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Author Topic: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!  (Read 18472 times)

m t soule

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #15 on: November 02, 2014, 01:18:51 AM »
Of mine the vhii neck is the best.
Really versatile and in my maple neck really bites if I want but stays woody at the same time.
Best cleans I heard on any guitar, the better again through my blackstar.
Hopefully soon I will get to compare the cold sweat neck to it ( if I find a trader for my crawler neck in the classifieds)
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Yellowjacket

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2014, 04:06:46 AM »
Agreed on the VHII neck.  It's really quite a fantastic pickup with a hairy, dynamic blues tone, and a great shred tone buried in there too. 

JimmyMoorby

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #17 on: November 02, 2014, 11:18:11 AM »
VHii neck is fantastic as is the cold sweat much prefer both to the emerald neck i've heard so much about.

lamp

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #18 on: November 02, 2014, 10:12:07 PM »
I've tried quite a few and my 2 favourites are at fairly opposite ends of the spectrum:
Nailbomb and 10th Anniversaries.
The NB is something I didn't think I could ever beat, but the 10th Annis are so sweet that it completely changed my view on lower output/vintage pups. 
TS set - RY neck - ABomb bridge x2 - MQ neck - MMan bridge - MMilk neck - Sinner bridge - PDriver bridge - 10th Anniversary set - VHII bridge

38thBeatle

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #19 on: November 02, 2014, 10:52:45 PM »
I very difficult choice as I have two that I love but I would say that in sheer overall pleasure it has to be my Country Boys. Apart from the guitar being a Tele which is, in my view, probably the most adaptable guitar around, if you love classic Tele then these  are the epitome and so rewarding.
Send three and fourpence we're going to a dance
BKP's: Apache, Country Boy, Slowhands.

AndyR

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2014, 08:12:11 AM »
It changes with time. Depends on what I'm currently trying to achieve (and therefore which guitars I'm playing most, and what I'm playing them through).

This last week it has been Irish Tours in a 60s Roadworn Strat. I'm not sure I've ever felt better about this guitar or the sounds it was making - truly fabulous and enjoyable experience this last couple of days. This was initially headphones off a POD XTlive (haven't used this for guitar for years - I got it out to play bass while watching the TV) and then over the weekend quite loud through a Laney CUB12.

The other pickups/guitars beaten to "favourite" by the ITs in this time were:

2nd - Yardbirds in a Custom Tele
3rd - Mississippi Queens in a Faded SG
4th - Mules in an ES-335

I'm really not in a humbucker mood at the moment! The MQs were just TOO aggressive, but I was getting into them. The Yardbirds were a little too polite, and the guitar needs its nut sorting out - G string has a slight sitar effect that was more noticable than usual - been meaning to sort it out for years... (I have the spare TUSQ nuts for 7.25" Fenders knocking around somewhere).

(Note: Apaches, Sultans, BG Flat 50s (old), and Riff Raffs were not called upon - if the Apache strat had new strings, I think it might have won, same with the BG 50s Tele... but the IT strat just did the job - there was no need to get new strings out!)
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Serratus

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #21 on: November 04, 2014, 08:18:21 AM »
Really hard to choose.....
But the black dog bridge has always been the one I've come back to. When I was doing lots of recording, if I was struggling a bit with guitar tone then I picked up the BD loaded guitar and it always delivered. Just the right amount of fat grinding warm mids, that's what really does it for me. More recently I've also been liking the Holy Diver, which I feel is very similar in voicing to the BD, just a bit hotter. I do like the Emerald bridge too though.......tough choice!
And the Stormy Monday neck is my favourite - warm, creamy, lots of character :)
Bridge: (A)Pig, HD, Jugg, PK, (A)NB, Crawler, Aftermath, RY, Abraxas, Emerald, BD, VHII, RR, Cobra, Sinner, Trilogy, Stockholm, Supermassive.
Neck: IT, SM, CS, Trilogy, Emerald, Cobra, Blue note.

darkbluemurder

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #22 on: November 04, 2014, 09:10:34 AM »
Many good ones there:

- The bridge pickups that stood out to me are (in no particular order) Rebel Yell (in a set neck mahogany), Holydiver (set neck and bolt on necks), Abraxas (bolt-on neck), Crawler (set necks) and Cold Sweat (very fat set neck guitar). They all share enough but not over the top output, articulation, clarity without harshness, and enough mids without ever being bloaty.

- My favorite BKP neck humbucker is the Holydiver (set necks or bolt-ons), again for its clarity. Riff Raff, Black Dog, VHII and Rebel Yell close behind.

Cheers Stephan

Kiichi

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #23 on: November 04, 2014, 08:55:52 PM »
Ok, it is time. Let me put this into three categories:

-bridge: Rebel Yell hands down. Got it in a Ibanez S Series and damn, anything rock is delivered so tight, alive, and punchy, with a screaming midrange and a highend which is present and cutting but extremly overtone rich so never sharp, even in such a light guitar. The most fun PU to riff on and my favorite bridge pickup to play leads on since it does the screaming agressive all out alternative to the neck soooo well and makes Skid Row style pinched harmonics around the 12th during your solo just fly off. A classic sound faithfully brought to modern times. Brilliant.

