Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: DefaultM on September 30, 2014, 06:12:12 PM
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I'll be honest and say that I haven't been overly impressed with any BKPs that I've had in my guitars, except for the Coldsweats that I have in my mahogany/maple PRS CE22. Those sound incredible.
The reason I say I've not been impressed with others is that I also have Coldsweats in my basswood ibanez and they sound completely different. Clearly woods matter, and so I was wondering if I put the same pickups in my custom 24, is the solid rosewood neck going to make a difference in the Coldsweats tone compared to how they are in my CE22?
I have them HFS and VB in there at the minute and they're a bit bright and brittle for me. I like really thick and aggressive tone for rhythm, not flubby. For lead thick and smooth, not bright but not dull.
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Thick and aggressive sounds like the ABomb to me. For the neck, I like the Rebel Yell as a good pairing.
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I had the a bomb in a mahogany/maple Ibanez RGA121 and it was ridiculously bassy. Is that normal or will it have been set up wrong? I didn't buy it myself and I never really messed with it.
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I have the ABomb in 2 mahogany les pauls and they sound pretty balanced, certainly not overly bassy.
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I'll be honest and say that I haven't been overly impressed with any BKPs that I've had in my guitars, except for the Coldsweats that I have in my mahogany/maple PRS CE22. Those sound incredible.
The reason I say I've not been impressed with others is that I also have Coldsweats in my basswood ibanez and they sound completely different. Clearly woods matter, and so I was wondering if I put the same pickups in my custom 24, is the solid rosewood neck going to make a difference in the Coldsweats tone compared to how they are in my CE22?
I have them HFS and VB in there at the minute and they're a bit bright and brittle for me. I like really thick and aggressive tone for rhythm, not flubby. For lead thick and smooth, not bright but not dull.
The guitar contributes a lot acoustically to the overall tone you hear coming from an amplifier. I had a ridiculously bassy / muddy guitar and the cure for that was a Rebel Yell bridge. That pickup was in my Les Paul and was cranked way high with the screws turned quite far down. It still sounded overly middy and almost thin in the lows in that axe.
Put it in a phat sounding axe and viola, HUGE sound with a massive / clear bottom and lots of bite on top.
Thick and Aggressive = Juggerset in a Superstrat. This is a more smooth tone with bite in the harmonics / highs and a nice, rounded treble. Low mids pound and the pickup rolls off the bass right before the woofy frequencies start. Great in a brighter but balanced sounding axe. (Which makes them perhaps not such a good idea for a PRS SC, depending on the tone of that guitar)
A-Bomb is great in a balanced but warm sounding axe like a Les Paul and perhaps a PRS SC. This is a different sort of aggression, with lots of grit, bad attitude, and misbehavior. It is a warm sounding pickup with a nice treble response but less harmonic bite than a Rebel Yell. Definitely brighter and more rolled off in the lows than the A-Bomb.
RE: the Ibanez: What are the pot values in that guitar? If they're like 250k - or worse yet, 50k a la actives - you will get some high frequency roll off. What did the RG sound like acoustically? Was it super bassy? The A-Bomb is a bright but balanced sounding pickup and it wouldn't have much for lows in a similarly bright guitar. It has happened here before where someone installed passives in a guitar equipped for actives. The result was a ball of mud tone like you describe.
So, I think you should play your guitars unplugged and compare the tone. I'm going to upload, yet again, a recording I did comparing some of my guitars unplugged. This should provide some valuable context for you. Compare the sound of all these instruments with yours and this should help you pick pickups.
Guitar 1) Warm / Dark / Bassy with a bump in the low treble. Darkest / dullest guitar.
Guitar 2) Warm and balanced. More mid focused. I'm guessing this will be closest to the PRS SC
Guitar 3) Bright and Balanced with some lows.
Guitar 4) Overly Bright.
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I'll be honest and say that I haven't been overly impressed with any BKPs that I've had in my guitars, except for the Coldsweats that I have in my mahogany/maple PRS CE22. Those sound incredible.
The reason I say I've not been impressed with others is that I also have Coldsweats in my basswood ibanez and they sound completely different. Clearly woods matter, and so I was wondering if I put the same pickups in my custom 24, is the solid rosewood neck going to make a difference in the Coldsweats tone compared to how they are in my CE22?
