Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: simonp on March 10, 2009, 12:04:21 PM
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I've just purchased a 2nd hand Levinson Blade Strat stye guitar circa 1990. Currently it has a random mix of pickups, not too well matched, vintage Seymour Duncan Five-Two SSL-52 vintage stagger at the neck, and a 1/4 pounder flat at the bridge, no idea what the middle one is.
I'm looking for a replacement set, but I need to achieve some level of balance with my main guiar, which is a '96 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a set of unpotted Mules fitted.
I want to keep the output level a bit under that of the Les Paul as I intend to use it for some of the more clean moments (running a Cornford MK50H with no clean channel), but still want to be able to drive the amp a bit when needed, so do not want too much disparity.
The guitar has a heavy ash body, witth maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.
I play classic rock and blues.
Looking at specs and some other threads, I' thinking possibly Irish Tours with a bassplate on the bridge, but opinions welcome.
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I'm thinking you might be barking up the right tree with ITs :D - can't comment on the baseplate really, I don't have one, but I think you might be right...
From what I've read, another option might be the Slowhands?
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hi, the only bareknuckle strat pickups i have experience of are the irish tours, but you say you want to be just under your les paul's mules. my les paul has gibson burstbuckers, which i believe are similar in output to the mules, and the irish tours work well with them. they have planty of poke, but certainly clean up nicely.
does your blade have the famous boost circuit? i've only played more recent Blades, but they were very nice guitars.
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does your blade have the famous boost circuit? i've only played more recent Blades, but they were very nice guitars.
No, mine is a bit of an oddity, it does not have the boost circuit, nor the body cavity for it. There are also a couple of other differences from the standard R1 it appears to be, so must have been some form of semi custom model. Fantastic neck on it though :D
The Mules are noticably lower output than the standard Gibson pickups, but they were the higher output ones, so possibly highre than the Burstbucker.
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Any chance of pics of the Blade?
I quite like mine it's a nice player.
Dirty old string less pic of the girl
(http://freaky-geeky.com/guitars/CIMG0514.JPG)
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Here you go:
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/simonp123/IMG_6209-1.jpg)
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Quarter Pounders are pretty powerful, aren't they? Are you looking for something more or less hot than that?
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Here you go:
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/simonp123/IMG_6209-1.jpg)
Looks rather familiar apart from the colour, different log size I notice. Info on them is rather hard to come by.
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Looks rather familiar apart from the colour, different log size I notice. Info on them is rather hard to come by.
Yours not have the switchable active boost either?
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Quarter Pounders are pretty powerful, aren't they? Are you looking for something more or less hot than that?
Yes I understand they are pretty powerfull. Looking for something a little less hot.
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Ah Tim has surprised me and recommended the Mother's Milk set. I was expecting him to go for the IT being a bit hotter in output. Maybe the Mules on the Les Paul are lower output than I think if the MM will not be so far behind.
Oooh, dilemna now, Tim knows his pickups so I should go with his recommendation. Then we come to baseplates, tempted on the bridge as that always needs some bottom end help and focus in my opinion, but what about the others?
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Still can't comment on the baseplates :D
But I'm not overly surprised at Tim's suggestion - and I think I'd go with it if you've discussed it with him :D
I play through modellors so I wasn't sure how useful my experience is but, with the same type of strings, my IT'd strat is right up there with my Mule'd Tokai Loverock, power-wise, possibly even past it... Very rarely could the two guitars go through the same patches with the same settings...
I've actually switched to using pure nickel strings, originally an experiment, on my strat. This mellows the ITs down a bit, and the strat and loverock can now go through exactly the same amp models without tweaking the settings, giving the tones I want from the different guitars.
I suppose what I've learnt is that, if I had my time again, I'd probably choose Mother's Milks. It was a close run thing anyway, and being a big Rory Gallagher fan swayed me somewhat :lol:
As a footnote, when the current set of pure nickels dies, I am going back to nickel wound on the strat, as a further experiment, to see what I'm missing - she don't quite cut it next to my teles anymore! :lol:
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my IT'd strat is right up there with my Mule'd Tokai Loverock, power-wise, possibly even past it...
That is interesting, I defintely want a little less output with the Levinson, so I can roll the volume back to that just off clean sound. I can do it with the Les Paul, but have to roll the volume a long way back and it is easy to hit the strings a bit harder and get break up, nice if you want it, but sometimes you just want it clean.
Having been through a lot of pickups over the years, I've found that I get a better sound with a lower output pup and just use a good valve amp running hard and just use a boost to hitthe amp harder for more gain if I really want it. With the Cornford MK50, running on boost and a home-built Tubescreamer clone as well I can get insane ammounts of distortion if I even with the Mules 8)
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my IT'd strat is right up there with my Mule'd Tokai Loverock, power-wise, possibly even past it...
That is interesting, I defintely want a little less output with the Levinson, so I can roll the volume back to that just off clean sound. I can do it with the Les Paul, but have to roll the volume a long way back and it is easy to hit the strings a bit harder and get break up, nice if you want it, but sometimes you just want it clean.
