Brightest & Darkest Humbucker

[jjcharvel]

What are the brightest & darkest BK humbuckers ?
Just curious about that.

[Slartibartfarst42]

In general terms you can broadly say that the hotter the pickup, the darker it will tend to be, though it's not quite that easy. Nevertheless, the Warpig is probably the darkest, followed by the Crawler while the brightest will probably be the Riff Raff, though any of the vintage range will be quite bright. The Emerald bridge is also very bright.

[ericsabbath]

I'd expect the emerald to be the brightest
than the riff raff and cold sweat
vhii, rebel yell and stormy monday are also quite brightish
for the neck, I believe it's between the nailbomb and riff raff

the darkest ones I had were the warpig and black dog
the miracle man and nailbomb are plenty of treble, but are somewhat dark voiced, in my opinion
none of them are truly dark sounding
the neck miracle man and warpig are quite dark in mahogany, though

[Dave Sloven]

The (alnico) Warpig set in my Epiphone Korina Explorer is definitely brighter than the Mighty Mite Motherbucker set I pulled out of it.  If the Warpig neck is the darkest pickup in the range it's still not as dark as some of the others out there.  With the Mighty Mites I think the darkness was compounded by their compressed character - this might be why BKPs don't sound as dark as some brands.

[jjcharvel]

In general terms you can broadly say that the hotter the pickup, the darker it will tend to be

Very interesting, didnīt know that.

What about the Mule,Holy Diver & Painkiller ?
Is the Riff Raff brighter than the Mule and is the Miracle Man brighter than the Holy Diver & Painkiller ?

[Mr. Air]

The Emerald bridge is defenitely a bright pickup, at least in the LP clone I got it in. The Nailbomb that was in there before was darker sounding. I got a Stormy Monday bridge in a strat clone where it's on the bright side even though it has the BKP 280k pots. It isn't wired to the tonepot and that might affect the tone. I have had it in two other strat clones where I didn't find it as bright so it might be the construction and wood of the guitar even though it's quite similar to to the other two specwise.

[Slartibartfarst42]

In general terms you can broadly say that the hotter the pickup, the darker it will tend to be

Very interesting, didnīt know that.

What about the Mule,Holy Diver & Painkiller ?
Is the Riff Raff brighter than the Mule and is the Miracle Man brighter than the Holy Diver & Painkiller ?

Unfortunately there are a lot of variables involved so it's not quite that easy. The Emerald bridge for instance is a lot brighter than some in the vintage range despite being hotter. Perhaps what I should have said it that all things being equal, a hotter wind produces a darker sounding pickup. The Holydiver, Rebel Yell and Cold Sweat neck models for instance are very close in spec as they use the same wire and magnet, though the offsets will be slightly different. However, of those three, the Cold Sweat is the hottest and darkest while the Holydiver is the lightest wind and therefore brighter.

[Sarkasis]

the miracle man and nailbomb are plenty of treble, but are somewhat dark voiced, in my opinion

I suppose it's because they have a dark-sounding midrange.

Also bear in mind that ceramics tend to be brighter than alnicos. See: Painkiller, Cold Sweat bridges.

[darkbluemurder]

Darkest BKP bridge I have played so far is the Crawler. Brightest - I guess it's between VHII, Black Dog, Rebel Yell and Cold Sweat but none of them have been in the same guitar for a direct comparison.

Darkest neck I have played was the VHII, brightest the Holydiver. Rebel Yell and Black Dog are bright as well. 

Cheers Stephan

[mongey]

The (alnico) Warpig set in my Epiphone Korina Explorer is definitely brighter than the Mighty Mite Motherbucker set I pulled out of it.  If the Warpig neck is the darkest pickup in the range it's still not as dark as some of the others out there.  With the Mighty Mites I think the darkness was compounded by their compressed character - this might be why BKPs don't sound as dark as some brands.

I agree. the Apig does have a roll off up high but I'd never call it dark. its really bright and prensent in the mids in the 2 guitars I have tried it in

[Dave Sloven]

What the Warpigs do have - and I'm guessing this is both models - is a very big booming bottom end.  When I move between guitars (and I think the A-Pig is definitely in the darker guitar, although the mahogany of the SG seems more resonant, perhaps because it is a one-piece body?) is that I have to turn the low dial on the EQ of my Peavey down to compensate for the huge bottom end.

I also wouldn't call the A-Bomb dark at all.  I just think the brighter part of its response is further down the frequency range than what people associate with 'bright' pickups, in the low mids.  The A-Pig is a bit similar except it has that huge bottom end and overall higher output.

I do tend to think that the Warpigs sound darker through my Peavey 6534+ (or other high gain amps) than through your usual Fender clones etc set up for blues and country playing.  I've played it through one of those and it sounds warm and bright, and you could get decent cleans from it.  With the Peavey it seems that the output sends it into overdrive fairly quickly so you never really get a pure clean.  For this reason I'm ordering some Seymour Duncan Triple Shot pickup rings for my Explorer so that I can switch the pickups between series and parallel humbucking and split coil operation.  This should allow me to get a good clean out of the neck pickup somehow.  The issue seems to be the massive output, and having all that output to spare suggests that split and parallel settings will both be very usable.

[Gitarrenschlumpf]

I love the "dark sounding" pickups - since I love stoner rock, doom and sludge. :)

I have a Gibson LP Studio with a Crawler set, a light-weight Ibanez Artist AR2000 with rosewood fingerboard and a Cold Sweat set, a mid-weight Ibanez Artist AR2618 with ebony fingerboard and an A-Pig set and a heavy-weight Ibanez Artist AR350T with Trem, ebony fingerboard and an A-Bomb set.

I was especially skeptical regarding the A-Pig set. The guitar had some Ibanez Super80s (ceramic pickups) with less than perfect wax-potting in it when I bought it. They excelled at a rumbly, growly sound for riffing, but the solo tone was practically unusable. Apart from being microphonic, the magnets were very strong and interfered with the oscillation of the strings.

Afterwards I went with an Emerald set in the guitar - but only for a short while. I'm used to hotter pickups like the Crawler and the A-Bombs and the Emeralds didn't have enough punch for me. In addition, the guitar sounded a bit sterile. I believe it would have been perfect for soaring on top of a mix, but it lacked the vocal quality and growl for laying down a stoner riff.

I had expected the A-Pigs to be a bit muffled and "cold" (as the metal sound sample on the BKP site is somewhat not my taste) but I am pleasantly surprised that they actually sound very vocal and expressive. My at-home-equipment is far from high-gain (Vox Lil' Night Train :) ), but even in its dark gainy mode with the gain set to 2 o'clock the sound is not overly compressed and even cleans up when I roll off the volume. Although, of course, it doesn't get ultra-clean (not in the dark, gainy mode) - but I like just that. :)

[Alex]

I think the Black Dog is quite full on the low end, giving the impression of a dark pickup, but it's not really dark, it still has a lot of PAF character.

The Nailbomb is definitely a bit on the darker side.

None of the BKP however are as hideously unbalanced as the DiMarzio Air Zone.

Would most people here characterise the EMG 81 as a bright pickup?

[darkbluemurder]

I think the Black Dog is quite full on the low end, giving the impression of a dark pickup, but it's not really dark, it still has a lot of PAF character.

The Nailbomb is definitely a bit on the darker side.

I had both the Black Dog and the A-Bomb in the same guitar and the A-Bomb was definitely darker.

Would most people here characterise the EMG 81 as a bright pickup?

Based on my - limited - experience with the EMG 81 I would say it is a rather thin sounding pickup.

Cheers Stephan