Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Derail on January 04, 2009, 06:05:13 AM
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Noob here. I've been putting together a frankenstrat, piece by piece, for the past few months and have been looking for the past few weeks for the perfect bridge hb to finish this bad boy off. It's got a Dimarzio Air Norton S in the neck and a Dimarzio Cruiser in the middle. I originally put a Duncan P-Rails in the bridge, but that didn't really cut it for the type of music I play (classic hard rock / 80's-90's type metal). I popped a Duncan JB in and it was better, but a little muddy. I saw the Bare Knuckle ad in Premier Guitar a couple of weeks ago and eventually found this forum. After lurking around here for awhile and spending hours on end reading what you all have to say, listening to your clips, etc. , I decided to try a Nailbomb. Who would have thought that there would be a place local to me here in Southern California that would actually have one in stock! I ordered it online, since they didn't have a storefront, and got it in two days. I just got done putting it in a couple of hours ago and had to tear myself away from my now amazing sounding axe to thank you all for all of your posts that led me to this amazing pickup. It is well worth the cost. I have 12 other humbucker loaded guitars with several different Duncan models, a few Dimarzios, Bill Lawrence L500-XL (real Bill and Becky), and Gibson pickups in them. I have to say that, at least in this guitar, this one is my favorite so far. I play through a Peavey Ultra 60 head with a closed back 4X12 cab loaded with V 30s and this Strat just sounds MONSTER! The only bad thing about this whole experience is now I want to get at least one more full set of Nailbombs, and check out the Holy Diver or Miracle Man. I say bad only because of budget concerns, but I'm hooked! Well, I guess I've rambled on enough, but, again, my thanks for all the great info I've received from this forum and for turning me on to this awesome pickup.
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Welcome!
NBs are great, aren't they? Fantastically versatile, great cleans, and smoooooth drive!
Mark.
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Welcome to the forum! :drink:
Prepare yourself to change pickups in all 12 guitars :lol:
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Welcome to the forum :D
You're gonna spend LOADS of money... :lol:
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Welcome from me too. Now there are some around here who would demand pictures so be warned. :lol:
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Welcome from me too. Now there are some around here who would demand pictures so be warned. :lol:
I believe the phrase is 'Pics or it didn't happen'
Welcome and I'm glad you had a good experience, my first set of BK's was a NB set and they are still sat happily in my MIJ LP. The only problem with BK's is the cost, no they aren't expensive, but you just get addicted to tone. And then you think crazy things like 'I wonder what these could do through a better amp?' And that way madness lies (and great tone).
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I'll just quote myself
when I first played my Holy Diver:
*plein*
"well... sounds ok... " :|
*plein*plein*
"uh... wait" :roll:
*pleeewwueeennn*
*plewuewunnnweeennn*
"hmmm..." :uhu:
*jamjamjamjamjammmmm*pumpeerooloolooo*jammmm*
"damn... this is good" :good:
*wueeeeeewwnnnnnn*
*bululululubulululubululubeewnnnnnn*
"OMG" :crazy2:
*ploin*chugggachugga*ploin*chuggachuggachuggachugga*
*ploin*chugggachugga*ploin*chuggachuggachuggachugga*
"WRRRAAAARRRR MOAR BKP'S" :wallbash:
:D :D :D :D :D :D
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Welcome to the forum Derail . :)
It was good to read of your experiences, especially as my own needs are usually met by the other end of the B.K.P catalogue - and with B.K.P, you end up wanting to hear / hear of every one out there !
as AndyR said, it can get quite addictive ... :lol:
Enjoy . :)
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You know you've got a problem when after you've loaded all your current guitars with BKPs, so you start looking for new guitars purely to put some more in...
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Thanks all for the warm welcome. I'll do my best to come up with a picture soon. As you can tell by my pickup choices, I was going for a less than traditional Strat sound, and I think I succeeded, with the Nailbomb being the pièce de résistance. A little more info on my project: Fender MIM midnight wine alder body ( I like the narrower string spacing on the MIMs), Fender MIM Special Edition neck w/ rosewood board, Callaham tremolo bridge with short Gilmour style arm, locking tuners, black metal engine turned pickguard, bridge tone and combined neck mid tone,and RS Guitaworks superpot for the volume. I shielded the inside cavity with copper foil and have all grounds going to a central ground ring ala "Quieting the Beast". The only thing else I'm going to do is get a graphtech nut to replace the cheapy plastic one. I know I could have spent much less by just buying an off the shelf Strat, but by doing things this way, I got exactly what I wanted and was able to spread the cost out over a long period of time. Besides, I love the build process almost as much as I love playing.
I have a question for you guys...when I was spraying adhesive on the foil for the back of the pickguard (I know, it's metal, but the finish wasn't conductive), I got over-spray on the face of the pickguard, which I foolishly had laying in close proximity to the foil. I've tried everything to get the marks off, including Goo-Gone, with only limited success. Any ideas?
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Hmmm, I use petrol to get goo off just about everything. Never tried it on a guitar though...
As for modding axes, you're in good company here. There's a lot of that sort of thing goes on.
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Bill Lawrence L500-XL (real Bill and Becky)
what, a real copied pickup then??
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Bill Lawrence L500-XL (real Bill and Becky)
what, a real copied pickup then??
