only one pickup?

[markofled]

Just bought an italia maranello speedster. VERY nice guitar considering price. Anyway It only has a humbucker in the bridge which is ok but it like to put a Bare Knuckles pup in. Im thinking either mule or missippi queen for versatility. What would you recommend and if you had a guitar with one pup which BK would you put in and why?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Amp?
Style of music?

[AndyR]

Like what TO says, it would depend on what I was trying to achieve.

For my usual style of playing, vintage rock sounds and mainly blues, blues/rock, pop, I'd choose Mississippi Queen - without even thinking. It gives me "almost" humbucker but less compressed. Backing off the volume it's definitely a single coil but fat. That would give me the most versatility in a single pup guitar.

However, if I was playing heavier stuff I'd be looking at one of the high output ones, one that cleans up nicely. I seem to remember I've been recommend nailbomb, warpig, and crawler for that sort of thing in the past - but don't quote me, I haven't actually tried them yet! :lol:

[Philly Q]

I'm not sure about recommendations, but I have two single-pickup guitars with BKPs - a Les Paul Jr with a BKP-91 and an SG-X with a Riff Raff.  Basically because you put P-90s in LP Jrs and Riff Raffs in SGs!  :lol:

I find the BKP-91 great for clean sounds and gnarly old-school blues-rock tones (Leslie West!), but it lacks a humbucker's tight crunch for really distorted tones (Andy may disagree!  ). 

As for the Riff Raff, it's just a good basic not-too-hot humbucker tone; I have it wired with a series/parallel switch which increases the versatility a fair bit - I guess you'd get quite similar results with a Mule.

I haven't tried one (yet!) but I expect the VHII would be good in a single pickup Strat, for obvious reasons.   And if I didn't already have the Riff Raff in the SG-X I'd be tempted to try a Cold Sweat for a nice tight humbucker tone with some extra power.

[AndyR]

I find the BKP-91 great for clean sounds and gnarly old-school blues-rock tones (Leslie West!), but it lacks a humbucker's tight crunch for really distorted tones (Andy may disagree!  ). 

:lol:
I'm reaching the conclusion that what Philly calls "tight crunch" in this situation, and regards as desirable, I call "slight compression" and regard it as not that necesary for me, and sometimes not even desirable!

I think between the two of us, you might get the idea!! (or totally confused... :D)

[Philly Q]

I'm reaching the conclusion that what Philly calls "tight crunch" in this situation, and regards as desirable, I call "slight compression" and regard it as not that necesary for me, and sometimes not even desirable!

You're probably right - I've never been quite clear what people mean when they talk about a "compressed" sound.  I know what a compressor pedal does, but I have a bit of trouble relating that to pickup qualities.

The way I picture it is this:  a humbucker cancels hum and seems to also cancel (or rein in) certain frequencies and overtones so it sounds tighter, more focused.  A single-coil doesn't cancel anything so it sounds very open, with more overtones and dynamics, which (IMO) is great for clean sounds but not so great for distorted ones.  To me a distorted humbucker sounds "tidy" and a distorted single-coil/P-90 sounds "messy".

I know that's not a scientific explanation, in fact it's probably utter bollocks, but it's how I perceive things.  :oops:  :|

[Yamhammer]

It depends on what amp you're playing through.

[Philly Q]

By the way, BKP P90's don't sound messy by nature. They're very close to the BKP humbuckers in terms of output/power and with very low noise.

That's probably especially true of the MQ, since the metal cover provides some shielding.

(My BKP-91 still sounds pretty messy, to be honest, but that's OK, it does what I wanted it to  :) )

[Yamhammer]

Yes, that story goes for the MQ's especially. I had to change some things (pedals) in my set-up to get it sound right too my ears, but after those few changes everything turned out great.

I've no experiences with the BKP P90's, so I can't comment on it!

[AndyR]

^ I'm agreeing with everything above :D

Philly - I picked up "compressed" on here a while back! My understanding of it in relation to a pickup is the "smoothing" or "tidying-up" that gives you that apparently tighter sound on the olde humbuckers.

Yamhammer and I were discussing it elsewhere the other day - I've found the P90 type MQ has a certain "hairyness" to it that I initially loved but then found somewhat intimidating for everyday use!

But then I remembered that they were actually single coils, so I started playing the guitar like I would a single-coiled strat: dig in with the pick when I want that tighter distorted sound (think SRV/Rory-type attack, not an elegant, light-touch picking technique!).

When I started doing that, it all started falling into place, and the MQ suddenly became very versatile for me... which is why, if all I had was a single pickup guitar, designed for a humbucker, I'd stick an MQ in it.

[Yamhammer]

^ I'm agreeing with everything above :D

Philly - I picked up "compressed" on here a while back! My understanding of it in relation to a pickup is the "smoothing" or "tidying-up" that gives you that apparently tighter sound on the olde humbuckers.

Yamhammer and I were discussing it elsewhere the other day - I've found the P90 type MQ has a certain "hairyness" to it that I initially loved but then found somewhat intimidating for everyday use!

But then I remembered that they were actually single coils, so I started playing the guitar like I would a single-coiled strat: dig in with the pick when I want that tighter distorted sound (think SRV/Rory-type attack, not an elegant, light-touch picking technique!).

When I started doing that, it all started falling into place, and the MQ suddenly became very versatile for me... which is why, if all I had was a single pickup guitar, designed for a humbucker, I'd stick an MQ in it.

That's exactly what I did too.

[gwEm]

i really like the painkiller clean, i think it sounds great. i'd use this in a one pickup axe. not everyone enjoys the driven painkiller sound though. philking and will both criticised it :)

[markofled]

Im playing through a laney gh50l i play in a cover band that plays anything from Queens of the stone age through to Al Green. My sound is sightly overdriven and i use a Fuzz Factory for boosting My main guitar is a tele with brown sugars in. With the new guitar im not trying to achevive a specific tone im just looking for versatiliy although im probly leaning more towards the vintage side of things. This is the reason why i wonderd about Missippi queen, Mule and now im wondering about riff raffs?

[Fikealox]

i really like the painkiller clean, i think it sounds great. i'd use this in a one pickup axe. not everyone enjoys the driven painkiller sound though. philking and will both criticised it :)

I sort of agree, and sort of disagree. I like the Painkiller clean for melodic stuff, but for chords I find it a bit too compressed and hot. That said, I think it's a great pickup, and I totally love mine (even though I'm having trouble EQing the top two strings with it).

[il˙ti]

For a one-hum guitar, I'd take the approach that I'd want something that could do the parts I normally play on the neck pickup, without sounding too shrill. Holy Diver for me.