[quote="Tellboy]None of us (apart from possibly Philking!) have got BKP and SD equipped guitars stacked up next to each other for exact comparison. I've used SD, DiMarzio, John Birch, Kinman and Rio Grande pickups - all I can say is that when I've replaced them with BKPs I've never been disappointed.
Just go for it![/quote]
I don't have any SD pickup guitars - I sold all my SD's apart from my original JB. I never had any of the high output SD's anyway - the newest JB's are way too muddy for what I like and the only SD's that come close to the BK open sound are the Seth Lovers.
You can get more bass tightness from BK's than from any of the SD's, but ulitimately your playing style, guitar, amp and speakers are going to affect the bottom end more than anything. Ben gets a great tight bottom end from the VHII that he uses in the Strat. I think all the BK hot pickups are capable of giving a tight bass sound, perhaps the ceramic magnet ones are a little tighter, but then you are sacrificing the sweetness of the mids and treble. The woods in your guitar will make a big difference too. I am moving my Abraxas IV's from my 53 LP to my chambered one, because the wood in the 53 is very light and doesn't let the Abraxas clean up as well as I would like. I am putting a set of Black Dog's into the 53 LP instead. However I wouldn't have known this without trying the pickups in that guitar.
The only way you will know is to try the pickups in your guitar. All I can tell you is that the MM makes me play more heavily because of it's sound, wheras the NB makes me think of more 80's sounds, and with the Warpig you have to play Sabbath when you plug it in!
