Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: llJasonll on August 26, 2011, 02:35:07 AM
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What the topic says.
Seriously, I'd like to hear what pickup combos that the other users on the forum have in their axes; and what they like/love/dislike/hate about them. I am particularly interested in hearing about an Aftermath bridge with a Painkller neck or a Ceramic Aftermath neck (i know it isn't "mis-matched," but it is different).
I still want to hear everyother pickup combo out there. I figured we could all have some fun and maybe I can think of a cool combo that I never realized would work (I have a new axe being made for me, and I am trying to figure out which pickups to go with)
Cheers! :drink:
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In my Les Paul I have a Holydiver in the bridge and a Mule in the neck. What i dislike about the combo is that the Mule doesn't seem to pair well with the HD unless i turn down the Mules Volume pot. I'm not a gigging musician so, it doesn't matter much.
The Mule doesn't sound all that great for high-gain lead. The Mule sounds really good split. I really don't like the sound of it in full humbucker mode on the clean channel.
I don't use the neck for leads much anyway. The Holydiver is where it's at for leads.
This thing is FAT and articulate. Really smooth and dynamic. I like how it sounds better when you lower the height a little. I totally rediscovered the pickup about 2 months ago when I lowered it. Much more clarity.
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I have a Miracle Man & Mississippi Queen combo.
I love absolutely everything about the miracle man
and i used to love everything about the MQ too but now im finding that the cleans could be a tad more compressed. Other than that it is ideal.
I currently have an aftermath bridge and a prototype aftermath neck on the way which is the ceramic i believe.
I shall let you know how it goes
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Mule neck / ABomb bridge here in a SG. Had to fiddle a bit with pups / screws height to find a good balance but I'm pretty pleased with the result. The Mule neck is incredible for clean and bluesy crunch tones, the ABomb bridge covers the classic rock to more modern overdrive tones, and there's a very wide range of interesting tones to be found in the middle position playing with tone and volume pots.
I also had a Slowhand neck+mid / baseplated Trilogy bridge on a Strat-like Vox Standard 25, but while I liked both, I found they didn't match that well.
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- Crawler/IT's in a swampash HSS-strat (MXG, customaxe made by Patrick Eggle. Big fat, creamy distortion tones, IT's cover everything from clean Frusciante to SRV. Neckpu is stellar with loads of distortion. Fenderish quacky in between sounds. Great allround set when you have to cover a lot of styles.
- VHII/MM's in an American Series HSS-strat (ash, rosewood). VHII: great dynamics, open and articulate, bright but still rounded in the topend. Not thin. Balanced pu that cleans up great, nearly singlecoiltones then. Handles loads of gain well, very nice crunch tones and wicked leadtones, especially when you dig in. Touchsensitive. MM's: pristine early early sixties vintagetones. Clear, bright, less bass then IT's. neckpu is really good, a lot of bite and snap.
- BG50's (old set) in an American Series Tele. What can I say, classic teletones, pu's handle ampdrive very well, also pedals. Very balanced set. Neckpu has a stratty touch. You can play everything on this one, severe metal excluded. But jazz, funk, blues, classic rock, hard rock, no problem. Articulate pu's.
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7 string Miracle man at the bridge, 7 string Mule at the neck. sounds great :)
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Aftermath in the bridge.
How's that for mismatched! :D
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Right on guys! I want more opinions!
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Holydiver bridge/Cold Sweat neck in a PRS Custom with the 5-way rotary selector. Awesome tone with the individual pickups and nice clean tones with the split positions.
Nailbomb bridge/VHII neck in a PRS Single Cut, stock wiring. Awesome as well.
Cheers Stephan
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Mansons MBK2 BKP set (essentially a slightly overwound Nailbomb bridge and MQ neck) in a mahogany/rosewood LP sounds awesome. Aggressive but articulate bridge pup and a nice warm P90 neck - lovely.
Also have a sinner bridge with a mother's milk neck in a Fender Jaguar - maybe a little unusual but Tim said the combo could work - he wasn't wrong.
