Well,
After more extensive experience with this pickup, now having it in two guitars that I know VERY well, I thought I'd post up, since its an under-talked about pickup and it $%&#ING SHOULDNT BE!
*ahem* carrying on
First off, I've gone through the full spectrum with the NB in general. First time I tried it I was underwhelmed. Guitar was dean ZX. Acoustic tone; very bright, kinda tinny. I wanted a pickup that doesnt accentuate too much high end and had some real balls to deal with the guitar. Didnt work. It was overly harsh and loose.
Next up, a couple of years later, I install one for a customer in an Epi LP. Very full sounding guitar, pretty even across the spectrum for an (Epi) LP. It was smooth, lush and tight. Really, really punchy, and really articulate. Good stuff. Back on the radar.
So I tried one in my trusty DX1. This guitar has been with me for about 11 years now, and spent the lions share of that time (as a poor 6th former and student: I got it when I was 16) as my main guitar. I know this guitar like the back of my hand. Its had more pickups in it than I care to think about, including from BK a warpig, a miracle man, and an overwound miracle man and a load of others besides (81, KA distortion, SH xbucker, the list goes on, you get the idea). You think you know everything about what an instrument can do and then...well, I put a C-Bomb in it and $%&# me sideways: the ULTRA-tight low end, punchy low mids, the thick, grinding mids, the biting, but quite smooth and sharp(er than the A5) top end, the lions, the tigers, the bears, oh my! Brought the guitar TO LIFE. Responded to pick attack so naturally, legato flowed like wine, nearly as thick as a warpig, at least as tight as a painkiller (in this guitar). The bloody jackson, all of a sudden, sounded better amped up and was more managable and natural to play than my PKd Legra. It also sounded thicker and tighter - things the legra was designed to, and does, excel at.
So I had to swap it over to the legra. Out with the PK, in with the C-Bomb. Can anyone say "Skull-shatteringly crushing?". VERY heavy. Amost C-Pig heavy (but not as hot or compressed, and with more clarity and tightness). More percussive, tighter than the painkiller (yes you read that right: if you need to, read it again until it sinks in), hotter, too, but more sensitive to both nuance of pick attack and fretting (very much not all-out-all-the-time: its response and dynamics are much more controllable, I think), not nearly as crunchy, but much more intensly grinding, no spikiness in pick attack that I'd been wrestling with in leads and fast rhythm runs and the best br00tality/clarity ratio that I have yet to hear. It was the first time in quite a while that I plugged in, tweaked a bit from initial impressions, then while checking out the sound completely forgot that I was checking out the sound and just played. Got rather carried away with myself, actually. Good job I have nice neigbours!
I'm replacing the PK with a C-Bomb in the legra, leaving the C-Bomb in the jackson and this will be the first time, ever, that two of my guitars have had the same bridge pickup. I think that says rather a lot (at least about how much I like this pickup), and those of you that know me round here will probably think the same.
Perhaps this was of some use to someone, perhaps not - but I wanted to rant, because its an awesome pickup, damnit!
Oh: and BK effortlessly superb customer service wins again - Tim will let me replace the PK, despite it being two/three weeks ago now. Rockin'.
