Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Rich78 on June 20, 2008, 01:03:10 PM
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Hi. Are there any humbuckers by BK that are more suited or specially for solid state amps?
Or it doesnt make any difference...?
Im have a Maverick X1 to modify. Im thinking of getting a Nailbomb.
But then I wondered the above question...
I have a 200 watt Randall.
Ill ask Tim soon. I hope to get your opinions before I do that...
Cheers. Rich.
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If you're looking to improve your tone overall I'd say an amp will have more impact.. but if you like the sound of your amp then try some different pickups.
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Cheers Tom.
I should be more clear. I mean as opposed to valve amps.
I mean are the humbuckers mainly directed towards valve amps or doesnt it matter which...?
What I dont want to do buy pickups only to send them back various times.
Cheers. Rich.
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AFAIK none of the pickups are designed with a specific type of amp in mind.
Aren't solid-state amps supposed to have a faster/tighter response than valve amps (ignore me if that's totally wrong :roll: )? I think, if anything, that should widen your choice rather than narrow it.
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Cheers Philly Q.
You are right about that.
Ill contact Tim soon.
He'll most likely say something similar to you...
Cheers. Rich.
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AFAIK none of the pickups are designed with a specific type of amp in mind.
Aren't solid-state amps supposed to have a faster/tighter response than valve amps (ignore me if that's totally wrong :roll: )? I think, if anything, that should widen your choice rather than narrow it.
I too use solid state amps. One thing I really enjoy about them is with clean sounds is you can turn it up as loud as you want and it remains clean. I just find solid state amps to be more consistent and reliable. Alot of folks find them to be sterile and lifeless, but they've really improved upon them the last few years and you can actually find alot of solid states that'll hit you right in the warm spot.
I'm interested in the responses to this thread too, because pick-ups, pedals, etc, DO react differently to SS vs. tube amps. I've had various effects sounds like garbage on my solid states yet are magical on tubes and vice versa.
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Cheers ACK!
Ive got a feeling Tim will say something along the lines of what youve written.
I suppose it doesnt matter which...
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I used to use a Randall RG200G3 (which I guess is probably similar to your amp, unless you're using a head/cab). I would still be using it, if it wasn't for it having broken down on me twice, and now I'm blown away week on week by my 5150-II.
The BKPs made a definite difference when I was using the solid state amp, and they make a definite difference using the valve amp. I would suggest that you don't worry to much about the type of amp you have, BKPs will always shine through :)
Roo
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If you're looking to improve your tone overall I'd say an amp will have more impact.. but if you like the sound of your amp then try some different pickups.
agreed. don't get me wrong, they'll still make a difference on a solid state amp, but they'll make more of a difference (in my experience anyway) through a good valve amp. though of course if you like your current ss amp, that's probably a moot point.
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Cheers Roobubba.
Yep thats the same as mine. Well, mines a G2...
Peavy? Im gonna get myself a Bandit soon...
Yeah Im not too worried. Ive had my MM in my Washburn for a few months now and very happy.
Cheers dave_mc. Its all academic cos I cant afford a valve amp anyway.
Im just gonna go for it I think and just buy the Nailbomb.
I know it'll be fine. Its BKP :)
Cheers everybody. Hi to Forth Feline.
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Well, as an 'oldie' who plays low gain pickups through valve amps, I only have two points to mention- although nothing conclusive .
1) There are some great sounding solid state amps out there. The sound being 'different' but not inferior.I.M.O. Iam thinking of some Fender amps I have played through, and one that I own. Warm but tight. I am thinking of the great sounds acieved in the 70s by the Telecaster wielding Wilco Johnson of 'Dr. Feelgood', ( a humble H & H brand solid state amp ). Then there's B.B King's love of the 'Lab series amps that where part or whole solid state - and a Yamaha head used by Doyle Bramhall II during his playing on the the Roger Waters ' In The Flesh' tour / DVD.
