First BKP purchase, help is greatly appreciated!

[shobet]

Annoyingly, Joe public doesn't really give a monkeys about what we play through. From what I've seen the audience is more interested in having a good time rather than thinking 'oh he's playing through some hemp cones'. it's just us sad buggers addicted to the guitar and tone that notices, oh and the other gear heads in the audience.

[Transcend]

very true. I went to a battle of the bands the other day.

Which is a terrible place to have a bad tone which 2 out of the 4 bands had.

It was worse that rather than paying attention to what they were playing as almost everyone that was there were guitarists or musicains they were just complaining about the tone.

ironically the band with the worst sound that got the least votes was the band with the highest level of talent

[Doadman]

I know exactly what you mean. I find most 'normal' people couldn't care less as long as they can hear what's being played and recognise it. I don't think many people in my own circle of family and friends have noticed any difference in my tone for years. Different guitars, amps and pickups leave them just hearing the same thing. Of course, there's a fair chance my poor playing isn't helping  :lol: It would be a lot cheaper for me if I just played to what the average audience member actually heard as then I could just use a starter guitar with stock pups through a cr@ppy solid state amp. All of the other money I've spent and gear I've bought has been purely for me I think.

[kevinr]

I know for one that I play much better if I feel that my sound is "cooking" tranny amps and such don't sound too bad at home, however they have never cut it for me on the live gig, I'm sure that most of us have done a gig where the backline is supplied, and as always substandard! the results, poor performance.

[Doadman]

Yes, I'll grant you that. It is far better to feel like a Rock God if you think you're playing with a godly tone. 8)

[Nolly]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the problems you will encounter if you're planning on combining your active EMG in the neck with a passive bridge pickup - it's quite a headache, you will need to run separate pots of different values for each pickup.

Ignoring that issue for a moment, I think the Nailbomb bridge would be a great choice for you.

[Transcend]

oh yeah i completely forgot about the active + passive issues its a huge headache

[Doadman]

It's a good job we have you around Nolly as I'd also completely forgotten about the active pickup in the neck position as well! I think you'd be VERY well advised to ditch both of the EMG pickups and get a BKP set. They're far better than any EMG anyway  :D

[DvE]

You are sooo right about most listeners... a lot of them would not tell you any difference between a 200 dollar solid state and 2000 dollar valve amp, but who cares? If you are happy with your own tone, thats worth a lot =)

And, a big plus for BKPs: They all sound much clearer than most other pus out there.
A lot of people will not be able to tell differences because they have no comparison, BUT they will notice if your sound is undefined, muddy and they barely recognize the notes ;-)

So, end of story? BKPs help you and the audience  8)

[Blind]

Is there a way around the active+passive conundrum?  I wasn't aware that that would be a problem  :(

[Doadman]

Well, as Nolly said, each pickup would need its own individual pots rather than sharing things like volume controls and due to power differences these pots may well need to be of different values. On the whole it would be easier just to get two really high quality Bare Knuckles instead of just one  8)

[Blind]

Alright, well it looks like I'm in the market for two then!  I still can't decide between the Aftermath or C-Bomb for the bridge...  What would pair well with each of these?  I use the neck pup for cleans mostly, so I need it to provide very pristine cleans.  I'm not a big fan of a 'twangy' tone, but I still like to hear it when you pluck a string or strum a chord

[Transcend]

well what you can do if you dont use a tone pot is

vol pot 1 = 500k for the bridge passive

vol pot 2 = 25k for the neck active.


I've done it in the past and the main problem was balancing the volumes whilst still getting the most out of the active

[Transcend]

the mississippi queen would work well in the neck and deliver nice thick pristine cleans.

you will get some hum however with it being a p90 in a humbucker housing

[Blind]

How would a Cold Sweat match up with either?  I've read good things about them and I like the demos I've heard a lot