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21

Pickups / Re: Pickups for ESP Forest GT

« Last post by Arthurus on January 16, 2026, 11:07:09 PM »

Hey ! Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party.

The Holydiver should fit really nicely in a guitar made of ash imo. It has kind of the "snarl" the JB is known for, but is not as ice picky and has a nice bloom in the low mids.
If you want something in the same ballpark but with a ceramic magnet, maybe look to the Nailbomb.

I think the Impulse neck pickup would be closer to what you're looking for rather than the cobra, simply because the Holydiver is very mid heavy, and the cobra might feel scooped in comparison.

My advice would actually be to get a trilogy neck pickup and order it with a no holes cover - like a telecaster neck pickup. If you get the black cover I bet it would match very well. The Holydiver pairs really well with the Trilogy.

22

Pickups / Pickups for ESP Forest GT

« Last post by quimaera on January 05, 2026, 05:35:25 PM »

Hi, everyone! 

I'm new to the server, and am looking to purchase my very first set of Bare Knuckle pickups, to swap into an ESP Forest GT:
https://i.imgur.com/b5qRDdD.png (opting not to embed because it displaces post formatting)
Similar to: https://reverb.com/item/50330724-2000-esp-forest-gt-electric-guitar-see-thru-purple-japan-w-seymour-duncan-shr-1-tb-4

The guitar in question has a Mahogany body, Swamp Ash top, Maple neck, and Ebony fretboard.
It originally comes with a Duncan JB (TB-4) and Hot Rails (SHR-1n), but the 2nd revision of the guitar apparently came with the Duncan Distortion (TB-6) instead.

Here are the specs:
https://espguitars.co.jp/original/forestgt/

The previous owner swapped at least the neck pickup out, so I'm not quite sure what it's currently loaded with. It's aesthetically similar to a "lil 59" though, the single-sized version of the 59... I will confirm this afternoon.
The main issue is the bridge pickup sounds particularly lackluster, and my gut tells me it's not an actual JB. I've had this guitar model before, and it didn't sound nearly this hollow/lifeless to my recollection.

A few questions:

1) For the bridge pickup, as far as I know, the Holy Diver is BKP's take on a JB-inspired pickup - correct?
If I understood correctly, BKP also does custom winds - would it be possible to have the Holy Diver adjusted to a slightly more Duncan Distortion-esque EQ? (Hell, we could even nickname it the UN-holy diver  )
They seem to both share 16.6k impedance in the bridge position, but the key difference appears that the JB uses an Alnico 5 magnet, whereas the Duncan Distortion uses Ceramic... with that in mind would I just be better off going with one of BKP's Ceramic offerings?

https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/pickup/humbucker/holydiver
https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/jb-model
https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/duncan-distortion

2) As far as the neck pickup, feel free to point me in a different direction, but I'm personally in love with the "blade" aesthetic, so I think a cool idea would be to replace the Hot Rail with one of BKP's bladed offerings - Impulse or Cobra.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/hot-rails-strat
https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/pickup/strat/impulse-single-coil
https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/pickup/strat/cobra-single-coil

Any advice between the two? Cobra does note suitability for "Alder, Swamp Ash, [...] and mahogany body" which seem to align to the tonewoods used in the Forest-GT... but the Impulse seems to be voiced stylistically more towards where the Forest-GT shines: "Progressive Rock & Metal, Hardcore, Thrash, Death Metal, Punk, Hard Rock, Metalcore and Extreme Metal"

Thank you so much, in advance!

23

Pickups / Pickups for Charvel Ash body, HH, fixed bridge,

« Last post by ekkybedmond on December 31, 2025, 12:08:00 PM »

Hi there,
bought the above mentiod axe relatively cheap. It came with Holy Divers and the mind boggling switching of pickups (single coil,) and a 3 way switch that sucks (it cr@ps out between settings....)

The guitar is great, setup real expertly and the fixed bridge is also great.

I play pop rock in a cover band, and hardrock at home.

The pickups (HD's) I do not like for this. They are far too direct and modern for my tast. So looking for alternatives, more classic pickups. Ik like a clear neck up and a thick-ish bridge. Taking in account an Ash (brite) body, what youáll think and recommend.

