Which bridge PU should I try next?

[Charlie-AKA]

Hi guys, I have a neck through Carvin that’s almost all mahogany except for a couple maple stripes down the neck. TOM bridge and jumbo stainless frets. Really heavy guitar, it’s like a damn weapon. I have a cold sweat neck that sounds good in it but I didn’t like the cold sweat bridge or the ceramic nailbomb I have put in it. Idk how to describe what I don’t like about their tone, it’s like they just don’t respond to heavy overdrive the way I want them to. I have BKPs in my other guitars, my favs are the silo, juggernaut, and rebel yell. I also like the VHII in my Les paul, and I used to have an explorer with a mule that I loved but sold.I have a holy diver set waiting to be put into another Carvin. I haven’t yet owned but want to try the crawler, abraxas, A-hawk, A-pig, and impulse. I’m not a big ceramic guy, I prefer alnico. I tend to like the pickups with maximum clarity under heavy OD, brightness, presence, sustain, smoothness of distorted power chords, and good lead tone up and down the board. Which pickup should I try in this guitar next out of the ones I haven’t owned yet? And if I was going to go with a pickup that I’d used already, how do you think the juggernaut or rebel yell would do?

[Dave Sloven]

If it is a heavy guitar with plenty of bass the Impulse is excellent

The A-Hawk is also great but I think if it is a bassy guitar you will like the Impulse the best

[Charlie-AKA]

Throughout your posts I’ve noticed you really like the impulse and blackhawks. Which of the two would you say is better for a player who loves pinch harmonics?
Which of the two is more middy?
Thanks for the stellar advice in this forum!

[Dave Sloven]

Well I tried out the ceramic Black Hawk in an SG today and found it to be too bright there, really ice picky.  So Nolly's advice on the magnet video for the Black Hawks is spot on: brighter guitars need the top-end roll-off of the alnico magnet

The Impulse has the top-end roll off of the A5 mag but the wire and windings are such that it lacks bottom end compared to the Black Hawks.  I also suspect it is a regular single magnet design, rather than the triple magnet design of the Black Hawk bridge pickups.

All of them are good for pinch harmonics.  To be honest with all of the contemporary range that I've tried pinch harmonics haven't been a big hassle.

The alnico Black Hawk has the most mids, especially lower mids.  The ceramic Black Hawk is slightly scooped and the Impulse has quite a flat EQ

All of them have a great response.  I think this is due in part to the blade design

The neck pickups are quite different. I would consider putting an Impulse neck with a Black Hawk bridge but not the other way around.  I think the BH neck could overpower the Impulse bridge.

Impulse neck with Cobra-T bridge could be nice in a Telecaster

The BH neck is nice and fat whereas the Impulse neck is quite Stratty for a humbucker.  The BHs are symmetrically wound whereas I think the Impulse neck might be asymmetric

In general the output of the BH set would be 20% greater than that of the Impulse set, regardless of the resistance readings

[Telerocker]

Look at Dave's list of pickups and you know what he's at. 

You name a lot of BKP's, but what's your main style? I mean a Crawler is a sort of Uber Mule, fat but compared to other BKP's rather mellow in the low register. Reasonably tight for a hotrodded PAF, but nowhere near the tightness of say a Aftermath. So if you're playing metal as well, forget the Crawler. It does hardrock pretty good though.

Choice also depends on the guitar. A Rebel Yell might be not the right pickup in a neck through 24 fret guitar, unless it has a dark natural voice and needs a bit of sparkle. I think a Miracle Man would be a better, more balanced option. A Juggernaut might do as well, yet I am not a fan of this pickup (but who cares..)))  Or if you want to go vintage(hot), a Black Dog is good option. Stays tight and has enough beef.

Don't take my advice for granted. I've heard the same pickup in different guitars and the results were sometimes night and day. It's a bit of a gamble.

[Dave Sloven]

I've heard the same pickup in different guitars and the results were sometimes night and day. It's a bit of a gamble.

