Which BKPs for my RG550 20th?

[LoyK]

Hi!

I´ve just bought a like-new Ibanez RG550 20th in roadflare red (awesome!) but I´m not to happy with the pickups.
Which bareknuckles would you recommend for neck and bridge position in that guitar? It´s basswood body with maple neck/fretboard. Neck should be good for singing lead tones and bridge for tight metal riffing. I thought about cold sweat neck and nailbomb or miracle man bridge, but really don´t know what fits the guitar well.

thanks!

[ericsabbath]

MM

[gingataff]

I've put a Miracle Man set (plus Slowhand SC) in my 20th.

The bridge is very powerful and tight compared to the stock pickups, which are weak in the bass and more high mid focused. The you'll get a big but punchy bass from the MM and clear treble. Some might say the mids are scooped but I a disagree, I just think they're less prominent than in other BKPs.

I have also tried a Nailbomb in the bridge. It was good but a bit too honky in the mids for me, so I put it back in my Charvel where it's better balanced.

The neck MM balances perfectly with the bridge in terms of output but is very fat sounding. Played clean it actually sounds very jazzy. I haven't tried the Cold Sweat neck, I'm sure it would be great and perhaps a bit less full on than the MM.

FWIW the Slowhand single coil in the centre is stunning, and positions 2 and 4 split are very strat-like.

[Jonny]

Take a listen to the Nailbomb clip (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=247.0) and if you like it, then go for Nailbombs but if you don't, tell us what you don't like about it.

[LoyK]

The soundclip sounds pretty nice:) But after gingataff´s desription the miracle man would be my #1 right now, together with the cold sweat neck.

[dheim]

MMs are not my favourite BKPs, but i would have suggested you the same thing... ah, MM neck is awesome and complements wery well the bridge unit. i wouldn't say the same thing about the CS neck. awesome too (even MORE awesome, probably...) but i don't see them very well together.

[LoyK]

Hmm, then a MM set would be awesome I think. I need the short leg and the trem spacing, am I right?

[dheim]

every pickup i took out of my ibbies had, strangely, long legs!
anyway i always bought short legged replacements and they fit perfectly. spacing is 53 mm.

[gingataff]

I need the short leg and the trem spacing, am I right?

Yes, although I found it quite a tight fit in the cavity, you might want to ask Tim if he can grind the corners off tabs of the legs to help them fit better.

[LoyK]

OK, thanks for the advice!  If anyone else got experience with BKPs in Ibanez RGs, feel free to share it;)

[dheim]

OK, thanks for the advice!  If anyone else got experience with BKPs in Ibanez RGs, feel free to share it;)

i've got a couple of warpigs in an RGR, with pickups rings, and i had no issue...
trouble came when i installed miracle men in an RGA, with direct mount... my luthier had to adjust slightly the cavity and shaped the leg bases... yours should have a pickguard, if i remember the model, so in theory everything should be at least as easy as with pickup rings...
twinfan has got exactly the same ibanez as yours, i think... if you see him around message him directly!

[Ben_W]

I have a CS neck and MM Bridge in an RG, which is also basswood, and the MM is awesome for tight riffing, and I find harmonics just fly out of it. CS neck is a nice pup, nice cleans, and has nice leads, but I like the MM more for leads personally, a lot of people may well disagree, but I love my MM. I'd be interested in an MM set, would probably be awesome... :)

[Iryan]

Hey dude, I'm using an RG 470 (stock PUPs - V7, S1 and V8) with the MM set and a suhr FL mid single coil PUP. And I concur with Gingataff, for the bridge the mids are less pronounced making it perfect for riffing and the neck pickup is very fat. However, imho these pickups dont sound too good clean. Paired with the mid single coil however, they sound too sweet.

[Roobubba]

I ran a RG470F/TBL with miracle man in the bridge. Perfect for that downtuned goodness. Well, nearly perfect, but that soon got fixed ;)

Go for the MM and don't look back!

Roo

[LoyK]

Yeah guys, I´ve just ordered 2 MMs :)  The single coil sounds pretty good Imo, so I´m not going to switch it at the moment; maybe later.