Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: MVM on February 01, 2011, 10:42:06 PM
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Hello, everyone.
I have a Dean guitar VMNT model with a pair of Painkiller. Well, this is the perfect sound for me, the combination of an all mahogany guitar + Painkiller.
I had the Miracle Man (thought it was very bright and focused) and the C-Pig (to much bass for me).
But now, I had the opportunity to acquire a DKMG Jackson, that has an alder body and bolt-on maple neck.
My question is the following:
Which pickups should I put in Jackson to have the same sound (or as close as possible) as my mahogany Dean with PK? I'm afraid the painkiller in the Jackson will sound sharper and thinner than the Dean.
Thank you
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I can't see you easily getting an alder guitar to sound like mahogany, although in fairness, I give it a go as well :lol:
I find mahogany gives quite a warm and organic tone so I'd probably start by looking at alnico pickups. Having said that, the Painkiller is quite a tight pickup and the tightest alnico option is probably the Nailbomb if you don't count the Rebel Yell, which is too bright for what you want. The only other realistic alnico options are Warpig, Holy Diver and Black Dogs but while I think that all would sound great in the Jackson, I think the Nailbomb might be closest to what you want even if it's still going to be different.
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What about other ceramic option? I never tried a bk alnico pickup because bad experiences with this magnet type I had with others models, I really don't like it. Thanks.
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Well, I wouldn't judge Bare Knuckle alnico pups based on other manufacturers. The Alnico Nailbomb is tighter that a lot of ceramics out there. However, the Aftermath might be an option, as might the ceramic version of the Nailbomb.
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Alnico is not the answer. The characteristic differences between A5 and C8 are not of a kind that levels out between different kinds of guitars. If the man likes ceramic, he needs ceramic (I sympathise, I stopped using A5 bridges years ago and havent missed them for an instant).
The answer is, probably, ceramic nailbomb. Thats your best bet, all things considered. Warpigs overkill in power and compression, AM will sound very middy in alder and maple, with a really understated low end (which is not my experience of the PK in mahogany, by a long shot), miracle man tends to respond to brighter guitars by being really, really bright; the C-Bomb on the other hand will impart/allow a clear, crisp note definition and let the guitars mids come through while bringing enough lows itself, letting the guitar dictate their level less, and may bring it level(er) with the PK (its my experience at least that the C-Bomb brings a chunky, tight low end to pretty much any guitar, while not letting bassy guitars get too muddy; its a really good balancer in that regard)
If in doubt go double screw pole to bring the lows and low mids up, but I'd advise against it on the whole.
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Alder guitars are not that bright. I think people consider them as such because they're usually associated with single coils (strats). Alder is a full sounding wood with nice complex low mids and if you accentuate them somehow, you can make it sound better than mahogany if you ask me. Mahogany has low mids but they're more compressed and dense sounding.
I wouldn't scratch the Miracle Man off the map. I've been told by Tim it has a huge low mid response. It is often suggested for maple neck-thoughs (full of upper mids) which means that it fills the spectrum up with its reverse response.
Also the characteristic of bolt-ons is that they have a supersonic attack. This can sometimes be perceived as "bright".
Finally to beef up a guitar don't forget the brass big blocks. Cool things those are!!
http://www.killerguitarcomponents.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53
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Alder guitars are not that bright. I think people consider them as such because they're usually associated with single coils (strats). Alder is a full sounding wood with nice complex low mids and if you accentuate them somehow, you can make it sound better than mahogany if you ask me. Mahogany has low mids but they're more compressed and dense sounding.
A little beside the thread, but recently I was able to play an hour on a CS Rory Gallagher strat. Talking about full sounding alder!
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I'm not so sure about the ceramic Nailbomb or Miracle Man, because I really like a lot of mid sounds from my Painkiller.
If alder is not very bright or thin, maybe a painkiller with “EMG” cover type... or double pole (like WARPIG) may resolve this problem... what do you think?
Remembering that my intention is to leave the eq. of two guitars as close as possible, especially the volume.
Very interesting blocks, but I forgot to inform the correct model of my guitar, which Jackson is DkmgT (fixed bridge). But who knows in the future when I’ll buy a Jackson KV2 (that’s my dream guitar).
Thank you for the answers.
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I Don't have any recomendations but i would also advise against the miracle man in a bright guitar as the pickup does have a fair amount of high end that in my experience doesn't translate well.
It was a jackson DKMG for reference.
Alder body maple neck rosewood board.
