Which Bare Knuckle Pickups

[progrockjoe]

Hi Guys,

First of all the guitar the pickups will go in is an Ibanez Prestige RG3120VV. The pickups inside at the moment i don't like at all, Dimarzio Paf Pro, Tone Zone.

The type of music is Heavy psychedelic rock - in the vain of 60. For the bridge pickup i'm after a vintage rock sounding pickup with quite jazzy voicing. So far i thought the Crawler would suit my needs, what do you guys think?

For the neck, this is where i'm unsure. I was thinking maybe the VHII. I have a hollowbody guild guitar which has the tone i really do want. But most of the tone does come from it being a hollowbody, if i could get the ibanez sounding even slightly the same i'd be very very happy.

Again i'm after a heavy psyche blues tone, very thick and great for excellent rhythm, without sounding too metally.

Maybe this would help, my favourite guitar; stefan koglek playing his hollowbody guild.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ip9wsxQ5b5g

That will describe things better than i ever could. I was going to just buy the same pickup that is in my guild starfire IV but even though they are so nice in the guild, i think the right bareknuckles will really help me want to play the ibanez live. It really is a nice ibanez.

So watching that, which combo or calibrated set would suit me the most? Thanks so much for your advice.

the 3120 prestige:

[carlaz]

The type of music is Heavy psychedelic rock - in the vain of 60. For the bridge pickup i'm after a vintage rock sounding pickup with quite jazzy voicing. So far i thought the Crawler would suit my needs, what do you guys think?
For the neck, this is where i'm unsure. I was thinking maybe the VHII. I have a hollowbody guild guitar which has the tone i really do want. But most of the tone does come from it being a hollowbody, if i could get the ibanez sounding even slightly the same i'd be very very happy.
Again i'm after a heavy psyche blues tone, very thick and great for excellent rhythm, without sounding too metally.

Well, the Crawlers are pretty much built with heavy blues tones in mind (the "psychedelic" aspect may depend more on the playing than the pup  8)). I've got a Crawler set in my LP Std and dig the heavy psychedelic rock thing, though I think the Crawlers are extremely versatile: you definitely have those vintage tones, despite being hotter than classic PAF, but you can crank things up into reasonable metal territory and all remains very well indeed. 

In general, when in doubt -- well, there's usually a reason Tim has put together a particular matched set of humbuckers.  They are "custom" calibrated, after all.  And I think the Crawler neck is quite good (though in my particular case, I've got an older Crawler set which may have what is now an Abraxas neck rather than a Crawler neck, though I think they remain not dissimilar). In your particular case, looking to get a neck tone like that from your hollowbody .... Hmm, I have a terrible time judging tone from YouTube vids, but in any case, I'm not sure I have the expertise to know what might help you best there, whether the Crawler, VHII, or something else.  Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable will chime in! (Or you can always write Tim! :)).

[progrockjoe]

thanks for the reply, i think for the bridge the crawler is going to work well, I'm think i'm set on that now. I want something in the neck with lot's of crunch, and quite a thick sound. Still rockin heavy though :)

Maybe someone can help me out on the neck pickup? Thanks again, for the help. That was a good insight.

[carlaz]

I want something in the neck with lot's of crunch, and quite a thick sound. Still rockin heavy though :)

Well, that still sounds to me like you could do worse than the neck from a Crawler set. :) 
I have (among other clips) a short clip from a few years ago that, though, erm, slightly out of tune :roll: features a bit of lead from my neck Crawler.  Ah! Searching through the mists of the Players section, I find: http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2988.0. OK, after about 30 seconds of somewhat inebriated downtuned power chord abuse ;) there's 15 seconds or so of neck lead. The clip itself (only 1:38 long) is more Sabbathy than psychy, but the neck in any case seems to me reasonably on the thick'n'crunchy side --
you'll have to see what you think!

It's tougher to judge the neck pups, as there's less info on the BKP site about them.  Besides the possibility of the Crawler neck (or VHII neck), I wonder about the practicality of pairing an Emerald neck or even a Cold Sweat neck (?) with a Crawler bridge .... Eh, hard to say -- especially with that hollow-body target tone to think of! :)

[Twinfan]

A VHII or Cold Sweat isn't thick, they're both quite bright pickups to my ears.  But then so are all BKPs to a certain extent.

Have you thought about a set of Nailbombs?  That's what immediately sprang to mind when I read your requirements...

[progrockjoe]

Yeah, I think i'm going to go with Tim's and your advice Carlaz, Thanks for the clip. I'll listen to it when i get home.

What i did find interesting is i'm going to get the guitar setup with the exact strings you mention in the other post, 10-52.... Not Snake Oil Brand are they?

I think i am going to go for the crawlers (pair), I think their the most rocking but still with the vintage sound going on, And thats definitely what i'm trying achieve.

Those with the soldano, and some Pure nickel 11-52.

[progrockjoe]

Bored at work today I decided to download all the bareknuckel pickup clips available on the sticky and seperate they by directory and rar them up.

Heres the link:

http://www.2shared.com/file/4685503/9192d08b/Bareknuckles.html


 I'll listen to whats available for the nailbomb to get a rough idea of the pickups voicing. Thanks for the suggestion.

[progrockjoe]

carlaz, just listened to the clip... superb clean. I'm sure these are the ones now :) thanks loads for your help

[carlaz]

Yeah, I think i'm going to go with Tim's and your advice Carlaz

My advice is not necessarily worth much :lol: but Tim's advice is gold.

What i did find interesting is i'm going to get the guitar setup with the exact strings you mention in the other post, 10-52.... Not Snake Oil Brand are they?

 :lol: I think the strings were GHS.

Historically, I've bought GHS strings for no better reason than Martin Barre endorses them, and I've always liked Martin Barre.  However, now that I've relocated to South America, I think my strings are going to have to be whatever I can find.  Hopefully still 10-52s, though, because I've become comfortable with that gauge range.