Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: badgermark on October 17, 2007, 05:57:30 PM
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I'm not happy with my Piledriver set. I bought and installed them about 3 weeks ago, and was initially happy. However, after getting my guitar set up and finally finding time to play it properly I think I'm regretting my purchase.
The neck pickup seems dull and lifeless, and the bridge is as hot as expected, but pretty trebley and not what I was wanting really. And there is a huge leap in tone from the neck pickup to the bridge, not subtle and is pretty jarring on the ears.
Tried 250k pots, everything went to mush and lost a lot of definition, then up to 500k pots, far too shrill and unusable. With 500k pots the neck pickup had a lot of bite to it, sounding nothing like a neck pickup should. Right now the pickups are wired from the switch straight to the output jack, which has made an improvement, but still not too happy.
So I think a hot set is not my cup of tea, and since I'm outwith the 14 day return period I'm stuck with them. I'll keep soldiering on, tweaking the heights and stuff, but still regret my purchase.
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That's the disadvantage of not trying them first, but I'm sure you'll find a set that will suit your needs better.
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here seems to be a growing number of unsatisfied customers recently... could quality be going downhill? :? :(
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You always take a gamble when buying something like a pickup, until you've lived with it you just don't know. My wife just put a piledriver in her HSH Ibanez and it works really well in there.
I'm sorry it's not worked out for you badger, have you mailed Tim?
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I can't fault the build quality nor tone really, just not for me. I shall keep messing about then get back to Tim.
Still not liking the imbalance between the neck and bridge though. I also can't seem to lower the neck pickup, slackening the screws just makes the mounting screw raise up, pickup isn't moving at all. Can raise though. Very odd.
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I also can't seem to lower the neck pickup, slackening the screws just makes the mounting screw raise up, pickup isn't moving at all. Can raise though. Very odd.
Sounds like the pickup may be touching the bottom of the cavity - so the only way for the screws to go is up. Is the PD neck quite a tall pickup?
Sorry to hear the PD set didn't work out for you. Maybe they're just too high-output, and a more traditional Tele set would have been better?
here seems to be a growing number of unsatisfied customers recently... could quality be going downhill?
I hope not. I think it's more likely that people have just picked the wrong pickup, as ailean says you can never be sure until you've lived with it in your own guitar for a while. And I think sometimes people don't realise that a pickup which sounds great in a basswood Ibanez with a Floyd isn't necessarily going to suit a Les Paul or SG.
I'm not 100% happy with the Black Dog I put in my V, but it was my choice, I didn't consult Tim or anything. I'm certain there's nothing wrong with the pickup. I'll just try it in another guitar.
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I have a bunch of mates with BKPs and never once has the quality been questioned. In only once case was one of them unhappy but that was nothing to do with quality or any fault of BKP-my mate ignored the advice he was given and chose wrong and sold them on ( to me on behalf of another mate) and promptly bought another set that he was delighted with. Some of my mates are pro players too. It is always a gamble basing a purchase on opinions but that is part of the fun and occasionally it will go wrong but hey, no-one died. The latest convert is my brother who has just got his Precision bass BKP'd and is like a dog with two tails-Tims advice being, as ever, spot on.
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I'm with Philly Q on this one, I think there are people making the wrong choices. I would always advise people to call Tim, describe their rig and the tone they want - Tim will point you in the right direction (he's rarely wrong).
For a bright Tele pickup you can dial out much of the treble & fatten it up with a decent tone control. I use 47nF caps in my Tele and I can get it nice 'n fat just by rolling the tone down to 7.
You could also try lowering the pickup a little, especially on the treble side.
:twisted:
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+1 for speaking to Tim, I described what guitar and pickup I had, what eq adjustments I was making in the mix and he recommended the crawler = 1 happy guitarist. Not much consolation if you have bought something you aren't happy with - that said, live with it for a bit and see how you feel, it may be a slow burner...
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I agree with all the comments above. If I'm totally honest, I'm not 100% happy with the Mississippi Queen in my SG Junior. I thought I would like it, but my ears aren't keen on a hot wind Alnico V pickup. My choice, trial and error and all that.
