TwilightOdyssey
Darkness on the edge of Tone
It's always a happy day when all the parts you've ordered arrive at the same time. 
Upon returning home from work, I went for a 2-mile skate through the park, ate dinner, and then started working on my new concept for the Strat. Gone was any notion of preserving any kind of vintage tonality from it; I wanted an early 80s, old school metal beast.
The pickup recommended to accomplish this was the Bare Knuckle VHII. On paper, it looks a bit like the Screamin' Demon. Physically, the pickup weighs more than my Miracle Man, which has a nickel cover! This is one beefy pickup!
I opted for a black pickguard with a white spider web design from www.pickguards.com. All of their pickguards are made to order, so expect to wait about 2 weeks. It cost me roughly $50. Note: Hardware is NOT included. Black scratch plate screws from Allparts cost an additional $8.
The '79 Strat was not routed for a bridge HB, but the original owner of the guitar had done 98% of the routing for me. It took a minor bit of "woodworking" with a hammer and slotted screwdriver
to accommodate the vintage baseplate of the VHII.
I will eventually be putting a kill swtich onto the guitar, but for my immediate purposes, I wired the pickup directly to the output jack. I can always put my amp in standby when plugging and unplugging. I will be ordering a black mini toggle switch this week, tho.
INITIAL SONIC IMPRESSIONS
When I first put the pickup in, I found myself thinking, "I wonder how this pickup will be different from the Mircale Man ..." The answer is this is a totally different beast!!!!
When the Mircacle Man clips, it creates a rich, smooth distortion that is very articulate with lots of harmonic overtones. The VHII, in comparison, is a swaggering, burly pickup. It has tons of attitude, and a much rawer and dynamic sound. I ended up lowering the pickup a bit in the end, as the bass was too mushy for me. When I lowered it, I lost some of the gain, but got all the bass taughtness back. (Amp gain is not something I need to worry about, anyway)
Next step for me is to put the pickup through its paces with the HomeBrew Electronics Big D overdrive pedal and a 1/2 stack, which I will be able to do at rehearsal Wednesday night. Between now and then I will just continue to stretch the strings and get acquainted with the VHII.
For someone looking to either capture that EVH tone (lots of bite, rawness, and harmonic content) but found that their pickups were just not doing it, this is the one for you. I got it because I wanted that vintage Maiden kind of sound. This is like Killers-era Dave Murray in a box!
Upon returning home from work, I went for a 2-mile skate through the park, ate dinner, and then started working on my new concept for the Strat. Gone was any notion of preserving any kind of vintage tonality from it; I wanted an early 80s, old school metal beast.
The pickup recommended to accomplish this was the Bare Knuckle VHII. On paper, it looks a bit like the Screamin' Demon. Physically, the pickup weighs more than my Miracle Man, which has a nickel cover! This is one beefy pickup!
I opted for a black pickguard with a white spider web design from www.pickguards.com. All of their pickguards are made to order, so expect to wait about 2 weeks. It cost me roughly $50. Note: Hardware is NOT included. Black scratch plate screws from Allparts cost an additional $8.
The '79 Strat was not routed for a bridge HB, but the original owner of the guitar had done 98% of the routing for me. It took a minor bit of "woodworking" with a hammer and slotted screwdriver
to accommodate the vintage baseplate of the VHII.
I will eventually be putting a kill swtich onto the guitar, but for my immediate purposes, I wired the pickup directly to the output jack. I can always put my amp in standby when plugging and unplugging. I will be ordering a black mini toggle switch this week, tho.
INITIAL SONIC IMPRESSIONS
When I first put the pickup in, I found myself thinking, "I wonder how this pickup will be different from the Mircale Man ..." The answer is this is a totally different beast!!!!
When the Mircacle Man clips, it creates a rich, smooth distortion that is very articulate with lots of harmonic overtones. The VHII, in comparison, is a swaggering, burly pickup. It has tons of attitude, and a much rawer and dynamic sound. I ended up lowering the pickup a bit in the end, as the bass was too mushy for me. When I lowered it, I lost some of the gain, but got all the bass taughtness back. (Amp gain is not something I need to worry about, anyway)
Next step for me is to put the pickup through its paces with the HomeBrew Electronics Big D overdrive pedal and a 1/2 stack, which I will be able to do at rehearsal Wednesday night. Between now and then I will just continue to stretch the strings and get acquainted with the VHII.
For someone looking to either capture that EVH tone (lots of bite, rawness, and harmonic content) but found that their pickups were just not doing it, this is the one for you. I got it because I wanted that vintage Maiden kind of sound. This is like Killers-era Dave Murray in a box!
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