Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: grahamhulbert on October 25, 2022, 05:10:28 PM
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Hey all, long time lurker, first time asker!
I normally email the BKP team for pickup choices and to date they've been pretty spot on in terms of steering me in the right direction. This time around I wanted to try the wider BKP community just out of interest, so here goes, apologies in advance for the long ramble!
I am in the process of planning a build that will be a mahogany SG (but slightly thicker body than normal SGs), string through bridge, 25.5" scale aluminium neck guitar so slightly unconventional! Other things of note are that I tune to Bb standard but wouldn't class my tone as doom, sludge etc and particularly not metal. Tuning that low for me means having a low end presence but not all out flub, I like string definition and and big riffs. Think maybe progressive rock-ish stuff like Oceansize, or the proggier side of Mastodon. I use a Diezel VH-2 head which has tons of gain available if I need it and mainly rely on preamp gain, rather than driving the power section. Peter from Diezel amps recommends around a 12k bridge for VH series amps, although people definitely use higher output pickups with them with great success, Matt Bellamy for one who I understand uses or has used Nailbombs in the past.
I'm predominantly a bridge guy, I only ever use the neck pickup for nice, warm ambient clean tones so looking for a pair to suit that. Other BKPs I've used and enjoyed in the past (in the same tuning, amp etc) are an Emerald in an Explorer, a Riff Raff in a Duesenberg Starplayer TV and a Silo in a bright sounding Les Paul. The thing that keeps me coming back to BKP is the clarity so looking for that again but am aware that SGs can be a bit fickle. Ultimately I'm looking for depth and warmth, lower mid clarity and upper mid growl whilst trying to avoid thin and papery high end.
Lastly for anyone wondering the aluminium neck adds a great deal of clarity and for me gives the effect of all frequencies being boosted a bit, somewhat like having a clean boost on all the time. It doesn't make things sound harsh or thin as you might imagine, something I thought before I tried one. My main guitars are all aluminium neck now and I love them.
So then to what to put in this SG? Initially I thought Silos as Rabea often straddles similar styles and low tunings to me and it more or less worked in my Les Paul, other than that I was wondering about a War Pig or Nailbomb, all of these for the bridge. For the neck I truly have no idea and was imaging just getting a set of whichever one I go for.
Would love to get some opinions if I haven't already bored you to tears with the length of this post! :grin:
Thanks!