Thinking Of Getting A Cheap Metal Style Guitar...

[Modular1]

The Avenge Son Of Beast can be purchased pretty cheaply and i like the look of it.

Which pickup do you reckon would be the best upgrade for it? i was thinking of either the painkiller of the warpig. Its got a basswood body and i wanted something with tight deep bass for aggressive chugging and good sustain. I know the guitar is probably not the best of quality but i like the look of it.

i want to practice my pinch harmonics too, so something that helps in that department would be good.

how do these pickups compare to my holy diver? i notice the painkiller has a lower output... is it the ceramic magnet that gives it its character?

im gonna be detuning it to drop C (or lower). What gauge strings to people use for this? i put some EB beefy slinkys on my olp mm1 to try out the other day and they seem to be fine for drop C but the sound can best be described as 'wooly' with the stock pickups.




as usual all decisions are up in the air even with regard to the guitar. anybody got experience with cheaper bc rich guitars? as long as its as good as my OLP ill be happy with the playability. im no great guitarist but i do like it to sound good :)

[Antag]

i notice the painkiller has a lower output

Not true.  Painkiller is an absolute beast - second only to the WP for output.  Hyper-aggressive & super-tight with a real midrange grind.  DC Resistance isn't an absolute measure of output, simply the amount of winding - but size/type of magnet & gauge of wire also have a bearing on output level.  I'd rate the output of my BKP bridges in the following order: NB, HD, MM, PK, WP

Anyway, as to your question, PK would be a fine choice.  If you like the HD, I'd be surprised if you disliked the PK...

For string gauge, assuming that guitar has 25½" scale, I'd say 10-52s minimum - perhaps combine the top 3 of an 11-48 set with the  next 2 from a 10-52 set & a 56 bottom to give you 11/14/18/32/42/56 (& use the 10/13/17/26/36/48 or 52 for another guitar).  IIRC GHS make an 11-58 set, perhaps try those.

[MDV]

How deep your bass is really comes from the guitar, and in my experience all these pointy things have an abundance of treble and a derth of bass.

Its my understanding that having a big slab of wood around the bridge allows more low modes in the sound, so if you want to get the deep heavy sounds you may want to think about something both suitably metal and LP or SG-alike.

Cheap BC riches tend to by dreadfully made from dreadfull materials and hardware. I wouldnt, if I were you.

For low tunings: I Use the following:

D/Drop C - GHS 10 to 52 or 11-53 I both find to be great. DR tites 10-56 are pretty cool for it too.

C#?Drop B - I play in these most of the time and use the plains from a GHS 11-53 and the wounds from a D'Adarrio 13-62 (I'd use the whole thing but I didnt get on with how the wound E (would be a G normally) bent).

B/Drop A - 13 - 62 and suck up the cr@ppy G, or GHS Zakk Wylde 11-70 and suck up the slack plains.

For the pickup - from what you've said about wanting a heavy low end and good pinches: miracle man.

[ericsabbath]

i notice the painkiller has a lower output

Not true.  Painkiller is an absolute beast - second only to the WP for output.  Hyper-aggressive & super-tight with a real midrange grind.  DC Resistance isn't an absolute measure of output, simply the amount of winding - but size/type of magnet & gauge of wire also have a bearing on output level.  I'd rate the output of my BKP bridges in the following order: NB, HD, MM, PK, WP

yeah
an alnico painkiller would probably be a hair less powerful and brighter than he holy diver
something between the rebel yell and the holy diver
but the painkiller has 3 huge ceramic magnets, and that adds a TON of output and attack
i prefer the holy diver mojo, but the painkiler definitely sounds sharper, more aggressive and powerful


think the holy diver is arnold schwarzenegger (the man)
the painkiller is the terminator (the machine)  :lol:

but for basswood, I'd get an A8 nailbomb

[Modular1]

for some reason ive never been drawn to the nailbombs. i suppose this is down to the descriptions on the site. for some reason it brings to mind a really brash sound with full on frequencies.

whats with the alnico 8? not heard of this...

how subtle is the difference between all these pickup models? ive often wondered this. as a real pickup noob am i really gonna notice a huge difference between these pickups when all i really use is a blackstar pedal with a fender champion 600 amp or my line6 toneport recording software.

my next amp is likely to be a marshall jvm. i dont play in a band or anything, but i love the sounds of what i play around with. i really love the holy diver in my strat and can definetly tell the difference betwen it and the other pickups in guitars ive ever owned.

im looking to get pickups that suit the look, feel and bring the best out of of the guitars (regardless of the quality) i own.

[HairyChris]

Cheap BC riches tend to by dreadfully made from dreadfull materials and hardware. I wouldnt, if I were you.

+1 unfortunately.

[Nolly]

Cheap BC riches tend to by dreadfully made from dreadfull materials and hardware. I wouldnt, if I were you.

+1 unfortunately.

+2

They cheap ones are really quite awful in my experience.

[gwEm]

i reckon the painkiller has more output than the holy diver.

it remains pretty uncompressed sounding as well. its a good design. bass response is powerful, yet tight. might well be your sort of thing.

guitar looks very cool - i have no idea about the quality of it though

the warpig has a good reputation in basswood, based on other posts here. perhaps i would give that a go.

[Modular1]

Cheap BC riches tend to by dreadfully made from dreadfull materials and hardware. I wouldnt, if I were you.

+1 unfortunately.

+2

They cheap ones are really quite awful in my experience.

thats a shame cos for a cheap guitar its prety cool looking. i may just get one, check it out then sell it on on ebay. as long as the fretboard is flat and it stays in tune ill be happy. ill do my own fret polish as with all my guitars. the tuners are cheap enough to replace so really its all down to whether the neck is straight. like i said before, im no steve vai and i think my olp cheapo music man copy plays great so this is the standard im gonna judge this thing on. im not expecting it to be as good as my american strat by a long shot.

[Modular1]

this >> http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11728

..makes me want a warpig.. hehe

[ericsabbath]

I don't know about the actual ones, but I had a mid 90's bc rich bich platinum pro (the most expensive korean series on that era) and it was made of plywood and had a terrible licensed floyd rose and bad pickups

a friend of mine bought an 80's bc rich one pickup super strat in some yogurt pink color (lol) with a washburn kahler bridge copy
he just found it's made of plywood too

i think you should spend a few hundreds more for a beast in good wood like mahogany or nato

[TwilightOdyssey]

Cold Sweat.

[Modular1]

i think you should spend a few hundreds more for a beast in good wood like mahogany or nato

you got me wanting the IT Warlock now hehe. twice the price but it looks like a much nicer guitar.

[Ben_W]

As I know very little about BKPs atm, I won't comment, but I will comment on the gauge strings.

I personally play with gauge 11s for standard and D tunings, and 12s for Drop C, but some like it easier, although in my experience, it's best to play with as thick a gauge as you can, and it doesn't usually take long to get used to the new gauge if you decide to put a thicker gauge on.