Author Topic: Your first BKP's? Long post. (Read 21151 times)

PhilKing · « **Reply #15 on:** April 13, 2005, 10:28:00 AM »

My first pickups were for a custom built Les Paul (see my avitar) and a PRS EG for 91. The Les Paul was built by a friend in Yorkshire, but needed a new neck and was really heavy. So I gave it to Will Scott (in Pembrookshire), and had him put a 58 dimension neck (it had a 60's), and hollow the body to bring the weight down. The pickups I hac on it were Gibson Classic 57's. With these Will thought it sounded great, and for rock it did, but I wanted more of a blues tone. I spoke with Tim and decided on a combination of Emerald in the bridge and a matched Mule in the neck. The PRS got a Crawler and 2 P-90's (a great combination btw.)

All I can say is that the volume controls work and the both pickups setting gets more use now than it ever did. It is an amazing blues and rock guitar but I was bitten with the Bare Knuckle bug, which has started me on a long expensive pickup replacement trek! I got a set of VHII's for my PRS Artist, Irish Tours for my hardtail Strat, a custom mule and rewind of an original PAF for my 53 LP (though these are on my custom one at the minute and prbably won't come off!). I also got a P-Bass for my 66 Precision, a HSS set of Nailbomb and 2 trilogy's for a 'superstrat', a rewind of a 61 strat pickup........

All of them sound great, but the real problem is that Tim can voice the pickups to what you want. Why is this a problem you might ask? With all the sounds I like, I can see that there are many more pickups to buy! I haven't started on my Tele's yet, and I have an old Strat with SD and DiM pickups which is begging for a set from BareKnuckle!

The PRS is amazing too - the best P-90 sound I ever got (and I have 6 guitars with P-90's not including this one!)

Phil

HJM · « **Reply #16 on:** April 13, 2005, 02:38:46 PM »

You see that's my problem - only got 6 guitars, and just had to deck them out with Bare Knuckles....

Met Tim at the Music Live Show in 2003, I was working the show for Matamp, and we were squatting on a corner of Bareknuckle's stand. Having spoken to Tim on the phone, I knew a little about BK. But having tried some at the show I ended up buying three sets, and an old Marshall of Tim!

I too love the VHIIs in my PRS, although it's an early CE Mapletop from 1990. It took a while to get it how I wanted it to sound - I'd had a Black Dog in it for ages, but the VHII gave me the right blend of power and tone.

Nailbombs sound great in my Ibanez RG.

I've got Sultans in one strat, although I may change to Apaches. My other Strat has a Sinner and a pair of Mother's Milk, it did have a pair of trilogies, but I fancied a change!
:P

Also got some Emerald Special Editions in a Gordon Smith - they're teh perfect hot pickups, great harmonics but also sound excellent clean.

Then I ended up evicting the Lindy set in my Charvel, in favour of a Miracle Man - good choice I feel! :twisted: :twisted:

As an added bonus I’ve got a pair of tele’s lodging with me, with Country Boy and Boss sets, along with another strat loaded with Irish Tours.

All I need now are more guitars to complete my BKP set…. :twisted:

Eddie Van Halen · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2005, 08:54:05 PM »

man I can't wait to get some myself

Brow · « **Reply #18 on:** April 14, 2005, 05:14:49 PM »

My 1st Bareknuckles were a Black Dog (bridge) and a Riff Raff (neck) for my Gordon Smith Graduate 60 (Les Paul Clone).

After hearing how good they sound, I now plan on buying an Alnico IV Covered set of Mules for my Gibson LP Standard and either a Crawler/Irish Tour/Irish Tour or VHII/Irish Tour/Irish Tour set for an old Japanese Strat that I have :D

I may also change the pups I have in a cheapie Tele for BK's, although I'm not sure if it's worth spending more on pickups than the guitar cost in the 1st place :?

Craig

HJM · « **Reply #19 on:** April 14, 2005, 05:27:44 PM »

Quote from: Brow

My 1st Bareknuckles were a Black Dog (bridge) and a Riff Raff (neck) for my Gordon Smith Graduate 60 (Les Paul Clone).

After hearing how good they sound, I now plan on buying an Alnico IV Covered set of Mules for my Gibson LP Standard and either a Crawler/Irish Tour/Irish Tour or VHII/Irish Tour/Irish Tour set for an old Japanese Strat that I have :D

I may also change the pups I have in a cheapie Tele for BK's, although I'm not sure if it's worth spending more on pickups than the guitar cost in the 1st place :?

