Rebel Yells......or go for the Crawlers?

[ptgold]

Yes another which one thread I know....but I need your help guys because Im almost there I think!  Ive done alot of research on these for two but I still cant decide so Im going to give my personal situation and ask straight up.

Ive never used BK pickups.  The only boutique aftermarkets Ive used are Wagners (which I supremely love!).  I currently use a set of Godwoods (paf on steroids) in one of my LPs and was actually going to get another set of those but wanted to try another winder so why not Bareknuckles.

Anyways Im about to buy a new set of pickups for my new 68 RI LP Custom and have actually always wanted to get a set of Rebel Yells....for like....forever.

 HOWEVER, the fact that I only jam occasionally  and usually play alone and do some casual recording in my home studio has me looking at the Crawlers which Ive read are similar but with a sweeter high end.  One Rebel Yell owner told me that the RYs sound incredible in a mix but arent as pleasurable playing by yourself which is what I mostly do.  Im weary that the RYs arent thick and fat enough for the tones I like (High Gain blues rock, Hard Rock, Progressive, Gilmour etc.)

I suppose this is due to the high mid brightness and subdued low end response which alot of players like when playing alone?

I really love the tone on the clips of both the Crawlers and Rebel Yells but I tend to gravitate my tone towards the low mids which the Crawlers seem to have alot of.  Anyways,  anybody else in a similar situtation who doesnt gig but enjoys the Rebel Yells?  Are they thick and fat enough or should I just get the Crawlers?

[Slartibartfarst42]

The Rebel Yell and Crawler are very different pickups. One is brighter, tighter and more modern in its voice while the other is darker, fatter and richer. I play in a band and the Crawler cuts through just fine. I get the impression that you'd love the Crawler but I'm worried it will be too dark if your Les Paul is naturally dark. I'd suggest taking a close look at the Abraxas, which is similar to the Crawler in many ways but a bit brighter.

[Kiichi]

The Rebel Yell and Crawler are very different pickups. One is brighter, tighter and more modern in its voice while the other is darker, fatter and richer. I play in a band and the Crawler cuts through just fine. I get the impression that you'd love the Crawler but I'm worried it will be too dark if your Les Paul is naturally dark. I'd suggest taking a close look at the Abraxas, which is similar to the Crawler in many ways but a bit brighter.

Yeah, Slarti hit it on the head again.

Crawlers are great, but sit better in bright guitars like strats and less good in dark ones like LPs. Can add body to any axe really, but if the body is already there it can become too much.

On the oposite end is the RY which can make any axe come alive (plus this babe is made for LPs) but can be overkill in very bright guitars such as strats.

Abraxas should be a great in between though.

[ptgold]

My LP Custom definitely isnt dark as its pretty balanced and clear but it does have cannon like bass already so I see how you say that the Crawler could be a problem there, but I also dont want it to be brighter as its just fine as it is for me.

An Abraxas huh? sounds interesting...had never even thought of that pickup as it doesnt get talked about much anywhere.
Just did a quick search and there doesnt seem to be much info on google about it or reviews except here.  Im going to go ahead and read the reviews here and contemplate.  Oh nooo...more confusion now  :lol:

Do you have experience with the Abraxas? Anyone care to share your thoughts?

Thanks guys! 

[Dave Sloven]

I really love the tone on the clips of both the Crawlers and Rebel Yells but I tend to gravitate my tone towards the low mids which the Crawlers seem to have alot of.  Anyways,  anybody else in a similar situtation who doesnt gig but enjoys the Rebel Yells?  Are they thick and fat enough or should I just get the Crawlers?

I'm not sure what this guy has them in, but I've never read a bad word about RYs in a Les Paul, especially a darker one.  If that's what you've been wanting I'd say go for it.  Gilmour plays a Strat, doesn't he?  That's a pretty bright sound, and I think you'd need something like a RY to get a Les Paul close to it.  Probably a decent phaser too, something like the EVH Phase 90 with the script switch.  The rest of what you list I think it would probably work well for, given the guitar it's going in.

[ptgold]

Alright so after thinking it over a little bit more I think Ive decided to go with them both in a combo of Crawler neck RY bridge in my LP.

Ive read good things about the Crawler neck.  These should fit well together, what do you guys think?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm perhaps not the best one to comment as I sent my Crawler neck back but kept the Crawler bridge and I've never had a Rebel Yell. The Crawler neck was just too soft and lacked enough cut for me. It's strange because a lot of what you describe as liking/wanting is a Crawler yet you seem determined to get a Rebel Yell, which is very different. I still feel that the Abraxas would be a good compromise between the two, for the bridge at least. Have you asked Tim?

