Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: fatbob on October 27, 2005, 09:07:06 PM

Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: fatbob on October 27, 2005, 09:07:06 PM: Just bought myself an Ibanez RG, basswood HsH. Got it after finally coming to terms that I love the sound of a Les Paul, but can't play the things! (scale, fret size, neck etc) It took me 9years to realise this and sold my gibbo. Not expecting to get the RG to sound like an LP, but can anyone suggest a bridge/neck combo that will approximate those Rush, Lizzy type sounds, and work in a basswood, floyd style guitar? please! Thanks in advance.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 27, 2005, 09:42:45 PM: HI!

Now I have a RG550 here, it's got Nailbombs, you can hear it on the BKP Nailbomb demo over in the players forum. I might suggest that this isn't the way to go, probably a bit too angry sounding compared to a Les PAul type tone, but they have a great midrange.

I'd think about a Crawler, they work well in lots of guitars, beefing them up in a more Gibbo fashion. If you go to the main BKP site, and on the products page find Geoff Whitehorn Crawlers, there's a few clips by the man himself.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: Davey on October 27, 2005, 09:43:03 PM: the emerald?

i forget.. i think that one was voiced with thin lizzy in mind
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 27, 2005, 09:44:24 PM: Would they be a bit on the bright side in a basswood body?? What's the neck wood?
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: fatbob on October 28, 2005, 08:35:19 AM: Neck is bolt-on maple/rosewood. I've listened to a few of the sound clips, but its hard to tell 'cos more often than not there is too much gain being applied (IMO). The two that have appealed are the Mule & VH11. Havn't heard a clip of the emeralds.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 28, 2005, 08:43:38 AM: The emeralds may be OK in that guitar, they get a bit too much on a maple board Ibanez!
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 28, 2005, 08:46:00 AM: http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=343&highlight=emerald
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: fatbob on October 28, 2005, 08:58:44 AM: Cheers! they have A really rich harmonic sound on the rhythm parts, think I'll try a set. (sorry bank manager...)
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: Skybone on October 28, 2005, 10:29:42 AM: I think Crawler's would be a good choice for the RG, they certainly seem to suit most different body styles and tone wood's and simply sound great!

Emerald's really wouldn't suit it IMO, I had a set in a mahogany bodied guitar (Ibanez Iceman) and although they sounded good, they didn't sound great. I recently moved them to a Tokai Love Rock LP replica, and now they sound great. IMO, they suit the mahogany/maple bodied guitars better.

Another consideration would be a Nailbomb, but I don't know how trebly they are, as IMO, basswood does tend to be a bit on the trebly side.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 28, 2005, 10:56:46 AM: That was my thinking too Skybone.....the Emeralds were a touch bright in my PRS mapletop classic (alder body bolt on neck), but the rosewood board mught help a touch in the RG. The Nailbomb BKP demo is my RG550 with a mapleneck. The NAilbomb gives the guitar a nice aggressive midrange, perfecty for high gain rock and still usable for lots of other styles.

The Crawler may well be the best bet as it lends Les Paul type weight to strat style guitars. :P
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: fatbob on October 28, 2005, 03:51:04 PM: I was thinking that the crawlers maybe a little too high output? or are the specs misleading? They sound nice on the clips though. I have pretty much ruled nailbombs out because I find most high outputers a bit aggresive. I prefer to let the amp 'breathe' a bit.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: Bob Johnson on October 28, 2005, 04:57:38 PM: Part of the problem in trying to get sounds that are similar to a guitar with a tail piece and bridge mounted on inserts in the body out of a guitar with a trem is the fact that the transmission of sound into the body is much lower with a trem. A Floyd rose trem has two very small single points of contact with the mounting studs. It depends on that to keep friction out of the equation to maintain tuning stability. Like the spikes that you use to isolate your turntable or hi fi speakers from surrounding influences this limits sound transmission.
If you're listening to clips to get an impression of what a pickup sounds like in an RG, my advice would be to rule out those with an LP/V type construction
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: Bob Johnson on October 28, 2005, 05:23:04 PM: In my last note I was refering to a fully floating trem. Bigsbys, mustangs. Rici's etc at least have some acoustic coupling through the bridge.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 28, 2005, 05:27:24 PM: The Crawlers work very well with Floyds.....suprisingly - I played Geoffs Floyd loaded STrat last year and was very impressed.
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: HJM on October 28, 2005, 05:28:06 PM: Oh - don't get hung up on DC values....
Title: Help, just bought new guitar!
Post by: Skybone on October 28, 2005, 06:03:31 PM: I thought about the slightly higher output when I got the Emerald's as I put them into a 70's Ibanez Iceman (mahogany body, maple neck), but they didn't even start to compare with the lower output Black Dog's I had in a Love Rock. They sounded OK in there, but didn't have that "oomph" that I was expecting. Kind of took the wind out of my sail's with that guitar.

Anyway, I've just put some Crawlers in that, and the Emerald's in another Love Rock, and now the 2 guitars sing. Even with the higher output, you can tame it by altering the pickup height (IMO).