Juggernaut for Modern Rock HSS?

[scarlet_shade]

Hey guys,
I have been watching the forum for a long time and now I'm finally ready for my first set of bare knuckles.

I have been wanting to change my strat to HSS for a long time, actually since I got it really 
So this is a 2017 mexican standard strat, alder body, maple neck and a pau ferro fretboard on this one. So what do I want for this guitar?

The guitar is my main axe in my main band and I want to make it a little more suitable for that. We play a kind of modern/alternative rock with some small progressive elements to it. Think kind of Karnivool meets newer Bring me the Horizon meets Periphery meets Tame Impala meets Ghost Atlas. I know this is a long stretch and that means this has to be a kind of versatile set ranging from big modern high gain sounds to some very clean or lightly driven ambient stuff.
Band setup would be drums, bass, a synth player and me (guitar & vocals)

Bridge Pickup:
The whole reason for turning this into an HSS is to make the bridge position a lot thicker, this will be almost exclusively used for high gain rhythm and lead.
I want this to be really fat sounding but with a tight low end. I'm the only guitarist so thats why I want this to be fat, but if the bass is too soft  the whole low end will turn into a mess with the synthesizers. High end shouldn't be too ice picky. In general I would like a more modern voicing for this.

Neck and middle:
I really like strat pickups in these positions so I don't want these to be too modern but I don't mind these to be a little bigger than vintage strat pickups for some fatter lead sounds. Generally the should manly deliver beatiful clean and low gain tones although I like to use the neck for some high gain leads too.

Positions 2&4:
These are very crucial to me so I will treat them seperatly. I use these almost exclusively on clean and low gain stuff but I use them far more often than the neck and middle on their own. I need these to deliver very beatiful kind of hollow sounds that need to stay as classic strat sounding as possible. I know this might not be the case with some fatter single coils but in an ideal situation there would be a very open sound to them. Because of this it is also very important that the bridge pickup splits very nicely so that position 2 still sounds very authentic.

To me this seems nearly impossible to achieve but I want to try it nevertheless.

I mailed Ben about this topic a while ago and he advised me to get a Juggernaut for the bridge and either Trilogys Suites or Cobras for the neck and middle.
While I love the sounds Misha gets in Periphery  but I'm not sure if the juggernaut might be a little too abrasive here. I also don't know if the TS or cobras can deliver the tones I'm after, although I like the idea of the TS beeing kind of P90-ish, but do they offer what I want on positions 2 & 4?

Maybe someone who owns these can help me out here. But feel free to recommend something maybe a little more vintage oriented.

Can't wait for your replies. I can't wait to dive deeper into the world of bare knuckle and the forum.

PS: Sorry if this might be an overly long post 

[scarlet_shade]

Edit: The guitar is tuned to D-Standard.

[Dave Sloven]

The Impulse or the alnico Black Hawk might be good options here.  The BH pairs especially well with Cobras and you can get them in a white colour if that suits

[scarlet_shade]

The Impulse or the alnico Black Hawk might be good options here.  The BH pairs especially well with Cobras and you can get them in a white colour if that suits

Thanks.
From what I read on the forum I always understood the Blackhawks as beeing really high output despite the low DCR readings. But I may look further into these.
How would you say these work for some none metal applications? If I remember correctly you have these in a Schecter that seems to be pretty close to my strat tonally.

Would you pair the Impulses with Cobras or do you think something else would be a better fit?

[Dave Sloven]

I really don't know on the Cobras with Impulse bridge.  I know that Josh from Northlane had a special single coil made to match the Impulse, it wasn't the same as the Cobra.

I wouldn't recommend the ceramic version for a Strat, it might be too crispy, but the alnico version is warmer and is surprisingly versatile as long as you are not looking for something especially vintage.  It splits fine too, which is a good thing for a Strat.  I think the output is in the same ballpark as the alnico version of the Nailbomb but it is smoother and less hairy, a much better lead pickup than the NB

[scarlet_shade]

Yeah I know about the Impulse neck single coil, but as far as I'm aware it was never used in the middle Position. Might have to throw another mail at Ben about this.
A-Hawk was something I never even considered for this but I may have to investigate in these a little further.
Do you have any experience with the juggernaut or is there a specific reason why you would choose the A-Hawk over it.
So far some great food for thought.