24

Pickups / Re: Fan of Holydiver looking for advice on new guitar Ibanez QX54qm

« Last post by Arthurus on December 23, 2025, 01:34:24 PM »

Thanks a lot ! That was really informative.
I just shot an email to the sales service because I had more questions on the singles, but more of the logistical kind.
Happy holydays

25

Pickups / Re: Fan of Holydiver looking for advice on new guitar Ibanez QX54qm

« Last post by timmy_b on December 23, 2025, 09:40:24 AM »

I certainly think that a Holydiver CAN work in this guitar, but there are also several options to move to which have less going on in the low mids, but use the same Alnico v magnet as the Holydiver, so have a similar feel and dynamics. The Rebel Yell would be a good option, which shifts things a little brighter across the board, trimming some lows and low mids and bringing a little more sparkle in the highs. Also the Black Dog is somewhat of a cousin of the Holydiver, using the same Alnico v magnet and SPN coil wire, but in a thicker wire gauge which produces a lower resistance coil and shifts the resonant peak upwards. It still has a strong midrange, but it isn't set as low in the frequency spectrum as with the Holydiver.

For singlecoils, if you want versatility for metal and fusion tones, the Trilogy Suite coils are tough to beat!

26

Pickups / Fan of Holydiver looking for advice on new guitar Ibanez QX54qm

« Last post by Arthurus on December 21, 2025, 06:50:47 PM »

Hi ! I've had the Holydiver in my Music Man Silhouette for years. I just bought a new guitar (Ibanez QX54qm) and am looking into changing the stock pickups.
What I'm worried about is that this guitar in particular, played acoustically, has a lot of low mids (like a bump in the 250 to 300hz).

So I'm looking into first a replacement bridge pickup that wouldn't be as pronounced in that frequency range as the Holydiver but would have a similar character, and next some single pickups to pair it with, since the guitar is in HSS.

I'm not really well versed in single coil pîckups, but I intend to play fusion and metal in standard tuning on this guitar. Not really looking for a vintage sound.

Note that the answer to my question might very well be that yeah, the Holydiver could still be the right pickup for me.

27

The Dressing Room / Re: Good Morning

« Last post by richard on December 14, 2025, 10:24:54 PM »

I haven't been here much lately. Used to be very lively a few years back but now it's pretty dead.

28

Pickups / Re: Tokai UALS62F LP Style new pickups

« Last post by DarkshinE81 on December 12, 2025, 01:33:41 PM »

Thanks for your reply, Timmy
After several days thinking about it, I am pretty sure to choose the Black Dog set. I like to get both vintage and modern sounds without giving up to that PAFish things. I am quite confident that this is the right choice.

29

Pickups / Re: Tokai UALS62F LP Style new pickups

« Last post by timmy_b on December 08, 2025, 01:07:57 PM »

Ultimately, your Tokai should be a great host for pretty much any humbucker, so I wouldn't say that you need to compensate in any specific way to compliment the guitar.
For a versatile sound, something with a medium output is usually going to be best, as it gives you a nice balance between power and dynamics. Alnico v pickups certainly offer a good balance in that regard and a pickup like the Holydiver is absolutely going to give you great variety, but does sit reasonably high in terms of power, so you would get a more dynamic result from something a little lower down the scale such as the Black Dog for sure

30

Pickups / Tokai UALS62F LP Style new pickups

« Last post by DarkshinE81 on December 05, 2025, 09:05:18 PM »

Hi all,

It's my first topic on this forum.

I recently bought a TOKAI UALS62F LP Style Honey Burst made in China, I will soon be looking to replace the standard pickups in order to add a new set and I am evalueting the Bare Knuckle ones. I play guitar in an instrumental post metal band called The Last Sound Revelation so I would need pickups as more versatile as possible in order to cover all the moods, from high-gain punching and fat palm-muting to progressive and wet clean sounds. I was thinking about the Holydiver model because it seems very suited for most of applications. Is there any other model that you should suggest for the Tokai LP? Not sure if an high or a lower output would preferable for that specific guitar model. I like The Mule and Black Dog as well.

Waiting for your suggests.

Thanks in advance.