Newcomer to Bare Knuckle - rather confused by all the options

[aceflibble]

 After a few years of battling with off-the-shelf guitars and being eternally disappointed in some way, I'm putting together a custom guitar with Warmoth parts. I'm now trying to work out what pickups to put in it and that's lead me here.


I'm after two purple humbuckers. Nothing with covers, nothing black, nothing white, cream or zebra. Thing is, Bare Knuckle's product description pages are vague at best and though I've gone through all of the sound clips that you guys have posted on here, none of them were recorded with gear similar to mine so it's hard to judge how relevant any of them are to my needs. Add in all the different models that at first glance seem to be the same and I'm left very confused.

To get it out of the way, the guitar these pickups will be going in is a Warmoth build - solid alder carved top Telecaster body and a maple/ebony neck. My amp is a Line 6 HD147 head. Yes, it's solid state and yes, it's a modeller. I've had many valve amps over the years and this is the first amp that gives me the tone I want so it's what I'm sticking with. I use it with a Marshall 1936 cab (two 12" T-75 speakers),

 
The tone I'm after in the bridge is something with clear (some would even say weak) bass but very strong mids and just average treble. I've come to really like the response of ceramic pickups but it seems most ceramic pickups sound very brittle and are just intended for metal. I've liked the tone of a lot of Alnico IV pickups in the past too although I've never found one which is quite right, they don't seem quite responsive enough. Alnico V is just... well, boring.

For the neck, in a perfect world I'd be using a Gibson BurstBucker #1. They're in the neck of most of my guitars and they always sound fantastic, precisely the tone I want. Problem is, they don't make 'em in purple. So I'm after an almost P-90ish tone, only humless and with just a touch thicker mids. One thing I really struggle to find in other (i.e. non-BurstBucker) neck pickups is good response to harmonics. With my Gibson pickups, regardless of the guitar and even with no compression and minimal gain, I can get pinch harmonics on the D and A strings ringing out just as loudly and clearly as any regular fretted note. It seems with most neck pickups though they just don't respond to harmonics at all, a problem as I come from the Billy Gibbons school of guitar solos.

If it makes much of a difference, I want to wire the pickups out of phase with each other so they get that extra-nasal tone in the middle position. I've got all of my guitars wired that way and I use it a lot, so at least one of the pickups needs to have four conductor wiring.

I use all positions pretty evenly for clean, crunchy, distorted and full-on solo sounds. I'd rather have pickups that are fairly good at a bit of everything rather than particularly good at one kind of sound and then a bit weak at another. I play "a bit of everything", but most of what I play lays in the realm of modern standard rock (e.g. Foo Fighters, Paramore, current Bon Jovi kind of tones), so my priorities are versatility and general response rather than copying any one particular sound. It seems that the vast majority of pickups are made for one particular sound and very few are made as jack-of-all-trades, hence my confusion, worrying and long rambling.

 
 
Okay, that was long. Frankly I just want to make sure I get this 100% right because I'm not too keen on the idea of spending £200+ on a pair of pickups that turn out to be wrong.


Judging from sound clips and what little information the pages for each pickup give, it seems like the PG Blues, Stormy Monday or Mule are what I want for the neck and either the Black Dog, Riff Raff or Emerald are what I want for the bridge, but I find it hard to believe that all six pickups could do what I want (after all if they were that similar then there'd be no point in having so many models).

Anyone got any insight into how I could narrow my selection down?

 
Edit: small'd to cut a little size down. Basically: clear and very harmonic-responsive neck, thick but not bass-heavy bridge, medium output on both, nothing too metal nor too vintage. Ideas?

[PhilKing]

Either the full PG Blues set or a Riff Raff/Stormy Monday set should see you right.  The difference is that the PG Blues is a little fatter on both pickups, but has the out of phase built in due to the winding.  The Riff Raff might have too strong treble for you (especially on first hearing!).   I have both sets in different Les Pauls, but prefer the PG blues for my style of playing (blues and classic rock through different valve amps).  I have an Emerald/Mule set too and that has a rockier sound, with lots of harmonics from the Emerald.  Black Dogs have a great mid range push to them but are darker than the other pickups.  One thing though is that BK's all have a more open sound than other manufacturers pickups (unless they are scatterwound too).

