Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: aris17561 on December 25, 2013, 10:02:14 PM
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Hello everyone ,
I have an esp horizon with vh2... My goal is to reach a sound that the notes are very dinstictive and have a very open and bright sound. I am a little confused beacause I play mostly metal like iced earth , killswitch engage etc , and my amp is a marshall jvm which has plenty of gain , but I am not sure that vh2 is my cup of tea. I mean that the pickup is not made for metal and even if the sound with the jvm sounds brutal , my stupid mind dont leave me to judge it by ear , but by eyes.
So i consider of buying a new knuckle that will give me the note separation that vh2 gives me , and the brightness too because horizon is a bit dark guitar. So i am confused because I send mails twice to Ben and Tim , and the answers confused me more. I wiil not saying who suggest me what , because I dont wanna influence you. I will tell you though in a couple of answers !!!
Before knuckles I had in my esp JB , DUNCAN DISTORTION , TB-5 ... It was a disaster !!!
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I would choose the Emerald.
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I'm guessing you would like the alnico Black Hawk.
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According to the answers I have taken from you guys and from Ben and Tim I guess that all knuckles have the so called string separation right ?
With duncan I hear a sound that is a mass ... Not dinstictibe notes ... Ok I wait for more people to say an opinion in order to have a more popular solution for my problem ... Thanks
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Well, the string separation has been very clear on the Nailbomb, Cold Sweat, and Stockholm I have, and especially noticeable when playing clean. I think it's there on the Warpigs too, just that I have never played that many chords on them except arpeggiated chords, so I can't say for sure. But yes it is common to BKPs
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In terms of brightness you are probably looking at the following candidates:
VHII
Emerald
Rebel Yell
Cold Sweat
Black Hawk
All of these can do 'metal' - it just depends on what kind of metal you are talking about. It is a very broad genre.
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Rebel Yell Bridge + Dual Rectifier = instant love. It can get damn heavy with clever EQ settings and it's always so articulate, edgy, and pissed off.
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Well, the string separation has been very clear on the Nailbomb, Cold Sweat, and Stockholm I have, and especially noticeable when playing clean. I think it's there on the Warpigs too, just that I have never played that many chords on them except arpeggiated chords, so I can't say for sure. But yes it is common to BKPs
I have always felt that BKPs are great on the separation, but that their P90s kill everything in that regard. The way the bottom strings are defined is amazing to me.
Now that you have had some more playing around with your Stockholm and a good sample size besides that (plus a lot more musical experience than I do) I wonder if you have noticed something similar or not.
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All of these can do 'metal' - it just depends on what kind of metal you are talking about. It is a very broad genre.
Metal like iced earth , killswitch engage , low tunings , but versality also , some dio , eye if the tiger etc . I am in a band and we play live guns n roses 80 hard rock metal so I need the pup can do these but in my own life outside the band I play more metal . So a pup that can handle all these ? Can vh2 do this ?
Rebel Yell Bridge + Dual Rectifier = instant love. It can get damn heavy with clever EQ settings and it's always so articulate, edgy, and pissed off.
Have you tried cold sweat ?
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Metal like iced earth , killswitch engage , low tunings , but versality also , some dio , eye if the tiger etc . I am in a band and we play live guns n roses 80 hard rock metal so I need the pup can do these but in my own life outside the band I play more metal . So a pup that can handle all these ? Can vh2 do this ?
I do not know enough about the VHII to comment on that, but I hear it is versatile and underrated at this time. When thinking about those styles in one PU it comes largely down to the amp, cab and pedals. I can see the RY and Emerald doing it mainly, but the CS is also possible.
All of these will cut through enough to work with the guitar and all are quite versatile. It also largely depends on where you put your stylistic focus. When it comes to metal the RY does a brilliant job, modern take on a classic sound, tight, agressive upper mid spike, overtones, etc. The text on the website really tells the truth.
The CS has a different agression. Where the RY has lots of mids the CS is slightly scooped in feel and has a more agressive treble. Often recommended for Dimebag sounds, but much more versatile and old school than the implications of that.
The Emerald has become much overlooked for metal applications. While back it was traded as one of the best modern metal PUs out there. Tight, being able to take a sh*tload of gain and all around pretty insane. Still one of the, if not the best PU for extended range guitars.
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Now that you have had some more playing around with your Stockholm and a good sample size besides that (plus a lot more musical experience than I do) I wonder if you have noticed something similar or not.
I think you have more musical experience than me.
I will have to compare the Cold Sweat and Stockholm again to be sure, but they are two of the best contemporary sounding pickups that BKP makes, that is for sure. The A-Bomb has always been excellent in terms of separation and clarity too.
I would be really surprised if aris17651 did not find that the Rebel Yell and Cold Sweat were the two options in the balance. The RY can definitely do the '80s hard rock stuff (as could the Emerald, and a RY bridge/EM neck combo might be optimum). The Cold Sweat is similar to the RY at the neck but the bridge is more metal sounding than the RY, if that makes any sense. The CS can play anything from Sin After Sin era Judas Priest through to Pantera, Slayer, and Celtic Frost. I don't know how the RY handles those, but I keep hearing it does a great Randy Rhoads tone
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in my experience, having both in the same guitar (a jap les paul copy), the cold sweat has a quite similar voicing to the vhII, but with the ceramic edge and extra balls
not the KsE type of tone, but will deliver more string separation than a painkiller or miracle man
more of a Vulgar Display of Power vibe, that also works well for 90's Jon Schaffer stuff
newer Iced Earth has a more PAFish openness
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Ok now I think it's time to say that Ben suggested me the cold sweat and Tim suggested me the rebel yell ... So indeed according to you answers it's the big dilemma ... I have to choose between them . Does any of the two make my job a little bit better ?