Craig

Buy the pickups - put som ein a squier tele - the guitar sounds great, plus you can always pull out the pickups when you upgrade to a better tele!

Brow · « **Reply #20 on:** April 14, 2005, 05:41:28 PM »

Quote from: HJM

Buy the pickups - put som ein a squier tele - the guitar sounds great, plus you can always pull out the pickups when you upgrade to a better tele!

I could do I s'ppose :)

I'm thinking of getting a Gordon Smith Telecaster made in the future (I may go for a Single Coil bridge and a Humbucker neck) so if i did upgrade my cheap Tele's pups, the BK' would soon have a new home :D

Tinus · « **Reply #21 on:** April 20, 2005, 09:47:50 AM »

My first (and only, but that's gonna change soon I bet :lol: ) BKP pickups are the P90's in my (korean) Epiphone Casino that Tim rewound. We went for a BKP-91-ish bridge P90 and a lower output Alnico III loaded neck PU that has a very thick yet clear tone. Apart from solving unwanted magnetic feedback I am very pleased with the lovely vintage sound.

I was and still am blown away, at last this guitar sounds better than it looks in stead of the reverse.

Regards,
Martijn

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #22 on:** April 20, 2005, 08:43:39 PM »

My first proper exposure to Bare Knuckles was at last year's London Guitar Show (2004). I was exhibiting on the stand opposite (sharing stand space with Sims LED).
So for 2 days I got to hear all these awesome tones and had to try some out.
I played Tim's lovely Foster Les Paul guitar with a Miracle Man in it and was blown away.
Suddenly I could get a sound very much like George Lynch's tone on the "Under lock and Key" album which was pretty much all Les Pauls for much of the rythym work. So it was gimme gimme and I had my first Miracle Man!

Fab Stuff!

From there I knew I wanted to be a main dealer for the pickups and put them in as many of my guitars as i could.
I was very flattered when Tim asked me to make him a guitar - and he will have it very soon!!! And I am delighted to be sharing stand space with the BKP guys at the London show this year- I hope some of you guys will check out our guitars.

And after seeing that review in Guitarist I feel it will be a very busy weekend on the BKP stand.

HJM · « **Reply #23 on:** April 20, 2005, 09:38:16 PM »

Quote from: FELINEGUITARS

My first proper exposure to Bare Knuckles was at last year's London Guitar Show (2004). I was exhibiting on the stand opposite (sharing stand space with Sims LED).
So for 2 days I got to hear all these awesome tones and had to try some out.
I played Tim's lovely Foster Les Paul guitar with a Miracle Man in it and was blown away.
Suddenly I could get a sound very much like George Lynch's tone on the "Under lock and Key" album which was pretty much all Les Pauls for much of the rythym work. So it was gimme gimme and I had my first Miracle Man!

Fab Stuff!

From there I knew I wanted to be a main dealer for the pickups and put them in as many of my guitars as i could.
I was very flattered when Tim asked me to make him a guitar - and he will have it very soon!!! And I am delighted to be sharing stand space with the BKP guys at the London show this year- I hope some of you guys will check out our guitars.

And after seeing that review in Guitarist I feel it will be a very busy weekend on the BKP stand.

Ready to be cast adrift in a sea of widdle then???

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #24 on:** April 20, 2005, 11:08:29 PM »

Quote from: HJM

Ready to be cast adrift in a sea of widdle then???

Sounds like toilets at Donnington / Download (yuk)

Yes - widdlefest at BKP stand

HJM · « **Reply #25 on:** April 21, 2005, 06:54:43 AM »

Sounds like toilets at Donnington / Download (yuk)

So that's why they call it Download......I can smell it from here...

Skybone · « **Reply #26 on:** April 21, 2005, 06:45:25 PM »

I bought myself a calibrated set of zebra coil Black Dogs for my Tokai Love Rock, as the blurb said that they actually had some mid to them. Fortunately enough, my local music emporium is a Bare Knuckle dealer, and actually had another (Pink!) Love Rock, loaded with a set of Black Dogs for folks to try out.

I plugged it in to a Cornford Harlequin (the 6 watt Combo), and dialled in a nice clean tone, the pickups sang sweetly. Next came the "Just Breaking Up" tone, and they impressed me with their clarity, so then I wound the gain up further, and then I knew that this was the set for me! They replaced a couple of SD's which were starting to sound too clinical & samey for my liking, and both pickups seriously lacked any mid.

Congrats to Tim for making a superb range of pickups! :D

I just need to decide which ones to get next, and what to put them into! :?