Holy divers in a basswood superstrat?

[darkandrew]

Hi,
I'm thinking of moving my Holy Divers into a basswood superstrat (with set maple neck and rosewood fretboard). Before I go ahead and spend hours unsoldering / resoldering / unstringing / restringing guitar, are there any reasons why this combination would not work well?

[darrenw5094]

Should sound great in that really. They were designed for superstrats.

[darkandrew]

My concern would be that the basswood was "soft" and lacked both the attack and the brightness that the HDs need.

[Telerocker]

My concern would be that the basswood was "soft" and lacked both the attack and the brightness that the HDs need.

If your guitar has a dense midrange, Divers could be too much as they have a big midrange. If not, you might take the gamble. Personally I think Rebel Yells would do a good job in a guitar with these timbers. But it al comes down to the natural voice of the guitar in question. I heard many differences between basswood guitars, although basswood is perceived to be quite neutral.

[mantrasky]

I find Holy Divers in my Alder body Charvel to sound amazing, just the right combination of weight and density for the notes to cut through. With Alder I find that if you articulate your playing style, there is a huge benefit in vocal-like outcome, whereas Basswood is very neutral and doesn’t articulates as well, not as good note definition, of course all player are different but I like to know if I hit the note hard the notes will scream, or play soft for a sweeter tone. Great with rhythm and solo’s (in my experience) through my amps...

[Yellowjacket]

Hi,
I'm thinking of moving my Holy Divers into a basswood superstrat (with set maple neck and rosewood fretboard). Before I go ahead and spend hours unsoldering / resoldering / unstringing / restringing guitar, are there any reasons why this combination would not work well?

This ::should:: sound good.  What guitar is this?  I have a 7 string with those woods and retrofitting a hipshot FP replacement bridge gives all the attack and articulation one needs.

[darkandrew]

Hi,
I'm thinking of moving my Holy Divers into a basswood superstrat (with set maple neck and rosewood fretboard). Before I go ahead and spend hours unsoldering / resoldering / unstringing / restringing guitar, are there any reasons why this combination would not work well?

This ::should:: sound good.  What guitar is this?  I have a 7 string with those woods and retrofitting a hipshot FP replacement bridge gives all the attack and articulation one needs.

It's a Fender Showmaster. I tried it anyway, and wasn't too keen. The CS set that was already in there was a much better match for the woods, etc with a much quicker attack. Over the years (and countless sets of BKPs) I've found this particular guitar to be a real problem - it just eats pickups. Something about it's construction really sucks up all the attack, I've now tried VHIIs, Rebel Yells, Nail Bombs, Cold Sweats and Holy Divers in there, and although the Rebel Yells were "there" in terms of tone they still lacked the initial percussive edge of the string be played and the only set so far that seems to have paired up well with the guitar is the CS set.

[Telerocker]

I think - could be wrong though - the key for the Showmaster are low output pickups like the RiffRaff and the Mule, which don't choke the mids. The lack of output, just in case you want to slam the preamp, could be compensated with a boostpedal.