What do you mean? It just sounds like an unplugged clean electric sound. The stock pickups are decent but i just want more clarity and a little more output but still be able to be versatile
Well, as mentioned earlier in the thread, each guitar has it's own acoustic sound unplugged and no one guitar sounds alike to another.
Here is an example I uploaded in another thread. The first guitar is a 24 fret 24 3/4 scale mahogany body and neck, with a bolt on neck and rosewood fingerboard.
The second is a Les Paul, 22 fret 24 3/4 scale mahogany set neck with a weight relieved mahogany body (They drilled holes in it), a maple top, and a rosewood fingerboard.
https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=31283.msg402937#msg402937I would guess that a basswood body / maple neck would most likely yield a brighter tone than either of these guitars.
How is your guitar currently set up? How high are the pickups? You can raise output by raising the pickups so that they are closer to the strings, this also decreases string definition which is why you want BKP.
The overwound Ceramic pickups are the C-Pig (Ceramic Warpig) and that would give tonnes of output and split nicely but wouldn't work so well for church music.
I have two different amps, a Dual Rectifier which I have used for heavy punk pop tones / metal tones now, and a Mesa Boogie Electra Dyne which works well for church music. They're both very different amps, especially in terms of frequency curves and response.
The Recto is dynamic for a high gain head but it is terribly compressed compared to the Electra Dyne. The Electra Dyne is very dynamic i.e. play quiet and get clean / play hard and get crunch. I find what works for one style is really a compromise for the other and it is often a very frustrating balancing act.
Now, you're not playing metal so here's the thing: I've dialed in a great punk / pop tone on both my Electra Dyne and my Recto. With the recto, I dial BACK the volume knob to reduce output on my Rebel Yell. This gives that nice round, smooth, and complex crunch tone i.e. that 'BAAWWW BAWWW' sound used for punk. As I turn the output up, the amp gets much hairier and starts to sound more nu - metal, or vintage Death Metal.
I've gotten punk - ish tones from the stock pickups in the Les Paul as well as a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro bridge pickup. The lower output pickups are often sweeter, more dynamic, and crunchier than the high output ones are.
We're talking very different guitars than what you have, so do bear that in mind. That aside, the 'punky' tones on the Electra Dyne are with the mids slightly scooped and the volume (Gain) up quite high on 'Vintage High Gain'. Vintage Low does more vintage tones while the Vintage HI sounds more modern, like a Roaring Marshall.
Two different amps, two different approaches, similar results. The Recto does sound more MEAN and is probably closer to what you're going for.
The Painkiller is an overwhelmingly upper mid heavy pickup, at least according to what the website says. I would hesitate to use it in a maple neck / basswood body guitar as it would probably sound very bright. Again, compare YOUR guitar to the two guitars I recorded. The first is very dark with a focus in the low mids, the second is very mid mid focused with phat lows that are not overpowering. It has an 'acoustic guitar' resonance to the sound.
IF you want a tight, clear, and powerful bridge pickup, there is always the Warpig. That will provide a phat and overwound sound with huge lows, but it might not be as versatile as you would like.
To give you an idea of which bridge pickups I'd match with my two guitars. The first one (THe GOdin LG) would most likely take a Rebel Yell or a Painkiller. The Second (Gibson Les Paul) would take a Nailbomb and, in fact, I have one on order right now.
As I say to everyone, email Ben. BKP has great service and he can help nail down what you're looking for.