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That Holy Diver bridge / Cold Sweat neck combo sounds very appealing. Any ideas on how that would be different from a straight Holy Diver set?
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holy diver/cold sweat and the riff raff/the mule were the best combos I had
this russian guy did a great rock/metal demo of the riff raff/mule set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMVHiPa0xm8
:D
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So I just ordered a Rebel Yell Bridge, and a VHII neck; for a pretty bright sounding guitar. I'm really excited and I can't wait to hear how it sounds!!
I am taking slow but steady steps at a more versatile/vintage sounding pickups; as opposed to all of the other Metal Machines that I own. 8)
Edit: The Axe mentioned previously in this thread is the axe that these pups are going into
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So I just ordered a Rebel Yell Bridge, and a VHII neck; for a pretty bright sounding guitar. I'm really excited and I can't wait to hear how it sounds!!
I am taking slow but steady steps at a more versatile/vintage sounding pickups; as opposed to all of the other Metal Machines that I own. 8)
Sounds like a cool combo! I'm also trying to go more the "vintage" route... I want to try a set of Mules / Riff Raffs / Rebel Yells /VHII and see which one I like the most for each position. Too many combinations!
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I have a warpig and a vintage dimarzio PAF in my 1980 Eagle , they sound really great together suprisingly
(http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m54/Necrite_ist_Krieg/104_0521.jpg)
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i want clips of the VHII bridge and neck.
cold sweat neck
:lol:
that russian guy is $%&#ing crazy i guess
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I've quite a few custom BK sets. My first two sets were
Emerald Bridge & Mule Neck for a Les Paul - great for Kossoff and Moore sounds
Crawler with 2 P-91's for my PRS EG IV - This is just a magnificent combination for all the P-90 lovers out there. You can get the P-90 sweet drive, but have an HB for the extra push. I have wiring that splits the Crawler with the centre P-91 and also gives me the 2 P-91's in combination.
Since then I have got:
Warpig & MQ set in my Explorer (which is a great combo, especially with the Warpig in parallel mode)
AV Mule with a AIV Stormy Monday neck in a Zemaitis Pearltop clone (everyone loves this - I've had it at a few shows and it gives such a great sound that a few guys have had a lot of people checking out their gear when it was plugged in!)
Riff Raff/AIV Stormy Monday set in another Les Paul (should be a standard offering for anyone who likes Paul Kossoff, Peter Green and late 60's rock)
MQ/Slowhand/mini-Mule set in a custom walnut PRS style guitar (this has so many sounds that it is hard to describe it)
Piledriver/Slowhand set in a Tele (great sound for all those who don't really like the Tele bridge pickup, though the 52 Black Guard Flattop set has a Strat sounding neck pickup)
I probably have other combinations that I just can't think of at the moment! The great thing about all of them is that they sound good (of course I ran these past Tim before getting them), and the combined sounds are great too.
Because BK's have more clarity in the tone, there is much more that you can do with the combinations than you get with some other pickups.
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VH2 bridge,Stormy M (A2) in a Tokai LS150.Bought both for their individual character a few months apart.Thought
they would work well together though, Tim thought so.
Wanted the SM for those old fashioned cleans and the VH2 so i too could sound like the Steve Stevens demo, well one can but dream.Great pups, great combo that covers lots of ground.
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Miracle Man bridge + Cold Sweat neck in an LTD Viper. Just never liked the MM neck as it was too much like the bridge (I like a bit of contrast between my pups) and I wanted it to be more of a lush chimey thing. CS does that and matches well.
BG50 bridge + Mule neck in a Baja Tele. Just the combo made in heaven for me. Pure Tele rock goodness in the bridge, hint of LP in the neck. I was more surprised when they sounded so good together. Really love the combined sound. Reason for the Mule is that I don't like Tele neck pups. They just do nothing for me.
Had a C-Pig bridge + Mississippipig neck in another Viper. It was just a stoner rock combo from hell. Particularly the MP neck. I think I was the only person who liked that combo however, as it really only did thunder and not a lot else.
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My first attempt at mixing pups was disappointing.
