Hey guys,
looks like I finally got around to writing my first review. Having created the collection thread it is really a shame. Letīs just hope I can get around to the others faster ;)
At least I managed to get out a wall of text as I like to do.
Hope no one dies half way through and it helps some people.
Anyhow lets talk about has been my first and what is so far my absolute favorite BKP: The Rebel Yell bridge!
My short review is: IT F*CKING ROCKS!
Really that is the most important thing about it, but let me back off and elaborate.
I got this PU for a Ibanez S series guitar, with the goal of getting a very versatile rock and metal set.
After specifying what I want to BKP they said RY bridge, IT middle and Mule neck.
Went for it and am extremely happy.
Generally you get a nice rock and metal voicing which is generally on the modern side in feel but always has a great vintage vibe in there. Modern take on a classic sound one could say.
Makes sense cause it is wound in a modern way with vintage wire.
In terms of style this thing does so much, I can easily take it from blues to old school rock and pop punk, over old school metal (nWobhM and others) and powermetal to modern thrash and back again.
Anything that you want to rock really.
On the extreme side you can see what our dear Nolly did on Red Seas Fire with it and know that it can deliver both true classic sounds and technical modern metal.
How can it do so much and why?
Iīll first go through the three main frequency-bands one by one and then try to put that together and add details to the picture.
The low on the RY is a very cool thing in my eyes. It is generally not the big and crushing kind as you find in other pups, it is more of a punchy quality. The general voicing of the RY makes it a lot tighter than you might expect from a AV magnet PU.
It really is always tight, but warm and organic, the classic AV qualitys. What that results in is a bottom end I always like to describe in an analogy:
With other metal pups you get a bottom end that if it were a fighter it would be that really big guy whos punches just got in your direction and then through you. The RY is a smaller muscle packed karate guy who has these precise stone breaking punches, which do have insane force, but are more about hitting the right spot. And then there is the Aftermath which is some kind of cyborg.
Hope that gets is across somewhat xD
I really dig that punchy bottom end in comparison to the body check ones other PUs have.
While the RY is generally bright, it is not thin, as the bottom end is present and sure does its work, but is not the focus point of the voicing.
Also the bottom end response can be changed by height changes more than on any other PU Iīve tried.
The mids on the RY is where this thing really shines and they are at the core of the sound, especially the higher mids. Here the PU has a spike which gives it itīs voice, which as I said before rocks.
Low mids are there to fill things up, in the center mids you find a nice little growl, but it is in the highs mids where things get really cool.
I wanted a PU with a lot of harmonics going on that just feels alive and that is what the RY is. Alive and rocking. The higher mids are so full of harmonics it makes for a really nicely complex sound which is just up front and center, cutting through the mix like the egomanic hair metal singer pushing himself to the front of the band and doing insane show moves.
There is so much going on and it just screams out.
The high end on the RY is close the higher mids. It is definetly very present and cutting but not harsh. Again an extension of all the harmonics going on.
Also makes for a great pick attack.
All together this makes for a PU that will not only make you happy because it rocks and screams, delivers nice pinched harmonics and has an insane range of styles, it will also make your bass player happy because while you still got weight and punch behind your palm mutes you are not interfeering with him, and you better keep that guy happy, bass over the head hurts...
I must also add that the RY is not only generally very versatile it is even more so because as I hinted before it is incredibly sensible to height changes, more so than anything else. Half a screw turn can have rather dramatic results.
Now I mostly talked about the distorted rythm tone (maybe I should have mentioned that earlier, but hey I talk about rocking all the time so whatcha expect I talk about), but I would like to loose a few words on the lead and clean tones.
I really like to use this PU for lead tones quite often, although I still use the neck for the majority of lead work. Thing is the RY is of course less rounded, more agressive and cutting, so when I want that extra thing to really throw this over and go crazy and stop with the sweet singing I go to the bridge. Plus then I can add in a pinched harmonics left and right (I play a lot on the high strings around the 12th to 15th fret) and I can get them suprisingly easily there, making for great Skid Row like things.
For clean sounds I generally do not really dig the RY bridge as it sounds too middy, which makes it hardly usable for me, HOWEVER, I have an autosplit wiring and my RY turned around so that the screwcoil is away from the bridge and when I go into the autosplit position I get the slugcoil, which is closer to the bridge plus the middle (Irish Tour), which makes for the most glorious clean sound for strumming (also cool for picking, but neck is better). Super clear single coil like sound, rather tele than strat like with a quality in the high end you assosiate with brand new strings (yes that goodness at any time). This position was even further improved when I added a PRS style 2,2k resistor in series with the green and white wire of the bridge PU, which results in the screw coil not being completly shut off, giving me a little extra output and bottom end. Amazing stuff.
Want a PU that rocks? Screams? Breathes life into guitars? Has a punchy low end? Is versatile?
Get the Rebel Yell and youīll want more, more, more!
Cheers
Kiichi
Anyone read this far? Cool, have a pint mate!
Did I forget to touch upon something? Got questions? Go ahead I will answer anything and add in things I might have forgotten.
Edit: Forgot my gear as fhn_lopes pointed out. I use a Orange Tiny Terror Hardwired Edition (gain and tone at about 2 o clock usually) loaded with TAD STR Powetubes, a a JJ AX7 in V1 and a Tung Sol AX7 in V2 going into a Marshall 2061CX hardwired cab which is 2x12" loaded with Celestion G12H30 speakers.
In front and always on when not clean is my Juansolo Klon(e) set to the more setting which is 2, 12 and 10 o clock.
For clean tones I use the same cab, but with a HTH Amp 5W Fender Tweed Champ style loaded with a 6L6 powerstage tube instead of the 6V6 it came with. Sometimes gets an extra compressor from a MXR Supercomp set very lightly so it mostly impacts sustain and the attack only very slightly.
