Replacement Pickups for my Gibson SG: BKP PIG 90 / Mini Lace Nitro Hemi

[hussamj]

Ok, so I've narrowed down my options to these two pickups for my Gibson SG special that's got P90 sized pickups. I play modern hard rock / groove/nu metal type stuff and band is tuned to drop A#. I'm mainly a rhythm player and looking to beef up my currently weak stock pickups. Any input about which pickups would suit the SG best would be appreciated!

Hussam

[Dave Sloven]

Seriously I'd say have a closer look at the Stockholm.  I think it has more edge to its sound than a Pig '90 and might suit those styles better.  It has heaps of output.

See this thread.

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=32528.0

I have one in an SG Junior and I've had it as low as C standard, no problems.  Drop A# is C standard with the low string dropped a step, so I think it will probably be fine as long as your low string is a heavy enough gauge (58+)

[hussamj]

Agent orange...you sold me on the Stockholms as soon as I read machine head in the other post 🤘🏻, my all-time favorite metal band. I'll go with those then. You recommend for both bridge and neck? I think I'm stuck on the pigs because of the high output but I probably don't need all that and modern voicing is what I'm looking for. Thanks man, you delivered once again for me!

[hussamj]

Also...BKP pig90 page states that the pig90 works well with guitars that are trebely and could use some high end taming, which the SG is. That's why I leaned more towards the Pigs...but stockholms it is...

[Dave Sloven]

In an SG with two pickups I would go Stockholm bridge & Supermassive neck.

SGs have a tendency for the neck to dominate the bridge unless the neck pickup is considerably lower in output.  The Supermassive set is basically an underwound version of the Stockholm.  A lot of people have used this Stockholm/Supermassive combo and liked it.  In the old days when Supermassive was a regular P-90 only and the Stockholm was a humbucker-sized P-90 people had to ask for one of them to be custom made but thankfully now they are in both formats

[hussamj]

Ok, I'll go with that combo then. It's interesting you say that about the SG bridge and neck pickup relationship. That's one of the first things that stood out to me when I switched between both of the mini-humbuckers. The neck pickup seemed to over power the bridge or just didn't feel like the natural bridge/neck relationship in my other guitars. Something felt "off" but couldn't put my finger on it. Another thing was how light the guitar is! Lightest guitar I've ever played I think....and the thick beefy neck was another feature I surprisingly like a lot! I feel more in control of my playing for some reason...that was unexpected, I didn't think I'd like it that much...can't wait to have the stockholm/supermassive p90s in there!

[Dave Sloven]

What kind of SG is it?

If it is the Classic - which I suspect from your description of the neck - it would have the pickguard mounted pickups.  If not, e.g., if it is a '50s Tribute, it will have the screw in mounting.

The problem here is that the BKP soapbar baseplates don't work with the pickguard mounting adapter used in the Classic and the other large pickguard SGs with soapbar P-90s.  There are rivets right where the screws for the mount would go.  You could contact BKP quickly and ask them if they would modify the baseplate to be like those in the Classics, or you could do what I did with my Junior - convert it to a screw into wood mounting.

If this is the case with your SG let me know and I can give you details on the mounting.  If you go for the direct mount you might eventually want to change the pickguard as you would have four empty holes.  Some pickguard manufacturers offer Classic pickguards with those holes deleted as this is a popular modification

EDIT: Oh, scratch that, I realize now that you have the '70s tribute with minis ... you will be fine.  They have a plate in the bottom of each pickup cavity that works with either a mini hum or a screw in P-90 soapbar

You should see these in the bottoms of your pickup cavities.  The P-90s screw into the two centre holes.

[hussamj]

Excellent, yeah it is a 70s tribute and was advertised as switchable between minis and p90s. Appreciate the input.

Cheers!

[Dave Sloven]

No worries.

While you have the pickups out I would look at doing some shielding.  You will find that valuable with high-output P-90s.  I shielded the pickup cavity, control cavity, pickguard, control cavity cover, and made sure the shield went down the channel so that it was continuous and added a hard wire ground screwed into the cavity wall (and painted over with conductive paint and then soldered to the back of the volume pot.

Specs on the harness were:

Modern Style SG Junior Harness With Bleed Kit
1x .033uf K7 (Russian) Cap
2x 500k Mojo CTS pots
1x Switchcraft Jack

You will obviously need 4 pots and 2 caps.  I would recommend a slightly brighter cap for the neck, e.g. a 0.022uf



You'll find that besides metal you can also get old school hardcore punk sounds out of the Stockholm, much like you would from the Nantucket.  Just depends on amp EQ and playing style, really.  Here's a video of me playing my SG Junior in my old band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00dCDi_HQc