planned HSS strat with BKP, what do you think?

[Dave_M]

Hi all, so right now I have a cheap strat copy going into a fender blues jr all valve amp. It sounds bright and harsh even with the treble down and with old, dull strings. Time for new pickups I think! Somthing like BKP deserves to go into a decent guitar, I plan to buy fender mexican strat standard, new pick guard and pickups later and I will be sorted. BKP are not cheap, I need some advice choosing the right ones 1st time round. This is what I'm thinking...

Neck - Apache
Middle - Trilogy RW/RP
Bridge - Nailbomb


Aim is for a guitar that is extremely versitile. However, I don't want it to turn out as a guitar that tries to do everything, but fails to do anything well. I want it to cope with most modern styles apart from metal. I have never been a fan of any kind of vintage sound or music. It just seems inferior compared to the cleaner, clearer more modern sound. However I've taken a liking to the Apache so i'm not sure about the single coils.

Neck pickup must be unmistakable strat sound. Middle, same as neck or different? Not sure which is best. Trilogy is what I thought I would like from a single coil before listening to some of the sound clips. I'm quite sure I will not like vintage hot single coils. I feel most confident that the nailbomb in the bridge is the right choice. I'm going with humbucker here as I find the bridge singlecoil to be of limited use.

[Philly Q]

Welcome to the forum!  :D

I have never been a fan of any kind of vintage sound or music. It just seems inferior compared to the cleaner, clearer more modern sound.

That's a pretty sweeping statement!  Just curious, but what kinds of music do you class as "vintage" and "modern"?  It's hard to know what you're getting at.  There's very little modern music that doesn't draw on the past, one way or another!

[Dave_M]

I know, that's just my way of tring to explain it. When I think vintage, I think of it sounding slightly overdriven even on clean. Do you know what I mean? Maybe that is just vintage hot I dont really know tbh.

I have an overdrive pedal, it's not like I dont like overdrive, but on clean it should sound clean and clear.

[Philly Q]

So what sort of bands/music do you play?  I probably won't have heard of them, I'm an old codger, but someone else will know.

The Nailbomb and Trilogy don't seem obvious choices if you're mostly after clear, clean sounds.  They're pretty powerful pickups which will overdrive your amp relatively easily, even on cleaner settings.

[MDV]

I'm not sure how usefull RPRW will be to you with an apache/trill combo. Thats the least and most powerfull SCs (for neck or middle), and they wont have an equal number of winds (well, they never would have anyway, Tim doesnt like equal winds, and niether do I, but they may be very mismatched). You need them to be within a few hundres winds of eahc othe to get parallal sounds.

Why did you go for a nailbomb for "anything but metal?". Thats a pretty metal pickup. Versatile, yes, but pretty powerfull. You'd probably be better off with a mule.

[Dave_M]

I like red hot chili peppers, muse, santana. I like to crank the volume on the amp till it breaks up for bluesy stuff. I like a variety, but usually I dont like metal, RnB, pop, etc.

I was hoping to use 2 different single coils for more versitility, but I think it will be better to keep them the same now so they are not mismatched.

Nailbomb uses Alnico V, I thought ceramic was the one to avoid for me. Needs to be able to do rock like muse, for harmonic overtones with distortion.

[MDV]

Well I believe matt bellamy uses nailbombs, so fair enough.

Very versatile SCs: Irish Tour. I think you'd like them.

[Dave_M]

Well I believe matt bellamy uses nailbombs, so fair enough.

haha brilliant! Bare knuckle must definitely be best in the world then  :D


Those irish tours look good, I think I will like them after all. Moving away from trilogy, they seem a bit nondescript compared to the irish tours which have more character - if I had to try and find fault with the trilogy pickups that is.



Quick question about the BKP HSS sets...

"All of our HSS sets are 53 mm pole spacing, 4 conductor wire on the humbucker and RW/RP middle and neck."

Maybe I misunderstand, but why are both the neck and middle pickups RW/RP?  That doesn't seem right to me, I thought only the middle needs to be RW/RP.

[Philly Q]

"All of our HSS sets are 53 mm pole spacing, 4 conductor wire on the humbucker and RW/RP middle and neck."

I think that's a mistake, probably worth checking with BKP when you order though - they'll be happy to change the specs to whatever suits you.

[Peter Antal]

I think that sentence says there's a 4-conductor humbucker w/ 53-mm spacing, a RW/RP middle single coil, and a neck single coil in an HSS set.