Polymath... and prices

[blackstrat]

I’m wondering how the Polymath bridge might pair with a Mule neck? I’m thinking the Mule would give me a cleaner clearer sound which isn’t wooly or bass heavy as I tend to like a P90 or very clear tone in this position, and then the Polymath would give me that hotter chunkier bridge tone.

So I’ve just installed the Polymath neck today replacing a Stormy Monday, I actually had the Mule neck in the same guitar, all with nickel covers.
I always felt the Mule was very bassy (perhaps it just doesn’t mix well with this particular guitar) and it had rather slow/chewy pick response. (I LOVE the Mule bridge though).

The Polymath neck definitely has a faster pick attack. I didn’t notice any excessive/boomy bass, the tone is rather warm but with excellent clarity and string separation. With PAF-style pickups I often tilt the high strings side much higher to balance the sound, but with this pickup not so much.
I was afraid it might overpower the Polymath bridge (I’m used to neck pickups in 7-8k range), but it’s actually not that hot, output-wise it balance perfectly with the bridge pickup. I also really like the 2nd-4th position sound, very chimey. Definitely more usable than before. The lead sound with gain is very liquid and violin-like. The tone match/contrast really well with the bridge pickup. Overall very impressed with these pickup set.

[jyym]

I’m wondering how the Polymath bridge might pair with a Mule neck? I’m thinking the Mule would give me a cleaner clearer sound which isn’t wooly or bass heavy as I tend to like a P90 or very clear tone in this position, and then the Polymath would give me that hotter chunkier bridge tone.

So I’ve just installed the Polymath neck today replacing a Stormy Monday, I actually had the Mule neck in the same guitar, all with nickel covers.
I always felt the Mule was very bassy (perhaps it just doesn’t mix well with this particular guitar) and it had rather slow/chewy pick response. (I LOVE the Mule bridge though).

The Polymath neck definitely has a faster pick attack. I didn’t notice any excessive/boomy bass, the tone is rather warm but with excellent clarity and string separation. With PAF-style pickups I often tilt the high strings side much higher to balance the sound, but with this pickup not so much.
I was afraid it might overpower the Polymath bridge (I’m used to neck pickups in 7-8k range), but it’s actually not that hot, output-wise it balance perfectly with the bridge pickup. I also really like the 2nd-4th position sound, very chimey. Definitely more usable than before. The lead sound with gain is very liquid and violin-like. The tone match/contrast really well with the bridge pickup. Overall very impressed with these pickup set.

could you go over your wiring schema?  is one reverse polarity?

[Ventanaman]

I’m wondering how the Polymath bridge might pair with a Mule neck? I’m thinking the Mule would give me a cleaner clearer sound which isn’t wooly or bass heavy as I tend to like a P90 or very clear tone in this position, and then the Polymath would give me that hotter chunkier bridge tone.

So I’ve just installed the Polymath neck today replacing a Stormy Monday, I actually had the Mule neck in the same guitar, all with nickel covers.
I always felt the Mule was very bassy (perhaps it just doesn’t mix well with this particular guitar) and it had rather slow/chewy pick response. (I LOVE the Mule bridge though).

The Polymath neck definitely has a faster pick attack. I didn’t notice any excessive/boomy bass, the tone is rather warm but with excellent clarity and string separation. With PAF-style pickups I often tilt the high strings side much higher to balance the sound, but with this pickup not so much.
I was afraid it might overpower the Polymath bridge (I’m used to neck pickups in 7-8k range), but it’s actually not that hot, output-wise it balance perfectly with the bridge pickup. I also really like the 2nd-4th position sound, very chimey. Definitely more usable than before. The lead sound with gain is very liquid and violin-like. The tone match/contrast really well with the bridge pickup. Overall very impressed with these pickup set.

I completely agree with this assessment. The Polymath set is great option for mid-gain and hard rock tones with excellent clarity and string separation. I think metal players will be underwhelmed by the output and lack of compression, but they shouldn’t be. These are in fact positives and can create extremely tight, percussive tones. I pout a set in a EBMM Axis (and switched to a 250K EVH volume pot since there is no tone circuit, and I am very impressed. FWIW - I think it also works great with a Mule neck if you have 5-way switch. Classic, punk, grunge, and hard rock players should definitely give it try!

[RobAbrams84]

...I'm sure Brexit/pandemic/nickel shortage are contributing factors, but at what point does "because we can" become detrimental to customers? £250-£300, pricey but worth it if you never have to buy another set of pickups for that guitar again. But £350 to £400?

Over here in the States Bare Knuckles have always been expensive, but with the most recent price hikes, they've really become prohibitively so in my opinion.  It's a shame, but I find myself looking to other quality builders (Suhr is another personal favorite of mine) that are almost half the price.  If we could walk into a store and audition a dozen different pickups and then walk out with the one set that we like the most I wouldn't mind paying more, but it gets too expensive and too time consuming to go through a few sets trying to find exactly the right one. 

All music gear prices have skyrocketed over the past two years, though, and don't show signs of dropping ever again.  It's unfortunate.

[blackstrat]

could you go over your wiring schema?  is one reverse polarity?

I ordered the neck pickup with reverse magnet, since it is going into a dual humbucker guitar with 5-way switch.
So my wiring scheme is basically PRS 5-way blade wiring (bridge HB, bridge HB+neck outer coil, both HB, bridge+neck outer coil, neck HB). I compared inner coil vs outer coil and I found the outer coil combinations to have more chime so I went with that.  I recently added a push pull tone pot for “partial split” based on PRS DGT schema (2.2k resistor for bridge, 1.1k for neck), the split tone is great, the split bridge in particular is very tele-like with only a slight drop in output. I’m curious to try the parallel sound, but haven’t had the time to rewire the guitar.