Neck pup for U2 - One 'esque tone

[robbo]

Pretty much as written above.
Being loaded into an esp eclipse.

any ideas guys?

cheers

[Ratrod]

My best guess would be a Stormy Monday.

[BigHeavy]

There's a video on youtube of a guy doing a U2 "Where the Streets Have No Name" type thing.  I think he's using Mules, maybe SM's.  I forget how I found it but you can search youtube for "Bare knuckle pickups."

[Buddha]

Yeah i would say stromy maondays is ideal for U2, the neck p'up for deffinate, bt i can't really comment on the bridge becuase i don't have it i'm sure it would nail it though  8)

[Fourth Feline]

+ 1 for Stormy Monday.

Very clear, very transparent, very responsive to picking nuances.

 :D

[robbo]

awesome thanks heaps!  :D

seems it's almost unanimous, that's what i like to hear 8)

i'll search for that youtube clip in a day or so, when i'm not on dialup  :shock:

[BigHeavy]

Here's the Youtube link.  He is using Mules
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VAvdIQJVCc

[Fourth Feline]

.. The only possible  exception to my previous recommendation of Stormy Mondays, would be if you need someting with a very stacatto attack to feed the sharp edged ( no pun intended ) signal to the various echo / modulation devices ?

What I mean is, I wonder if you might actually benefit from a ceramic magnet pickup that cleans up well - or perhaps even a snappier vintage alnico p/u like the Riff Raffs ?

The S.M. is very clean and clear, but intrinsically warm and sweet.

I will put this open question to the brothers and sisters of the BKP forum .

( Just a thought ) ... :)

[robbo]

nice thought.

i've browsed a few stormy monday neck clips and i am so sold on that, interestingly enough, i have yet to hear a stormy monday in the bridge (im on dialup so i haven't looked extensively).

i do like your thinking good sir, and it gets me thinking of songs like electic co (or any song he uses delay/echo/everything/anything)

maybe i would be sorted if i had a stormy monday neck and something with a very stacatto attack for the bridge?

[Fourth Feline]

Hello again Robbo  :D

Perhaps Twinfan can confirm / deny from his collection, but how about the very lovely Stormy Monday Neck and a Riff Raff bridge ?

Both are still in the era of P.A.F. pickups ( late 50s to early 60s ) - but the later voiced Riff Raff bridge could weigh in with " a bit of snap in it's celery"  ( as we say around these parts ).

I am envisaging, not a much fatter or louder pickup for your bridge position, but just something that is brighter and tighter than the sweet Stormy Monday. I must say however, that despite the incredible flexibilty of the'Mule' - I have a special affection for Stormy Mondays !

Cheers !

[Buddha]

I have had a thought about fourth feline's comments, and i think that it is probably a good idea. I have a stormy monday neck and a VHII bridge, it's another option worth considering apart aswell as the rif raf sm. Just to confuse matters more for you

[Fourth Feline]

As I woke up this morning, it came to me that I might be missing the obvious recommendation - and that is keep to the original plan of a nice calibrated set of Stormy Mondays - as I ( and others ) recommended, but position the bridge pickup closer to the strings than you might usually, to perhaps get a less sweet, and slightly louder tone - in contrast to the neck.

There are also the high e, b and g pole pieces on the bridge pickup that can adjusted, as well as a simple clean or treble booster pedal that could be set to engage just above the 'usual' line volume for those songs that might sound better when you  provide an extra clean / crisp signal to the input of the delay and modulation effects ?

  :?:

[robbo]

^^ damn you! more options! arrr
 :lol:


but i think i'll jump for a set of calibrated stormy mondays, and have a little fiddle around with the bridge pickup and/or pole heights, but i shall see what tim and twinfan has to say about all this before i commit.

[Fourth Feline]

The good news is that Stormy Mondays are a lovely clean and flexible pickup. One of life's 'safe bets'. You are of course quite right to confer with T.F and Tim, but with B.K.Ps, there is so much quality and flexibilty in them, that you will have an overlap of functionality between types  anyway. I also like the idea of calibrated / matching pairs, for they surely recieved the highest design condideration ( to work as a functioning pair )  at the offset.

I was interested in the concept of the Riff Raff, as Twinfan once told me that they are sweeter sounding than one might expect from a crisper brasher P.A.F. I understand them to have a narrower range of 'voice' than the Stormy Monday's though - so if you are investing in B.K.Ps, I thought that S.Ms would be the even more transparent version of the Mule AND perhaps the warmer version of the Riff Raff. A real winner all round. I have had the S.Ms in an S.G Standard and a Les Paul. In each guitar I heard the guitar's own characteristics - not the pickup's own voice dominating.

Not that I think a 'dominant' pickup is wrong either. Even as a predominantly 'clean' player I would love to have a Les Paul with darker weighty Crawlers, or lovely upper mids rich Emeralds too !  

That is the main reason I don't think ( beyond marketing hype - which Tim doesn't need to do ) we don't really need more types of B.K.P. It would take a lifetime to discover the uses for the existing range.

For example, I have had Mules and Stormy Mondays in the same Les Paul, and whilst I have heard some difference in the mids, I never thought that one type where wrong or right, just two different types of very nice !  

Enjoy the experience of real B.K.P tone Robbo, (re) searching is part of the fun !

:D