Review: Abraxas set

[metale]

As a side note: Have anyone experienced them being too dark? I can imagine them being maybe a tad dark in a really dark and heavy Les Paul, but again; they are very balanced pickups, not any lack of top end but certainly not too much either.

I do. My fault though. I currently have my bridge Abraxas on a dark guitar (heavy, all mahogany, Dean Hardtail prs-ish model). When I had it with 12-54s tuned to drop C the guitar sounded sooo nice acousticaly but when plugged in I was always reaching for the tone pot, trying to max it out.

No the guitar is tuned to drop D with 11-52s and it sounds better (more open) but the tone pot is still unused, always on 10.

This is to be expected IMO.

[Dave Sloven]

That sounds like when I had Warpigs in my Explorer.  I even installed a volume bypass but it was still too dark.  They are fine in my SG

[metale]

I'll still try to improve it with a quality wiring loom, as pots and caps are still stock.

[Slartibartfarst42]

What value pots are they? Trying 550k pots would be my first port of call as I can't see why you'd need more than that with Abraxas pickups, but there's always the option of going with 1 meg pots. I'd expect that to be overkill on an Abraxas though.

[metale]

I expect them to be 500K but may be on the lower side of the variation/tolerance. 550K will be what I aim for, and probably .015 caps.

[Alfi27]

Yeah, I would not go with anything less than the 550k with the Abraxas' even in the DC, which is not a particularly dark guitar. The pickups arrived at BKP yesterday and they should go out today according to Ben. I will probably have them by the end of next week, cannot wait to enjoy the guitar again! Really excited to hear the split tones. Will also get a new amp today, the Fargen Mighty Plex MKII. The Abraxas' should sound nothing less than extraordinary with the amp! Stay tuned!

[richard]

You're on the road to Tone Heaven.....

[Scotty477]

Abraxas may be on the horizon for me as well - possibly 

[Alfi27]

You're on the road to Tone Heaven.....

Yeah I believe so as well! This amp is more Marshall than any amp I have ever owned, and I have owned a few Marshalls as well.. Cannot wait to try it with the Abraxas'! I think I want to start a NAD-thread to not go too much off topic, but here is a photo nevertheless:

[fdesalvo]

Dude - this pickup is the best I've ever played.  Splits amazingly well - just sparkles.  It's tight enough for most metal apps and isn't over saturated/compressed, where it would lose dynamics.  It also does everything below high gain extremely well.  I am so happy this pickup is gaining momentum.  People have no idea how musical this pickup is.

[Sothoth]

It's funny, the Abraxis is rarely recommended on this forum, but of all the humbuckers I've tried from BKP, it's by far my favorite.  It is low enough output that it handles cleans and light distortion/OD, but high enough output to really push my amp into a STUNNING sounding natural overdrive.  It's like the best of all words.  Probably not for some extreme metal styles but those aren't much for me anyway.

Thanks for the review and for making me feel like I'm not the only one here who loves them that much :)

[fdesalvo]

You nailed it perfectly. They are keeping it low key, so they can sell their other pickups ;).

[darkbluemurder]

Nice review on one of my favorite BKPs. Loved especially the bridge pickup in every guitar I had it in, and the set is great in the Tele Gib. It is rare that the first set of pickups I put in a guitar is the final one but in that case it is. I have no desire to change them.

Cheers Stephan

[Alfi27]

Alright, finally got the pickups back after over one week without any updates on the tracking... They sound exactly as sweet as I remember! I actually had this crazy idea about selling the guitar if the pickups turned out to be lost in the mail, because I was even more crazy yesterday and bought an almost brand new Gibson R0   

So, how are the split tones? First of all, the push pull pot kind of makes up for not having the regular 2v/2t Les Paul setup. I usually just use one tone with quite a lot of gain, and I use the volume knob(s) for cleaning up. The push pull is definitely really effective in that regard, and it is actually an advantage that the output drops a bit.

I find it really hard to describe the tones with words. It is not quite the same as a real singlecoil but it certainly adds quite a lot to the tonal palette with some really nice clean and lighter driven tones. Splitting the bridge pickup with some gain sounds really cool for some "garage rock" types of tones, little bit Tele-esque. For my use though, the split won't be quite as much used and kind of overshadowed by the star of the show: the bridge pickup in full humbucking mode with some drive! It can not be emphasized enough really, I even used the guitar at band practice tonight and that driven, raw tone was easily audible in the band mix, cutting right through like a knife!

Safe to say, the guitar ain't going anywhere! I think I'm gonna have to get rid of one of my Juniors instead (definitely not the DC)... Oh well. The R0 will probably get a set of Rebel Yells, another 2000 words review incoming! Cheers 

[Kiichi]

RY review inc? YEEEEEES!