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Ok now I think it's time to say that Ben suggested me the cold sweat and Tim suggested me the rebel yell ... So indeed according to you answers it's the big dilemma ... I have to choose between them . Does any of the two make my job a little bit better ?
Big question: You play a lot of styles and both PUs should do those, but where is your focus. Which sounds have to really be there?
Plus from just thinking, how would you like your sound to be, especially in regards to the bass?
It really is the BKP dilemma: There is more than one PU that will do a thing or style amazingly, they just do it in different ways, with different flavours.
I think you have more musical experience than me.
Thanks, but from what I know that can not be true.^^ I dunno at which age you started playing, but chances are you got a few on me. And more gigs. And more years of listening to it.
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A lot more years of gigs, but I turned 40 before I got my first guitar. I had a bass in the '90s, but that had to be sold after a few years to pay for some really silly stuff, like marriage/divorce related stuff.
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Ok now I think it's time to say that Ben suggested me the cold sweat and Tim suggested me the rebel yell ... So indeed according to you answers it's the big dilemma ... I have to choose between them . Does any of the two make my job a little bit better ?
It's very very rare to hear of someone whose been recommended either of these being unhappy.
If your guitar is a big solid piece of mahogany either will shine. The Cold Sweat is more scooped and metal sounding. I don't know how reliable my experience with an SG when making recommendations for pickups - I know that it reacts differently to pickups than many other mahogany guitars do - but I'm guessing it also has a smoother, less raspy sound than the Rebel Yell with a bit more balls in the bottom end. The RY has more mids than the CS, and I think of it more as a hard rock pickup, well suited to stuff like early Ozzy and Ratt.
You can also think of the CS bridge as a milder, more articulate version of the Miracle Man.
The CS and RY neck pickups are both exceptional shred pickups, two of the best in the BKP range
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Yep, as Agent Orange said, he kinda hit the spots. With that description you can see what I meant by where your focus is.
@Agent Orange: Even with all that I think you have 1 or 2 years of playing on me if I recall your age correctly. I think I am about 6 1/2 years or so in by now since I bought my first axe. And that time was of course not all constant improvement. xD
So just take the due respect I am trying to give you here mate ;)
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Nah, you still have a bit of experience on me.
For me it was kind of a 'mid life crisis' thing. I came back from Japan, turned 40, and decided I was going to do a few things that I wanted to do in the '90s but never did, even though I was now getting to be 'over the hill'. One of those was to play in a band (I was only ever a bedroom bassist, and even then wasted most of my time learning scales). Part of that was buying another instrument (the black Explorer). I went for a guitar as I thought that even though it is harder to learn than bass it gives a more rounded understanding of rock music and is better for writing songs. The other - arising directly out of my experiences in Japan - was to get a couple of tattoos. Sounds weird I know but they weren't such a big thing in the '90s, and then I felt a bit weird getting them. But I thought 'who cares?' and just did what I wanted. Then I got some big tax returns and a heap of time on my hands this year so I bought a couple more guitars and got serious with the mods, really got into the nuts and bolts of understanding how guitars work, and only recently joined a band and got a gigging amp. They are the two Gibson SGs and the big Peavey. Before them I just had the Epiphone and an acoustic, together with a combo amp.
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Well I played the flute during elementary school and klarinet in beginning of high school. During that time though I did not much care for most of the music you could make with those. Then around 15 or 16 years old I tried acoustic guitar lessons. I saw potential, but hey I was into rock and metal (from Alice Cooper to Slipknot and such) so that whole basic acoustic stuff was too tiresome and I never got anywhere at all. Dropped it for almost a year and then just said to myself: $%&# it, letīs buy an electric guitar! Thanks to Dream Theater and Trivium it was 7 string and after not even being able to play a F chord before I now learned the Into, verse and chorus to Dream Theaters "Rite of Passage", cause I was motivated.
In the guitar I finally found that outlet for me.
After 2 years of playing through a Digitech RP255 and a horribly cr@ppy marshall solidstate 8" combo I got myself a Tiny Terror, a acoustic and over a year later a great Marshall 2x12" cab. Somewhen after the TT also came a Ibby S series, which is where BKPs got started. Since then I also got a LP type, acoustic bass, campfire acoustic, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, a second hand Feline one of a kind custom, another superstrat type, several pedals (and go into building myself), a HTH amps 5w Fender style amp and most recently another acoustic.
May look like a lot and granted for my age my musical knowledge might be a bit unusual as I listen to a lot of different stuff from different eras and am nerdy about everything music from trivia, to guitars, to having worked as a sound tech, etc....yet the sheer amount of life and experience of music is something that I can not compare to yours. Plus I have not gigged the guitar further than campfires xD
You really got a lot of music years on me, I mean you are a PHD and I am in my first semester, so that should give you an idea ;)
I am only 22, so yeah....
Oh and on topic: I am a giant fan of the RY myself and will recommend it gladly at any time. To me it is insanely versatile. If your amp is a highgain / metal one (perhaps even with a big sounding cab) I would perhaps gravitate towards the RY, as you should be quite able to cover your bases nicely.