Quick first experience with Miracle Man and Sinners (Slart content)

[GuitarIv]

Hey guys,

as some of you may know fellow forum member Slartibartfast was selling his Jackson equipped with a Miracle Man - Sinner Set and although I initially wanted to buy the guitar off of him, it ended up with a different result: I got the pickups :P

Those just arrived yesterday in my mail and I had to work all day, so I as soon as I got home I fired up the soldering iron and put them in. After playing them before going to sleep and after I woken up my first impressions are the following:

The Miracle Man has an odd voicing. Not in a bad way, I just never heard it in a pickup before as all the models I played so far no matter by what brand where quite midfocused. This thing lives in the low mids and bass and screams like a mofo in the highs. It's the very first pickup that actually managed to fatten up my Strat, even the Holydiver sounded thin in it. I was at first concerned that the highs would be OTT but playing with the EQ and my Tubescreamer and Amp helps quite a lot. Great pinch harmonics. And just a notch more modern than the HD, so it's not in the modern metal Painkiller territory (and is nowhere near the output of the PK) but gives you that extra push you sometimes want from the HD. Old School Thrash and Death. Can't wait to play it through a proper half stack :D

The Sinners are actually both bridge models fitted with baseplates, specifically wound to work with the MM so they don't lose the any volume when you switch between positions. And that's very obvious, because I never heard any Single Coil react like this before. Both sound almost as fat as a Humbucker, have loads of bass and saturate very well. I never actually sweeped on a Neck Singlecoil before without feeling that it would lack output. Well the Sinner Neck works great for this!

As far as the Middle position goes, I prefer the Neck over it, but it helps in the 4th position (or 2nd?) when you combine it with the Neck for the Strat quack which isn't as modern as you would expect with a rolled back volume. Great!

Now to the negative things: I don't like the position that combines the Middle SN with the MM. Waaay to bright and annoying. But that's the overall problem I seem to have with this guitar: there is something that makes it sound too biting and thin at times and I'm sure it has something to do with the bridge. I swapped pickups around in it many times and the last thing I could try is to put a Warpig in it, but I know that won't solve the problem. I'm happy now the MM fattens it up but I feel I could get more body out of it.

The bridge is a vintage style tremolo I don't use, so the springs are tightened to the point where nothing moves. I've been thinking about different saddles, a brass block and a Tremol-No, just anything that gives you more depth and "oomph". Any ideas what can help? I know Toe-Knee has experimented with stuff like this. Any ideas would be appreciated :)

Anyhow, this isn't supposed to be a review, just my thoughts on the first impression. I will write a full report as soon as I had enough time to play around with those babies, but for now I'm happy!

Cheers

[Dave Sloven]

Try playing some black metal riffs through it with the amp set up right for that.  You might find its niche

[fhn_lopes]

"Now to the negative things: I don't like the position that combines the Middle SN with the MM. Waaay to bright and annoying."
"The Sinners are actually both bridge models fitted with baseplates, specifically wound to work with the MM"

Is the middle pickup RW/RP ?? MAybe that's why you don't like the MM+Sinner tone.... It can be out of phase.
IF you have two pickups that are fat, it's kinda strange they are too bright when working together, isn't it?

[ericsabbath]

did you try setting the MM a little closer to strings?
helps fattening both bass and mids

"odd voicing" sounds spot on
I've always said the miracle man is the most unique sounding bkp model
it has this strange bipolar behaviour in low x high strings
it can sound quite dark in the bottom and quite bright in the top
setting the pup higher brings some midrange back, so it gets a little more even
you could also play with the screw poles for the middle strings if the low E gets too bassy with the pickup getting too close

[Kiichi]

"Now to the negative things: I don't like the position that combines the Middle SN with the MM. Waaay to bright and annoying."
"The Sinners are actually both bridge models fitted with baseplates, specifically wound to work with the MM"

Is the middle pickup RW/RP ?? MAybe that's why you don't like the MM+Sinner tone.... It can be out of phase.
IF you have two pickups that are fat, it's kinda strange they are too bright when working together, isn't it?

My thoughts exactly. You should get a little extra SC spank in there, but not really a bright sound. Deffo check that.

Sides that I am looking forward to the full review, will be very interresting!

[Slartibartfarst42]

The middle is RW/RP and it was ordered that way simply because that's the way most people like them. I don't really understand the way the electronics work but when they first went it, position 2 did give me much more of a bright Fender quack than I expected from these pickups. I can see why many people would like this is it gives a very different tonal possibility but as the Fender quack isn't really my thing, I immediately had the wires changed around and it was much darker and thicker. I assume this is related to what people like Kiichi are referring to so you might try that.

Both the Miracle Man and those particular Sinners have masses of bottom end so I can't imagine there's much that would give it more body. A lot of what you say matches up well with my own experience in terms of a huge bottom end and screaming highs as well as that bit extra push than a Holydiver without going too modern. As far as the Sinners are concerned, I did tell you that they'd sound huge and took shed loads of gain  :twisted: Other than a Warpig, I can't imagine there's much out there that will give you more body in a Strat than a Miracle Man and these particular Sinners. You're certainly not going to get more body out of any other single coils that's for sure! It certainly sounds like this is the most successful combination you've tried so far and other than the alteration to the wiring I mentioned, I know a brass block has a big impact and pure nickel strings also tend to give it more body in my experience, though I didn't feel the need to do either when they were in my Jackson. I actually used DR Hi-Beams with them. Anyway, glad you like them  :D

[FELINEGUITARS]

I love the Miracle Man - it does the 1986 era George Lynch sound that is a favourite of mine .
It has a huge low mid that makes strats sound more like a Les Paul whilst remaining nice and tight.