I had bought my first set of Mules somewhere in 2006 and was happy. Then, i'd put Stormy Mondays on my father's LPC and was even more amazed especially by the AII neck unit.
So i replaced the neck AIV Mule in my standard LP for an AII SM, going against one of Tim's advice to avoid mixing AIV and AII...
And the in between position sounded... well, not really great...
it wasn't a bad sound but it had nothing in common with the great middle position of the calibrated vintage sets that's part of BKP's mojo...
This maybe was my only bad experience with BKPs and it was, as often, caused by me avoiding Tim's advices :lol:
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OK... i own RIGHT NOW a Nailbomb Set.
the Nailbomb neck has a Meaty. Smooth , Oily but not that Oily. it still retaing the AIRY sound Bkp is known for. it Sings REALLY NICE ALso . and it has Enough tightness. The output is also ENough. it also manages to be slightlsy Crispy. but nothing to worry about like :thinking its Dry. Oh And it has a Good Amount of Sustain.i think i described the tonal characteristics good.
The best part of it is that now im able to get that exact Lead tone you hear on the cd CARCASS - HEARTWORK.
Im so $%&#ing happy with it.
BUT... please keep in mind i havent played those pickups in a Decent amp YET. all that i did was some testing with my brandless cr@ppy borrowed from my neighbour Amp.
so.. when i have a chance to test it in a more or less decent amp, ill tell you the results. ill be prpobably using a Bugera 333 .
theres one Thing i realized so far. the calibration/setting up of the bass frequencies.. are not so easy to do as the other ones.
and if you are not careful it can be a bit muddy. so im still working on it but im sure it wont be a problem.
All other frequencies are top class calibrated7settled up i mean the Screws.
Talking about screws.. im also experimenting with hexa screws like the ones in the warpig. i got 12 to experiment with .
i already replaced the 6 ones in the bridge pickup and i think the sound gets less Oily and slightly less meaty and gets slightly Nasal and more fluid. with the regular screws it has more fatness or Oil to it with some Fluidy and Oily sustain to it.
with the hexa screws it s a bit less not so full sound and a bit nasal.
thats all i can think of as for now.
The bridge one ill review later.
The guitar is a Fender AMerican Standard with possibly maple or alder body . can also be basswood. but the body is pretty HEAVY. i m also not sure if its mahogany. i doubt.
it has grapthtech saddles and nut.
JP
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Here's my current favorite mis-matched combo in a semi-storied guitar:
C-Bomb Bridge (Green), PK Neck (Pink) in an Ibanez JEM77FP (early 90's model). This is a phenomenal combination in this guitar. I wanted to improve on the tone of the instrument and not stray too far away from the Vai-like sound I could pull out of that instrument. I started with the C-Bomb bridge. It just roars and cries from this alder guitar. I've tried it on multiple amps in guitar shops and it has a massive, dark and focused sound to it without tremendous compression. The PK neck compliments the C-Bomb perfectly. I wanted a powerful, fat, and ceramic compressed neck sound for very aggressive leads. The EVOs were just flat and you really had to dig into the instrument to get them to sing plus they were very muddy. The C-Bomb/PK combo makes notes just fly off the fretboard. If I roll the volume back slightly they clean up beautifully (Die To Live tone). That's another point: this combo is very controllable. If I want softer, more open and fluid like clean tone from the neck all I do is roll the tone nob back slightly, about 7/10, and lower the amp master volume on the clean setting. The spikey, ice-pick shrill that sometimes comes out of the PK neck are non existant and on clean it warms the sound up making it less glassy but still clear. I recommend this combo for any super-strat. It nails the modern Vai tone but has more power and plenty of its own character, as well as being metal as $%&#. In fact it's a better modern shred/metal combo than anything but it does have refined dynamics and is capable of a lot of rock/metal tones in a variety of tunings. This combo has way more balls and snarl than the EVOs or Original PAFs had.
