Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Elessar [Sly] on September 07, 2012, 08:35:17 AM
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I am considering getting a custom Jaguar made, and would like a pick up recommendation. I want nice articulate cleans from the neck humbucker but it needs to be able to handle fuzz and a bit of high gain. For the bridge I need something that can handle high gain distortion well as well a little bit of overdrive (perhaps punchy cleans?). I am also considering coil tap options (if that would work alright on a Jaguar that is).
It will have a standard jaguar bridge system, and would like generic humbuckers with humbucker covers not specifically made Jaguar pick ups.
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With that description, you could be looking at virtually anything from the vintage and vintage hot sections of the BK catalogue. All of them have nice cleans and all of them can handle high gain. I have a VHII in the bridge of a Strat, and it's by far the nicest sounding bridge humbucker clean tone I've ever had. It can still kick the amp surprisingly hard, and sounds great with any amount of gain. The VHII splits extremely well, because of the asymmetric wind.
If you're a Jag player, I'm guessing you're into the slightly alternative side of things, and the VHII might be a bit too polite for you (it's a very musical, almost sweet-sounding pickup). I'm guessing you'll want something a bit dirty.
I haven't ever played a Jag, so I'm not sure what they sound like unplugged, or how the short scale affects the tone. So I'll give my vote for VHII, but with that warning.
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VHII is certainly on the table. I would like something more articulate/clean for the neck. I appreciate options for both positions.
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More articulate than a VHII? That's a tall order.
Lower output and clearer I guess would give a Riff Raff neck... I'm having one fitted to a Les Paul as we speak, so I'll report back.
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I meant in general for the neck. Again, I am open to any suggestions at this point!
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A Mule-bridge and Stormy Monday-neck, but I don't know the timbers and how bright or dark the natural voice of the guitar is.
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The body will be Ash just to let you know.
Any help is appreciated.
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In that case something with a tad more mids: VHII, Abraxas, Crawler. I added the Crawler because if performs very well in ash and swampash (have one in my swampash HSS-strat) and it splits nice. The singlecoil-sounds of the Crawler is liking have a beefy stratpickup under your fingertips. For punchiness the VHII is hard to beat.
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VHII is much better than you think it is.
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Addition: yesterday I gigged with my ash Fender American Series strat, loaded with VHII and Mother's Milk. Normally I take my HSS custom strat with Crawler and Irish Tours, cause it can do nearly everything. Once again I was surprised how good the VHII performs in ash. No lack of mids or bass, clear but sweet topend. Very dynamic/touchsensitive and punchy. Solotones are wicked. A touch leaner then the Crawler, but more open. Great pickup.
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Tim has recommended Alnico Nailbombs for it. But the VHII sounds cool (and the Crawler).
Still not sure on what to get though. There are never enough vids on youtube! Certainly not for Jags!
I like gibson 57 classics in the neck of my Les Paul, although a completely different different instrument; is there anything similar in the BKP's range? I really like the BKP's in my collection and would really like to have them in the Jag.
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I believe the Stormy Mondays are the usual suspect in the BKP line for Gibson '57 pickups.
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I believe the Stormy Mondays are the usual suspect in the BKP line for Gibson '57 pickups.
How do the stormy mondays handle high gain?
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Should do a decent job. Richard Fortus of the new Guns N Roses uses SM in some of his guitars, so I guess they can handle GNR and lower. I wouldn't think they'd be absolutely mind blowing with much more gain than GNR though.
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I don't want to question Tim's advice, but bear in mind Nailbombs are agressive, have an uppermid spike and some sizzle you like or you don't. The question is wether you want a contemporary sound or something more vintage. In ash, a timber with percussiveness in the tone, I would be careful with pickups that are on the bright side. But's that my taste, especially played through highgain-amps.
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I see. I have a nailbomb in the bridge of my Ibanez S series and I'm not sure I like it (I'm pretty sure it is ceramic). Would the cold sweat be a better option for the bridge?
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CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.
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Ahh I see. I'm just worried because I don't like the Nailbomb in the bridge of my Ibanez, and altohugh I know it is a different guitar and different wood (Mahogany with flame maple top), I don't want it to sound similar to it.
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CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.
I have a SH5 in my Gibson SG standard (apparently similar to the cold sweat) and I have the cold sweat in antoher guitar that is why it came to mind. I find the Nailbomb is too harsh in the bridge of my Ibby... so I am put off by the nailbomb.
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CS in ash could be too bright. I think you could better look along the lines of Nailbomb and Holy Diver.
