Need sonic advice

[angl2k]

Hi good people I've had excellent recommendations to go and check out bare knuckle pickups.

I'm looking for a pickup replacement for my ESP Eclipse. This guitar is a solid mahogany body with quilted maple top and a rosewood fingerboard. It currently has EMG 81 in both bridge and neck positions and I find it too bassy and too much output for my style.

I'm playing mostly classic rock, hard rock and punk rock. Looking for a bridge pickup that can do screaming leads as well as heavy chording. With the neck pickup I usually play leads with the tone knob rolled off a la Guns N' Roses.

My other guitar is an ESP Horizon which is mahogany with qm top and ebony fingerboard and this guitar sounds excellent. It came stock with Seymour Duncan JB in bridge and '59 in neck.

So I'm looking for a Bareknuckle variant for this SD combination which will make my Eclipse sound like my Horizon on steroids. Judging from some clips and previous recommendations I'm having these in mind: VHII, HD, CS or RY. But there's just too many to choose from! Please help me in the right direction!

[FELINEGUITARS]

Cold Sweat set for sure !

Still crunchy , but with tasty leads  on the bridge and the neck is smooth soloing all the way.
A little more crisp than the JB sounds as the CS bridge is Ceramic magnet whilst it has alnico in the neck

[Vilches3]

Cold Sweat set for sure !

Still crunchy , but with tasty leads  on the bridge and the neck is smooth soloing all the way.
A little more crisp than the JB sounds as the CS bridge is Ceramic magnet whilst it has alnico in the neck

yes......I'd say Cold sweat or Rebel Yell

[dheim]

did you really find the 81s BASSY??? anyway CS or RYs should do the work effortlessly. maybe i'd prefer RYs for your style, or a combination of RY bridge and CS neck (in the eclipse neck pickup is mounted quite forward, the neck RY is very bright and thus could sound too trebly...)

[angl2k]

did you really find the 81s BASSY??? anyway CS or RYs should do the work effortlessly. maybe i'd prefer RYs for your style, or a combination of RY bridge and CS neck (in the eclipse neck pickup is mounted quite forward, the neck RY is very bright and thus could sound too trebly...)

yea the 81 somehow sounds really bassy.. might be the 18v mod I did on it though.

Does anyone here have experience on how the CS or RY sound when coil splitted? (is this even possible?)

[MrBump]

Yep, as long as you go for the 4 connector hookup option, all variations of installation are possible.

I'm pretty sure that there are relevant clips in the players section - just do a search then agonise over your decision for weeks like the rest of us...

[dheim]

i've got them both with 2 braided conductors, but i'd say that there's no need to split the RY, at least... in neck position it has got a very nice single coilish tone!