Bare Knuckle for King Diamond! High output swiss army knife H/S set wanted

[JimmyMoorby]

I'm not really sure about the guitar tone on the 'Them' album by King Diamond but i LOVE the guitarwork.  I guess the guitar tone is a strange fetish but the lead tones sound perfect to me....I do like a load of washy delay/reverb on high gain leads though.

So anyway just because it's never been asked before which pickup set or combo do people think would be good for the Them/King Diamond guitar tone?

Anyway a couple of years back I bought a stormshadow custom guitar.  25.5 scale, 24 frets, bolt on maple neck and board with a black limba body.

Currently it has a VHII/Irish Tour Set in it.  They're perfect for what they are and very fun but i'm really a heavy metal player so need more oomph.

I've already decided to give the Cobra single coil neck a go but I need a high output bridge pickup to go with it.

Percussive, chunky, tight palm mutes are a must and nice mids and screaming treble for soloing.  I'm really tempted to give the ceramic black hawk a go because I know it also has great coil splits but as a curve ball i'd like the pickup so be able to pull off Lynch, Bettencourt, Van Halen style tones too......i'm wondering if the black hawk could actually do this....if it's anywhere near similar to the Bill Lawrence/Nuno pickup maybe it could?

To be clear i'm actually after a heavy metal or even extreme metal pickup but i'd like it to be able to have a go at ''hair metal'' guitar tones and not sound too weird.

I'm also wondering if the miracle man is actually the safest bet?

[Dave Sloven]

Owning two alnico Black Hawks and one ceramic Black Hawk I would recommend the alnico over the ceramic.

The top end is a lot nicer and it has has the kind of mid-range that can manage hair metal when it needs to

I would describe it as somewhere between a ceramic Black Hawk and a Holy Diver.  The bass and higher mids are like a ceramic Black Hawk but the low mids and high end are closer to a Holy Diver.

[Nolly]

Rail pickups definitely have quite a different feel and top end to those with more typical pole-pieces, so unless you go for an actual Bill Lawrence L500, I think the closest you'll get will be the Black Hawk as you and Dave have already said. You'd certainly be able to get the kinds of tones you're after with either the alnico or ceramic - I see where Dave is going about preferring the alnico model and I'd agree if you want some level of versatility, though the ceramic is probably going to give you a bit more thrust and brightness for the King Diamond/Nuno type sounds (bearing in mind the Bill Lawrence L500 is a very bright pickup too, no doubt brighter than a ceramic Black Hawk).

The Miracle Man is also a very good option too. If you're in any doubt about the Black Hawk then the Miracle Man should be a safe option that I can only imagine would leave you very satisfied.

[ericsabbath]

not a King Diamond fan here, but I love the Cold Sweat set for that early 90's Dimebag, Nuno and Ty Tabor sort of chunky but treble heavy tones
lot of top end detail, mids aren't overbearing and low end is quite punchy

[Toe-Knee]

Huge King Diamond fan and the closest i've ever got with BKPs was the Miracle Man.

Cold sweat can also get in the ballpark but feels a bit tame for it.

Andy Larocque typically moves around between the JB & Distortion to give you more to look into.  (he also used line6 Spider Valve amps the few times i've seen them)

[JimmyMoorby]

Appreciate the responses guys and hope you're all well.

In the end I went for the ceramic black hawk.

I figured I wanted something very modern.  I have an Aftermath Set in an SG and whilst they sound great there's obviously still a lot of Gibson in the tone which is a good thing but recently i've been wanting to play my super strat a lot more for a change.

I'll be sure to report back.

I've tried the cold sweat before and it's great but I like more mids in general especially in a super strat.

I did know that Andy Laroque had used Distortions which did make me consider Aftermaths or Painkiller but went obviously went for Black Hawks instead.  I do think the Miracle Man would make the most sense though for a BKP to cover King Diamond.

[Dave Sloven]

I'm pretty sure that the ceramic Black Hawk will work with black limba body

I have mine in a mahogany body maple set neck Schecter C-1 Blackjack SLS FR-S with a Gotoh GE1996T (which comes with a brass block) and it seems fine in there.  I really didn't like it in an SG though, the guitar was just too bright for it in the mid range