[FELINEGUITARS]

Welcome to the forum
I'm keen to also suggest that the PG blues would work well - especially the neck pickup (I was very taken with the sound of it myself).
PhilKing probably has as much players experience with most of the range as anyone here (other than Tim)so I would trust his suggestions.

[Doadman]

PG Blues seems fine for the neck but for the bridge I'd steer clear of the Emerald as it will be too bright in Alder/Maple/Ebony. The same might be true of the Riff Raff, I'm not sure. The Black Dog is darker so should suit your guitar better.

On the subject of magnets, I too was stuck on ceramics but Bare Knuckle Alnico pickups are unlike any others. Afterall, despite your stated dislike of Alnico V, some of the pickups you've mentioned that you like are Alnico V. I wonder what you'd make of an Abraxas as that is Alnico IV.

[ericsabbath]

didn't try them in the same guitar, but I feel that the riff raff is even brighter than my cold sweat (which is ceramic and the brightest contemporary model)
it has a very strong "twang" for a humbucker, even in mahogany

if you want a modern rock pup, you should try something more powerful, like a crawler or holy diver
maybe an abraxas if you're avoiding alnico V

[Telerocker]

For this style and for an alder body the Crawler would be a good choice for the bridge, with classic hot PAF-character, fat, creamy with enough topend. Cleans up very well. I have mine in an swampash-strat and it works great.

[aceflibble]

Looks like I'll be getting a PG Blues for the neck at least then. Makes sense actually, the very first thing I do whenever I pick up a guitar is play Man Of The World.

The Black Dog and Abraxas are sounding like they may be my best bets for the bridge. The sound clips of the Abraxas seem nicer but the descriptions here and on the product page of the Black Dog make that sound nicer. Don't suppose anyone's got much experience with those two specifically in the bridge position of similar guitars?

[Doadman]

I'm afraid I don't. My understanding is that the Black Dog is the rather 'Rockier' pickup and is consequently the more popular one here but that certainly doesn't mean it's best for you. I suppose it depends on the music you want to play. Your best bet would be to email Tim with a description of your gear and the type of music you want to play.

[kevinr]

Yeah! I have a Black Dog bridge and Abraxas bridge in simular guitars, however my Abraxas is AII magnet, so it will be a little different to the normal AIV! sound wise the BD is more brighter than the the Ab, I read where many say the BD is quite dark, well I would not call mine dark in any way, I think that the Crawler would suit your needs, I have one of these as well and it is not bright at all, fat and creamy I would agree, I think that a Crawler would work well with a AII SM neck, as the Crawler neck is close to a Mule (so I believe)

[aceflibble]

On building my guitar, I've decided that covered pickups really won't look right - so that's the PGs out.

So, with the PG Blues out of the equation, ides for neck pickups? I'm quite liking the sound of the Abraxas set now that I've relistened to the various soundclips on here but I prefer to have unpotted neck pickups which doesn't seem to be an option for the Abraxas models, bizarrely. Probably go for that in the bridge and either a Stormy Monday or Mule in the neck - any input on which is brighter?

[Telerocker]

I reckon the Mule is brighter, but you can ask Fourth Feline as he knows a lot about Stormy Monday's.

[Nolly]

The BKP can certainly wind you up an unpotted Abraxas neck if you ask. They can also do lacquer potting, which doesn't permeate through the whole wind, giving you sound close to that of an unpotted pickup but with greatly reduced feedback (though still livelier than a fully potted pickup).

[WezV]

you seem like you are finding the options a little overwhelming - but the truth is there are a lot more options than the product pages show and its pretty much a custom service with the standard models as a guide.   If in doubt ask tim, anything is possible but tim will tell you what works

so if you think you want the PG blues without a cover or an abraxas without wax potting send an email or phone tim.  these are relatively minor changes. But if you do suggest something he doesnt think will work, he will tell you so!