Dave Sloven
Ambassador of DOOM!
First impressions of the Black Hawks:
More output than the Nailbombs, possibly more than the Warpigs. I haven't adjusted the height at all yet though. Coil splits are louder than I expected, clear though. Overall tone of the alnico Black Hawk bridge pickup is more of a mid-range purr or growl rather than a raspy grind like the alnico Nailbomb. I like them a lot, but I need to try moving the pickups up and down to see if I can optimise them, especially for clean playing as I think the neck might be a little high. The neck is certainly powerful even in split mode. Everything that Steve did works really well, the action etc is adjusted well, but I will use the screwdriver to adjust the pickups to get the best sound for me. It felt almost like the bridge pickup might be a little low on the bass side. Anyway I have tortured the neighbours and my ears enough for today (I only had one earplug in for much of it). I also need to get used to and find the best playing position for this guitar. It is a Strat format and I have certain habits developed from playing SGs, which are odd guitars. I need to move my arms across my body more to place the guitar more in the relative position that the bridge and high frets sit against my body with an SG, otherwise palm-muting and a couple of other things are too awkward.
Also this guitar is easily a match for the A-Bomb Explorer in the sustain and bottom-end aspects
More output than the Nailbombs, possibly more than the Warpigs. I haven't adjusted the height at all yet though. Coil splits are louder than I expected, clear though. Overall tone of the alnico Black Hawk bridge pickup is more of a mid-range purr or growl rather than a raspy grind like the alnico Nailbomb. I like them a lot, but I need to try moving the pickups up and down to see if I can optimise them, especially for clean playing as I think the neck might be a little high. The neck is certainly powerful even in split mode. Everything that Steve did works really well, the action etc is adjusted well, but I will use the screwdriver to adjust the pickups to get the best sound for me. It felt almost like the bridge pickup might be a little low on the bass side. Anyway I have tortured the neighbours and my ears enough for today (I only had one earplug in for much of it). I also need to get used to and find the best playing position for this guitar. It is a Strat format and I have certain habits developed from playing SGs, which are odd guitars. I need to move my arms across my body more to place the guitar more in the relative position that the bridge and high frets sit against my body with an SG, otherwise palm-muting and a couple of other things are too awkward.
Also this guitar is easily a match for the A-Bomb Explorer in the sustain and bottom-end aspects
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