Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: mkh02 on June 22, 2011, 10:38:13 AM
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Hey guys
Don't get me wrong, I love the Bareknuckle sets I have and they are great but I have been wondering why none of the top names use Bareknuckles if they are 'that', good.
For example Steve Vai, Satriani and Paul Gilbert all use Dimarzio.... is there a reason for this?
Seeing as they are without doubt 3 of the best rock guitarists of all time surely they know what is best in regard to tone, sound etc..
What makes Dimarzio's so special?
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Hey guys
Don't get me wrong, I love the Bareknuckle sets I have and they are great but I have been wondering why none of the top names use Bareknuckles if they are 'that', good.
For example Steve Vai, Satriani and Paul Gilbert all use Dimarzio.... is there a reason for this?
Seeing as they are without doubt 3 of the best rock guitarists of all time surely they know what is best in regard to tone, sound etc..
What makes Dimarzio's so special?
Sponsorships. Cash
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Yeah, I has to do with sponsorship etc. Kravitz plays Mules though, I read. Matt Bellamy and Gary Moore (RIP) are on the list too. Maybe BKP is still not so well-known in the US and besides that, there are more boutique-manufacturers.
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This question is about as inane as asking why those same guitarists don't play your favoured obscure custom guitar brand.
How big a brand do you think Bare Knuckle is?
All three players you have mentioned have been around far, far longer than Bare Knuckle has existed, and have built up strong ties to the companies they work with. They have signature models designed specifically to meet their needs and have access to Dimarzio's "custom shop" whereby they can get as many hand wound pickups as they want.
Besides that, many top shelf players that are gear-heads do use Bare Knuckles, some of them "unofficially" since they have endorsement deals with other companies.
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Besides that, many top shelf players that are gear-heads do use Bare Knuckles, some of them "unofficially" since they have endorsement deals with other companies.
I'd love to see that list some day :lol: Probably a lot longer than most of us would expect!
But yeah, the matter of endorsement deals is the answer here.
Plus, many big guitarists in big bands, or guitarists in general just aren't that aware of how pickups truly affect the sound.
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Steve Stevens is a Guitar God!!!!!!!!
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Plus, many big guitarists in big bands, or guitarists in general just aren't that aware of how pickups truly affect the sound.
Don't think so, most of the guys I know that play 30+ gigs a year always say that most sound engineers produce the best results with EMGs because they come across these sounds so frequently, so it's kind of a professional approach because the audience can't tell what's driving your sound pickup-wise... but they also admit that my BKP guitars sound fabulous compared to their stage guitars.
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Besides that, many top shelf players that are gear-heads do use Bare Knuckles, some of them "unofficially" since they have endorsement deals with other companies.
Exactly!
Plus, some of the products endorsers get are not the same standard unit you get when you buy it in the store. For example, Slash's Seymours and Synyster Gates (dude from Avenged Sevenfold) are custom-wound by hand in Seymour Duncan's custom shop - they are not the standard Alnico Pro II/Invader you can buy.
Zakk Wylde's Marshalls, at least in the past, were so modified from JCM800, you would even have to question if they are still really a Marshall.
George Lynch, maybe most famously, always used very different brands of amps behind the stage than what was to be seen on stage.
Arch Enemy endorsed Krank Amps on "Doomsday Machine", but a lot of the guitar sound on that record came from a Mesa Boogie Rectifier (mixed with other amps).
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What makes Dimarzio's so special?
Some of them have a very compressed and dry sound, that can be "acceptable" if you wank out lots of notes at insane speeds or only play rhythm.
Personally, however I think, the answer to that question should be "nothing!".
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Other possible reasons:
- Because Kids These Days download all their music they can only afford to use whatever free gear big companies throw at them.
- Gear money pays for whores and drugs.
- Effects of the aforementioned.
- Blown out hearing.
- More drugs.
- Too piss-drunk to know, or care, what they're playing.
- They're tw@ts.
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It's mostly about endorsement deals - look at a copy of Gear magazine, do you think any of those people they feature really use Vintage as their first-choice guitars? :wink:
Or look at people like Dave Mustaine, Paul Stanley, or Dan Donegan with their ever-changing guitar endorsement deals. Mustaine basically just takes the same guitar from Jackson to ESP or Dean or wherever he is now, then says it's much better than the cr@ppy previous version. Jerry Donahue has done the same going from Fender to Peavey to Fret-King, Van Halen from Music Man to Peavey to Fender/EVH.
To be fair to Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert, as Nolly mentioned they've all consistently used DiMarzio for many years, and worked with Steve Blucher to design models to their own requirements - so they don't need to go anywhere else.
On BKPs specifically, Chris Broderick was the classic example - he was using BKPs then suddenly switched to DiMarzio when he landed the Megadeth gig. I'm pretty sure that was an endorsement deal. Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth was using BKP, then switched to WCR - maybe he liked them better, maybe BKP wouldn't make him a signature model(?).
Misha Mansoor from Periphery is a fairly well known BKP user - he's contributed to this site and mentions BKPs in magazine interviews. He does also use DiMarzios (and maybe Seymour Duncans too?) in other guitars though. There probably aren't many players who exclusively use one brand.
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Misha has said on previous occasions that he prefers to refrain from signing actual endorsement deals, since all the guys in his band are massive gear geeks and would rather use all sorts of smexy gear instead of being tied down to one brand.