I have a SH5 in my Gibson SG standard (apparently similar to the cold sweat) and I have the cold sweat in antoher guitar that is why it came to mind. I find the Nailbomb is too harsh in the bridge of my Ibby... so I am put off by the nailbomb.
The CS balances perfect in a big lump of mahogany, but is a bit of a bright guy for a lot of ash guitars. And about the Nailbomb in your Ibbie: did you try different heights?, cause it makes a lot of difference.
Personally I like vintage(hot) pickups in F-type guitars to keep things dynamic and open. Hence my VHII-recommendation. If you want higher output with a round topend that would be the Diver. In ash that one would do very nice too.
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The CS balances perfect in a big lump of mahogany, but is a bit of a bright guy for a lot of ash guitars. And about the Nailbomb in your Ibbie: did you try different heights?, cause it makes a lot of difference.
Personally I like vintage(hot) pickups in F-type guitars to keep things dynamic and open. Hence my VHII-recommendation. If you want higher output with a round topend that would be the Diver. In ash that one would do very nice too.
That makes sense. There aren't any vids or clips of these pickups in a Jag =/ Maybe when I make a decision I should do a youtube vid or something.
So the choices I'm thinking are:
Bridge Neck
VHII Stormy monday
Nailbomb Holy Diver/nailbomb
Mule Mule/Stormy monday
Do you think that a rebel yell would be better suited than a nailbomb? since the main page says they are similar.
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The RY is one of the brightest BKP's with a pronounced uppermidrange too. In Les Pauls this one kills, in ash with bolt-on neck the RY will be quite or too bright.
I would look into these combi's that fit an ash/bolt-on guitar:
- calibatred VHII-set (the neck is less bright then the HD-neck and praised much here on the forum).
- calibatred Abraxas-set
- Abraxas + Mule-neck (both AIV, nice balance)
- Holy Diver + VHII-neck
- Nailbomb + VHII-neck
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The RY is one of the brightest BKP's with a pronounced uppermidrange too. In Les Pauls this one kills, in ash with bolt-on neck the RY will be quite or too bright.
I would look into these combi's that fit an ash/bolt-on guitar:
- calibatred VHII-set (the neck is less bright then the HD-neck and praised much here on the forum).
- calibatred Abraxas-set
- Abraxas + Mule-neck (both AIV, nice balance)
- Holy Diver + VHII-neck
- Nailbomb + VHII-neck
How do the nailbomb neck and VHII neck compare?
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Nailbomb-neck: more modern and brighter then the VHII I understood. The VHII is smoother and gets a lot of praise here. I don't have experience with both though, just recapturing what I read on the forum. Maybe there are owners here to comment on this.
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Nailbomb-neck: more modern and brighter then the VHII I understood. The VHII is smoother and gets a lot of praise here. I don't have experience with both though, just recapturing what I read on the forum. Maybe there are owners here to comment on this.
thanks. I am trying to avoid brighter pickups since it will be an Ash body.
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Yeah I won't be going with Nailbombs, I'm leaning more towards the Mules/Abraxas now.
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These are very ''vocal'' pickups. I love my Mule-bridge and the Abraxas has a lot of fans too here. I would pick the Abraxas-bridge considering the timbers.
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Shame I can't actually try these out, I just have to do a little research and take the leap! :shock:
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Shame I can't actually try these out, I just have to do a little research and take the leap! :shock:
I have the Mule in mahogany and it excels with this timber, but I think the extra mids and push of the Abraxas fit ash a bit better. Both have this open, vocal character.
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I have a Jaguar, and it has gone through many pickup configuration changes. Alder body, standard bridge, various pots, from the standard 1meg down to 250k and back again.
After the original, and not so good, MIJ pickups I put a Nailbomb in the bridge, which was cool, and I love the NB.
Later on I had a switch around and put an SH-5 in there - was fine, but reminded me why I like BKP better.
Then I put a BKP92 in the neck, and a little later one in the bridge too. These were AMAZING.
Lastly I reverted to standard configuration, but got Tim to rewind some Jag pups for me, and it sounds ace now.
I have to say that the P90s were probably my favourite, and I had it wired to run them either in parallel or series which was superb. Don't discount them, I know that they don't do BKP92s any more but I would really recommend checking out the new P90 range, seemed to really suit the Jag.
(http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/t_mcwilliams/Guitars/P1010164.jpg)
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'Tis a cool idea but I'm not wanting to go for P90's, I really want humbuckers in this Jag.