I really don't know on the Cobras with Impulse bridge.  I know that Josh from Northlane had a special single coil made to match the Impulse, it wasn't the same as the Cobra.

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah I know about the Impulse neck single coil, but as far as I'm aware it was never used in the middle Position. Might have to throw another mail at Ben about this.
A-Hawk was something I never even considered for this but I may have to investigate in these a little further.
Do you have any experience with the juggernaut or is there a specific reason why you would choose the A-Hawk over it.
So far some great food for thought.

I really don't know on the Cobras with Impulse bridge.  I know that Josh from Northlane had a special single coil made to match the Impulse, it wasn't the same as the Cobra.

I watched a video comparing the two and liked the A-Hawk better.  I also liked it better than the C-Hawk in BKP's comparison video, especially for cleans and leads.  I also saw a video comparing the Impulse to the Juggernaut and liked the Impulse better in that, and figured that the A-Hawk is closer to the Impulse than the Juggernaut.  The A-Hawk is like a more powerful Impulse with stronger mids and bottom end.

Here's a link to the video comparing them.  It's not a great video but you can pick the difference in tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wOUAcGBpws

Also I liked this video of the A-Hawk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvoZPM-sVRc

[scarlet_shade]

I think I actually prefer the juggernaut in this video. But I really like the video of Josh.
I don't know. My gut tells me to go with the juggernaut but the blackhawks sound very interesting too. Might have to get a third opinion about this.
Thank you for your input you have definitely made more interested in the Blackhawks.

[Dave Sloven]

There's also this video of our most recent show with me playing the Schecter.  It's all bridge pickup.  The first little section is clean with the Boss MO-2, chorus, delays, and reverb on the rhythm channel (set very clean), then just the chorus on the lead channel (gain around half way), then I turn all of the effects off until the end of this set.  The amp is a Peavey 6534+ through a 412 with Celestion V30s.  It might give you some idea of the sound.  The other guitarist has the same model amp and speakers but with a Ibanez fitted with the EMG 81/85 set (all of the set on the bridge) and a delay on the leads. The bit after the bass break you can hear him by himself, because I left my tuner on.  LOL.  Not very professional but I hope it gives some idea of the growl of the pickup with gain. Tuning is C standard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpz0iQQI9mc

The A-Hawk is probably closest to the Holy Diver and Juggernaut in terms of which guitars it works best in.  Each pickup has its own sound but you could potentially use any of them for the same applications.

[Yellowjacket]

Hi OP.  The Juggernaut is a pretty polarizing pickup here because of its faddish association but it is pretty much perfect for the tones you are after.  Just get it, you won't be sorry. 

I have a juggernaut set in two guitars and I can confirm that they sound awesome.  They are big and wide sounding pickups and they are great for leads and high gain rhythm.  Most people who try my guitars with these pickups love them.  Not sure on the single coil options but you can trust Ben. Good luck!

[scarlet_shade]

Thank you Yellowjacket I think this is actually what I wanted to hear 
I just don't know if I like the idea of the look of the blackhawk and cobras on this guitar. But Dave I am definitely interested in the A-Hawks, maybe ok another guitar in the future. Thank you for your help here and I do think the A-Hawk Sounds very good in your guitar. 

But for now I decided to go with the Juggernaut and Trilogy Suites. I will also try and write a review to share some of my thoughts about how this combination sounds altogether.

Rock on

[Dave Sloven]

I think the Black Hawks look good in my guitar because the pickguard mounting was for the squared-off EMG-HZ pickups, and aesthetically these are much better looking than those, as well as being a similar shape so that they fill the pickguard holes nicely