Author Topic: Holy Diver (Read 9391 times)

Muso · « **on:** July 25, 2005, 03:28:47 PM »

Hello

I have a fender HM strat and In it, it has a Holy Diver in the bridge and 2 single coil irish tours.

Anyway Ive been messing around with various amps and I'm feeling that the holy diver is a really compressed pickup, it just makes everything sound kinda blocked off.

I was wondering is there anything I can do to get a brighter sound, I play mostly hard rock and my ideal guitar tone is Steve Stevens or gary moore. Im not bothered about versatility, i just want a killer distorsion in the bridge and crstal clear on the neck. I usually do a lot of fingerpicking and chordal tapping so the clean needs to be responsive.

My current guitar is a Fender HM strat and a Line 6 guitar port, my amp is a Peavey 5150 mark 2.

Eddie Van Halen · « **Reply #1 on:** July 25, 2005, 03:40:42 PM »

have you tried using an EQ pedal before the amp?

jt · « **Reply #2 on:** July 25, 2005, 03:53:30 PM »

:D Try turning the bass down on your amp setting if you`ve got the middle out then put some back in. Also try turning the gain down a touch if i remember rightly the Holy Diver is a mid gain P/U this means you don`t have to work the gain on your amp so hard. sorry if this is treating you like an idiot i just don`t no what you`ve try`d so far so i`m putting down anything i can think of

:D 8)

PhilKing · « **Reply #3 on:** July 25, 2005, 06:18:59 PM »

Perhaps chaging the wiring to give you separate volume controls for the Holy Diver and Irish Tours might help, then you can lower the gain a bit with the single coils. Also what value pots are you using? If you have a 250k/.022 tone pot on the Holydiver, it would make a big difference if you change to 500k/.047.

For Garry Moore I would think that more of a Mule/VHII would get his sound. I hear him with Alnico not creamic magnets. Steve Stevens has a more 'ceramic' sound.

big steve · « **Reply #4 on:** July 25, 2005, 06:30:39 PM »

hmmm, i emailed the tech at SD about a similar wiring enquiry. he said it'd be complicated, i'd need a 'super 5 way switch' - what ever that is...

Tim · « **Reply #5 on:** July 25, 2005, 07:00:49 PM »

This concerns me...............the Holydiver is a very bright sounding humbucker, are you sure it's been wired in correctly?
Tonally it delivers tight bass, smooth mids and alot of searing high, even in a heavy timbered body like a LP.

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #6 on:** July 26, 2005, 12:54:52 AM »

Hey - is that you Sean?
If so - I can't remember if it was a Holy Diver we put in the HM Strat
(Although it could be - I just fit a lot of BKPs so maybe my memory is fuzzy on that one)

I too would be surprisedf if it was muted on a Holy Diver ?

Wiring wise - I think this was where I first raised the differences of wiring codes with Tim on the H/S/S sets.
May be worth checking both the wiring of the bucker and the polarity of the two single coils and see if somehow we have it wrong (although I'd be slightly surprised)

Gimme a shout - either myself or Tim at BKP will be only too happy to help you out
(have a look inside the guitar first for us though)

Ta
J

Muso · « **Reply #7 on:** July 26, 2005, 10:29:31 PM »

Hi it is Johnathan it is me, not many guys with Fender Hm strats around ey :lol:

Its not really muted it just sounds not as cutting and edgey as I would like, Im pretty much happy with the Irish tours. Wiring wise I aint got a clue and I seriousley doubt theres anything wrong with it.

At the moment I am wanting to just try another pickup in it, see if it makes much of a difference. I don't suppose u can remember if the guitar is naturally bassey? A friend of mine said a lot of the guitars tonality has to do with the wood and the nut, hmmmm.

Anyway I can't believe steve stevens has posted on here!!

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #8 on:** July 27, 2005, 12:24:16 AM »

Yeah - the Hm strat could be a tad bassy but I would be surprised if it were so much that a treble rich pickup like the Holy Diver would suffer.

Maybe try a Miracle Man in there if you want more power, but I am wondering what went in there as I don't recall it being a HD

Do you have a multimeter or access to someone with one?
Getting the DC resistance of the bucker will be the proof of which one is in there

Always happy to help

Muso · « **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2005, 04:56:12 PM »

Im going to get a multimeter this weekend, so you think it might not be a holy diver in there at all lol that would explain a lot.

I don't really want a more powerful pickup as I have two single coils and I try to match the volume between the neck and bridge so i can do from clean to distorted without a jump in volume.

By the way, how do find out what pickup it is? is there some writing on it somewhere?

I opened up my 5150 to see what valves were in it today and to my suprise they were shitety Russian sovteks! I'm htinking of replacing with groove tube mullards which will be a pocket stinger.

March · « **Reply #10 on:** July 29, 2005, 05:37:54 PM »

Does your HM Strat still have the twin TBX tone controls installed? If so, check the wiring of the TBX and the components.

I had a similiar problem with my Strat recently with a VHII in the bridge, the bass and treble frequencies sounded 'woolly'. When I check the wiring I found a very simple grounding problem on the TBX that was very easily rectified and the improvement in the tone was profound.

PS... I also have a HM Strat. :)

Muso · « **Reply #11 on:** July 29, 2005, 07:26:53 PM »

I wish I knew what TBX was, johnathan did all the wiring for me. He basically took a very beaten up 80s fender hm and made it like new.

So what is a TBX? I looked at the wiring and it seems quite complex not something I really want to mess around with to be honest.

Does anyone know how to find out what model bareknuckle pickup you have by looking at it? I pulled out the humbucker and single coilds but I couldnt see any writing on them anywhere.

March · « **Reply #12 on:** July 29, 2005, 08:29:14 PM »

The HM Strat has two TBX tone controls, if yours has them you will notice a detent at 5 on the tone. They are stacked pots, 0-5 operates like a regular 250k tone control, after the detent they go all the way to 1 meg I believe.

I recently had a problem with the one fitted to my Strat, but discovered that the wiring for a TBX is different to a regular Strat. I've noticed as well that the TBX system has been refined several times over the years, I have three different versions on my guitars, but they all do the same thing.

Steve-Mr Pig 2U · « **Reply #13 on:** July 29, 2005, 09:32:23 PM »

Theres no way of telling what pickup you have by the looking at it unless you know what you are looking for. If you give me a DC reading I can tell you what they are.

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #14 on:** July 30, 2005, 11:29:24 AM »

The strat does not have TBX controls - & never did have stacked pots
They looked like original parts but bearing in mind that you bought the guitar on ebay - it could have been changed about
We changed the old pots to custom taper 500K ones

The TBX is usually a stacked pot tone control that from 1 to 5 rolls off the high end, and above 5 seems to enhance the treble by cutting other frequencies

Desolder the brige pickup and take a reading across the red and black wires with the green and white connected together and the DC reading will confirm exactly which pickup is in there.

Are you playing LOUD - the Holy Diver really only comes into it's own when the amp is cranked- then the true clarity can be heard. I didn't really appreciate the one I have until i got my MArshall and started playing louder again

Author Topic: Holy Diver (Read 9391 times)

Steve-Mr Pig 2U