The lows were fine but the highs were too overbearing
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Personally I still think that alnico V is your best option and probably the alnico Nailbomb but if you'll only consider ceramics I can only think of a ceramic Warpig with all of its bass to match with a bright guitar but it will certainly sound different to your other guitar.. A lot of Bare Knuckle pickups are designed for Les Paul style guitars in my opinion so the choice is a bit more limited if you have a brighter guitar.
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the funny thing here is that when i was asking abou the PK Tim said it was designed for alder strats/superstrats for the optimal tone
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the funny thing here is that when i was asking abou the PK Tim said it was designed for alder strats/superstrats for the optimal tone
In fact, Tim recommended me a Painkiller for a maple-neck through jackson with alder body as well. Kinda weird.
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Thats immaterial when the matter is matching a PK in mahogany
!!!
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Thats immaterial when the matter is matching a PK in mahogany
!!!
Hey, It was just a comment backing up Toe-Knee's "anecdotic" post. Calm down dude :?
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Perfectly calm. Just placing appropriate emphasis!
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My experience with all my pickups so far in my fairly bright guitars is that brightness is always controllable.
Both my guitars are Floyd Rose superstrats (one is basswood bolt-on maple and the other is mahogany with a maple top and maple neck). Guess what...the mahogany one is brighter. I had SD Custom, Demon and L500XL in it (among others). All three can be described as pickups with a lot of highs. They all sounded really good. ;)
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So, my first pickup Bare Knuckle was the Miracle Man. I asked Tim to direct me to some extremely crunch pickup and he told MM.
It was excellent, but for my personal taste, I found it very focused and tight, I know these are good qualities, but did not sound so rock and roll as I think it should sound, and I needed more mids. I tried the C-Pig, but it have much bass...
My friend Eric (HellStyle) had indicated the Painkiller. And I found my pickup!
Now, I sent an e-mail to Tim with doubt that I put this topic here, and he again recommended me Miracle Man .. hehehe ... Well... Only pay to see again.
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I actually recommended you the holy diver, but you are biased against alnico pickups
THAT is the most rockin' BKP model :D
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Christ, the MM was too tight and you ended up with a PK?
Did anyone else just say 'WTF?'
If it's rockin' you want, you really, really, really should check out an AlNiCo BKP. If it's for metal/*core then you're probably better off with ceramic. But if you've not tried a BKP AlNiCo pickup yet and your only experience is with a, shall we say, less reputable set of pickups, I can well understand your reticence to take our advice on this...
Roo
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Christ, the MM was too tight and you ended up with a PK?
Did anyone else just say 'WTF?'
I think you're overestimating his English. It sounds he's using tight to mean dense/focused/thick, not "the opposite of boomy" like most people on this forum use tight. The first definition on Merriam Webster says "1 a : having elements close together <a tight formation> <a tight line of type>". This falls in line with him thinking the Miracle Man was focused and... "tight." Maybe I'm giving him too much credit or overthinking things.
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he had the miracle man in another identical dean
the bigger, punchier, more in your face and just as dense bass response makes the "tight" part sound more present on palm mutes, although it doesn't have the painkiller scratchin' edge
I think the proper word would be "thump"
he wants something with enough bass and lower mids to make alder/bolt-on/maple neck sound as thick as mahogany, but with less "thump" than the miracle man
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i would possibly say aftermath just on your description eric.
I wouldnt say it will make it sound like mahogany BUT
there is certainly a lot less thump its tighter apparently (i beg to differ on this i would just say its drier) and the mids are good but not overbearing
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Based on Eric's post, I'm gonna have to go with Ceramic Nailbomb. It was recommended to me by Nick @ the Axe Palace for a very similar guitar and tonal request. He recommends Nailbombs, HolyDivers, and Warpigs for bright guitars (also he recommends Painkillers for mahogany, so he seems right on with what MVM is thinking there). Seeing as MVM likes ceramics (no holydiver) and doesn't like the warpig, that leaves the C-bomb.
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Once you've found your best sound in the PK/mahogany setup why duplicate it anyway?
You can try something different to have more options. That way you'll be open to lower output rock n rollers too. ;)
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Once you've found your best sound in the PK/mahogany setup why duplicate it anyway?
You can try something different to have more options. That way you'll be open to lower output rock n rollers too. ;)
+1
what's the point in owning more than one guitar if you look for a single tone? ;)
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backup? :D
anyway, I still think he should give the alnico models a chance
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Ok.
I will research (and hear more samples) about Ceramic Nailbomb and HolyDiver and i'll choose one.
Thank you very much.