I've been on here lurking off and on for the last couple of months. I have never personally played through a BKP, but I've heard enough good things about them, and I am ready to stick some in my axe.
First my gear:
Suhr Modern (basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard) w/ Suhr Aldrich's
Splawn Quick Rod w/ Tung Sol pre's and Mullard power's (these tubes have gotta go too... Yuck on these Tung Sol pre's)
Port City OS 2x12 w/ Eminence Manowar / Governor
While I love the tone I'm getting, it definitely needs a fair little bit of work to get to where I want it to be, exactly. The Aldrich's sound great, but something is missing with these. They're similar to a JB/'59 and (I think) I'm kind of looking to get away from that...
I want a tighter pup. The notes just don't seem to really jump out like I would like. While the Suhr is awesome, I've never been too big of a fan of basswood, and I wish the guitar was mahogany. Anyways, I want something tight with more character and I've been kind of thinking I would like something hotter. The amp is already pretty trebly, and while a tube swap would really help with that, I'm looking to tame that "ice pick" sound a bit. I want something responsive, tight, bold, agressive, not overly bright, and in your face. I don't want to sacrifice cleans tooooo much because my amp already has an undesireable clean sound, but I do play with gain well over 90% of the time. I will say that the guitar sounds great clean through my friend's Mesa Lonestar, and it would be nice not to totally ruin that, but I'm aware I'm going to have to make a sacrifice somewhere.
I play metal primarily. Huge into Megadeth's guitar tone on Countdown to Extinction/Youthanasia. Not really going to get that with my amp, but I do love the amp and it's staying, along with the guitar. I just want to mold my tone more in the direction I want. Also influenced by Steve Vai, Dream Theater, Slayer, Testament, and Metallica. Not an EMG fan really at all, but I do have another guitar with an 81/85 in it. Oddly, I'm looking to put Rio Grande's (BBQ/Texas) in that guitar eventually.
I would also really like to hear some reviews of the Aldrich pups from you guys. I'm not really the best at explaining this stuff, but I would really like to hear how various BKP's compare to the Aldrich's, which also seem to be pretty well respected in their own right.