That said, the guy has been pretty vocal about BKP, which the ridiculous amounts of "wat BKP 4 teh djentz?????+++"-threads that clog the web can be seen as proof of.
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I think there are two reasons:
1) Not every guitarist is a tone hound like Bonamassa or Eric Johnson, lots of guys go with good solid stuff that produces a decent tone and let their skill shine through. How many players use a bog standard USA reissue Tele/Strat etc? As a tool it's more than good enough.
2) Everyone's different, and not everyone will like BKPs. For example, I've had hit and miss experiences with models matching my guitars and dropping £200+ on a set of humbuckers is a major decision to make when you can't try before you buy. Sometimes a well known DiMarzio PAF (or similar) is a safer option...
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Gary Moore used BK's and mentioned it in many interviews. For the music I like, I would put him up at the top.
It's mostly about endorsement deals - look at a copy of Gear magazine, do you think any of those people they feature really use Vintage as their first-choice guitars? :wink:
I saw Geoff Whitehorn on a Procol Harum gig last year and he was using a Vintage (with BK pickups and was wearing a BK t-Shirt!).
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It's mostly about endorsement deals - look at a copy of Gear magazine, do you think any of those people they feature really use Vintage as their first-choice guitars? :wink:
I saw Geoff Whitehorn on a Procol Harum gig last year and he was using a Vintage (with BK pickups and was wearing a BK t-Shirt!).
I take it back! :lol:
I never doubted Mr Whitehorn genuinely used BKPs, but I am surprised about the Vintage!
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On BKPs specifically, Chris Broderick was the classic example - he was using BKPs then suddenly switched to DiMarzio when he landed the Megadeth gig. I'm pretty sure that was an endorsement deal.
Tim himself said that it was due to the costs & quantities that he required and dimario could do him what he wanted at a far cheaper price.
if you search for the one of the numerous Chris Broderick threads its in one of those.
I have however since seem Chris in interviews saying he does still use some guitars with bare knuckles in live but the majority have some custom wound dimarzios
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Thanks Tony, I found this:
Chris has decided to go with a deal with Dimarzio for whatever reason. As we're only a small company we simply can't afford to endorse artists and give away free pickups-everyone on our user list has bought and paid for their pickups which, as far as I'm concerned, is the way it should be.
Which implies Chris B wanted freebies (apologies if I've misunderstood....).
I can understand the sense of accepting equipment under endorsements rather than buying stuff yourself - although it seems odd that musicians aren't prepared to spend money on the "tools" needed for their jobs.....
It's not as if we're talking large quantities of pickups or guitars. Unless he does a Townshend every night on tour. Even then, you can just come out with a Squier for the encores and smash that up, like Blackmore used to do. :lol:
(Edit: Is there a Broderick signature guitar? If there is, I can see the argument that BKP might not be able to match the demand from Ibanez. )
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Yeah it certainly does imply that he wants freebies
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His upcoming Jackson sig comes with "Chris Broderick designed Custom DiMarzio" pickups on both 6- and 7-string version.
Would be interesting to compare these custom pickups to a Nailbomb/Cold Sweat-set...
(no intention to imply anything^^)
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It's mostly about endorsement deals - look at a copy of Gear magazine, do you think any of those people they feature really use Vintage as their first-choice guitars? :wink:
I saw Geoff Whitehorn on a Procol Harum gig last year and he was using a Vintage (with BK pickups and was wearing a BK t-Shirt!).
I take it back! :lol:
I never doubted Mr Whitehorn genuinely used BKPs, but I am surprised about the Vintage!
I've got an Elkie Brooks DVD with him wearing a BKP t-shirt. I seem to recall he was playing a Variax when I spotted it though! :lol: (I'll have to watch it again)
Actually, what was Tim playing when he was her axeman? Does anyone know? I suspect BKPs as such didn't exist at the time, but I would have thought he must have been experimenting with pickups by then, I wonder if he was using them? I've got a live album of hers with him on, some nice stuff going on.
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It's not as if we're talking large quantities of pickups or guitars. Unless he does a Townshend every night on tour. Even then, you can just come out with a Squier for the encores and smash that up, like Blackmore used to do. :lol:
(Edit: Is there a Broderick signature guitar? If there is, I can see the argument that BKP might not be able to match the demand from Ibanez. )
I think besides the incoming Jackson Signature he had a Ibanez signatur of some kind....not sure though, but I think there was a signature 8 strings somewhere?
All the freebe PUs would be nice though if you are like Michael Angelo Batio (Dean endorser, has PUs there too and, as far as I know is also very true to the brand) who has beyond 100 guitars.....
Btw, I always thought it was like that that but it is interresting to hear that the signature PUs guys like Petrucci use really are different from the ones we buy...
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Yeah he had a signature Ibanez 7 string which is the reason for him leaving ibanez.
As they produced a standard model that was virtually identical to screw him out of commision (apparently)
this is all hearsay from the megadeth forum which isnt the nicest of places...
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It was Chris Broderick's LACS guitar that all of a sudden became the Prestige RGA7. Naturally, he got a bit miffed at the company more or less stealing his idea, so he left.
Fine by me. His Jackson sig model is waaaaay cooler.