Why did you pick your BKP single coils?

[Piplodocus]

I'm currently on PCP (pickup choosing procrastination). I'm thinking I want the lower output side than my current ones I own. But have gone through pondering everything from slow hands to apaches as they excel at slightly different stuff. So I figure lets forget all those preconceptions, especially since I'll no doubt buy more single coils too at another point for another guitar and I'd come at pickup selection from a totally different angle... So, clear your mind of all that and just post why you chose the model SCs you chose, what style(s) you play, why you chose them, if you had any particular artist in mind as a benchmark, what guitar it is and if you wonder if another choice would be more appropriate. Can be relatively short and sweet, but figure it'd be nice to work from a "what's each pcikups strong point" perspective. So not what I should buy, but why did you buy yours... :)

(This if for an HSS set, but try to ignore that too and any matching/balance considerations...)

[clemthewest]

I know P90s aren't the first pickups you'd think of when asked about single coils, but I own a pair of Mississippi Queens in a home-made alder/maple guitar.

I suppose their reputation precedes them, and I initially picked them as a big Muse fan when I started building the guitar as a teen.

Though I've moved on to other kinds of music, i must say I'd rather build a whole other guitar to try some other pickups rather than replace them!

To make it brief(ish), they are just full of character. I'm gonna cite a lot of pieces here, but I think it's a good way to get an idea.
Neck pickup sounds like the most deliciously overwound strat (clean at 3:15 in Muse's Darkshines), really woody and sweet.
Bridge is snarly as heck, in such a good way, you can get almost any heavy tone from crunchy (beginning guitar, Queens of the Stone Age live Belfort 2005) to thrashy (Thee Oh Sees - Web).
And middle position gets just the same tone as 3:05 in Muse's Micro Cuts.

If there's one thing I'd still like a bit of, it's the heaviness and thickness that a humbucker can offer. This is probably because I play a lot of Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zeppelin and stuff like that at the moment.

But apart from that, I still love the versatility with the MQs. You can imitate just anything that you listen to with a certain degree of precision.


Good luck with your quest!

[Piplodocus]

I thought QOTSA had a lot of P-90s tbh! Sounds like your MQ is a slightly lower output equivalent to my supermassive. The guitar in my avatar has that in the middle. Works well in that the Nailbomb has this thicker kinda heavy compression, best for the heavy stuff. The Supermassive then doesn't have quite the same chunky fatness but does great as an alternative more full-range heavy, great with fuzz, and does a certain beautiful bluesy thing with lower gain and a touch less volume (basically as you say, like a fat overwound single coil). Being in the middle (and actually biased slightly neck-wards due to the single coil being narrower than the humbucker helps that kinda tone too. Then there's the mothers milk neck which just does a classic strat-like sound that neither of the others can do.

Unfortunately I wasn't planing on another P-90 as I kinda did that with that last guitar (although it was a very successful endeavour, so at least repeating it wouldn't be a bad thing!), and so was going for a standard size SC. Since you mention P-90s though and I like that plan overall I'll say I  have been pondering at points to half-mimic it again in this by going very classic/vintage neck, and putting in a slowhand or trilogy suite or the like (maybe with a baseplate) in the middle to give me a similar P-90ish middle selection. I'm trying to make this different though so have been back to the plan of same neck and middle again recently to get the position 4 quack for all my duckcore songs. I'd love to buy another guitar to put a proper pair of bridge/neck P-90s in something though. I play with quite a lot of gain at points though and I don't like noise gates so an all P-90 may be not-quite-suitable for quite a a bit of my stuff, but I'd certainly recommend people try some P-90s if they never have. It's not that bad and I can deal with it mostly, but with my usual full gain it's defo noticeably noisier than the NB. I spent a long time choosing between the MQ and SM. The SM is possibly a fraction high on output compared to my NB. I'm not massively fussed from the style/way I play though and it sounds so nice I'm scared to adjust the height in case it doesn't sound as good lower and lose the magic point! LOL. In all seriousness though I set it up and it just sounded so sweet I haven't messed with the height from where they just 'looked about right' and I probably should.  :)

[Telerocker]

Irish Tours:

In a swampashstrat with maple neck/ebony board. I wanted something vintage but with a tad more bass, mids and less topend compared to Pat Pend series and the Mother's Milk. Worked out fine in my guitar that has fullness but also snap/percussiveness due to the ebony. The more woody and brighter Mother's Milk would be too snappy, I presumed.

Another reason is that they matched the Crawler in the bridgeposition. Splitted the Crawler provides good F-quack, combined with the middle-IT.

A third reason: IT's rock in vintage way. They handle gain very good.  I like that.

Fourth: I like Rory, but I know that's just nonsens, you have to pick a pickup that fits the guitar.


Why didn't I pick Slowhands? They have to much mids for my taste. I want RHCP and SRV from my neckpickup. IT's do that very nice.

I also own Mother's Milk, which are in an ash strat with a VHII in the bridge. The MM's are good in that guitar, but not excellent. I think that particular guitar needs a bit more bass and output from the singles. I feel I have should have picked IT's again. Nevertheless, I like the woody, bell-like character of the MM-neckpickup. I love single coils with that early sixties vibe/voicing.

For the rest, amps/cabs/speakerchoice can make quite a difference. By example, through a Redplate Blackverb Duo any single coil can sound huge and bold, but whimpy through a lot of other amps. Talking stagevolume here.