A few weeks ago I got my first ever BKPs, a Cold Sweat neck and Miracle Man bridge. I put them right into a B.C. Rich JRV-7 seven string and then set to work modifying it. I put in a bunch of switches, replaced the pots, put a big block on the Floyd, stripped the finish off the neck, the whole 9 yards. When I plugged it in for the first time though, I was less than thrilled. For pickups that were supposedly high output, they output seemingly less than any of my other guitars. So I fiddled with it some more, took it to a tech, checked the DC resistance, everything was perfectly fine. Then, just as I was about to give up hope, I decided to just wire them through the main switch, the volume pot and that's it. I plugged it in and I was blown away. I guess my soldering skills aren't up to snuff, or maybe one of the mini toggle switches was bad, but in either case any guitar I wire myself from now on is going to be bare minimum. Anyway, now that that cautionary tale has been told, I'll get on with the review.
Miracle Man:
The Miracle Man pretty much nails the tone I was looking for in this guitar: aggressive, nasty, powerful, saturated, are just a few words to describe it. I'm floored by the bass response that this pickup has. Riffs on the low B and E strings never sound muddy, no matter how hard you try. It's just plain awe inspiring, especially compared to the stock pups, which would get start to get muddy even on the E string. Single notes have a lot of power and energy behind them and are extremely responsive to pick attack. You can go from a subtle murmur to a blood curdling scream and everything in between. For being described as one of BKPs more "compressed" pickups, I'm blown away by how touch sensitive and organic it feels, it's right up there with my Seymour Duncan 59, which is one of the most expressive pickups I've ever played. The output level is just about perfect, great for really saturating an amp, but not so over the top that it becomes unusable. Overall, this pickup is incredible.
Cold Sweat:
The Cold Sweat really lives up to the reputation it's established for itself on this forum. It's amazingly smooth, articulate, and expressive. An incredible pickup for shredding, and I think it's even better for soulful, Gilmour-esque soloing. There isn't really much more I can say about this pickup that hasn't already been said, it exceeds the hype, plain and simple. It is, however, a much cooler pickup in comparison with the Miracle Man, so there's a noticeable difference when switching between them. It's not a huge problem though, I feel like it's one of those things that only the player would notice anyway, and if you need to, you could always use a boost pedal. Another important thing to note about this pickup, it's also incredibly clear on the low strings. Despite how smooth it is, it never gets muddy.
Bottom line, I absolutely love these pickups now that I got everything sorted out and they're sounding as they should. They're absolutely perfect for me and the style I'm going for. Not to mention that the black battleworn covers with black hex bolts look ridiculously badass. I'm thinking now I might have to put BKPs in most (if not all) of my other guitars. I apologize to my wallet in advance.
