Is the A-Bomb right for me? HSP90 in the neck? Looking for suggestions

[ratspeak]

Update: I'm currently working on patching up a Holydiver that was sold to me years ago with damaged mounting holes. If it works out in my guitar, all I'll need is a neck pickup to eventually pair with it.

Update II: The 'Diver lives, and I'm going to keep it on the grounds of it being "close enough," though I think eventually I will try an A-bomb in this guitar or my SG because deep down I want the sizzle and grind. I'm going to leave the DiMarzio neck pickup in there for now while I work on modifying my Strat for dual soapbar duty, but if you have any suggestions for a neck pickup to match the 'Diver I'd love to hear 'em.

***

Hey folks. I need your expertise and help to get my priorities sorted out while I rebuild my setup.

My main project these days is a three-piece hardcore group in which I'm the only guitar. I'm naturally gravitating to the upper-mid-to-high range in our songwriting and leaving the low-mids to the bass guitar more often than not. There isn't any particular desire to start de-tuning. We play in standard, so I'm not worried about trying to retain tightness. We do sometimes briefly roll back into milder crunch or even clean parts. Occasionally we dip into airy post-rocky interludes to contrast with our primary style. I just parted ways with my C-Pig set, which was just too much pickup for that kind of stuff. However, on the other end of the spectrum, I'm using the Crunch Lab/LiquiFire set as placeholders and I find the CL to be way too icepicky; especially the cleans but even on the gain channels. Guess that's what I get for using 'em without de-tuning.

I've fallen out of love with ceramic magnets to some degree. Between a personal thirst for alnico and the role of my guitar in the band, the A-Bomb is the first Bare Knuckle offering on my radar for a bridge pickup. What do you think? Am I on the right track with this one, or is there something I'm missing here?

As for a neck pickup, this is where things get a little less clear for me. I've used the Duncan '59, LiquiFire, Warpig neck, and that ceramic Aftermath neck mod that was popular on release for its similarities to the Painkiller neck (which I haven't used). I don't do the shredder thing and I don't really need that kind of compression. I think I'd much rather have something that can add a little sparkle to my cleans, cut through the mud, and stay articulate in reverb, delay or fuzz. I'm starting to wonder if I should get something other than a humbucker to go in the neck position.

Am I right to want something like a Supermassive or Stockholm in the neck position? I am also considering an adapter that would allow me to use a strat-style pickup in the neck position, but I'm not sure if any of BKPs strat pickups other than the Trilogy Suite or Sinner would be suitable to match with a high-gain bridge pickup. I don't mind using single coils with 500k pots. Which P90 or single-coil do you think pairs up best with a Nailbomb in the bridge for my project? (or whichever bridge pickup you recommend, for that matter) If not, which neck position humbucker do you think I've been missing all my life, and why?

-my guitar is an ESP horizon nt-ii, ebony fingerboard, maple neck-thru, mahogany wings

-I play through a Dual Rectifier Roadster with standard 6L6s

Any suggestions, ideas or elder wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time!

[Telerocker]

If you can deal with some P90-hum the Supermassive would be a good choice, but I'm biased bec I like P90's. I would also have a look at the Holy Diver. The Nailbomb is love or hate. Hairy, sizzle in the topend, aggressive. Looking at your guitarspecs I would say Miracle Man, but thats ceramic, however it can do a lot more than modern metal. The huge lowend might not be what you're looking for.

[darkandrew]

I tend to think of a Cold Sweat as being  a ceramic pickup for guitarists that don't do ceramic pickups. It's got the slightest hint of ceramic saturation and sizzle but none of the fizz and compressed-to-hell lack of dynamics that many ceramics have. It's definitely in my top 5 pickups - great tone and surprisingly versatile.

[ratspeak]

If you can deal with some P90-hum the Supermassive would be a good choice, but I'm biased bec I like P90's. I would also have a look at the Holy Diver. The Nailbomb is love or hate. Hairy, sizzle in the topend, aggressive. Looking at your guitarspecs I would say Miracle Man, but thats ceramic, however it can do a lot more than modern metal. The huge lowend might not be what you're looking for.

Way back in 2010 I remember the Miracle Man being one of the main recommendations for the same guitar (which I ultimately ended up putting the ceramic Warpig in). I am looking for a degree of meanness, but at the same time trying to pick something that's farther away from the top of the chart when it comes to winds. My main worry with the Miracle Man is that it will be too small a step away from the pickups I just sold. I'm not opposed to huge low-end, but I want to avoid scoopy stuff because my amp is predisposed to a lack of mids already.

Funny story, I have a bridge HolyDiver that I got years ago, but the guy who owned it before me ruined the mounting holes on it which is probably why he pawned it off on me... Classic dysfunctional suburban music scene. I have a plan to make the pickup usable again and, now that you mention it, I would be remiss to not give it a chance.

Now that I've slept on it, part of me is curious whether or not I would be satisfied with a pair of Supermassive (or maybe a bridge Stockholm) for this project. There is certainly no shortage of examples when it comes to the use of P90s in hc music, and I like P90s a lot as well. Have you used a bridge position Supermassive? My thought is that if I really can't deal with a P90 bridge in my main guitar, I can use the HolyDiver and move the Supermassive to another guitar.