I have them HFS and VB in there at the minute and they're a bit bright and brittle for me. I like really thick and aggressive tone for rhythm, not flubby. For lead thick and smooth, not bright but not dull.
Some guitar/pickup matches work well, others don't.
If you find the HFS and VB bright and brittle you probably would not be happy with the Cold Sweats in that particular guitar as these are quite bright, with a lot of bass on the neck pickup. If you want something in the same output range as the HFS, the Alnico Nailbomb, Juggernaut or Warpig come to mind. If you don't mind a bit lower output, then the Holydiver or Crawler would work well.
I found the VB to be quite muddy. Both the Cold Sweat neck and the VHII neck were an improvement. I could imagine that you would like the VHII. There are hotter neck pickups in the BKP line, such as Aftermath, Warpig or Miracle Man but I have not played them.
Cheers Stephan
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Thanks for the replies. I would say that acoustically it is quite bright actually. I've always wanted to try the warpigs, but i don't really play metal. The juggernauts also interest me but I don't play the djent type stuff.
I have also just remembered it was the c-bomb that I had in the ibanez that was ridiculously bassy.
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Listening to the modern metal clip of the juggernauts that lead tone is exactly what I want. I just notice it says they're designed for heavy down tuning but I'm going to keep this guitar in standard. Does that matter?
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Check out Rick Graham's demo of the juggerset in std.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tq3a2K5J6s
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Funny thing is, the Cold Sweat in the CE22 would balance nicely in the middy CU24.
Juggs would be savage in the CU24 i bet.
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Listening to the modern metal clip of the juggernauts that lead tone is exactly what I want. I just notice it says they're designed for heavy down tuning but I'm going to keep this guitar in standard. Does that matter?
I have a set of 11 - 49s on a 25.5 scale super strat. (3rd guitar in my unplugged demo) This had Juggs and is tuned to Eb Standard / Drop C#. So, hardly downtuned at all. They're really quite amazing pickups. Fantastic lead, crunch rhythm, and cleans in one pickup. And the feel is spot on. They're absolutely mind blowing.
To dial in more high end bite, raise both sets of pole pieces to the desired height and it really adds the top end / articulation into the tone. It can help compensate for the naturally rounder top of those pickups. The highly percussive palm mutes don't hurt either! I think they're pretty much my favourite offering from BKP, Period. ESPECIALLY the bridge. The clean on the neck is also super rich and phenomenal and the lead tone is wonderful. SO FUN!
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Funny thing is, the Cold Sweat in the CE22 would balance nicely in the middy CU24.
Exactly. If you are good with a soldering iron and don't need your CE22 all the time I would pull the Cold Sweats out of that and try them in the CU24, and if they sound great there order a second set and pop them into the CE22.
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Funny thing is, the Cold Sweat in the CE22 would balance nicely in the middy CU24.
Exactly. If you are good with a soldering iron and don't need your CE22 all the time I would pull the Cold Sweats out of that and try them in the CU24, and if they sound great there order a second set and pop them into the CE22.
Good thinking, never actually though of that handywork :tongue:
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Funny thing is, the Cold Sweat in the CE22 would balance nicely in the middy CU24.
Exactly. If you are good with a soldering iron and don't need your CE22 all the time I would pull the Cold Sweats out of that and try them in the CU24, and if they sound great there order a second set and pop them into the CE22.
That would definitely take the guesswork out about them. Good call.
Cheers Stephan
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It will also give a baseline if there's something about that combo that you don't like.
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just throwing this out there, the juggernauts are way more than just a djent pickup. i dont play djent and i love them. very powerful but dynamic and reacts very well to the way you play. the mix of alnico 5 magnets and ceramic magnets makes a verrrrry nice sound to my ears anyway and i know a couple guys in periphery have juggernauts in some PRS guitars and they love them
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I have a ME2 with VHII's in it, which I think works really well, but I've also got a Warmoth PRS clone with a rosewood neck that has a Miracle Man set in it. I actually think they would be exactly what you need.
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just throwing this out there, the juggernauts are way more than just a djent pickup. i dont play djent and i love them. very powerful but dynamic and reacts very well to the way you play. the mix of alnico 5 magnets and ceramic magnets makes a verrrrry nice sound to my ears anyway and i know a couple guys in periphery have juggernauts in some PRS guitars and they love them
They're pretty much my favourite pickup set from BKP.