Which Bare Knuckle for my Gibson Melody Maker?

[BWofDOOM]

Greetings Everyone! This is my very first post, so hopefully it is in the right place. It is, since I'm a noob with BKPs, also a question. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

Anyway, I have recently purchased a Gibson Melody Maker SG. It is one of the limited run models made throughout last year (2011). It is a unique axe, I think, because of the woods used to make it. It has a maple body, a mahogany neck, and a "baked" maple fretboard. According to gibson.com this fretboard has all the brightness of a regular maple board, but looks like rosewood. I agree. In fact, I find with all this maple that the guitar is really bright overall. The stock pickup is a 491T ceramic bridge humbucker. I want to replace this bridge pickup with a Bare Knuckle. I want something hot but also something to tame that brightness. I was thinking about either the Painkiller or the Holydiver. Any suggestions out there? I would really appreciate it if you guys with some experience with Bare Knuckles could give me some pointers. Thanks a bunch!

[TrendkillTimmy]

Hmm.  I'm not sure I'd even put a BKP in that guitar.  I would assume by the price of the gibson MM guitars, that they don't use very high quality wood.  But I suppose any upgrade would.... be an upgrade.  Yeah. That. 

As far as pickup recommendations hell idk. What do you play? What sound are you going for?

[TheyCallMeVolume]

A Holy Diver should work well in that guitar, maybe even a Black Dog. Just matters how hot you want it. What do you play?

[Mr. Air]

I think the painkiller will be too bright in a maple bodied guitar. I would suggest crawler or holydiver. An alnico Warpig would probably suit the guitar too, but might be a bit over the top. It all depends on what you want to play with the guitar.

[itamar101]

Hmm.  I'm not sure I'd even put a BKP in that guitar.  I would assume by the price of the gibson MM guitars, that they don't use very high quality wood.  But I suppose any upgrade would.... be an upgrade.  Yeah. That. 

As far as pickup recommendations hell idk. What do you play? What sound are you going for?

I actually find that wood quality is the one thing that you can always trust Gibson with, whether the guitar be a MM or a custom shop. Its Definately a guitar worth upgrading.

Anyway, I think that youll really enjoy the holy diver in that guitar or maybe even the black dog if you want lower output. What music do you want to play? You might even enjoy the alnico warpig...

[BWofDOOM]

Yeah. I mean it isn't the most expensive guitar I've got but price doesn't matter really, does it? I like it, and like it ALMOST as much as my Gibson explorer which cost me about 4 times as much dough. And I might upgrade the dimarzios I put in that one to Bare Knuckles if I'm pleased with how this SG goes. And I'm a hard rock/metal player primarily. I love old shred and have taken a lot from Mr. Paul Gilbert's approach. I like old hard rock like Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. And I like a bunch of extreme metal bands too. Entombed's tone and style come to mind as far as "death metal" bands. Thanks again for the suggestions!

[TrendkillTimmy]

I actually find that wood quality is the one thing that you can always trust Gibson with, whether the guitar be a MM or a custom shop. Its Definately a guitar worth upgrading.

Ah ok thanks, good to know.  I'm no expert on wood quality, at least not yet!

[BigB]

Yeah. I mean it isn't the most expensive guitar I've got but price doesn't matter really, does it?

To quote a forum's regular: when it sounds good, it IS good.  So if you like the tone and feel of this guitar then it's possibly worth an upgrade. The ultimate test as far as I'm concerned is the unplugged tone, since it's what the pickup will build upon.

And I'm a hard rock/metal player primarily. I love old shred and have taken a lot from Mr. Paul Gilbert's approach. I like old hard rock like Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. And I like a bunch of extreme metal bands too. Entombed's tone and style come to mind as far as "death metal" bands. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Uhu... Not sure you'll find a pup that will happily cover all the range from rather vintage PAF tones to slightly hot-rodded PAF tones to all-out brOOtalz modern stuff.  The ABomb could have been a decent "middle-ground" choice but I'd rather not try it in a maple-body / maple-fretboard / already too bright guitar, as it's a very "abrasive" pickup. The Crawler works fine in bright guitars and would be ok for the hard-rock part but is certainly not the best choice in the BKP range for modern metal.  RiffRaff are definitly out if it's about "taming the brightness".

Well, I guess you'll have to choose which flavour you want to favour - old school or modern :mrgreen:

[BWofDOOM]

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks everyone!

The bit about the unplugged tone is something I'm going to look into though. I never really thought about that with my solidbody guitars. Makes tons of sense though.