Recent Posts

41

Pickups / Re: Something between a Mule and a Rebel Yell

« Last post by timmy_pix on April 17, 2025, 09:47:57 AM »

I'd say this is the Black Dog to a T.  Smoother top end, mids that feel very much like the Mules' but more so, not quite as upper-mid focused as the Rebel Yell.

Definitely not the Emerald; the bridge is much tamer in the mids than even the Mule. Its thing is harmonic richness and low-end control, and if you don't like the presence/high end on the Mule, that's still very much part of the Emerald's character.

42

Pickups / Re: Polymath

« Last post by yellow eyez on April 16, 2025, 07:39:30 PM »

My polymaths were shipped and should be installed soon

Can’t wait to try these out as they are “custom Polymaths” wired specifically for a specific, special, singular luthier in USA

This is going to be epic

43

Pickups / Re: Pickup recommendation for Schecter E-1

« Last post by shalev98732 on April 16, 2025, 01:49:50 PM »

Hi everyone,
TLDR; I want a pickup with as much output and clarity as possible.

I'm looking for a guitar pickup upgrade on my Schecter E-1 FR S.
I'll be pretty much exclusively playing powermetal / metalcore on it. So its either full gain sounds or clean, nothing in between.

I want some defined lows, the less muddy the better. No scooped mids and lots of clarity in the high end.
I either play with an OD-1 through a mesa boogie dual rectifier or 5150 through a Celestion V30 speaker.
Ocasionally I'm playing clean aswell.
So far I think the Polymath is the best fit for me, but I don't want to miss out on other good options.
Which pickup do you think is a good fit for me?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

sounds like a bkp painkiller would do the job, or bkp unity (basically a ceramic polymath

44

Pickups / Re: Something between a Mule and a Rebel Yell

« Last post by shalev98732 on April 16, 2025, 01:48:07 PM »

I have two guitars one with a Mule (strat style) and one with a Rebel Yell ( Music man Axis style), for an other guitar I'm looking for a pickup set that sits between the two. The mule has a little two much top end that can take your head off, the Rebel Yell not quite enough and can sound a little muddy (although great for high gain 80s power chords).
Any recommendations

maybe the bkp emerald?

45

Pickups / Re: Another Pickup Suggestion Thread

« Last post by shalev98732 on April 16, 2025, 01:46:44 PM »

Hello everyone!
I am looking for some objective recommendation (within each one personal appreciation) of pickup set for a Charvel Pro Mod Rel.
The guitar comes from factory with Seymour Duncan® JB™ TB-4 on bridge and Seymour Duncan® '59™ SH-1N on neck.

I basically play original (band) songs that flows from 60s rock through 70's Led Zeppelin/Wolfmother to 80/90s (somewhere around Guns N Roses, Motley Crue etc), of course not even near in terms of quality.

I am using a Marshall SH20 (20 Watts plexy) and i play a lot with guitar volume to get clean tones from it (either using a tele with Seymour duncan quarter pound and/or Strat with BK Irish Tour)!

So you may ask, why change pickups on the Charvel, i love the neck and the playability, and i was looking for some pickups that would react better to volume and would be able to get some decent cleans and dynamics (the JB is quite harsh/aggresive some times). I have to do some "intros" wich are heavy on delay/reverb effects and these pickups don't deal really well with it (in my opinion/ignorance).

So. should i drink a glass of water and wait for GAS to disapear or any of the below would fit my purposes and why:
- BK Mules
- BK Rebel Yell
- BK PolyPaf

I also have some Suhr Thronebucker set, but on an Ibanez FR1720 i had they lacked "character", too much HiFi for my taste!

Thanks for reading this!

Best Regards

rebel yell would bne too bright for that guitar, i recommend trying a holydiver bridge and emerald neck, it would do the job for you and the emerald has such good clerans but also handles distortion very well

46

Pickups / Re: Alternatives to Holy Diver set for a Thinline T style guitar

« Last post by shalev98732 on April 16, 2025, 01:44:26 PM »

Hi all,

I am engaged in getting a guitar built. It was originally going to be a dinky Strat style body with 2 point term and using the Holy Diver set to be a rock guitar.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances it has become a thinline T style guitar with hardtail bridge and with 24 3/4" scale neck. Body is mahogany with maple cap, and neck is mahogany with rosewood board.

I am still interested in having a set of pickups that are less bright and towards the rock end of the spectrum. Just wondering whether I should change the Holy Diver set to something else?

holy diver would work well in that guitar, maybe miracle man bridge would work well, tim recommended it to me for a simmilar guitar.

47

Pickups / Re: bareknuckle pickup for prs s2

« Last post by shalev98732 on April 16, 2025, 01:42:17 PM »

Hey I'm looking for bareknuckle pickups for my prs s2. I mostly play a wide genre of music. Mostly john mayer bluesy stuff. And alot of metal. Any recommendations?

can you tell me what kind of output you want from the pickups and prehaps specific tone you want, i could help more if you answer those

48

Pickups / Re: bareknuckle pickup for prs s2

« Last post by ericsabbath on April 13, 2025, 05:48:37 PM »

Riff Raffs

49

Pickups / Re: Is UOA5 only used in Nolly sig?

« Last post by timmy_b on April 11, 2025, 10:24:58 AM »

I think that what you need to bear in mind is that there are no absolutes in terms of what pickup will or won't work for a particular genre - it really depends on what suits you and your playing style. Personally, i would have absolutely no issue in using a low powered PAF style humbucker to build a crushing modern metal tone, but I pick pretty hard, so I don't need a super hot pickup all the time. Not everybody is the same, so, certainly, some players want a more traditionally "metal" recipe in order to get them into that zone.

With the Polymath in particular, it's a medium output pickup with a really broad voicing, so it gives it a lot of appeal to a lot of different players, all the way from those who like a ballsier-than-vintage pickup for low gain playing to those who like a dynamic, controllable pickup for high gain and everyone in between. Certainly, running the pickup closer to the strings delivers a crisper attack, so I know that Nolly really likes how that works out for his playing style.

50

Pickups / Re: Is UOA5 only used in Nolly sig?

« Last post by yellow eyez on April 10, 2025, 02:17:57 PM »

Unoriented / isotropic Alnico v is used in the Polymath, PolyPaf, Peacemaker, Unity (neck) and Halcyon (neck). The power is WAY less than Alnico 8, which we don't use at all, mostly because we don't like the dynamic feel which can be quite sterile and we find drifts into territory that is way better served by ceramics.

Ok I see; I should’ve clarified : I meant for the bridge

So it’s just the peacemaker then besides the poly twins in the bridge ;However the Polypaf and peacemaker are vintage hot and suited for classic rock PAF whereas the polymath is hotter (non PAF pickup?) ,and suited to metal in that respect???

I’ve read in order to work in a hi gain setting you’d want to put the pickup poles as high and close to the strings as you can(???)

So I suppose in that regard, it is unique to be a contemporary and modern metal UOA5 bridge pickup, as it doesn’t seem to exist elsewhere ; certainly not the way these can pickup sound  for a nice metal tone anyway but what do I know ? Ha


Thanks tim