2) I read somewhere that a current 'Metal' player ( who's name escapes me ) likes the ultra quick response he gets from a solid state power stage. I gather from this that a reallly tight, high gain B.K.P would sound deadly through your Randall. Your existing 'Miracle Man' bridge pickup should be a taste of things to come !
I agree that B.K.P. shine through many types of amp though.I am currently jamming /playing through a Fender (solid state ) G-Dec Junior, and each of my B.K.P sound as recognisable through that - as through my all valve gear.
I prefer certain qualities of valve amps though, for what I play - and the way they replicate the sounds I am most drawn by. I have ( and would ) gig through a solid state amp though. If you can get what is close enough to your sound out of a rig, then it is doing it's job just fine. :)
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2) I read somewhere that a current 'Metal' player ( who's name escapes me ) likes the ultra quick response he gets from a solid state power stage. I gather from this that a reallly tight, high gain B.K.P would sound deadly through your Randall. Your existing 'Miracle Man' bridge pickup should be a taste of things to come !
Dime used to play through a Randall Warhead (or several!!), which are solid state. Unfortunately, he never came across BKPs, or there would be no-one out there bashing his "tone", which a lot of people do now! (but you can't knock the guy's skills, truly an inspiration to many!).
I digress.
Roo
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Hi FF. Cheers for that.
I will check out the names mentioned.
The MM is amazing in my highly modded Washburn.
Its a nice taste.
Im really looking forward to August. (Old load payments finish = new loan)
From what Ive read in the product page, the Nailbomb is most likely gonna be my choice....
Thankyou all. Rich.
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Yep, Dime is my hero.
The reason I snapped up the Randall. It was going cheap you see...
Im not really after his scooped tone though. We cant copy genius. Its best left to the kings.
All Im after, like all of us I suppose, is my unique sound through the combinations of the bodies and necks and string guages/makes and everything else that contributes to tone.
Itll probabaly be a life's work but, hey, all good fun :)
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...oh, and pick ups, of course... javascript:emoticon(':wink:')
Wink
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2) I read somewhere that a current 'Metal' player ( who's name escapes me ) likes the ultra quick response he gets from a solid state power stage. I gather from this that a reallly tight, high gain B.K.P would sound deadly through your Randall. Your existing 'Miracle Man' bridge pickup should be a taste of things to come !
Dime used to play through a Randall Warhead (or several!!), which are solid state. Unfortunately, he never came across BKPs, or there would be no-one out there bashing his "tone", which a lot of people do now! (but you can't knock the guy's skills, truly an inspiration to many!).
I digress.
Roo
Thanks for that clarification :)
It is ( as you said ) the music that remains valid. Tone ( which is subjective anyway ) being a lovely bonus - but there are a lot of critics / gear snobs out there that cannot play a note.
I recall 'Twinfan' getting mocked at the occasional gig for his old Laney 'Klipp' amp head , when in truth they are a great sounding amp . With another,more 'fashionable' badge on - they could be 'boutique'.
At one time, smooth Jazz players would swear by their 'Polytone' combo - a solid state source of beautifull Jazz tone.
And before anyone knocks Dime, Zakk liked what he did, so who are we to argue ?
Anyhow, back to the original point of Rich's thread .... :roll:
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Noone will knock Dime. He was the king and the good guy of metal.
RIP Dime.
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Cheers dave_mc. Its all academic cos I cant afford a valve amp anyway.
no worries, good luck in your search. :)
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On the note of Dimes' tone, I think he dialed it in that way, as he wanted such an aggressive sound. Listening to it, its not my kind of thing, but it fits the music PERFECTLY, and I like the outcome.
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That's interesting, I 've never really heard anybody slagging Dime's tone. Furthermore, it seems to be a tone that plenty of people try to emulate! :roll:
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That's interesting, I 've never really heard anybody slagging Dime's tone.
You haven't been looking hard enough. I've slagged Dimes tone in the past, I am slagging it now (Dime had horrible tone), and I will slag it again. Anyone who's willing to hear my opinion about his songwriting and playing is welcome too, but that's not for the faint of heart.