On the other hand, I love the AII P-90s in my Les Paul Junior Lite. Sweet, sweet tone that rocks out when it needs too. It's one of my favourite sounding guitars.
Sometimes things don't quite work out how you planned. Sell them on and try another set after talking through with Tim what you're looking for :D
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The only set of BKP's I did not like was the VHII's. I bought them even though Tim recommended Stormy Mondays. Do'h! PDT_038
Got rid of them pretty quickly.
Good news is BKPs hold their value quite well.
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Sometimes you just need to get used to a pickup. Initially I was happy with the Crawlers in my Yamaha, great hard rockers. Later I had some doubts. I didn't find them flexible enough and I didn't think they sounded right on low gain. Later I changed the EQ on my Fender HRDLX from a modern to a more vintage style setting and voila.
Try some different amp EQ settings.
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I think there are people making the wrong choices.
I've been happy with all the BKPs I've bought.
There are a few that I wouldn't buy again for those particular guitars/uses, but that's more down to me making making a poor choice rather than a comment on the quality.
There's only one BKP purchase I really regret: My first - Miracle Man/Sultans' HSS set. There's a good reason why the stock MM HSS set has Trilogies :lol: There's a HUGE volume jump between neck/mid Sultans' & bridge MM - the MM is almost unuseable for cleans that were dialled in for the Sultans. Both pickups have nice sounds & are really high quality - they just don't work at all well together in the same guitar. For my second strat I bought the HD/Irish Tour set which is a million times better balanced :)
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I have the Piledriver in the bridge of my tele, with a Slowhand strat in the neck and it gets a great sound. I am not a real fan of Tele neck pickups (in all the tele's I've ever had [about 7 or 8], I only kept the tele neck in 2 - and one of those is the Black Guard flatpole set).
I think that many people don't realise that you have to know the acoustic characteristics of the guitar before you can tell how it will react to different pickups. Tim is really the expert on getting a sound from BK's. I know many people ask for advice here but unless you really know what you want, my advice and all the others won't match what Tim tells you. I can say that the pickups sound this way in my guitars, but I had a hell of a time finding a guitar that I was happy with the Abraxas set in (I knew that they sounded good from hearing them in a guitar at LGS), but they were not working in my LP's. Once I put them in the Hamer they came alive and worked great.
I have had the Piledriver in 2 tele's and it seems to be sounding better in the lighter gutiar that it is in now.
I know a lot of people also seem to want to get the pickup with the most gain, but that will reduce the tonal range usually. If you then play it through high gain amps you get the 'PRS Nickelback' tone - compressed to hell with no definition or dynamics. I find that the better tone comes from the lower output pickups and the way you play gives the drive.
Then again I am a blues and rock player, and all the classic stuff comes from 7/8K humbuckers or 6/7K single coils, so this might colour my judgement.
As to quality, I have probably have more BK's than most people on the forum and got my first ones in 2004. My latest are coming soon, but the last ones I got were 2 sets of Mules, and the quality is better now than back then. Not because of the workmanship, which has always been frist class, but because Tim has managed to source better components and get the pickups more accurate.
As more pickups are sold, there will be more people who think that they are not worth the money becuase they didn't turn into their hero once they changed pickups. In fact BK's actually show up more of the problems in your playing, but that is because they have TONE. In the end the biggest thing that makes a difference is your fingers. Pickups can only help you get a tone if you can play it in the first place.
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So I got in this afternoon with a determined look in my eye and set about my tele. Off came the strings, the pickguard flew off and out came the neck pickups. After having a fanny about, and swapping the rubber tubing supplied by Tim for some I had lying around I put the neck p/up back in. REEEEEEALLY low in the pickguard this time. Strings got put back on, and I'm now an expert at putting used strings back into tuners. Shweet.
And after a retune and stuff, the neck pickup regained the clarity and warmth I expected, so a quick nudge up the way, and lowering the bridge pickup to very, very low levels I finally have a sound I am happy with.
The irony is that I have the loudest, most powerful tele pickups BKP produce sitting snuggly close to the guitar. Oh well, it works.
