OK, you may all be fed up of my deliberations about pickups but I've decided to simplify a way of isolating what I want in my guitar. I've thought about all sorts of sounds, players, bands etc. and it's bloody difficult to describe such a diverse range of sounds so I've decided to give up trying. Instead, I thought I'd try to pick just one sound and one player that would typify the sound I want even if it wasn't exact. That player is John Sykes and the sound is from the Gibson 'Dirty Fingers' pickup that he has used for most of his career, though I believe he switched a few years ago to a Gibson PAF reissue.
Why do I like it? The tone is powerful, cutting and articulate like you might expect from a ceramic pickup but it also has a fatness, warmth and richness to it that is more commonly associated with Alnico pups. Listening to Sykes' tone, it always sounds surprisingly organic to me for a ceramic pickup. These are all the qualities I want.
Now it makes sense that the 'Cold Sweat' is the equivilant Bare Knuckle pickup and in a mahogany guitar I can certainly testify that it does have many similar characteristics as I've owned one but the trouble is that my current guitar is very different as it's a Jackson SL3 so it's maple neck-thru with alder wings and OFR. If it helps, from what I've found out online, the original had a DC resistance of 16.6, used three ceramic magnets and double pole pieces. I haven't been able to find out for sure the gauge of wire yet but I think it's 44awg. So, which Bare Knuckle pickup will help to give me the John Sykes 'Dirty Fingers' tone in an SL3 or would I need to modify a stock BKP in some way to achieve the sound I want?
Simples!