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah Crawler neck and RY bridge sounds like a bit of a funny combo to me.  I would tend to go for a calibrated set, either Crawler or RY, as I doubt that they play well together.  In general the calibrated sets are very well matched, in other cases what you are really relying on is guesswork.  Generally if the bridge from a set works in certain guitar then the neck will too.  With mix-and-match sets this might happen, but it might not.  There are some other neck pickups that have worked well with the Rebel Yell bridge - maybe the VHII neck? or the Emerald? - but the Crawler seems like something very different.

You could always try one set and if you hated it send it back for the other one.  That said, if you live a long way from the UK like me doing that within the specified period is a bit unrealistic.  Often you need quite a while to make up your mind, especially if you are inexperienced at adjusting heights etc like I was when I got my first (unmatched) set.  It took me a couple of months to decide that I would have been better off with a Cold Sweat set, rather than a Cold Sweat neck and Nailbomb bridge.

[richard]

Two very different pickups. I think the Crawler will be way too smooth to match with an RY bridge. The RY neck compliments the bridge pickup perfectly.

[ptgold]

Ok so after thoroughly going over my setup with my LP and going back and forth with my other guitars Ive come to the realization that the guitar does sound quite dark.  Which leads me to believe that I probably shouldnt install dark sounding pickups with too much bass as the bass response on the guitar is quite big already....Im actually going to have to tame it some to tell you the truth.  So the Crawler I guess wont be a good choice for this specific guitar.

I guess its going to go down to the Abraxas or RYs.  Im going to email Mills to see what he says

[littleredguitars2]

yeah ya know, i was thinking the same thing as you man. i'll be throwing some rebel yells in my LP soon. from what i'm told, the abraxus has a great vintage tone similar to the mules but with more output.

[Telerocker]

The Abraxas is smoother than the in your face Rebel Yell. High mids and topend are more agressive/cutting. Of course you can tame that on your amp and tweak the height for the best position. If your LP is quite dark, the RY could fit the bill.

[fps_dean]

The Rebel Yell and Crawler are very different pickups. One is brighter, tighter and more modern in its voice while the other is darker, fatter and richer. I play in a band and the Crawler cuts through just fine. I get the impression that you'd love the Crawler but I'm worried it will be too dark if your Les Paul is naturally dark. I'd suggest taking a close look at the Abraxas, which is similar to the Crawler in many ways but a bit brighter.

I've heard recordings of Crawlers in a Les Paul and it sounds great!  With a maple topped Les Paul, they should be fine but if it's one of those solid mahogany bodied Les Pauls without a maple top, I wouldn't suggest Crawlers though because they may be too dark and muddy.  For pickups with a decent output they have a great clean sound as well.  I'm not sure that the specific tone works for me though.

I have Rebel Yells in my Les Paul.  After trying about 50 different pickups in that guitar, those were the ones that finally stuck for me.  While they're not metal pickups by any means, they do absolutely scream.  They're very bright, and cut through the mix very well.  The sounds a little more in your face.  From what I gather an ebony fretboard should make them scream even more (I have rosewood, all I could afford in a Les Paul).

I hear good things about the Abraxas too and they sound like something I'd really like as well (vintage humbuckers with more output), but I haven't got a chance to use them myself.

[darkandrew]

Just to throw the cat among the pigeons, the Crawler set might actually be what you're after. The bridge does indeed have quite a lot of low mids but below that it rolls off quite quickly so that it has less deep lows than a lot of other similar pickups. This frequency roll off is also mirrored at the top end so that although the pickup has sweet, delicate highs it has no shrillness what so ever. It wasn't a sound that I knew I wanted until I got the Crawlers but after some deliberating I've now come to the conclusion that I really quite like it.

The neck, on the other hand, is quite different. It's described as being very traditional and it really does have a silky smooth tone to it, whilst it can't match the clarity of a single coil pickup it is probably as close as you're going to get to the sound of single coil neck pickup with the tone rolled down in a humbucker and would actually manage a half decent job of doing those Gilmor style solos. For what it's worth, the sound clips on the BKP website are pretty spot on.

[fps_dean]

Just to throw the cat among the pigeons, the Crawler set might actually be what you're after. The bridge does indeed have quite a lot of low mids but below that it rolls off quite quickly so that it has less deep lows than a lot of other similar pickups. This frequency roll off is also mirrored at the top end so that although the pickup has sweet, delicate highs it has no shrillness what so ever. It wasn't a sound that I knew I wanted until I got the Crawlers but after some deliberating I've now come to the conclusion that I really quite like it.

The neck, on the other hand, is quite different. It's described as being very traditional and it really does have a silky smooth tone to it, whilst it can't match the clarity of a single coil pickup it is probably as close as you're going to get to the sound of single coil neck pickup with the tone rolled down in a humbucker and would actually manage a half decent job of doing those Gilmor style solos. For what it's worth, the sound clips on the BKP website are pretty spot on.

What he said about the neck... all the clean clips I've heard have been excellent!  Very smooth and clear.  I wouldn't mind getting a guitar with a single neck pickup just to throw a Crawler neck in it...