Getting the most out of a BK nailbomb

[Nick184]

Hi

I recently bought a calibrated set of nailbombs to put in an Ibanez Rg1550 (Basswood body/Maple neck) replacing the stock 'V' pickups.

I also have an aria guitar which has a duncan designed humbucker in it (this guitar cost less than the set of nailbombs).

I'm using a Fender FM210R solid state amp with a Line6 Floor pod to get my sounds.

So once i had the new pickups fitted by a tech i plugged the guitar in to find that the sound was barely any better than the sound coming from my Ģ150 guitar. I have tried tweaking the action and pick up height etc to try and get the best sound, but it is never something that i would consider worth the Ģ170 i paid for the pickups.

It is not just my amp setup, as i have compared the sound to other guitars on different amps; my friend has a Kramer with a seymour duncan, and it absolutely crushes the sound from my nailbombs. In comparison my guitar sounds thin, weak and doesn't even come close to the clarity produced from his seymour, which probably cost a lot less than my BKs.

Having read many rave reviews about the pickup on the internet and from guitar players i am confused as to why my nailbombs sound so dull and weak.

So my question is: Is it possible that there may be something wrong with the pickups? Could it be that they were wired incorrectly (i have not checked the wiring, but i wouldn't know if it was done incorrectly if i did)?

If not, why would these top of the line pickups sound almost as bad as a stock pickup in a Ģ150 guitar?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[WezV]

it sounds to me like a possible wiring issue.  that can happen quite easily if whoever installed them doesnt check the wire colours before installing - they do vary between pickup manufacturers

get us a clear picture of inside the cavity and we can tell you if its right or not

[gingataff]

As Wez said, it's probably been wired incorrectly.
Thin and weak sounds like out of phase or maybe parallel wiring to me. Maybe your tech thought the colours are the same as Dimarzio or Duncan. I think your guitar has a scratchplate doesn't it? So you'd ideally need to take off the strings (or at least loosen them and take out the bridge) to unscrew it and check which wires are going where.

[LP_LOVER]

Bring it back to your tech.

You'll find out the problem immediately. Take the BKP wiring schematic (that came with the pickups) with you and check everything together with your tech. If the pickups are wired correctly (which is possible), then you have to check your pots, caps (values) and probably the guitar itself. Maybe you just need far brighter pickups to cut better through the basswood body...

Everything is possible. Hopefully for you it's not going to be a long and frustrating search for the right caps, pots and pickups.

You must know your guitar and its behaviour in every aspect before you can get clear thoughts about the right electronic components and before we can help you.

[Nick184]

Wow thanks guys, I'll put a picture of the wiring up here soon and then i'll take it to my tech.

I did consider that it may be caused by the basswood/maple combination, but the sound i get is pretty bright already so i don't think brighter pickups would solve the issue.

Can i download a copy of the wiring scheme? As i bought the pickups through the shop that installed the pickups, and they never actually gave the wiring diagram to me for some reason...

[WezV]

hmm... if they are selling BKP's i expect they should be familiar with the wiring colours - take it back to them to check

[Donatello]

If you donīt like the sound its one thing but you describe them as "weak"?
I got a ibanez Jem 555 with nailbombs. (I had Dimarzio Evolutions and Breeds before) I found my Nailbombs anything but weak. I wouldnīt want/need them to be louder/more output. The guitar itself hasnīt got the best sustain but got much better with nailbombs instead of Evolutions. I wasnīt blown away at first compared to my BKP Crawlers, but the more I play on my nailbombs the better I like them. They are really good!

[Donatello]

Oh. I forgot...

I made a "Instruction-post" how to put Nailbombs in you Ibanez guitar a couple of weeks ago.
Here it is:

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=15459.msg201552#msg201552

Good luck
/ Daniel

[dheim]

as others suggested there could be a major wiring issue OR you don't like nailbombs... but i can't imagine how someone can prefer stock ibanez pickups to any BKP...  :P if you refer just to volume it's not impossible that ibz pickups sound LOUDER than nailbombs (i played with the old Vs and with more modern Inf pickups and they're very loud), but there's no way they can sound hotter or fuller than them!