The Sinner would be a good match - I have previously used Trilogies with the MM and also a Slow hand with a baseplate
If you are experiencing a thin position 2 sound I do wonder if the pickups are somehow out of phase with each other

If the MM is 4 con try reversing the black and red contacts
Is the MM coil split in position 2?

[Toe-Knee]

I did some testing with both the brass and steel GFS trem blocks.

Overall i preferred the steel one. I think there is something on my blog about it.

It added some weight behind single notes and made the midrange really snappy. The lows were also a lot punchier than they were with both the brass and stock pot metal blocks.

check out guitarfetish. You can get both the brass and steel ones for half what you would pay elsewhere and they're a great upgrade imho.

[Alex]

Play the MM really loud and it will just sound better and better!  :D Lots of power in that pickup.

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm now sure your issue with position 2 is because it's out of phase. I just fitted a set of Crawlers tonight and I've deliberately made the middle position out of phase for that Peter Green sound and I immediately noticed that it made things far brighter. It's not unlike a noticed on the Jackson so I think if you simply swap the wires around your issue will be gone.

[Kiichi]

Swap the ones on the bridge though as otherwise that issue will be fixed, but the neck + middle will be out.

[ericsabbath]

Play the MM really loud and it will just sound better and better!  :D Lots of power in that pickup.

good point
for some reson, the miracle has a weird amp-like response in a way that it sounds better, bigger, more open and organic the louder you play
I've never experienced that with any other pickup
even with amp or devices that don't change much from low to loud volumes, like the peavey rockmaster preamp I had, that usually sounded almost exactly the same at any situation and even with different power amps, I still could hear a huge difference specifically with the miracle man
I didn't hear any tone x volume differences with holy diver and the cold sweat I also had in the same guitar at that time with the same band and the exact same rig
I first thought it sounded a little boxy at home, but at band volume is where it really shines

[GuitarIv]

Whoa, just got back from work, lots of feedback here!

So I'll address everything sorted by responses:

AO: I don't like Black Metal, otherwise I would have used the Strat for it already ages ago :P

fhn: Slart gave the answer before I could, it seems like they are out of phase, although the pairing sounds way too bright it gives a surprisingly good sound for that straty "Hey Joe" intro riff. Maybe I'll keep the guitar as it is right now...

Eric: you are certainly right, I feel there's a lot space to alter the sound and adjust it the way you want it just by playing with the height, however the more I play the MM the more I like it, gonna be experimenting with the height when I play the Strat through a proper half stack ^^

Slart, Feline: Yes, position 2 is the MM in coil split mode. That's one of the strange things I noticed when receiving the pickups; I was a bit confused why the red wire was soldered to the ground, so I resoldered everything corresponding to the wiring diagrams. Gonna try to reverse the black and the red wires and report back with the results. (Also I noticed the pole piece on the high e was raised, any reason for that? :P)

Toe-Knee: Thanks man! Will certainly read the post on your blog and check them out as well as report back with results :)

So, to sum everything up: It seems like the Miracle Man is a pickup that has a lot to offer and can deliver different sounds when you alter things like height and wiring, all I know is that it so far works the best with my Strat that always seemed to lack bottom end. Obviously a very middy and bright instrument, I feel the first time that it suits my needs for metal as it now shows that certain depth one excepts for metal.

By now there are only two BKPs missing in my setup: the Slowhand Bridge to accompany the Middle and Neck so I can turn the guitar into a "real" Strat by switching out Scratchplates and the Emerald Neck to accompany the Holydiver Bridge in my bassists Jackson DK2M that is soon going to be mine.

As always I'll keep you guys updated, especially this thread as soon as I had time to get more impressions of the Miracle Man :D

Cheers

[Dave Sloven]

Can you wire in a push-pull or push-push pot to switch phasing on the bridge pickup, rather than wiring it one way or the other permanently?  You could wire it so that when it is down it is in phase, and when up out of phase, although you might have to do the wiring in the reverse (in terms of colours) compared with the diagrams

[Slartibartfarst42]

Also I noticed the pole piece on the high e was raised, any reason for that? :P

None whatsoever. Pole pieces are things I've never bothered to alter before so it's that way simply because that's the way it came from BKP. Having said that, I have been interested in some of the things Kiichi has been saying on this subject in this and other threads so I may experiment with this technique with my new Crawlers. I only managed to get them in late last night so too late to start playing much but my initial impression is that they are VERY fat sounding and nice and rich. There's certainly more bass there than I'm used to but they seem to stay nice and articulate and it looks like there's just about enough highs to balance this out. In terms of aggression, they're really odd  :? They're so fat and smooth that I hesitate about saying they're aggressive yet there is a very distinct growl to them and some bite. I'm still undecided about whether I want that or not. They also seem to be a lot more compressed than I was expecting. The neck pickup is far more open but the bridge is very different. Now I like compression but I really wasn't expecting that much with this pickup. Again, I'm undecided if I really want that or not. Tonight I'll be able to spend a lot more time playing and I'll fiddle with the pickup heights more and possibly even pole piece levels. I'd like to take away a bit of that growl and increase the highs just a tad. The tone is great so if I can make these adjustments they're certainly keepers and if not, I swap them for an Abraxas set.