No, this isn't the trash Bill Lawrence USA pickup sold by Jzchak Wajcman. That is the copied pickup. That pickup is harsh and pretty cr@ppy sounding in comparison to the ones Bill and Becky still make in their little shop. I ordered this set directly from Bill and Becky Lawrence. They were my favorite until I got my Nailbomb. The major problem with the current real Bill Lawrence-made pickups is that their customer service sucks. I was originally promised a two week turnaround time. Three weeks came and went, and no pickup. I called and talked to Becky and got my first excuse. Long story short, it took several calls and 8 weeks to get this set of really nice pickups. Had I been told upfront that it would have been an 8 week wait, I would have been cool with that. Instead, I got one excuse after another. It is still an awesome sounding pickup.
So, the answer to your question is no, this isn't a copied pickup.
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Bill Lawrence L500-XL (real Bill and Becky)
what, a real copied pickup then??
No, this isn't the trash Bill Lawrence USA pickup sold by Jzchak Wajcman. That is the copied pickup. That pickup is harsh and pretty cr@ppy sounding in comparison to the ones Bill and Becky still make in their little shop. I ordered this set directly from Bill and Becky Lawrence. They were my favorite until I got my Nailbomb. The major problem with the current real Bill Lawrence-made pickups is that their customer service sucks. I was originally promised a two week turnaround time. Three weeks came and went, and no pickup. I called and talked to Becky and got my first excuse. Long story short, it took several calls and 8 weeks to get this set of really nice pickups. Had I been told upfront that it would have been an 8 week wait, I would have been cool with that. Instead, I got one excuse after another. It is still an awesome sounding pickup.
So, the answer to your question is no, this isn't a copied pickup.
yea i know their customer service is bad, ive talked to them before.. bill and becky are not the originals tho, i cant really speak about the quality of their pickups in comparison to bill lawrence usa, that is if by original you mean the ones that dime used, they are bill lawrence usa.
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if by original you mean the ones that dime used, they are bill lawrence usa.
+1 there as a vid on Youtube where he says it...
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yea i know their customer service is bad, ive talked to them before.. bill and becky are not the originals tho, i cant really speak about the quality of their pickups in comparison to bill lawrence usa, that is if by original you mean the ones that dime used, they are bill lawrence usa.
Well, not to be argumentative in the least, Dime may have used the Bill Lawrence USA, but Bill Lawrence originally designed and made the Bill Lawrence L500-XL and continues to make his model the way the originals were made, while the current Bill Lawrence USA L500-XL is definitely not made the same way, nor do they sound like the originals . A long time friend of mine has a set of originals he purchased back in '80 or '81. Very large sounding, powerful pups, but not harsh in the least. I was in a mood a couple of years ago and decided to buy a set of the Bill Lawrence USAs, not knowing about Bill Lawrence no longer being associated with them. I put them into my Gibby Flying V and really disliked them a lot. Very harsh, as I said. Out they came. I tried them on my '84 Carvin V220...still not satisfied. They ended up on Ebay. I did some research online and found Bill and Becky's site, read their story, and decided to check out their pickups. The difference was night and day. Sounds very comparable to my buddy's originals, though I couldn't talk my buddy into letting me put my new L500-XLs into his guitar for a direct comparison through the same guitar.
Anyway, this is not a Bill Lawrence Forum. My apologies for getting off track.
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Can I post a picture here that I have stored on my computer, or do I have to upload it to an online site and put in a link to it?
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Can I post a picture here that I have stored on my computer, or do I have to upload it to an online site and put in a link to it?
You can do both, under the writting box on reply section has "attach files"... click on it
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As requested......
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Just to back up Derail, Bill and Becky Lawrence are the real deal. Bill Lawrence USA is the company formerly owned by Bill Lawrence. They make a cr@ppy copy of his original design. Dime played the real deal, not the Lawrence USA cr@p, also another notable XL500 user, Nuno Bettencourt plays the original even though the N4's now come with the USA. Most all of the N4 guys switch to the bill and Becky for true Nuno tone.
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As requested......
Sweet :)
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Nice plank you have there.
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Dime used the old Bill lawrence USA L500L from 1982-1983 (chrome casing, large rails) in his Dean From Hell, then he swapped for 90's thin blade Bill Lawrence USA L500XL
some of his guitars had L500XL with larger rails, but they were Bill lawrence USA too (probably custom made for Washburn USA, but they had the Bill Lawrence USA logo behind the pickup)
I researched all over the internet for several times, and all the pics I've seen from Nuno guitars had the Bill lawrence USA with thin rails, except some older pics
some people just feel more comfortable on buying something custom made and convince themselves that their idols use it too
lot of people swore by Bill & Becky as the real Dimebag pickups for years, and then a video of the man himself comes up and then tenths of the BLUSA bashers start selling their B&B's and going back to the BLUSA's, that suddenly became great pickups :lol:
the Bill & Becky L500XL is not even the same pickup they made in the early 80's
the old L500L already had like 14.5k and ceramic magnet (the xl was around 16k, I think)
the new ones have a lower dc resistance and alnico 5 magnet and most people still can't hear real differences between this one and the ceramic BLUSA :lol:
ps: none of them have the depth and richness of BKP's, so this discussion is pointless anyway :D
replace it with a Cold Sweat and you'll realize what i'm talking about :D :D :D
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Thanks for the thumbs up ailean and 38thBeatle. I realize the metal engine turned pickguard is not everyone's taste, but since I was choosing "unstratlike" sounding pickups for this bad boy, I thought I'd go beyond traditional and have some fun with it. My son wants me to find pickguard screws that have the look of chromed hex head bolts to add to the industrial feel, but I don't know about that one. Luckily, neither he nor I can find any such screws to fit, so it'll stay as is for now.