Has anyone had pickups re-wound by BK?

[JohnZAH]

Hey guys. I have a tele deluxe that I really like but the reissue WRH's are not that great. I was considering having them re-wound but the price is pretty steep. Close to $200 per pickup

Any experience or thoughts?

[lamp]

I had a pair of MIJ Jaguar pickups rewound and whist they were pretty ordinary before, they now sound fantastic. Have no complaints at all. However, am in the UK and it was distinctly cheaper than $200.
I recommend BKPs to everyone I can but if you're looking at $200 per pickup then really I would look at the Curtis Novak WRHB as then you will get better construction of the actual pickup and threaded magnets as the originals did.

[JohnZAH]

Oh man, I miss read the response from BK. £160 for BOTH. Which actually seems pretty good. I'm sure they would sound great though.

[itamar101]

With that sorta money you could simply buy a new set of bkp tele pickups instead of getting worse ones, with cheaper components rewound.

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have had a number of pickups rewound by BKP with good results
As the cost is not too much different to buying a new BKP I have usually only done it where I have a damaged or bad sounding pickup in a guitar that is important to keep as original as possible.

Recently I had a 1972 Tele custom bridge pickup rewound and it was great - my customer whose guitar it was was pleased as we kept his treasured guitar intact but finally it sounded good too (previously there was some broken coils in the bridge pickup  caused by impact with something and the pickup sounded very weak and brittle)

[richard]

' Please note we will only rewind or repair old pickups that no longer work. We do not offer this service for the re-voicing of new working pickups or conversion of another make of pickup into a Bare Knuckle model. '

From the main site - I don't understand.

[Tellboy]

Had the neck Patent Number pickup of my 1963 SG Standard rewound by BKP. Very pleased - it had already been rewound once in the 1970s by John Birch. Now looks and sounds like it originally did (JB had used different colour tape to wrap the rewound coil)

[lamp]

' Please note we will only rewind or repair old pickups that no longer work. We do not offer this service for the re-voicing of new working pickups or conversion of another make of pickup into a Bare Knuckle model. '

From the main site - I don't understand.

That's new - at least wasn't there when I had mine done.

[JohnZAH]

Yeah I read that as well. I just emailed them a couple days ago and they said they would do it. It's really not a big deal though because I can replace the pickguard and use regular sized humbuckers. I just like the way the oversized covers looked but it's not worth all of the extra hassle

[FELINEGUITARS]

If the tele is an old one (70s) and has the original WRHs but doesn't sound great then it would be worth having a rewind done as you can't get the CuNiFe magnets anymore that these had in them.

If it is a modern repro then the pickups don't have anything unique about them , so other than looks I would be torn between just going for a new BKP etc.

I can understand the reluctance to rewind to BKP specs as it can "pollute" the waters so to speak with pickups that can have a claim to be BKPs but without all the physical components that make up a BKP pickup.


I just wish that BKP would find a way of labelling  their pickups for easier recognition - especially for the sake of the 2nd hand market which will only grow and grow.