-neck: Has to be the unpottet 10th Anniversary neck. Got that set in a Epiphone Lucille. The most lush and amazing clean and low gain sounds, absolutly pure and alive. Jazz or bluesy play is an expressive joy I have never had before. Also reacts better to tone and volume than anything else I have tried. Pile on the gain and you may not get a great shred tone, but it breathes that warm Slash mojo. This PU, some gain, Sweet Child O Mine...no words.

-set: Sorry to stirr the unobtainable GAS, but the 10th Set takes it. I was never one for the middle position, but any set that makes me like that has a huge upset. The two just work in such harmony it astounds me still. Thought from the same wood they are very different, but put them together and they just match. Beautiful.


Honorable mention when it comes to sets to the RY with a IT middle. Outer coil split RY with that gives an amazing tele like vibe.
Mule in the neck also deserves a name, before the 10th I think it was still my favorite, forming a set with the RY bridge and IT middle.
BKPs in use: 10th set / RY set / Holy Diver b, Emerald n / Crawler bridge, Slowhand mid MQ neck/ Manhattan n
On the sidelines: Stockholm b / Suppermassive n, Mule n, AM set, IT mid

littleredguitars2

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #24 on: November 04, 2014, 11:27:11 PM »
my 335 should be refretted and fitted with my 10 anniversarys at the end of the week! i can't wait to finally try these guys out.
Juggernauts and 10th anniversaries

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Kiichi

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #25 on: November 05, 2014, 12:39:08 AM »
my 335 should be refretted and fitted with my 10 anniversarys at the end of the week! i can't wait to finally try these guys out.
IŽd say start as clean and vintage as you can. Then slowly pile on the gain and all. The way they change and adapt, yet stay true to themselfs is something you rarely ever find outside vintage pickups imho. The life and responsivness in the ones is something else.

I envy you for getting that fresh experience, cause that is now something I have to chase and not know if I ever catch it. But once that is gone they transform from that fresh, exiting dimension to something you have always knows. Something warm, familiar, reliable, yet never dull, and always showing you new things about yourself as well. Getting the 10th Anniversary set is like meeting an best friend for the first time.


Disclaimer: I have been spending too much time on writing English papers in the last weeks and this might affect my writing style...so take this with a grain of salt. I do mean what I say, but some expression might be interpreted as stronger as I meant them. Or not. GOD THIS LINGUISTIC AND SEMANTIC STUFF IS DRIVING ME INSANE.

WHY CAN`T I JUST SEE WORDS AS WORDS ANYMORE....HELP!

I am drawing lines in the sand in a tsunami...or something.

Sorry about that.
BKPs in use: 10th set / RY set / Holy Diver b, Emerald n / Crawler bridge, Slowhand mid MQ neck/ Manhattan n
On the sidelines: Stockholm b / Suppermassive n, Mule n, AM set, IT mid

AndyR

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2014, 07:49:25 AM »
:grin:

Actually making me regret not going for a 10th Anniversary set myself...
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Kiichi

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #27 on: November 05, 2014, 08:42:39 PM »
:grin:

Actually making me regret not going for a 10th Anniversary set myself...
Ah sorry about that. But the Stormy Monday is not far away from the 10th from what I gather, less hot though. Little closer to the strings and you should not be miles away I recon. It certainly also sounds stellar for classic rock sounds and is often overlooked just like the PG, cause everyone loves the Mule so much (not that there is no reason for that).

I am just waiting for the day when I get hired by BKP to write ads and descriptions for them. Finance my guitar habit while studying. Ahhh dreams. xD
BKPs in use: 10th set / RY set / Holy Diver b, Emerald n / Crawler bridge, Slowhand mid MQ neck/ Manhattan n
On the sidelines: Stockholm b / Suppermassive n, Mule n, AM set, IT mid

AndyR

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2014, 10:10:40 PM »
I'd heard that too (SMs close to 10th). And I must admit that the Stormies are calling to me - just took delivery yesterday of the box set of The Allman Brothers complete Fillmore East 1971 recordings (where the "Stormy Monday" reference is hiding) ... I am officially back in Les Paul and SG land after talking about strats earlier in this thread!

My Mules moved from my Tokai Love Rock into my Gibson 335 a couple of years ago, and the Love Rock has been thinking "am I a Black Dogs, or an Abraxas, or a Duane Allman (Stormy Monday) kinda geetar" ever since... It already has AIIs in it (the 335's Classic 50s or whatever they're called), and that makes it quite pleasant but not so "airy" as it was with the Mules... I think we may have an answer forming here :cool:

So far, for humbuckers, Mules have been my favourite BKP (I have Riff Raffs as well), but with my increasing yearning for "vintage" vibes from all my guitars, I suspect that Stormies might actually suit me even more...
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littleredguitars2

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Re: Your favorite BKP and why. GO!
« Reply #29 on: November 06, 2014, 12:13:45 PM »
Juggernauts and 10th anniversaries

www.youtube.com/user/littleredguitars2