The Nailbomb is still in the mix, though. I see some people warning that it prefers a warmer guitar, but I listened to some recordings of it in neck-thru guitars and to me it sounds mean in the good way.

Thanks for your ideas!

I tend to think of a Cold Sweat as being  a ceramic pickup for guitarists that don't do ceramic pickups. It's got the slightest hint of ceramic saturation and sizzle but none of the fizz and compressed-to-hell lack of dynamics that many ceramics have. It's definitely in my top 5 pickups - great tone and surprisingly versatile.

I love the Cold Sweat, but in this case I'm worried about its EQ profile. The scooped-mids thing doesn't really play with the Dual Rectifier in a way I like. Originally when I started browsing the BKP site this week I was looking at the CS set. Some guitar someday is gonna get 'em, but I don't think now is the time unfortunately.

[Telerocker]

Diver has the mids.

[Yellowjacket]

Rebel Yell bridge sounds amazing with a Dual Rectifier.  A-Bomb is good but it is hairy, Raw, and aggressive.

[ratspeak]

Diver has the mids.

That's the way I'm leaning now. Just gotta head to the hardware store and grab a few things so I can try it out. If it works out, I'm probably gonna be in the market for a pair of soapbar p90s for my universal rout strat, since my tele's been getting all the love lately when it comes to single coils.

Rebel Yell bridge sounds amazing with a Dual Rectifier.  A-Bomb is good but it is hairy, Raw, and aggressive.

I bet it does. I swapped my SG's stock 498t into my ESP just to see how much difference the maple NT made (not much, as it turns out; maybe a notch on the rectifier's treble knob) and it was absolutely screaming. Mean where the Crunch Lab was surgical. In fact, I even found the sweet spot on CH4 modern - which I have barely touched otherwise. I've read a few instances of people who liked the 498t going for RYs. It might be my next choice if the Holydiver doesn't work out.

[Telerocker]

Back the ampgain a littlebit down and put a TS-type pedal as a booster in front. Diver sounds better that way I think.

[ratspeak]

I suspect it's gonna sound fantastic with a little color from the 808. I usually don't lean into amp gain too much, but the 'Diver does appear to be a little hotter than the other pickups I've been testing. I'll report back today or tomorrow, depending on when I'm able to make it to the hardware store.

[ratspeak]

Alright. I've mounted the 'Diver and it is definitely an excellent match for my guitar and amp. I'm gonna stick with it, though I think eventually I'd like to try a RY or Nailbomb in one of my guitars. The Horizon is gonna need a neck pickup that's more suitable than the liquifire. I'm still leaning towards a HBSP90, but I think it's going to have to wait until I convert my Strat over to dual P90s.

For my Strat, I'm leaning towards a set of Nantuckets. I want a healthy dose of upper-mid grind when I get into high-gain so dissonant, tension-building chords can really sing and waver. Anyone with P90 experience think I'm on the right track here? The sounds I'm overall most inspired by are coming out of LP Specials and such.

Here's the Horizon with the 'Diver installed:

[Yellowjacket]

If I might ask, how did you patch the mounting holes?  Was the pickup direct mounted so the thread was damaged in the process??

[ratspeak]

If I might ask, how did you patch the mounting holes?  Was the pickup direct mounted so the thread was damaged in the process??

I don't know how the pickup was damaged originally. The original owner had them in an RG, but I can't remember if it was a pickguard model or not. You're probably right, though.

What I did to repair it was: took a spare baseplate , clipped the feet off and epoxied them over the holes with ClearWeld. To prep, I used a metal reamer to make the holes in the original baseplate bigger, which helped the new feet set flush atop the damaged ones. I didn't have any small clamps on hand so I used two adjustable wrenches as a clamping solution, taking them off after about 40 minutes to scr‍ape the excess epoxy out of the holes and then putting them back on for the remaining 20 minutes until the ClearWeld was fully cured.

If you're going to use adjustable wrenches to clamp, make sure they aren't putting any stress on the baseplate itself as the weight of a big wrench could easily bend the feet out of position. Don't tighten them too much either, for that matter. Just enough to hold everything in place. Be careful adjusting everything and make sure the new feet are sitting flush and center so they aren't obstructed by the old feet.

Here's what the end result looks like. It ain't pretty, but it works (and the mess is hidden under my pickup rings anyway):

[Yellowjacket]

Ah.  It looks like they widened the mounting holes to accommodate larger screws and they clipped the tabs to fit in rounded pickup routs.  I love your solution.  Now you have great tone from a fantastic pickup.

[Dave Sloven]

Ah.  It looks like they widened the mounting holes to accommodate larger screws and they clipped the tabs to fit in rounded pickup routs.  I love your solution.  Now you have great tone from a fantastic pickup.

To me it looks like the new tabs are the clipped ones on top of the old feet

[ratspeak]

To me it looks like the new tabs are the clipped ones on top of the old feet

The new tabs are actually salvaged from a dead DiMarzio and came from the factory in that shape (I probably would've grabbed something from stewmac if I didn't have that option). Looking at pictures of my old Warpig set, the tabs on the 'Diver look normal to me other than the widened holes.