Recent Posts

71

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

72

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.

73

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

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Pickups / Re: bareknuckle pickup for prs s2

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

Riff Raffs

75

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.

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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

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

« Last post by timmy_b on April 09, 2025, 12:04:15 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.

78

Pickups / Is UOA5 only used in Nolly sig?

« Last post by yellow eyez on April 08, 2025, 03:54:41 PM »

Just wanted to know, since he said that he wanted something different brought to the table , not just for BKP but for pickups in general , that he used UOA5

Are Nolly sigs the only UOA5 in BKP lineup?

I’d love to know more about them in terms of compared to alnico 8, especially for top end and clarity, as well as brightness without being shrill

Does Alnico 8 get used ever by BKP?

Are there any other besides the ThroBak that used UOA5? It seems only BKP and ThroBak used it and I wondered why …

79

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

« Last post by timmy_b on April 07, 2025, 02:08:22 PM »

So, I'm assuming that the original design was a 25.5" scale?

The Holydiver certainly still works nicely in a shorter scale length guitar, but it is going to shift you a little bit darker than your original combination would have been.

If you like that darker vibe, then there's no huge reason to not stick with the Holydiver, but, if you wanted to make a small shift brighter in the pickups, to adjust for the warmer instrument, the Black Dog or Peacemaker would both be worth a look.

80

Pickups / Re: Polymath

« Last post by yellow eyez on April 06, 2025, 04:29:30 PM »

Thanks

Basically I was looking for
- BKP
- something unique and different than my usual
- ability for parallel and split coil

Ceramic, scooped, compressed, hi output was my usual bridge sound. I use EMG 81/85 set,Fishman Fluence Carpenter set, and I used to use a Lundgren M7.

For my bridge I wanted a totally different sound, something totally capable of brutal metal but also capable of the sweetest cleans when coil split or parallel split …

and I also wanted to finally buy bare knuckle pickups

….

Knowing all of this, hearing my song and sound, knowing I play mostly Mesa rectifiers and oranges half stacks through a fractal axe Fx iii and atomic clr Neo wedge my luthier advised me to get the polymath set

I never used alnico in the bridge and I only thought alnico 8 would be scooped or hot enough for my desired taste but I was assured the UOA5 in the polymaths are not only capable of djent and amazing dynamics but they have perhaps the best cleans you can find for a pickup capable of such hi gain tones

I wanted BKP, I wanted a unique set within the lineup, and one that could do metal but much more , and the polymaths sound like the most versatile BKP set

These being the ONLY UOA5 bridge I’ve ever seen (besides Polypaf but those are not for metal)

So I hope they turn out to be exactly what I was looking for.