I'm in two minds about the Nailbomb as you might imagine, given I just sent mine back but I'll try to be even handed and when reading this, please bear in mind that because of the time constraint of returning pickups, I only had one day to play around with it.
Let's start with the positives. The tone is pure quality, as you'd expect from BKP. It certainly has an organic quality to it and the tone is noticeably thicker than something like a Cold Sweat. As others have done before me, I’d say it has body to it and I found it surprisingly open sounding. Its voicing is modern Metal without a doubt and I imagine shredders with more technical skill than me will love it. Anyone worried that it won’t be tight enough for them because it’s alnico should immediately calm themselves. It's highly articulate and as tight as a badger's backside. Like many BKPs I found it to be very sensitive to height adjustment. Away from the strings it was VERY open and VERY tight while bringing it closer to the strings made it thicken up considerably but the tightness was always there and the distortion was always very gritty. I'd probably describe it as hairy I guess.
As for the negatives, I'm wary of saying anything at all because clearly lots of people like them and the fact they weren't for me doesn't make it a bad pickup. I can obviously only give my honest opinion based on my limited experience in my guitar and in that context, I’d have to say that my experience of the pickup, limited as it was, did not entirely match the descriptions I've read about it, either on the forum or the main website.
In my guitar at least, (maple neck-thru with alder wings) it certainly didn’t have ‘a huge, deep bottom end with rich, throaty mid range and warm highs’. I actually found it to be a relatively bright pickup. I think the perception of bottom end is influenced by the strong throaty midrange, but I can’t say I’d describe the bottom end as ‘huge’ or ‘deep’ and I didn’t find the highs particularly warm. I would imagine it would work a lot better in a guitar that is naturally warmer and darker like a Les Paul, where I think the positive elements of its character would really shine through. In fact, if you like a gritty Metal tone that is thicker and more organic than your ‘run of the mill’ EMG-type pickups, I think the Nailbomb would be absolutely awesome in a Les Paul but I wouldn’t fancy pairing it with any guitar that is brighter. Although it may be thicker than some ceramic pickups, ‘thick, fat and fluid’ wouldn’t be words I’d use to describe it in my guitar and even in a Les Paul I would add the caveat ‘for a Metal sound’.
I also wouldn’t describe it as a ‘perfect synergy of old-school and modern rock tones in a high output humbucker’. My overriding impression of it was ‘Modern Metal’ and it gave me that impression so strongly that if it wasn’t for so many people on the forum saying it’s highly versatile, I simply wouldn’t have thought it was versatile at all as nothing I did took that hairiness out of the tone. I’d be the first to admit, however, that if I’d had more time with the pickup, I may have been able to unlock some of its secrets but as already indicated, time was against me. As I’ve also already said, I think these elements of the pickup would come through rather more strongly in a guitar like a Les Paul. I suspect the idea of versatility comes largely from the fact that it sits between so many other pickups in the range. It has PAF-type characteristics but is clearly aimed at Metal so I wouldn’t naturally associate it with ‘hot, fat blues rock’. It has a lot of tightness that I think most people associate with ceramics yet there are tighter pickups out there if that is your thing. It also has organic and thick qualities to it, albeit not as organic and thick as other Alnico V pickups. It really does have elements of lots of other pickups and in many ways that’s great but if you were to focus on any individual element, you’d be able to find a BKP that does it better.
The impression I was left with was that it could probably do a number of things fairly well because it sits between so many other pickups whereas other pickups in the range are more closely associated to a particular sound and probably do that particular tone better. I’d sum it up as in many ways a ‘Jack of all trades’ but I’m not sure I’d say it was a master of any of them and that’s not meant as a criticism. There is versatility there but I didn’t find it anything like as versatile as I’d imagined as whatever I did with it, the pickup remained firmly ‘Metal of the 90s’. I’ve certainly played pickups that offer more versatility. This IS a very good pickup with great tone for the right person. If you were a Les Paul Metal player who wanted a thicker, more organic PAF tone that is still firmly in the Metal camp with gritty, hairy distortion, I would have no hesitation in suggesting the A-Bomb at all as I think it would sound incredible but if that’s not the tone you’re after or you have a brighter guitar, I’d look elsewhere as I think BKP may well offer better options for you.
I hesitated to write this review at all and I apologise if anyone thinks I’ve been unfair as there is a lot to like about the A-Bomb but I have done my best to be even handed in my appraisal of it. I'm happy to admit that it's my fault I'm sending it back because the description of the tone I'm after wasn't accurate enough, but equally, I think I was drawn in by descriptions of versatility that, while in many respects true, led me to expect more from the pickup than it's capable of offering. I don't want this review to put everyone off an A-Bomb because it's a great pickup but I equally don't want people to buy it thinking it will do everything because it simply won't. It's fantastic at what it does, as all BKPs are, but I'd say it has a particular sound of it's own that sits between other pickups in the range rather than being really versatile.