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OK you didn't like DD (fair enough, nor do I, but then I depise all things metal) but was his tone deficit (in your and my O) due to using solid state amps or just too much soul sucking distortion? But, you know, as guitarists with different tastes we have to learn tolerance - I love modern Fender valve amps, it seems there are about 2 others on this board who agree with me and 1000 who don't - horses for courses, I say :)
I have an old Session Rocket - its a SS amp yet has great vintage Marshall/Fender Blackface (depending on channel) tone - I wouldn't worry about pickups for SS - just go for the gain level/tone you like and play with the controls.
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That's interesting, I 've never really heard anybody slagging Dime's tone.
You haven't been looking hard enough. I've slagged Dimes tone in the past, I am slagging it now (Dime had horrible tone), and I will slag it again. Anyone who's willing to hear my opinion about his songwriting and playing is welcome too, but that's not for the faint of heart.
Next you'll be telling us you didn't like his novelty beard, his camo shorts or his Kiss tattoo...
(FWIW, I thought he and Pantera were amazing, despite all their flaws)
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I liked his beard.
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I play a lot of pantera in one of my bands and I love the miracle man thru tubes, but thru solid state, the holy diver does the job a lot better, specially on the leads
ps: Dime tones on Pantera wasn't the Warhead, but only the 80's RG100ES and RG100HT (rackmounted) and the early 90's Randall Century 200
he only used the Warhead (and the Cyclone) to record Damageplan
the Warhead sucks really bad, IMO
I played the Randall Titan, which is a simple version of the Warhead and Cyclone without the digital effects and graphic EQ, and it was a huge deception, as the MXR Dime Distortion pedal I had sounded 10x better and closer to his tone
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i recorded these short clips today using the MSN messenger voice message function (F2)
MiJ les paul copy + miracle man + mxr wylde overdrive (gain rolled off) + peavey rockmaster preamp (gain on 5) + framus cobra power amp section (4xEL34) + cobra cab (greenbacks) and my ultra cr@ppy pc mic
hurricanelespaul_bkmiracleman_mxrwyldeod_peaveyrockmasterpreamp_framuscobrapower_celestiongreenbacks_pcmic.rar (http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1479539_6bmya/hurricanelespaul_bkmiracleman_mxrwyldeod_peaveyrockmasterpreamp_framuscobrapower_celestiongreenbacks_pcmic.rar)
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Will. Yeah he dialed it in that way. Early stuff he scooped most or all of the mids. Later stuff with Damageplan he had more mids and lower tunings...
I think he boosted the treble and bass with an equalizer too...
Ack! We try to yes. Ive kinda cracked it... kinda.
ilyti. What are you into?
Cheers Elliot.
Eric Hellstyle the recordings are brilliant. Cheers for that.
Taken the advise about the Holy Diver...
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sometimes its nice to have a solid state sound for the punk music i make...
maybe i prefer more open and less bassy pickups for solid state - never thought about it before though.
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Will. Yeah he dialed it in that way. Early stuff he scooped most or all of the mids. Later stuff with Damageplan he had more mids and lower tunings...
I think he boosted the treble and bass with an equalizer too...
Ack! We try to yes. Ive kinda cracked it... kinda.
ilyti. What are you into?
Cheers Elliot.
Eric Hellstyle the recordings are brilliant. Cheers for that.
Taken the advise about the Holy Diver...
Yeah, he used the old blue MXR EQ pedal. I want to say he also ran another distortion box as well in addition to the gain on his amp...I beleive that was a MXR of some sort as well. But it def wasn't all out of his amp head alone. He didn't really quit using alot of extra stuff until he got with Krank amps.
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On the note of Dimes' tone, I think he dialed it in that way, as he wanted such an aggressive sound. Listening to it, its not my kind of thing, but it fits the music PERFECTLY, and I like the outcome.
Yeah, I cant imagine Pantera any other way :D I preferred it as time went on though, the tone on later albums is much bigger and better to my ears :)
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Will. Yeah he dialed it in that way. Early stuff he scooped most or all of the mids. Later stuff with Damageplan he had more mids and lower tunings...
