Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Pierre on March 19, 2009, 06:46:03 PM
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I'm hesitating between a Boss, Piledriver or blackguard 50 for the bridge pickup... The guitar sounds a little thin unplugged, but nothing too bad. The pickups don't thicken the sound as much as I'd like though on the bridge position. So I'd like a tiny bit more output, balls, bass, muscles, etc...
I called in and they said BG50, Boss, or if it's the guitar, perhaps even the Piledriver... I quite liked the PD's description, I like playing with the volume pot a lot on this guitar. Soundclips didn't help much... I really, REALLY want to avoid bridge thinness though. I want a thick, big Tele tone.
The BG50 would probably be the more vintage one, the Boss the more versatile and the PD the more 'in your face' but I've got no practical experience with any :(
Basically with my current bridge pickup, I always have the tone pot on 8/10 to compensate for a the thinness, which works very well but I don't need the extra bite if you see what I mean...
Thanks!
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The Boss can be a little bright, so I would lean towards the Piledriver for power or BG50 for an all round great Tele sound
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Argh... not sure...
Ok... I do a lot of chicken picking, but I'm mostly a Blues player, and I'd use the Tele for hard rocky stuff too...
So it's probably going to be the Piledriver it seems...
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I've been thinking about this since reading about it in your NGD thread earlier this evening...
I'd agree with Phil on BG50 for all-round tele bridge - I'd regard that as the "safe" option for you, and the Piledriver (though I've not tried one) if you want power.
I think you're heading for Piledriver - I understand they still sound "tele", and are very good for volume control work (and Fernando is bound to come in with "Piledriver :twisted:" :lol:)
I've been wondering about an "Esquire" with just the bridge pup myself (I have an old Korean Squier tele in the attic not doing much, no nut and no scratchplate) - I'd be going Piledriver for that.
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Well if you want a tele bridge with a lot of bite the piledriver is certainly a good choice, I had the set for a tele I used to own and they were amazing. The bridge had a great RARRR too it but the matching neck pickup was so clear and articulate. That being said, the only thing I couldn't get on with was the single-coil "quack," but that's what you get for being a Muse fanboy with telecasters!
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(and Fernando is bound to come in with "Piledriver :twisted:" :lol:)
:lol:
I'm so predictable...
I've been wondering about an "Esquire" with just the bridge pup myself (I have an old Korean Squier tele in the attic not doing much, no nut and no scratchplate) - I'd be going Piledriver for that.
FOR THE VICTORY!!! :twisted:
:lol:
Serious, Piledriver can sound EVIL, as you can see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCK7oHgmv7M
But it has a good clear tone, etc... The teacher I went once played some nice jazzy/brazilian music things on it (and got completely :o He said: "This has tone, not those cr@p guitars the students bring here" 8) )
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I have a Piledriver and Boss set. I love both but if I had to choose between them it would probably be the Piledriver - Yes you can get a great meaty overdrive sound when wound up but once you start winding the volume control back below 3/4 you certainly get good tele sounds (especially around 1/4 volume).... perhaps not quite as traditional as the lower output sets (BG, Country Boy) but still excellent . I am always amazed at the variety of sounds I can get from my Piledriver tele with just the volume and tone controls ..... if only I could master that huge 50s neck :(
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The BGFlat50 bridge is fat in a vintage Tele sense but I think you will probably want something with a thicker tone. I use the word fat to mean fat cutting twang, but this pickup will not thicken out a thinner sounding guitar that much. I only have Blackguards so can’t comment about the other models.
Something else that would beef things up would be a Callaham Bridge, they are made of thicker steel that the Fender units and seem to smooth things out a little.
Of course if you want microphonic properties (that kind of edgy squeal that you can get with a classic tele bridge) and twang, this may not be the way to go but if you want a bit of a thicker smoother Tele this would really help.
Here's a shameless plug of my own clip to demonstrate the pickup, I use the neck as well but you can clearly hear when it's on the bridge:-
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=15614.0
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I guess it's the piledriver then... If it's really not for this guitar I guess I could always swap it anyway :) Thanks y'all!
EDIT: just ordered it :D
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Nice one...
Fernando will be a very happy man :lol:
(Hopefully you will too!)
