NBKPD (Blackguard 50)

[lulusg]

The 0.01 caps are era accurate  for the vintage Black Guard pickups.

[tomjackson]

Yeah, it's a class pickup isn't it?

Possibly spoiled me for all other tele pups :roll:...

I have managed to bond with my newer Yardbirds as well now - but the only way to do it was to put away my two Blackguarded teles and play the Yardbirded tele exclusively until I found out what it could do for me :lol:

How are the Yarbirds different from the BG's Andy?

They "feel" lower output to me - whether or not this is true, I don't know.

Of the two sets, I am UTTERLY in love with the Blackguard 50 bridge and...
... UTTERLY in love with the Yardbird neck :lol:

I suspect one could pair the BG bridge and the YB neck in the same tele and make oneself very happy.

Overall, the Blackguards seem warmer and "thicker" sounding to me. The Yardbirds seem less thick and "sweeter".

What the Yardbirds do, in spades, is 60s-pop guitar stuff - they are killer for this, both pickups. Think jangly 60s guitars, think boom-chick 60s guitars - it's all fab, and I've never been able to sound convincing on this stuff before. They are also better at the type of rock guitar sounds that grew out of the late 60s pop. I'm working on something that uses the Yardbird tele exclusively (and I will be posting it eventually). Aside from a single guitar part that would have been better suited by the thicker BGs, the BGs would have ended up far too "fat" for the sounds I was after - the individual parts wouldn't have cut through.

The BGs are great for the style of blues, rock and roll, and blues rock I like noodling with all the time.

I got it(!) -
They both clean up nice, can be sweet and warm, blues, jazz, country, rock, depends what flavour of each you want - they cross-over each other's territories with their own distinctive take on it. But the real difference (in how I use them):

Blackguards - "bad boy" rock and roll
Yardbirds - 60s pop and "art student" rock
:lol:

Yardbirds when you need to record walls of guitars and hear them all (-ish) :roll:
Blackguards when you have a guitar part that says "less is more - there's only me, listen to me and my lovely tone you f*ckers"... :D

Nice comparison Andy, thanks! 

[Philly Q]

The 0.01 caps are era accurate  for the vintage Black Guard pickups.

I thought it was ten times higher than that:  0.1 on the really early ones, then it went to 0.047?

[Ratrod]

Did the Eldred mod. Works great. A very logical setup, really. Normal mode in the center position, roll off a bit of treble with the tone knob for a good rhtythm tone and flick the switch to the back for a bright, spanky lead tone.

I kept the .047 cap for the tone pot and changed the .047 mud cap on the switch for a .0103 cap that is a lot closer to the honky, nasal, half c--ked wah sound. 'Money For Nothing' if you know what I mean.

[lulusg]

Correct Philly Q " 0.1" . Most people use .047 now. The tech tried different capacitors on mine and found out that the best tone the BGs were dialed in came from 0.015 jensen caps. Thanks Philly!!