This axe used to be owned by Steve Vai as a soundcheck instrument before it wound up hanging in the window of a music store not far from his parents house, collecting dust. I stole it (off of ebay) and the previous owner provided some good paperwork to back up the story. When I got it appraised (for kicks) the G-Center manager was horrified I was going to change the stock pickups and ruin the original sodering. Well, the store owner from NY said it was a really a players instrument, showed road wear, and definitely was begging to be played. I couldn't agree more. The recent upgrade to BKPs gave new life into this instrument, and I'd love to hear that G-Center Manager's opinion now on whether or not it was a good move to "devalue" this collectable. You don't tune up a classic to not drive it. This tune up was like adding a brand new twin turbo engine, straight piped. I can't recommend this combo enough!
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I made an error mentioning it was an ALDER guitar. The 77FPs were all Basswood. The C-Bomb really compliments the wood well, and the PK neck never really gets too bright and dry sounding unless you push the highs too much on your amp, or add too much presence. I have barely messed with the poles on the pickups so as they are from BKP they sound great in a basswood, flat-top, maple neck, rosewood fb super-strat. The bright green and pink pickups also make the tone that much better.
NOTE: I never changed the middle single coil. It does contradict the BKPs a little (guess what it sounds thin and flat). If anyone has a single coil, middle position pickup opinion, sitting between the C-Bomb and PK neck, 5 way selector switch, I'd love to hear it.
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I might try a Black Dog bridge with Stormy Monday neck pickup in the near future.
Anyone else considering getting into BD/SM? Send me a private message, secrecy assured.
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I might try a Black Dog bridge with Stormy Monday neck pickup in the near future.
Anyone else considering getting into BD/SM? Send me a private message, secrecy assured.
I actually had that combo in an Edwards Flying V, which......
:|
You only made that post for the comedy value of BD/SM, didn't you?
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The first couple of BKP "sets" I had were mix and match. Now I'm leaning more towards calibrated sets, Tim knows his onions.
But not being a fan of bright neck pickups, I probably still wouldn't buy, say, a Riff Raff set - I'd substitute a Mule or Stormy Monday neck pickup in that case.
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You only made that post for the comedy value of BD/SM, didn't you?
it's good that you're comfortable discussing this
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You only made that post for the comedy value of BD/SM, didn't you?
it's good that you're comfortable discussing this
At my age, it's all just hypothetical.
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Has anyone tried a Cold Sweat bridge with a Riff Raff neck?
Cheers Stephan
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Well I don't know about mismatched, but I had a Nailbomb put in the Bridge of my Ibanez S series, a Cold Sweat in the neck, and a trilogy suite in the middle. The guitar has a great sound! Although I never really use the trilogy suite.
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Has anyone tried a Cold Sweat bridge with a Riff Raff neck?
Apparently nobody.
Has anyone tried a Holydiver bridge with a Nailbomb neck?
Thanks, Stephan
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Has anyone tried a Cold Sweat bridge with a Riff Raff neck?
Apparently nobody.
I think the Cold Sweat neck is such a great pickup, probably nobody wants to use anything different with the CS bridge model?
Of course lots of people use the CS neck with other bridge pickups!
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I tried a CS bridge with Riff raff neck! great combo, except the CS bridge was too modern for my tastes, swapped it with a Riff Raff bridge..
still have that CS8 bridge i'd like to sell, either that or i buy a new 8 string!
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I think the Cold Sweat neck is such a great pickup, probably nobody wants to use anything different with the CS bridge model?
I fully appreciate that. Indeed it is a great neck pickup. It is probably my guitar then - the bridge pickup is very close to the bridge, making it even brighter.
Of course lots of people use the CS neck with other bridge pickups!
Sure - me, too!
Cheers Stephan
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I was considering putting a Riff Raff neck in a LP "made in a garage guitar" I use as a pickup tester. It has a Duncan Black Back I moved from the bridge since it was actually an order mistake (thanks Ed Roman) and a neck pickup by measurement of the polls. A Cold Sweat lives in the bridge position. It's not a priority guitar but I really might try that.
HD and NB sounds like a sweet combo!
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PK bridge + VHII neck, great combo which offers great higain rhytm, smooth lead and nice clean sounds without tapping pedals or switching channels on your amp. all you need is pickup selector, volume knob and if you like coil tap switch