Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Vilches3 on October 01, 2009, 09:35:12 PM
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I'm not complaining at all, I love my knuckles. But I was noticing that my SG with stock pickups and washburn with duncans come out louder than my ibanez with a warpig and my coldsweat/ abraxas warmoth. Is this just like a tone vs volume thing? or something else? just wondering
Rob
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if anything my bkps are louder and less compressed. Unless you're comparing really hot non-BKPs to vintage output BKPs or something like that.
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im serious
My stock pup'd SG projects way louder than my warpigged Ibanez Saber, and the pickups on that one are fairly close to the strings
I'm not even ridiculing knuckles, i love mine, im just talking volume here
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I can't say I noticed a huge difference-though mine are singles. Like Dave-mc, I felt that mine were fuller and therefore came across more than what was there before. It was more noticeable on my Tele.
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OK.
I can't say I've noticed a difference allowing for variations in the inherent output of the pup.
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do you mean pickup output/gain on the amp or perceived volume when playing through the amp distorted?
I find that they seem to drive the preamp less because they sound in general less compressed than mass production pickups, but when playing with a band they cut through much better with more clarity, hence appear louder in the mix.
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Can it be something to do with the height of the pickups?
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They're also different lumps of wood remember - different guitars behave differently... I find it even with the "same" make and model, and "same" pickups - two guitars are just different.
I suspect it's a perceived "louder" as well - the tone plays funny tricks with our ears.
For example: I'm tweaking one the models on my VOX Tonelab at the moment. I'm looking for settings that both my Riff Raff'd SG and my IT'd strat will go through... (Some might think this is a foolish thing to attempt, but I usually manage it). I'm still not quite there tonally, but damned close.
The SG "sounds" louder coming out of the speakers, and obviously it pushes the model's pre-amp harder for a crunchier sound, but the IT'd strat through the same amp settings actually registers more on the desk in pre-fade-listen. There's no problem here, and obviously "in use" I'd be mixing on what I can hear rather than what the meters say. But it is worth noting that the different tone is registered by our ears as louder, when in fact, if I was about to record, I'd have to turn the other, apparently "quieter" one down to avoid distortion/clipping on the take...
There's so many factors to take into account, but if you use more than one guitar, you always get some sort of volume "issue" on your rig. You learn to live with it - embrace the difference and use it (that's kinda what I do), or spend ages at each sound check getting the amp settings for each guitar and writing them all down, etc...
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+1 to what Randy said.
SG's are naturaly loud.
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+1 to what Randy said.
SG's are naturaly loud.
Either that or you've wired them in parallel by mistake, it sometimes happens.
Actually when I first put my Miracle Man set in my RG550 I was really happy with the Scott Ian like chugging tone but something seemed wrong and I realised that I'd wired the humbuckers split, and was only running ONE coil!
It still sounded huge though and when I redid the wiring it became immense.
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do you mean pickup output/gain on the amp or perceived volume when playing through the amp distorted?
I find that they seem to drive the preamp less because they sound in general less compressed than mass production pickups, but when playing with a band they cut through much better with more clarity, hence appear louder in the mix.
As Hunter and Dave_MC noted, I did not notice a volume drop as such with my B.K.P , but it changed the sound from a 'blocky' / blunt sounding stock pickup - to a more detailed presentation. If I had wanted a perception of blunt power, the stock pickups did that. The only analogy that comes readily to mind, is the difference between listening to a 'Ghetto blaster' and a high quality home - Hi-Fi. The Ghetto blaster seems louder, as it is focused and lacking subtlety, but the home Hi-fi fills the room instead , with 3 dimensional detail.
I can only comment on B.K.P. vintage, but I buy those for the detail, the 'fine grain' . As Hunter also observed, this clearer separation of frequencies within the pickup, sounds more omni-present in the mix, as 'shards' of it's detail can be heard around and in between the other instruments.
They are a different creature though, I can see what you mean, and why you asked - as a pair of Mules in my Les Paul Standard, are very different in presentation from the stock 498T and 490R that were in there. I think it is usually noted ( Twinfan's posts come to mind ) that with B.K.P , you have to work harder, the pickups want to be told what to do by the player, not homogenize the product of your phrasing.
Your observation being of course valid, but perhaps comparing oranges, to other oranges, instead of apples to oranges. :)
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I would say that many factors determine a guitar's output volume with the same output pickups - You may find that they are louder but more COMPRESSED - making you think they are quieter.
Jim
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I find that they seem to drive the preamp less because they sound in general less compressed than mass production pickups
agreed.
just to clarify, i haven't actually swapped out any pickups for BKPs, but the guitar I do have BKPs in isn't any quieter than my other guitars (allowing for big changes in pickup outputs, of course).
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from my experience, I'd say most BKPs aren't as loud as stock pickups and regular high output duncans, except for the nailbomb set (this one is really LOUD for an alnico 5 set) and the painkiller
didn't play the c-pig, though
the alnico pig wasn't loud at all
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yeah maybe it is the woods, i dont know. Its not a complaint, hell maybe it even allows more control over your sound. I'm just saying what I observed.