I think he boosted the treble and bass with an equalizer too...
actually he used the blue mxr EQ as a mid booster before the amp
he used a parametric eq as a boost device before the amp too
the amps settings weren't that scooped
he used somethink like treble 4, mid 3.5, bass 9
solid state amps already sound scooped, so it's not necessary to rolloff the mids
i think you would love the peavey rockmaster preamp
it's a tube preamp, but sounds sooo good for pantera
it costs around US$200 on ebay and forums
another option is theRandall RGP1000 preamp, that costs around 120-160 dollars
it has the same exact preamp of his old amps (that sound very different from the randalls made on this decade)
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Thanks Eric Hellstyle.
So, he boosted the mids on the equalizer before he went down to 3.5 on the amp?
Strange. But cool. Im gonna try that. I can buy a cheap Behringer equalizer...
I have no money so I cant buy anything.
But thanks fore the advise. Taken on board.
Rich.
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That's interesting, I 've never really heard anybody slagging Dime's tone.
You haven't been looking hard enough. I've slagged Dimes tone in the past, I am slagging it now (Dime had horrible tone), and I will slag it again. Anyone who's willing to hear my opinion about his songwriting and playing is welcome too, but that's not for the faint of heart.
Certainly strong words for a man that was not just an outstanding guitar player, but an avid musician and tremendous human being. Fortunately, you are only one negative opinion amidst a billion guitar players that idolized the man. Horrible tone, songwriting, and playing :?: Sorry man, I respect your opinion but I think you are dead wrong.
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Well said kellar. Hear Hear!
I was biting my tongue.
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:D
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I'd like to hear your thoughts on his playing as songwriting and tone are based on opinion. I only really got into Cowboys and Vulgar and the odd track from other ones but I thought he had great style and creativity.
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That's interesting, I 've never really heard anybody slagging Dime's tone.
You haven't been looking hard enough. I've slagged Dimes tone in the past, I am slagging it now (Dime had horrible tone), and I will slag it again. Anyone who's willing to hear my opinion about his songwriting and playing is welcome too, but that's not for the faint of heart.
With all due respect, my heart is far from faint, but I'd still prefer if you'd keep it to yourself. Thank you and have a nive day. :D
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Dimebag was an innovator. He came along at a time when metal was in dire straits. Pantera re-invented the metal scene. It was just pure American heavy metal. They were the most important metal band of the 90's.
I don't see the argument in Dimebag's inability to play the guitar. I mean, the man was EASILY one of the best heavy metal guitarists of all time. Not just his playing, but his influence on the music scene. Not one of his peers would disagree with that.
My favorite Pantera album is by far Far Beyond Driven. Just hard-driving metal, but great hooks. That album alone would be an all-time greatest hits album for most bands. Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power were also great albums. I wasn't a particularly big fan of the later stuff. They seemed to sacrifice writing great songs to make metal albums.
On the subject of tone, it is relative and a highly argumentative subject. Additionally, I don't normally feel like it is a subject worthy of recognition in the metal world (sorry metal guys). I am not looking for an argument there, it is just that heavy metal is not where I go to look for great guitar tones.
Anyway, Dimebag was simply heavy metal, and if it wasn't the best tone in the world than that probably made it more metal.
Frankly, to say that Dimebag wasn't a good guitar player is simply ridiculous. A comment like that would lead me to ask if the individual has EVER listened to a Pantera album. If so, listen again.
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Jeez, sorry for the fuss. All I meant to say was it's not everyone who idolizes everything about Dime. I wont derail this any further so I'll refrain from picking Keller's argument apart. If you care to discuss this any further, please do so via PMs, but personally I don't see the point. I'm not gonna change your opinion and you're not gonna change mine and that's that.
(and yes I have listened to Pantera, I used to like them. With all due respect, "If you don't like them you haven't listened hard enough" is not a valid point. If so we'd all love the music that pop radio stations play 24/7)