Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: kristo on July 14, 2008, 01:08:18 PM
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So I put VHII's in my Epiphone SG and i love the tone. Im now looking to put a Bare Knuckle set of single coils in my Gibson Sg-3. The guitar has a mahogany body and rosewood fingerboard.
Im very much a garage blues player and rely heavily on 3 tones. The first is a clean 'little wing' kinda sound, the second is an amp pushed well into breakup sound for a sweet crunch, and the third is all out heavy riffing with a fuzz on top of tone 2.
What single coils should I be looking at? I guess the Irish Tours but was looking for some advice from those more in the know.
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Irish Tours sprang to mind to me too :)
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I should add i like a trebly tone with little mids and tight bass.
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Ah. In that case, maybe Mother's Milks are what you're after???
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I'd also advise the zinc-steel base plates. They add quite a bit of low end, but they make it tighter too.
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Worth bearing in mind that the pickups are going to sound different - darker - in a mahogany SG than they do in a Strat. So you probably want the brightest-of-the-bright Strat pickups, I'm not sure which BKP model that would be.
(BTW, am I right in thinking Mr Martamp has one of those SGs?)
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Might want to also pay some consideration to the right power to work with or cut through the mids of the mahogany. Middle power is no good: its gotta be weak or hot.
This is a bit of a tricky one.
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SULTANS!!!
:)
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yeah the sultans and mothers milk both look good, but for the music i play i wasnt too sure? its a tough one, as this guitar is gonna be my 'number 1' so its gotta be perfect!
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(BTW, am I right in thinking Mr Martamp has one of those SGs?)
Yup. But his is swamp ash :wink:
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(BTW, am I right in thinking Mr Martamp has one of those SGs?)
Yes I do. It's the GOTW 3-single coil version, and a superb guitar it is too.
Kristo, if your guitar is one of these, you should know that the pickup holes in the scrtachplate are not the same size as Fender pickups. I'm having a new HSS plate made for mine.
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yep, thats my guitar. I thought the pickup holes looked a little on the thin side. I was gonna mod the scratchplate but i guess it would be better to get one made. can i ask where you are getting the scratchplate made?
also, im now liking what im reading about the trilogy suite, but fear these may be too much for me?
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The mounting holes are a different spacing too.
Bob at Legra Guitars http://www.legraguitars.co.uk/ (http://www.legraguitars.co.uk/) is making it for me. He did a beautiful torty one for an Eggle I used to own.
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sounds cool, did you have to send him your scratchplate for him to work from? thinking about it its something i definitely need to do. if he has yours would you mind if i tried to get one done for me?
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Yes, I sent him the plate and a sketch of what I wanted. Bear in mind I'm having a bridge humbucker.
I'm sure there'd be no problem you asking if he can do you one. :)
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Route it out and get 3 P90's. :D :D :D
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Sorry to be useless, but I just had to tell the owners of these guitars that they have fantastic taste.
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Sorry to be useless, but I just had to tell the owners of these guitars that they have fantastic taste.
Cheers! :D
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thanks martin, ill see if i can get one made too.
and cheers indysmith, it is one awesome guitar, just the question of which pickups to kit it out with........
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Yeah like the look of these havn't seen them before
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so ive contacted bob and am waiting to hear back from him.
ive just thought, with the sg neck being wider that a strats are the pole pieces gonna line up with the strings, or is it gonna be a bit out?
also, im definitely swaying towards the trilogy suite set of pickups, as these seem to cover all the things im after and from what ive read sound awesome. is this a good idea?
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The pole pieces will be slightly out of line, but it doesn't make any perceivable difference.
I'd have thought the Trilogies would be a bit hot for the kind of music you decribed?
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ok, thats good to know.
do you think? i mainly use the crunch and fuzz tone, which it seems they would be awesome for. my only concern is the cleanish sound, but from what ive read it appears they could handle this ok. its basically between them and the irish tours i think. i spend most of my time around the bridge pickup, so i was thinking the higher output would get a nice fat strat tone?
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Depends what else you use to generate your crunch and fuzz. High output pickups don't always give the best crunch and fuzz tones in all circumstances, and they do have their own voice, which may or may not be what you want.
Example: EVH (and many others) using standard Gibson pickups throughout the 70's and 80's to generate a huge range of gainy rock sounds.
It's all very subjective! :)
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my amp generates all my tone. i have a tech 21 trademark 120, i set all channels to tweed, and the clean is a crisp fendery twang like on old soul records, the crunch is a 'stevie ray' amp pushed hard sound, and with the tweed drive maxed it creates a cool 60s fuzz sound that i use to approximate a 'the black keys' dirt tone.
im after single coils that will compliment this, but they need to be tight in the bass as the amp has an inherent bassy tone. p90s work real well with the amp, but i need some single coils too.
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Then I'd definitely go no hotter than the Irish tours.
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they were my initial thought, and are kinda at the front of the line along with the mothers milk, but now im just not sure they will have enough kick in the bridge for the real fuzzy stuff. it all hinges though on getting that scratchplate now, hopefully bob will reply soon. im toying with the idea of getting a standard humbucker scratchplate too and loading it with mississippi queens, but then the guitar would have to be modded i think. hows the carving under the scratchplate, is there just enough for the single coils? and the 6 way switch might not work with just 3 settings?
the more i write the more i think you've got the right idea by getting a hss scratchplate made.......
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The body is routed for 3 humbuckers, so obviously is shared with the "SG3" and customs. (The rout, not the wood or anything else.)
The switch could be made to work in any configuration by putting links on, or you could buy a standard Alpha rotary switch and set it up for 3 positions.
With the pickups, you'll have to go with your gut, and then experiment.
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thats it then, think im gonna get a humbucker sized scratchplate and go with the mississippi queens. after reading all i can about them they sound perfect for me.