This has been my experience as well.  Unless the guitar is very similar when you move the same pickup between guitars the difference is often quite stark.

Bare Knuckles have a fairly open character compared to, say, DiMarzios which makes this even more so.  I think a lot of people who assume that pickups determine the tone of a guitar in some total sense really don't have much experience with more open pickups like BKPs.  Even the Impulse is like this, and that's a 'modern' pickup with a pretty flat EQ.

[Charlie-AKA]

Look at Dave's list of pickups and you know what he's at. 

You name a lot of BKP's, but what's your main style? I mean a Crawler is a sort of Uber Mule, fat but compared to other BKP's rather mellow in the low register. Reasonably tight for a hotrodded PAF, but nowhere near the tightness of say a Aftermath. So if you're playing metal as well, forget the Crawler. It does hardrock pretty good though.

Choice also depends on the guitar. A Rebel Yell might be not the right pickup in a neck through 24 fret guitar, unless it has a dark natural voice and needs a bit of sparkle. I think a Miracle Man would be a better, more balanced option. A Juggernaut might do as well, yet I am not a fan of this pickup (but who cares..)))  Or if you want to go vintage(hot), a Black Dog is good option. Stays tight and has enough beef.

Don't take my advice for granted. I've heard the same pickup in different guitars and the results were sometimes night and day. It's a bit of a gamble.

I would describe my tastes and style as mostly “classic metal” or old metal, maybe some would call it Dad Metal. I tend to like a lot of overdrive. I had a Mule bridge and loved it. I sold the guitar it was in figuring I’d get either another mule or an abraxas some day.
I actually have a Rebel Yell  in a 24 fret neck through guitar (maple neck through mahogany body) and it sounds perfect to me. I love the super hot and heavy PAF-ish sound.

[Dave Sloven]

Look at Dave's list of pickups and you know what he's at. 

The main style of music that's popular with BKP users that I don't like is djent

Hence why I have avoided the Ragnarok, Aftermath, Painkiller and even Juggernaut so far.  I also don't think I'd have a lot of use for anything looser than say a Holy Diver because I tune down a lot of the time and when I do play in standard tuning it tends to be eighties metal rather than southern rock or something like that.  Out of those 'djent pickups' the Juggernaut is probably the one that interests me the most because I have heard some fat sounding doom metal stuff played on it.

I have a ceramic Black Hawk now and I really don't like it in the SG that I tried it in first.  I think I will really need to find a darker guitar to use that in. If the alnico Black Hawk works out in my Schecter C-1 Blackjack SLS FR-S I will leave it in there.  It sounded really dark at band practice but I had only just gotten it back from the tech after a bridge install and either he adjusted it too high (maybe it sounded good through his little workshop amp that way?) or it was just left where it was when I installed it before taking it out to him.  Either way it looked really high so I lowered it to the same distance from the strings as the A-Hawk in my Stiletto and it instantly sounded better, even through the Peavey Rage 158 I tested it on.  I will need to plug it into my JSX to be sure, then I will be testing apples and apples.  If it is still too dark I will get the C-Hawk out of the SG and install that.  I think though that the C-Hawk might end up in some dark single-cut set-neck guitar like a Solo-6 Blackjack ATX if I can ever find another one. One was advertised here last year but she wasn't interested in trades and I didn't have the cash at the time.  Not a common guitar here and there are not many other guitars with that Les Paul shape and 25.5" scale combo.  One of these bad boys.  I reckon it would handle a C-Hawk okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdLDqw2Qgk

[Telerocker]

Look at Dave's list of pickups and you know what he's at. 

You name a lot of BKP's, but what's your main style? I mean a Crawler is a sort of Uber Mule, fat but compared to other BKP's rather mellow in the low register. Reasonably tight for a hotrodded PAF, but nowhere near the tightness of say a Aftermath. So if you're playing metal as well, forget the Crawler. It does hardrock pretty good though.

