Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: CarlosAlberto on February 17, 2014, 02:37:50 AM
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So, I'm getting some gibson sg, and i Dont know what BKP bridge to buy, I was thinking In A-bombs, or an Emerald, But i dont know how this pickups will work on the tuning, i want Alnico pickups , I like a Modern tone (i dont want Black hawks since i've got one guitar with them) and something very organic.
What do you say? what alnico BKP?
Thanks!
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I would be more concerned with the tuning than the pickups. Not many bands tune lower than C on short scale and Gibson guitars. It might be fine, depending on your tastes, but the sound and feel will be slack and not as defined as on a longer scale length. SGs are also notoriously difficult to fit a pickup to if they're anything other than very high or low output, you often end up with a honky or nasally midrange sound because the thin SG body doesn't reproduce the highs and lows as much as some of the mids.
I'm sure Emeralds would work, but for more advice you'll need to hear from someone more experienced with SGs.
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I would avoid both of those and go for the Rebel Yell instead.
Besides being the middle ground between the two it has also demonstrated (1) its suitability for SGs (a finicky guitar, believe me) & (2) it's suitability for extended-range and/or down-tuned guitars.
For the neck pickup consider either a matching Rebel Yell neck or Emerald neck, depending on your playing and sound preferences.
You are also going to need at least a 60 gauge low B
Mark Lennard (ex-Truth Corroded) has an SG tuned to B and that's what he told me re strings
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_atKrCdoiKZ4/S-A7Z5CqZqI/AAAAAAAAE0I/gs_NEA8ZbCY/s1600/Truth%2BCorroded%2B3.jpg)
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The Nailbomb (Alnico) sounds really good in C and B tunings, not muddy at all, but full, throaty, raspy. It reminds me a lof Mastodon.
However, much as I love it, in an SG I'm not sure I'd recommend it, just because the Nailbomb IMO is not a pickup that works to great effect in an all-mahogany guitar. Given your preference for Alnico pickups, I think the Warpig would be a great match - after all it is named after a song played famously on an SG.
Maybe enquire with the BKP team.
Others have mentioned the downtuning. IMO C is already difficult to get properly intonated on Gibson scale instruments. Despite popular belief, the pickups aren't really something that will make much of a difference!
I used a seven-string set without the high E for mine (13-59, wound G-string) and it worked well in C, but I couldn't get it properly intonated on B (on a Lespaul). When playing chords you always heard some small inconsistencies and off-tune vibrations that I never have on my 27" baritone. With gain, it is less noticeable, but on clean chords it is very much noticeable.
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Here's something to ponder:
Supermassive - or possibly even Stockholm - P90 set on a wraptail SG like the Townsend 50th anniversary of even the Epiphone 50th anniversary with a custom bridge such as one of those big Schaller adjustable wraptails. Not sure how that would compare with a TOM to intonate on an SG, but it's just a left-field suggestion.
Personally I don't have any problems in D standard with a wraptail, the intonation is okay with the non-adjustable saddles, but then again I don't really use the G string or anything above 12th fret on this guitar.