep the standard long Gotoh lock screws, and just have it routed to fit. Any routing at the bridge would be minor.  I would also have it routed for a neck humbucker at the same time.  After playing the guitar for a while I am not sold on the HSS config.  I don't like middle pickups much, and the neck single coil is too bright for me.  I am starting to think that an Impulse set might be a good option in this guitar at C standard tuning.

[Dave Sloven]

My tech strongly advised against routing for a neck humbucker, said it would change the sound of the guitar too much.  Advised me to install a single-coil size humbucker in the neck slot and simply remove the middle pickup

[dxlxntxxlxr]

Or a cobra neck

[Yellowjacket]

Replace that licensed floyd man!

I replaced an LFR bridge on a guitar.  Put a Schaller in it and replaced the block with a KCG 5/8' brass block.  The difference was night and day, but it is not cheap if the bridge does not retrofit to the rout.  In my case, the new bridge fit and I was lucky that the holes in the body where the right size to mount the new studs and sleeves. 
Based on my experience, I would NEVER recommend buying a project guitar that has a FR Style locking trem system.  It is simply too potentially expensive.

Dave, if you are in the US, Stew Mac has great prices on Schaller bridges.  You will have to check the fretboard radius and see how it compares to the bridge radius.  I had to use saddle shims do dial in my action for my schaller bridge.  The guitar has a 16" radius and I believe the Schaller was 10". 

I also recently replaced the Flat Plate style bridge on my RG7421 with a Hipshot FP style bridge designed to retrofit to this guitar.  With a hard tail I was not expecting as dramatic of a tonal change as what I got with the other guitar.  Truthfully, I was expecting a minor change but it was also fairly dramatic.  Comparable to replacing pickups, IMO.   I suspect that any part that directly influences the vibration pattern of strings is massively important in sustain and timbre.   

[Dave Sloven]

The guy I am going to is quoting me $120 for installation and setup, including routing, which is only $20 more than what most shops charge for setting up a FR guitar.  He is a great luthier (not just a tech) and his attitude was "I've known you for a long time Dave, I'll look after you man" ... he plays in metal bands and has set up a lot of Floyds since the '80s so I trust his abilities with what it a relatively simple job for someone with experience like his.  He is at least 40km from my house and I could have gone somewhere closer but he is a metal guy and lives right in the heart of Pantera fanboy territory here so I figured he must have set up loads of Floyds!

I am thinking alnico Black Hawk plus a Cobra or the special-order Impulse single coil in the neck, with the middle pickup deleted and getting a new pickguard made (would be cheaper than a middle pickup!). I never use middle pickups and they are kind of in the way. I use the neck pickup only twice in our set now as it is.

[Dave Sloven]

I replaced an LFR bridge on a guitar.  Put a Schaller in it and replaced the block with a KCG 5/8' brass block.  The difference was night and day, but it is not cheap if the bridge does not retrofit to the rout.  In my case, the new bridge fit and I was lucky that the holes in the body where the right size to mount the new studs and sleeves. 
Based on my experience, I would NEVER recommend buying a project guitar that has a FR Style locking trem system.  It is simply too potentially expensive.

I have already bought the Gotoh GE1996-T bridge and FGR-2 nut from Philadelphia Luthier's Supplies in the USA and just waiting for them to arrive here in Australia.   All up including install and setup it will cost me less than AU$400 (roughly US$300)

As I think I said above I didn't actually pay money for the guitar, I picked it up through a trade for some pedals. Of the four pedals one had a fault (Polytune) and two others were proving hard to sell (volume pedal and compressor) - only the DD-7 was an easy sell.  So I think I did pretty well.  The alternative would have been to buy some $600 guitar with a horrible licensed FR like the one I've got - or alternatively the "OFR" 1000 series or Special series - and then do exactly the same upgrade to get to a good guitar.  And I still would have been stuck with those pedals!  So I think I have done pretty well.  Fitting a FRX to my Explorer would have cost more than that and I would have been stuck with an ugly bridge that doesn't work as well and only one guitar

[Yellowjacket]

You are in awesome shape there.  It's super nice to have a friend or someone with skill who can help.  It'll make an enormous difference in the sound and functionality of the guitar.  Swapping out the LFR for the Schaller was an immense upgrade on my 6 string and the 5/8" brass block was icing on the cake.  I'm glad I did the upgrade!! 

I'd suggest doing the upgrade on the bridge before swapping pickups.  In my experience, the LFR bridges with the softer metal are quite low mid focused while with a high quality bridge, there is more of a full range frequency response with emphasis in the upper mids and the highs.  To my ear, the stock brass block with the Schaller was quite zingy and particularly upper mid focused, while the KGC 5/8mm brass block was sweeter and more balanced sounding with even more sustain. 

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah I agree.

I will upgrade the bridge and have the setup done and then swap pickups from my other guitars in and see which ones I like best.  I have an A-Pig, a Cold Sweat, an A-Bomb, and a Miracle Man.  As the CS is not in a guitar at the moment I'll try that one first but I suspect it will be the least suited.  Thankfully the cavity is deep enough to run long legs at the bridge position so I can use the pickups from my Gibsons for testing, even though (besides the MM) they are 50mm spacing. Trying four different BKPs will give me plenty of reference points when I come back here and ask for opinons

I will also get one of those tremolo stops, not to block the trem for playing so much as to make string changes and pickup testing easier.  If I am paying someone to set it up I want a means to keep that setup right

[Dave Sloven]

I forgot about the Ragnarok.

From what I have read and heard it seems like a Miracle Man with more mids, and has similar soloing ability to the MM bridge

I think the main ones I am considering are the A-Hawk, Juggernaut, and Ragnarok.  This guitar will be mainly used for lead parts in recording, and used live for songs that require a tremolo.  So I need a bridge pickup that is very good on leads.  This tends to lead me to move away from pickups like the Nailbombs and Aftermath.  The Painkiller I suspect might be too abrasive in this guitar.  I am looking for darker tones really.