Hi everyone...... sorry, got a pickup advice question too :S

[spacetruckin]

Hello everyone,
my friend recently got a set of BKP mules installed in his gibson LP. Admittedly i was impressed by the organic, rich tone he aquired with BKP. I decided to investigate the world of BKP further in order to find a Single coil set for my maple fingerboard strat.
The style of music i generally play is 70's hi-gain stuff, think deep purple, led zeppelin. although sometimes, i do turn up the gain in order to play some van halen, smashing pumpkins etc.
what im looking for is a pickup that would cover these boundaries. after reading HC reviews, i am torn between the Irish tours and Trilogy suites. Irish tours are my first choice at the moment, but are they of high enough output to stretch to the van halen/modern rock stuff?
Any help would be appreciated :)
and sorry to add to the endless threads of "which pickups would you recommend...." :(

[AndyR]

Welcome!

What are you playing through? I use a modeller (Vox Tonelab LE & Line6 PODXTLive) - and based on my experience I would say Irish Tours will do it for you with the right sort of amp/gain, (and given that a strat with single coils for Led Zeppelin tones is a little bit of a compromise anyway... never used to stop me though! :D)

I have to say I'm personally using my ITs to explore the "less-is-more" area of "gain=aggression", I seem to be using cleaner and cleaner sounds with my strat to get rockier tones (my humbucking guitars get used for the dirty end of things...). But this experiment wasn't quite so satisfying before I got BKPs, the ITs seem to have made it possible and rewarding.

I've no experience of the Trilogies, so can't help on a comparison...

[indysmith]

Is your Strat routed for a humbucker in the bridge?
If so maybe take a look at this page - http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=23&osCsid=ccfdf9c60dac65452a08fed151c264d3

You can also get pre-wired pickguards, for a straight swap. I definitely think you'd get closer to your desired tones with a humbucker in the bridge though.

[AndyR]

I definitely think you'd get closer to your desired tones with a humbucker in the bridge though.

Thanks Indy, I was actually wondering that and was coming back for an "EDIT" (and bear in mind I'm in the "no-one is coming near any of my strats with humbuckers" club!!)

[spacetruckin]

thanks andyR :D
generally i play through a laney vc30 (vox ac30ish) and a couple of effects pedals, a phaser, wah etc. i do have a modded boss ds-1 for distortion, and SD-1 for a boost. i like to play fast, and like to have every note very clear and distinguishable.
as for the zeppelin stuff, my preferred tracks are the ones played with a telecaster a la single coils e.g. dazed and confused, stairway to heaven, so no worried there :)

nah my strat is a classic 70's, and with andyR in this one. im not a fan of strat humbuckers, and was hoping to keep it to single coils if possible.

[Ted]

hmmm

you are asking too much of a single guitar set of pickups.

I'd get another guitar for the modern stuff, van halen pumpkins all need humbuckers.

Irish Tours are sweet and to be fair Apaches handle rock well too. See Hunter's clips on the Apaches.

The alternative is a Strat humbucker coil tapped so you could kick in the bucker when required.

Personally I am not keen on the strat humbucker look.

[badgermark]

hmmm

you are asking too much of a single guitar set of pickups.

I'd get another guitar for the modern stuff, van halen pumpkins all need humbuckers.

Irish Tours are sweet and to be fair Apaches handle rock well too. See Hunter's clips on the Apaches.

The alternative is a Strat humbucker coil tapped so you could kick in the bucker when required.

Personally I am not keen on the strat humbucker look.

Corgan in the pumpkins used a red lace sensor in the bridge of a strat, he always goes for single coils, albeit beefy ones. I think a sinner would get you in that ball park. Trilogy with a baseplate might work also.

[il˙ti]

you are asking too much of a single guitar set of pickups.

I'd get another guitar for the modern stuff, van halen pumpkins all need humbuckers. 

This time I disagree. Yes, the tones these artists are associated with come from humbuckers but that doesn't mean you can't play their music and make it sound good with a set of single coils. He already stated that he's going more for Page's early tele tone rather than the later les paul tone so I imagine it would be a similar case with van halen. BKPs are very versatile, as long as you know the basic sound you want, chances are they cover a lot of bases including some you didn't think of (for example I did not buy the Crawlers thinking they could do low-tuned brutal metal, but oh my was I wrong). I think a set of Irish Tours would be exactly what you want. Some element of classic strat sound but with enough power and fatness to handle the heavier side of things.
Oh, and welcome.  :)

[AndyR]

My personal gut feeling is you want ITs because they're a sort of "middle-ground":

• They clean up nice, very strat-y (much more so than I was expecting)
• They drive a bluesy amp sound very nicely, plenty of bite, controllable with the tone/vol (why I chose them)
• They seem quite transparent to what you put in with fingers and then add on with pedals etc (so I reckon you'll be happy with the way you do it now for heavier stuff)

and, er...

• They're the only set I've tried so far!...

EDIT: And ilyti has just posted saying roughly the same thing while I was fighting with bullet-points! :lol:

EDIT2: Actually ilyti said more, and I agree whole-heartedly - with singles I try to choose the pickup best suited for the middle-ground of what I want, or what I'm going to use it for most often... with humbuckers I make it up as I go along!

[spacetruckin]

hi guys,
thanks alot for the responses. you've been a great help. might i add finally that the modern ish/van halen tones are only the second priority, meaning that id much prefer a set that can do the deep purple, blackmore, zeppelin tone very well, as well as doing the modern tones of thing decently. in other words, the 70's vintage hard rock tone is the tone i most desire
ugh, sorry to be so long winded  :)
i think im gonna go for a set of irish tours with a baseplate on the bridge. good choice? also, 250k pots, 300k or 500k?

[AndyR]

I debated about  baseplate for a while, then decided against it reasoning that I wanted an "authentic" strat bridge pickup. As it turns out, the IT bridge works really well for me, it's the first strat bridge pup I've ever used extensively on its own.

Pots I'm not sure about at all. Standard is 250, but I think I read somewhere recently that Tim recommends er... something else? Sorry can't remember, not sure where I read it. I must admit, I thought I was using 250, but I got the ITs pre-wired on a scratchplate from BKP (and I didn't specify any special instructions other than "wire it as a master tone leaving the lower one as a dummy") - so who knows what I'm using!! :lol:

[spacetruckin]

well mine is a maple neck, so im imagining i wouldnt have to go for something as far as a meg pot. maybe 300k?

[AndyR]

I was hoping someone else would've chimed in on the pot value by now - I'm really not sure myself!

If it was me, I would get 250K, possibly with spare 300K. I'd put the 250K in and see what happens. Obviously it's more of a pain swapping pots on a strat, so unless I had real issues with 250 (and I do use the controls a lot) I probably wouldn't bother changing it.

Sounds to me though, that what you really ought to do is get a range of pots and try them out for yourself over a few string changes - I suspect that what's "right" is quite a personal thing...

Hope that helps. :D

[Ted]

you are asking too much of a single guitar set of pickups.

I'd get another guitar for the modern stuff, van halen pumpkins all need humbuckers. 

I think a set of Irish Tours would be exactly what you want. Some element of classic strat sound but with enough power and fatness to handle the heavier side of things.
Oh, and welcome.  :)

Now I'd disagree with you!  :P 

Irish Tours would struggle to get all those tones. I've played them a lot and I've tried and not managed to get it right.

[il˙ti]

Now I'd disagree with you!  :P 

Irish Tours would struggle to get all those tones. I've played them a lot and I've tried and not managed to get it right.

I don't think you get the point. He said he'd like to play those styles of music, not that he wanted to copy their tones.