Looking for advice on BKP's for my Gibson Les Paul

[lulusg]

I have a set of Emeralds and they are Awesome!...but what I like the most is....the mystery that surrounds them.... 8)

[Scotty477]

Ooohhh .. A mystery!

My anticipation grows  :guitar4:

[Henk]

To my ears the Emerald bridge could even be the best lead pickup BKP makes, but i play mainly rythm and the kind of compressed mids i seem to hear on all Emerald clips dont work with my kind of playing. Compressed mids are just one of the very few things that i definately cant live with.

However, like with any pickup ill need to find some way to smooth out some minor points and if i just would be able to manage to break up the mids it could be sheer perfection.

Hmmmm.......

[Philly Q]

Apologies for keeping this thread a bit off-topic, but I wonder what's a good neck match for the Emerald if, like me, you prefer an Alnico IV neck pickup?  :?

I think I read somewhere that the Abraxas started as out as an experiment with an AIV version of the Emerald - I don't know if that would be bridge, neck or both.   The specs have probably changed since then anyway.

So I guess the AIV neck pickup to go with the Emerald is either Mule or Abraxas?

[carlaz]

Doesn't PhilKing have an Emerald bridge/Mule neck combo in one of his zillion guitars? :)

[Philly Q]

Doesn't PhilKing have an Emerald bridge/Mule neck combo in one of his zillion guitars? :)

He does indeed, in a Zemaitis (or Greco/Zemaitis, not sure).

I've been thinking of getting an AV Emerald / AIV Mule combo for ages, but it just occurred to me that the Abraxas neck might (or might not!) be a better match output-wise.

[PhilKing]

Man, you guys have great memories!  They are in a Bacchus Zemaitis metal front and sound brilliant.  They are actually my first set of BK's and were in my chambered LP at first, where they still sounded great.  In the metal front though the Mule sounds even better than in the LP.  They have old 1960 Gibson Nickel covers that Tim put on for me, and the combination tones are also really interesting.  The Emerald bridge is really punchy with great harmonics and a nice drive to it.  I never heard the Emerald neck though.

I have been thinking of an Emerald set for a new project (though my VHII's are also a possibility).  It is a 25.5" scale LP which will look similar to Marc Bolan's Standard with the LP Custom neck (I have no idea how it lost it's standard neck, but if you look at the pictures of it, it has a standard neck in some and a custom in others).  Anyway it will be either an all Mahogany body, or possibly a Korina with mahogany top.  Wrap around Wilkinnson tailpiece and Sperzel machines.

[carlaz]

I remember mostly because, when I was searching for new BKPs for my LP Std, I archived a bunch of notes culled from forum posts. :)  The Emeralds were certainly among the pups I was considering: the stats seemed good, and your description sounded good, though it was tough to find clips -- and eventually Tim recommended me the Crawlers, so I got those.  (And they've worked out very well! :))

Still, the Emerald has always seemed to me like a sorely underrepresented pup!  Maybe the long-awaited site update, with more detailed info and more clips (didn't we hear new clips were recorded, like, a year or so ago?) will give the Emerald a bit of a boost.

[Philly Q]

I archived a bunch of notes culled from forum posts. :)

Ha, I do that too!!  :lol: Now where's my anorak?

[indysmith]

^ Oh...My...God ^

Whats wrong with your memories?!

[Philly Q]

Whats wrong with your memories?!

I've got a great memory - for things I read years ago.  If it's stuff I read last week, that's more of a problem.  Just you wait a few years, sonny....  

But seriously, there's an awful lot of stuff on the forum, some of it's contradictory and some of it's just plain wrong.  And sometimes I remember the wrong stuff as if it was right...  There's the search engine, but it often returns just too many hits.

So, if I read something particularly useful - usually a comment from Tim, perhaps describing the specific differences between 2 or 3 pickups, I make a note of it.  Saves asking those questions people have asked 50 times before.

[TwilightOdyssey]

But seriously, there's an awful lot of stuff on the forum, some of it's contradictory

Yes

and some of it's just plain wrong.

YES!

And sometimes I remember the wrong stuff as if it was right...  There's the search engine, but it often returns just too many hits.

NOOOO!

The search function is our friend. I would prefer an advanced search, but while I'm at it let's move the whole forum into vBulletin and update the site, too, while I'm dreaming!! PFT_008

So, if I read something particularly useful - usually a comment from Tim, perhaps describing the specific differences between 2 or 3 pickups, I make a note of it.  Saves asking those questions people have asked 50 times before.

Not a bad system.

However, I prefer the just-go-to-Phil-King's-house-and-try-some-of-his-guitars-because-
he-has-every-bloody-BKP-anyway method lol

[Will]

However, I prefer the just-go-to-Phil-King's-house-and-try-some-of-his-guitars-because-
he-has-every-bloody-BKP-anyway method lol

ooo, that should be a BKP standard feature :P
Although I can't imagine that would be convenient for him

[TwilightOdyssey]

However, I prefer the just-go-to-Phil-King's-house-and-try-some-of-his-guitars-because-
he-has-every-bloody-BKP-anyway method lol

ooo, that should be a BKP standard feature :P
Although I can't imagine that would be convenient for him

LOL, true.

Good thing we're blood bruthas!!

[Yamhammer]

I've been thinking of getting an AV Emerald / AIV Mule combo for ages, but it just occurred to me that the Abraxas neck might (or might not!) be a better match output-wise.

It would be more than just 'fine'

Think about the Rebel Yells;
- neck pickup: 8,3k
                                         - bridge pickup 14,45k
                                           ----------------------------
                                                       
                                    even they balance fine output-wise