Need pickup advice

[tremulant]

So, I really don't know many pickups. My main guitar now is an alder PRS CE24 with HFS in the bridge and a Vintage Bass in the neck. I am building out a Warmoth: super light ash soloist body, Wilkinson trem, and possibly a full canary neck (might just stick with maple/rosewood).

The HFS in the bridge is really good for rock and almost there for metal. My other guitar has an EMG 85 in the bridge and it is too metal and really inorganic, so something in between the two would be great. Here's the kicker - I want to be able to split it and get a hot bridge singlecoil sound for surfy stuff - I don't care about nailing the fender surf tone, I just want something that is close. The HB sound is much more important. The HFS when split sounds wimpy and thin and pure clean.

I use the Vintage Bass neck pup in split coil mode and really like it - depending on the volume setting, it goes from a smooth and warm clean to a super organic raunchy sound that never loses definition.

I also use the Vintage Bass in HB mode for that sabbath low-gain thing, but it is a touch muddy.

My priorities in order:
1. I gotta get that warm, raunchy singlecoil neck sound for low-gain rock - but it can't turn to mud
2. A bridge HB sound that is at least as heavy as the HFS, but not too inorganic and metal
3. A good warm Sabbath neck tone that doesn't lose umph due to muddiness
4. A warm clean
5. A surfy bridge SC tone
6. A decent well defined jazzy clean

Oh, and I want all the settings to be well balanced according to their functions.

The body is unrouted and I really don't care about the look. I have been thinking that HB bridge, and either a matched set of P90s for mid and neck or maybe a SC mid and a P90 neck?

Willing to pay boutique, but only if the extra $$ would make a real difference based on my priorities - definitely don't want to spend the big bucks "just because."

 

[kboman]

My immediate thought was a P90 for the neck position. I have no experience to judge different brands, but generally they're all good - just a bit different from each other. Rio Grande make a big deal of how well their humbuckers split, so maybe check them out for the bridge pickup?

 

[The Norwegian Guy]

Both rio grande and bare knuckle have good splittable humbuckers.
I'd check out the BKP Crawler :icon_thumright:

 

[dNA]

The Vintage Bass's fatness is what gives it that super sweet, singing kind of lead tone (ala Santana) when you saturate with enough gain. This is also why it retains enough body and character when split. Unfortunately experience has taught me that you can't have one pickup that does everything. I kinda end up recommending the DiMarzio Air Norton to everyone, because I think it's a super versatile pickup. It's not quite as fat as the Vintage Bass is, but it's sound is really sweet for leads when you add some saturation. Conversely, it's a warm but very clear pickup clean and it sounds great in both parallel and split modes. I highly recommend using it in the neck position with a series/parallel switching option.

For the bridge, there are a ton of good options and I think it depends a lot on the guitar, amp, and your personal taste. I think the biggest difference from one bridge pickup to the next besides output is what midrange area it accentuates and how that works with your amp. I don't almost ever use the bridge alone for clean sounds, so I can't comment too much on that. Most louder pickups will sound better when split. Some pickups have mismatched coils, and splitting to the louder coil will often result in a good clean/split sound with less of a volume drop. I find coil tapping to be a pain because in a live setting the volume drop can be a real pain to work with.