Choice also depends on the guitar. A Rebel Yell might be not the right pickup in a neck through 24 fret guitar, unless it has a dark natural voice and needs a bit of sparkle. I think a Miracle Man would be a better, more balanced option. A Juggernaut might do as well, yet I am not a fan of this pickup (but who cares..)))  Or if you want to go vintage(hot), a Black Dog is good option. Stays tight and has enough beef.

Don't take my advice for granted. I've heard the same pickup in different guitars and the results were sometimes night and day. It's a bit of a gamble.

I would describe my tastes and style as mostly “classic metal” or old metal, maybe some would call it Dad Metal. I tend to like a lot of overdrive. I had a Mule bridge and loved it. I sold the guitar it was in figuring I’d get either another mule or an abraxas some day.
I actually have a Rebel Yell  in a 24 fret neck through guitar (maple neck through mahogany body) and it sounds perfect to me. I love the super hot and heavy PAF-ish sound.

Well, from open and vintage to hotrodded PAF with more output and compression: Mule > Abraxas > Crawler. Crawler has perfect splits. I use the bridge split a lot: nearly tele-esque tone.

[ericsabbath]

Try the neck cold sweat in the bridge just for fun!
I tried this and it sounded amazing in the '78 Greco Les Paul Standard (EG 900, I think) I had, maybe better than the bridge Black Dog I had an in the same guitar
The guitar came with stock 70's DiMarzio PAF's
The neck Cold Sweat sounds like an improved DiMarzio PAF with more bite, upper mids and clarity
I got lot of compliments about my tone the one time I used that guitar with that particular pickup on stage

If it sounds good for your tastes, then you could order a neck holy diver to pair with it (or even another neck cold sweat)

[Charlie-AKA]

Look at Dave's list of pickups and you know what he's at. 

The main style of music that's popular with BKP users that I don't like is djent

Hence why I have avoided the Ragnarok, Aftermath, Painkiller and even Juggernaut so far.  I also don't think I'd have a lot of use for anything looser than say a Holy Diver because I tune down a lot of the time and when I do play in standard tuning it tends to be eighties metal rather than southern rock or something like that.  Out of those 'djent pickups' the Juggernaut is probably the one that interests me the most because I have heard some fat sounding doom metal stuff played on it.

I have a ceramic Black Hawk now and I really don't like it in the SG that I tried it in first.  I think I will really need to find a darker guitar to use that in. If the alnico Black Hawk works out in my Schecter C-1 Blackjack SLS FR-S I will leave it in there.  It sounded really dark at band practice but I had only just gotten it back from the tech after a bridge install and either he adjusted it too high (maybe it sounded good through his little workshop amp that way?) or it was just left where it was when I installed it before taking it out to him.  Either way it looked really high so I lowered it to the same distance from the strings as the A-Hawk in my Stiletto and it instantly sounded better, even through the Peavey Rage 158 I tested it on.  I will need to plug it into my JSX to be sure, then I will be testing apples and apples.  If it is still too dark I will get the C-Hawk out of the SG and install that.  I think though that the C-Hawk might end up in some dark single-cut set-neck guitar like a Solo-6 Blackjack ATX if I can ever find another one. One was advertised here last year but she wasn't interested in trades and I didn't have the cash at the time.  Not a common guitar here and there are not many other guitars with that Les Paul shape and 25.5" scale combo.  One of these bad boys.  I reckon it would handle a C-Hawk okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePdLDqw2Qgk

I have a bright alder Frankenstrat with a juggernaut neck and now a holy diver neck and it sounds awesome. The jug works perfect in the strat, it both brings out the brightness and balances it. I don’t play any type of djent or modern metal, I’m a classic metal guy. I keep this guitar tuned a half or a while step tuned down.

I also wanted to let you know I ordered an impulse set! I’m stoked!

[Dave Sloven]

I doubt that you will be sorry.  They sound great in any guitar with a bit of beef to it