Pickup conception ?

[Chris1974]

Hi

I recently purchased and fitted a set of Irish Tour pickups to my Strat and love them to bits, they more than meet my expectations and i'm still exploring what sounds i can get out of them.  They really have added a new dimension to my guitar.

I have a question directed towards Tim or other member of the Bare Knuckle team if they have chance to answer it.

Whilst I've had my pickups I wondered what was the approach that you take when designing new pickups re. the actual tone and playing characteristics ?

I assume the Irish Tours are aimed at Rory Gallaghers' sound, are they an emulation of the period Fender pickups that would have been in his own guitar (although i understand he had them wound a few times during his lifetime) or are they specifically designed to be an approximation of Rorys' personnal guitar sound rather than the stock sound of the particular era strat. that he used ? .................... if you know what I mean ?!?!?!

Or to put it another way, if I did an A/B comparison between the Irish Tours and period pickups comparable to those in RGs' guitar would they be similar in tone assuming I was playing them and not Rory Gallgher !

Just a thought than ran through my head........

Thanks again for the amazing pickups !

[Ratrod]

From what I understand, BKP's are 'modelled' after certain eras of pickup manufacturing and design. Most of those are made famous by certain artists. Then BKP adds it's signature scatterwinding and proper waxpotting.

examples: 50's PAF -- Govt. Mule
                early '60's PAF -- AC/DC
                70's Dirty Fingers -- Sykes
                etc.

[Cattivo Ragazzo]

I thought the mothers milk was more of a Rory pickup, I must be wrong.

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

Mothers milk is named after the Chillis album, Irish tour is a Rory album. Tim tries to capture the vibe and general tones of an artist rather than complete replicas.

[Tim]

The Irish Tour set is voiced to help players get into the Rory Gallagher tonal vibe.Few players are able to play anything like as ferociously as Rory so I wind the ITs to be vintage hot to help the rest of us mere mortals get into the ballpark!Both Rory and SRV used relatively low output vintage coils but did use huge string guages, high action, detuned a halfstep( not all the time)and really played hard and that is obviously a big part of their tone.The IT wind is designed to help emulate that under more conservative playing conditions.
The Mother's Milk set are voiced more as an early to mid '60s set and the Apaches as early '50s(with the Sultans as a halfway house with elements of both in their tone).
Anyway, glad you like them :D .

[Chris1974]

Cheers for the info Tim.

I used to repair and manufacture Brass musical instruments (I've changed career since) and designed and built my own trumpet, so I find it interesting to see how people like yourself set about designing guitar parts such as pickups, I'm not really clued up on the guitar/electrics side of the music industry.

It sounds like you take a similar appoach to what I did when designing my trumpet, to get players in the "same ball park" as a famous known player.