[Nick184]

Well its not that the pickups aren't working exactly, they produce a sound, but it's really something i'd expect from a stock pickup, it honestly sounds no better than the stock i compared it with, perhaps the notes were very slightly more defined, but that's it. The sustain is pretty bad and i can't really get a very heavy sound from them, while on the same amp settings a (much cheaper) seymour duncan pickup outdid it for dynamics, clarity etc

I was just confused because the sound i'm getting doesn't in any way reflect the reviews that i read prior to buying the pickups, and certainly not the name 'nailbomb'.

I'm going to take the strings off and have a look at how they're wired in...if nothing's wrong then they'll probably go straight on e bay...

If there was something wired incorrectly would the pickups still make a sound? or might they act in a  vaguely similar way to what i described?

[PhilKing]

If the wiring is mixed up, you could still get a sound, but it could be just one coil or out of phase.  Both of these would be a thinner sound to what you should have.  If all is wired correctly and you still don't like them, BK offer an exchange service.

I am amazed that the tech who put them in didn't notice anything.  When I fit pickups I play the guitar and make sure it is OK.  I also afjust the heights and the pole pieces so that the guitar gets the best sound (to my hears anyway).

[dheim]

Well its not that the pickups aren't working exactly, they produce a sound, but it's really something i'd expect from a stock pickup, it honestly sounds no better than the stock i compared it with, perhaps the notes were very slightly more defined, but that's it. The sustain is pretty bad and i can't really get a very heavy sound from them, while on the same amp settings a (much cheaper) seymour duncan pickup outdid it for dynamics, clarity etc

I was just confused because the sound i'm getting doesn't in any way reflect the reviews that i read prior to buying the pickups, and certainly not the name 'nailbomb'.

I'm going to take the strings off and have a look at how they're wired in...if nothing's wrong then they'll probably go straight on e bay...

If there was something wired incorrectly would the pickups still make a sound? or might they act in a  vaguely similar way to what i described?

an incorrectly wired pickup can sound, but definitely not how it's supposed to do!
anyway a name and a general description can't describe at all the tone of a pickup... maybe nailbombs are simply not what you expected. i can't hear explosions and flying ricochets tearing flesh and crunching bones when i play my nailbombs... i just hear a clear, articulate, dynamic and mid-heavy tone, something vaguely similar to a Seymour Duncan JB but brighter, tighter and a lot richer in harmonics. i used to love my JBs, now i'm swapping the last for another nailbomb because they seem to have a flatter and "simpler" sound in comparison.
your reaction reminds me of the first time i played an EMG 81... i expected... how can i put it? a colossal wave of sonic mayhem, and i got JUST a guitar tone! 81 was not the right pickup for me, and my first tought was that the stock pickups in my epiphone les paul were thousand times better... of course they weren't. they just behaved predictably with my usual settings and i was accustomed to them (AND the 81 sucks, by the way... :)), but the major delusion came from unreal expectations...

[Nick184]

Yes i understand what you mean and perhaps you are right.

However, i  have (just) noticed that the pickups get a lot of buzz, but when i set my pickup selector to either posistion 4 or 2 (With the single mid pickup and one of the coils on the HBs active) this buzz is completely cancelled.

I wondered if this could be an indication that the humbuckers are wired as single coils as philking suggested, so i tested my other guitar with a humbucker and 2 singles in it and there's zero buzz on the humbucker. When i hit the coil tap button i get similar buzz as with the nailbombs, and then this is cancelled once i switch the pup selector to position 4 in the same way as the NBs.

Could i have found the problem here? Or could it be a result of the nailbombs having higher output or some detail i have missed?

Thanks for you patience and help by the way! much appreciated!

EDIT: Ok, i also went back and tapped on the magnets of the nailbomb with an allen key, producing a loud popping sound. No sound was produced by tapping the screws. On my other guitar an equally loud popping sound was produced from both the magnets and the screws. I'm getting my hopes up here...

[PhilKing]

It really sounds like they are in single coil mode.  When I add the single to my humbuckers in a H/S/H setup, I actually get hum back! 

[Antag]

I agree - sounds like they are split.