Pickups for EVERYTHING

[ztikmaen]

I'm just wondering... A lot of people on here say that BKP high output Humbuckers actually clean up well and are quite versatile (eg Warpigs). So apart from amp driving, why would I choose a lower output pickup? If I wanted to cover every style of music, wouldn't I get a Warpig or something? People say it can even do jazz...  I'm sure there are high output pickups in here that are just really hot rodded versions of other ones
Just a thought

[kevinr]

They are all voiced different!

[Loomer]

Well, I use War Pigs exclusively, and they really do clean up remarkably well.

[Brow]

I have most of the BKP range of humbuckers in my guitars and I honestly think that for the most part they're all very versatile.

Yeah some are more suited to specific things but I can cover most things I need with any 1 of my guitars.

[gordiji]

it depends on how much you want to compromise.high output pups like the warpig may clean up'reasonably' well for a high
output pup, but won't have the beautiful cleans of a stormy, mule or vh2 say.
if you're after modern highly saturated tones you'll struggle more with vintage voiced pups.
the character or flavour of all the pups will vary and the difficulty is knowing what you want without having tried them all.
 

[Alex]

Most BKP will work in many different guitars and with many different styles. I would only avoid the very low output ones and the very high ones, i.e. Stormy Monday and Painkiller.

[Shag101]

as gordiji mentioned.  its all about compromise.  My warpig cleans up nice, but it is not as open and sparkling as my Mississippi queen in the same guitar.  The MQ when driven is not as gut pounding as the warpig. 
But hey, throw some reverb on the piggy and the cleans sound ten times better..
Boost the queen with a pedal and it will roar..

[ztikmaen]

Hmm thanks guys! If I ever ever went crazy with pickup selection, I was just wondering how crazy would it actually be
So what is the general change as you move from low to high output? Bite, warmth, roundness, clarity, edginess etc
Because there are those pickups that I just want to have for some weird reason (Stormy Mondays, Warpigs)

[Shag101]

i would say warmth for me is the biggest difference.

[Alex]

On the one end of the spectrum (low output) you have such terms such as "clarity" and "transparent sound", "complex cleans", on the other end (high output) you will find terms such as "compression", "strong midrange emphasis", "wall of sound" and "fat punch".

Of course there are always pickups that fall between these terms, but it giver you a good idea about what the general differences are.

[ztikmaen]

So for example if you compared a Mule and an Abraxas, the Abraxas would be more compressed with more midrange and punch but have less clarity and clean tone complexion?
And what's the weaknesses of the pickups when they are out of their depth? If a Warpig tried to do cleans would if sound quite "hard" and "shallow"? If a Stormy Monday tried to do heavy rock would it mud up and not bite?

[Alex]

You're spot on with the differences Abraxas/Mule, although keep in mind that these are generalizations, so they don't always hold up completely.

And yes, pushing a pickup out of its "comfort zone" is not always met with great rewards. You can listen to the clean samples on the BK website for some direct comparisons (I often feel that clean clips are better for judging a pickups tonal character than overdriven ones).

[Telerocker]

Played my Crawler last saturday during a big gig on pretty high volumes (Orange Rockerverb). A bit compression helps for long solonotes, but this one cleans up great too and has still this open topend. Cuts very well, despite being know as middy. Very versatile pickup. So are the IT's. Ordered VHII + Mother's Milk for my other HSS-strat.