Huge Pickup/Guitar Shootout

[hunter]

I am posting this here because there are also non-BKPs in the race.

Basically I played the same stuff on the same rig and settings with different guitars:
-Edwards Page Les Paul with Bare Knuckle Emerald and RebelYell
-Gibson LP Special with BareKnuckle P91/92
-Gibson SG Standard with BareKnuckle MiracleMan and stock Gibson Neck
-Music Man Axis with stock pickups
-PRS McRosie with BareKnuckle VHIIs
-Hamer Sunburst with BareKnuckle ColdSweats
-Epiphone Les Paul Classic with BareKnuckle BlackDogs

As I haven't changed any settings, some parts might sound a bit too gainy or not enough, due to PU output differences. Also a correction of treble/presence could have optimised things for some, but I wanted to keep the settings untouched, to demonstrate the PU differences. It's really hard for me to pick a favourite or - the other way round - decide which of them I could let go.

Part1: CLEAN   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBg9BU1UjOM
Part2: CRUNCH  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORlsODENVd4
Part3: OVERDRIVE   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO4WsjX6YCE
Part4: HIGHGAIN   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYAgbIgjnVw

[brian_ward]

awesome!

[joaocunha]

Great, man. Thanks.

[FernandoDuarte]

Really really cool! I like specially the Emerald and P92 (listened yet just to overdrive)

[ericsabbath]

emerald

[gordiji]

thanks for your efforts here, this is very useful.it shows well for example that the hamer c/sweats sounds lifeless
clean(no offence) but really comes alive with more distortion, as i would expect from a high output pup.
the vhII's sound darker than i imagined and probably my favourite accross all settings.
very useful reference. we need this back to back comparison in ALL settings for ALL the bkp classes; would be a real asset for the website.

[kevinr]

Very good indeed, I choose VHIIs slightly ahead of Emerald.

[Jcortez]

What a F'N arsenal of guitars! I don't think there is anything be it sound,tone or band you could not cover with your selection of pickups/guitar. My favorite was the Black Dogs in the Les Paul, that is the sound of rock and roll!

[hunter]

What a F'N arsenal of guitars! I don't think there is anything be it sound,tone or band you could not cover with your selection of pickups/guitar. My favorite was the Black Dogs in the Les Paul, that is the sound of rock and roll!

Well, as you might have seen, there are no Single Coils LOL. I do have a Tokai Strat with a set of Apaches though, but it was lacking two strings at the moment and I was too lazy setting it up  :)

[Philly Q]

Nice work!  I have to say it all sounded good to me, and I kept forgetting I was supposed to be comparing the sounds (there's something hypnotic about listening to the same parts over and over).  :D

(Not forgetting that the guitars themselves play a part in the tones) I really like the Emerald bridge - there's a tight, bright, raw, aggressive quality, I bet it's fun to play and makes you want to pick hard!  Not sure it would be my choice if I only had one guitar though.  The VHII sounds really BIG, warmer than I expected.  Black Dog is maybe the most instant, classic sound.

Don't know if it's the pickups or the guitars, but both the guitars with Floyds seem to sound big/fat on the bass strings, less pronounced in the mids?  The Cold Sweat bridge pickup has the tightness I liked with the Emerald.

The Miracle Man is probably least to my taste (which I what I'd expected).  And finally, I was surprised how well the BKP-92 copes with distortion.


Now can you do it all again with the neck pickups?  :P 

[Alex]

I really like this, great work Hunter. When I listen to the Guitarist CD demos, there's always some dude just strumming open chords on a fairly gainy sound - it usually doesn't help at all! I really like how your playing is more varied and shows a lot of different elements (melody, heavy chords, soloing, sustain)! Great work!

The one thing i don't like too much is of course Youtube, as it looses some quality.

And of course it is debatable how fair it is to compare a PRS with an Epiphone... still I feel the Black Dogs were among my favorites. I also was very happy to see how the Miracle Man sounds a lot heavier in comparison!

[FernandoDuarte]

Really really cool! I like specially the Emerald and P92 (listened yet just to overdrive)

Listening again, the MM sounds MEAN and the Black Dog has a HUGE amount of bass :o

[lulusg]

I have to say I really liked the whole thing that Hunter did, and I liked all the BKP's. Different textures, tone for different occasions. Nice work!!

[hunter]

The one thing i don't like too much is of course Youtube, as it looses some quality.

I have to admit, this was recorded using the internal mic and webcam of my MacBook, so you can't really blame the youtube compression ... shite in, shite out  :lol:

I should've used some decent gear, I even have a good cam and a good recorder, but not with decent audio. And the Q3 is still not in HD, so I keep waiting. It's just too much effort aligning Audio & Video from different sources, if you do many cuts in the material.

[Mr. Air]

Really great videos, Hunter. I have only watched the clean and crunch part so far, but I'll see the last too later.

For the cleans I liked the Black Dog the most and in the crunch section I can't really decide between VHII, Black Dog and Emerald.

But the greatest thing about the videos surely must be that you look a lot like Kevin Spacey  :D