Having been through a lot of pickups over the years, I've found that I get a better sound with a lower output pup and just use a good valve amp running hard and just use a boost to hitthe amp harder for more gain if I really want it. With the Cornford MK50, running on boost and a home-built Tubescreamer clone as well I can get insane ammounts of distortion if I even with the Mules 8)
I use my ITs - in fact, all my guitars - exactly the same way with regard to onboard volume control, I'm aiming at being able to achieve that "just off clean" on any guitar or amp patch...
But it does sound like Mother's Milks is the way to go for you :D
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Looks rather familiar apart from the colour, different log size I notice. Info on them is rather hard to come by.
Yours not have the switchable active boost either?
Nope mine has the boost on the tone pot. It's all too easy to knock it on as it's a push/push pot and it does have quite a kick depending on how you've set the trim pot.
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Looks like it is the Mother's Milk then, with a baseplate on the bridge pup.
Tim says the ITs would be very close to the output of the Mules, and I wanted a little lower output from the "Strat".
The Cornford is a great amp, but I tend to run the voulme quite high at gigs (with THD Hotplate though) so the power amp is just breaking up, so the Gibbo never quite cleans it up completely. The "Strat" will hopefully go form clean to a nice break up.
Gotta bow to the man's wisdom, he certianly advised me correctly with the Mules a couple of years back :D
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Still one dilemna left, what colour covers? :?
I'm thinking creram as the guitar body is cream. Currently the pickups are black (partly as 2 have no covers!) and I don't like the look much.
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Still one dilemna left, what colour covers? :?
I'm thinking creram as the guitar body is cream. Currently the pickups are black (partly as 2 have no covers!) and I don't like the look much.
Ahh! And I thought that one was a given (black) because of the pics :roll:
Same as you, I'm not that keen on the black pickup look (some do like it though).
What colour is the scratchplate? Can't really tell from the pic. If it's white rather than any other shade, I'd personally go for slightly "off-white"... parchment maybe? I suspect that cream might be too much contrast?
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Scratchplate is white, but aged a bit, so off white. I was thinking parchment or cream. The body is quite a cream colour, so was wondering whether to make the covers match that for a little contrast to the scratchplate. Dunno how it would actually look though. Like you say parchment would match the scratchplate colour more. Tricky..
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Same as you, I'm not that keen on the black pickup look (some do like it though).
I do! :lol:
Black covers, black knobs and black switch tip.
Or get a torty scratchplate, then aged white covers and knobs.
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Black covers, gotta be on that Blackmore Strat!!!!!
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Can you put up before and after sound clips of the guitar pre/post pickup change? I'm interested in the changes.
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Black covers, gotta be on that Blackmore Strat!!!!!
Oooh, no, then I'd have to keep throwing strops and storming off stage :x
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Can you put up before and after sound clips of the guitar pre/post pickup change? I'm interested in the changes.
Yeah, good idea. I'll record some stuff on the PC DI'd then find a suitable Guitar Rig sound that is not too coloured to show a good comparison.
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OK MMs with bridge baseplate with parchment white covers ordered. Just have to break it to the wife now :roll:
Anyone know what the leadtime is usually for pickups? I suppose it depends on whether all the parts are in stock.
Will post before and after clips when I have them.
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Got the pickups today, didn't take long at all, thanks to the BKP team :)
Already had the old pickups out so didn't take long to fit. Parchment white definitely the right colour, looking really nice.
I was surprised how white the body of the guitar was under the scratchplate, the cream of the main body is obviously due to age, looks much nicer with the aged colour though.
Took me a lot of messing to get the pickup height right to avoid false harmonics and pulling the e string sharp! Ended up much lower than I expected.
Sound - now this is MUCH more like it 8) Fat bottoms, clear tops, and so much bite. Tone control definitely needed now for dirty sounds, but fully open for clean sounds gives serious sparkle. I can't stop playing it, just like my Les Paul when I first put the Mules in.
I'll record some "after" soundbites in a few days to go with the "before" clips already posted in the players section. Will post a photo too.
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Nice one :D
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Got to try the new pickups through the Cornford at band rehearsal yesterday, so got to see what they are really like.
Firstly I have to say the Tim's advice was spot on, the output level is just right for what I wanted, a bit under that of the Mules in my Les paul, so gives me more easy to get cleans, but still some drive if I want it.
I did wonder if the "Strat" might be too bright with the same amp settings as used for the LP, but not at all, just roll off the tone control a touch for the more distorted sounds and it is fine, even with the bridge pup, guess the baseplate helps.
I just love the articluation and dynamics you get with the Bare Knuckle pickups, I don't know what they do different to Seymour Duncan, but these are SO much better than what was on there. Great clean tones, but handles quite a bit of gain without becomming muddled.
Favourite so far is the neck pickup through the Cornford, enough bottom to shake the floor, but still clear at the top 8)
Top marks to the BKP team again!
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You've seen the before pic, now the during and after
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/simonp123/IMG_6227small.jpg)
Much nicer with the new Mother's Milk in Parchment White
(http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/simonp123/IMG_6239small.jpg)
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The before and after sound clips of the pickups (as requested) are now up on the Plyaer's page.