I plan to do up the electronics soon, possibly with a 4-way switch (a PM to the 38th Beatle is in order methinks)
So I am happy, for now. Still wish I got a lower powered set, but suppose when my strat is kitted out with Mother's Milks I'll be happy I have a lean, mean telecaster to back it up with.
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With any pickup selection you can never 100% guarantee exactly how they will perform until they are in the guitar which is why we offer the 14 day exchange period which I feel is adequate time to get to grips with the tone and to swap the pickups if they're not what you thought they'd be.
Quality going down?!Not over my dead body!
We're still sat here making all your pickups by hand, one at a time the way we always have. If anything the quality is getting better as we're making all our own components these days too.
As you may have noticed in previous Tele neck related threads-I always suggest going with an open Tele neck if you're after a bright tone.If you want a Tele neck over DC7K they'll sound best without a cover.
Tele neck coils are amongst the smallest of the single coils and traditionally wound with 43 gauge so always sound warm no matter how you wind them.We now make the Blackguard Tele Series necks with 42 gauge as per the original '52 spec-these are much brighter and cleaner than the 43 gauge necks so you've got plenty of choice in the range.
As always, if you want any advice as to which pickups to go for, drop me an email or give me a call and I'll do my best to advise on the correct choice for your' playing style and guitar.
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Well I finally got the balance right, and everything is sounding as it should. Still not quite happy though. Great sounding pickups, but I have came to the realisation that they are not for me. Life is all about experimenting (says the chemistry student...) and I've decided high output pickups ain't my bag baby.
Going to swap them out for some Country Boys, Tim really is the bestest person ever.
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Yeah well you see I always favour low output pickups and for my Tele, the cb's were spot on because I wanted no nonsense traditional Tele tones because you just cannot beat it. Low output pickups give you more tone in my opinion-just my opinion but it is based on my experience on my own and my friends guitars. I am sure you will love the cb's-I wouldn't swap them at all. I mentioned earlier that I'd bought a set from a friend who'd been disappointed with his choice and I am passing them to a friend in the USA for his Tele and I will be interested to hear his views as a guy who has made a living out of music.He heard my cb's and wanted the same for one of his Tele's.
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I've got 2 sets of Crawlers (in Les Paul and Ibanez), Apache, Piledriver, Boss and Riff Raffs (plus my son uses Nailbomb and MM). My Tele/Piledriver is probably my favourite guitar/pickup even though my Tele has an horrendous thick neck and several 'dings' and I've always been a Gibson fan. I find that it has an amazing range of tone (much of this from the volume control) from tradtional tele sound (volume wound right back - not quite as good as lower output tele pups) up to almost humbucker sounds - and like 38thBeatle I am a fan of the 4 way switch.
Like I've said before in other threads tone is very subjective and one man's tone is another one's poison. Sorry the Piledriver didn't work out for you but I'm sure you will be able to get the sound you want from one of the other BKP tele pickups.
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I'm not bashing BKPs, the Piledriver set sounds good but isn't for me. Luckily Tim is happy to swap them for me, hello Country Boys...
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Edited the thread title a little. I made the wrong choice for my needs. I thought I wanted a beefy tele tone, something with grunt. BUT! When I got the beefiest pickups on offer from BKP I realised I was wrong. I didn't like the sound at all. Well after getting them set up properly that is. Great sounding pickups though, I really recommend them to anyone wanting to give their tele some gonads.
So i sent them off to Tim who replaced them with a Country Boy set, something a lot quieter and better behaved. I'm glad I swapped. I realised after my voyage of self discovery that I love clean tones the most. I don't need my pickups driving my amp, I can stick an overdrive pedal on for that. Add a 4-way switch and Mark is super happy.
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Well done, you have reached stage 2 of your initiation into true tone - Now your'e not still thinking about hot Strat pickups are you - coz less is more with Strats.
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...I am thinking of hotter strat tones. Damn you. I swing wildly from WOW! Strat tone! To DAMN! This needs beef.
I'm not 100% happy with my amp, but still deciding on the MM set. Is it enough? Or should I have went with a Trilogy set... Decisions.
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You can always get a boost circuit that gives your guitar the extra output you need. Some even cut highs and boost mids to push your vintage singles into hot P90 territory. :) EMG and Guitarfetish both have some nice and cheap preamps.