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I have a Piledriver and Boss set. I love both but if I had to choose between them it would probably be the Piledriver - Yes you can get a great meaty overdrive sound when wound up but once you start winding the volume control back below 3/4 you certainly get good tele sounds (especially around 1/4 volume).... perhaps not quite as traditional as the lower output sets (BG, Country Boy) but still excellent . I am always amazed at the variety of sounds I can get from my Piledriver tele with just the volume and tone controls ..... if only I could master that huge 50s neck :(
Just out of interest, do you have a treble bleed cap on the volume control?
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[Just out of interest, do you have a treble bleed cap on the volume control?
Remove all treble bleed caps - they steal tone!
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[Just out of interest, do you have a treble bleed cap on the volume control?
Remove all treble bleed caps - they steal tone!
It's just that I've always had an (untested!) theory that they'd be good on a Tele with hot pickups, as you'd be able to roll down the volume and get a less-powerful but still bright, more "vintage" tone.
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I've found with BK's that if you have good pots you can use the volumes without losing tone. In fact they seem to make the pot more 'linear' because they keep their tone at lower volumes.
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Just out of interest, do you have a treble bleed cap on the volume control?
Just checked - yes there is a treble bleed cap on the volume pot which appears appears to be original (this is a Japanese 50th anniversary model). I would tend to agree with what you said about a cap on teles with hot pickups - it does appear to give the Piledriver a more traditional tone at lower volumes - I think it would be a different story with the lower output tele pickups.
P.S. Just been looking at the Tele Guitar Forum - opinion seems to be split 50/50 regarding the treble bleed cap. In any case it's a very simple thing to do/undo - might try disconnecting mine to see what it sounds like.
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From my experience, I think a tele-bleed cap is a very personal choice depending on what you want from the guitar and what you're trying to achieve...
Personally I'm with PhilKing over them - I don't want them anywhere near my guitars :lol:
But Tellboy is right - if there's one there (and it seems most teles have them nowadays - certainly the Mexican and Japanese Fenders I've bought) then it's very easy to disconnect it for a bit to see whether you like it there or not...
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But Tellboy is right - if there's one there (and it seems most teles have them nowadays - certainly the Mexican and Japanese Fenders I've bought) then it's very easy to disconnect it for a bit to see whether you like it there or not...
Although the "modern" US ones don't, interestingly enough. I think the American Vintage reissues do, but I'm not sure.
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Got the Piledriver today and installed it :) Main issue was that it was out of phase with the neck pickup (Fender), so I just swapped out the ground/hot wire on the neck pickup.
Only issue is, the 4 way I got (oak grimssomething, US one apparently) isn't quite working on the series position, I need to wiggle it a bit. I'll try and improve that.
Anyway the pickup sounds great! Indeed very thick, very loud. I dig.
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Got the Piledriver today and installed it :) Main issue was that it was out of phase with the neck pickup (Fender), so I just swapped out the ground/hot wire on the neck pickup.
Has the neck pickup got a separate ground wire for the chrome cover? If not, the cover's now "hot" and it'll probably buzz if you touch it.
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It does, but I'd already separated it when I installed the 4 way switch. There is no issue with ground/hot. It's just that PD is way hot and my neck pickup is a bit underpowered compared to it, which is normaly.
I have my strings pretty high too, so whenever I fret notes, they get to normal height. So I need to set my pickups for normal height (fretted), or else my fretted notes hit them. So my open strings are way, way further from the pickup, which kinda sucks :(
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It does, but I'd already separated it when I installed the 4 way switch.
Cool, I thought you probably had it sorted since you have the 4-way. But thought I'd mention it, just in case. :)
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That's most alright :) It actually took me ages to do so. I had done everything right but I still didn't get the series wiring so I kept on trying to see whether I'd shorted my cover or something... (well, shorted something else to the cover) and it was in fact the switch that's a little faulty :lol: I hadn't seen that coming...
Anyway the PD is NICE! It doesn't feel so high output... just much beefier. I get a much fuller sound and I can pile up the gain for some decent metal sounds. Nothing to do with the output (I only play low output pickups now, except maybe the Crawler) but it's that fullness in the mids and bass...nice!
The series wiring now is also absolutely CRUSHING. Some very, very nice tones out of it.
I only got to try it for about 5 minutes though... so there will be more...