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Author Topic: Fakes?  (Read 6344 times)

adamrhowe1998

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Fakes?
« on: May 17, 2022, 10:48:34 AM »
I bought a set of miracle man pickups second-hand on reverb and installed them. However they dont sound at all like I expected. I thought they were supposed to be high output, bright and tight but these are bassy, fizzy, medium output and flabby.

I was using some cheap 80s Select by EMG pickups in the same guitar previously and, with the same amp settings, had a noticable drop in output once I changed to the BKP. and palm muting sounds fizzy.
Or am I just imagining this? I heard they are supposed to be very similar to EMG 81 but Ive never used one so cant compare. Do they come in alnico and ceramic options? Perhaps these are alnico?

They do have the bareknuckle backplate and the vintage-style braided wire as expected though. How feasible is it that someone has just bought some cheapo pickups and then swapped the back plate over?

Guitar is an all mahogany 80s Washburn if that matters.

Thanks

darrenw5094

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2022, 01:14:30 PM »
Could be something other than miracle man bkp as the don't label them
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timmy_pix

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2022, 11:00:48 AM »
That someone would swap a BKP backplate onto another pickup is extremely unlikely - that would involve dismantling a genuine BKP, which would be pointless, for no apparent gain.

Two factors are at play here.

Firstly, your expectations - while the voice of the Miracle Man is not dissimilar to a scooped EMG, they will still feel very different. High output for BKP is still not going to be as high output or compressed as an EMG, as EMGs are in effect a weak pickup with a strong pre-amp attached.

Secondly, it sounds like you don't have a set of Miracle Man (Miracle Men?). BKP don't label their pickups, so unless you buy them new, you have no certain way of knowing what pickup you've got. Someone could have been mistaken previously or mis-sold them and passed that information to you, but what you're describing doesn't sound like the MMs. It also means you have no way of proving to the seller you got them from that they're *not* Miracle Men, so you're probably best selling them on as unknown BKPs with as much information as you can gather.

If you have a multimeter, take readings of the DC resistance and see if they're close to any of the stated figures on the website, as that might help narrow it down. Similarly, if you can take pictures and send them to the BKP team, sometimes the height or thickness of the coil can be the clue they need to identify them for you.
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Chris Rowberry

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2022, 02:07:20 PM »
Hi,

As mentioned, please do send in some pictures of the pickups to Chris@bareknucklepickups.co.uk along with a multimetre reading as this will help a lot.

ericsabbath

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2022, 03:23:54 PM »
That someone would swap a BKP backplate onto another pickup is extremely unlikely - that would involve dismantling a genuine BKP, which would be pointless, for no apparent gain.

Two factors are at play here.

Firstly, your expectations - while the voice of the Miracle Man is not dissimilar to a scooped EMG, they will still feel very different. High output for BKP is still not going to be as high output or compressed as an EMG, as EMGs are in effect a weak pickup with a strong pre-amp attached.

Secondly, it sounds like you don't have a set of Miracle Man (Miracle Men?). BKP don't label their pickups, so unless you buy them new, you have no certain way of knowing what pickup you've got. Someone could have been mistaken previously or mis-sold them and passed that information to you, but what you're describing doesn't sound like the MMs. It also means you have no way of proving to the seller you got them from that they're *not* Miracle Men, so you're probably best selling them on as unknown BKPs with as much information as you can gather.

If you have a multimeter, take readings of the DC resistance and see if they're close to any of the stated figures on the website, as that might help narrow it down. Similarly, if you can take pictures and send them to the BKP team, sometimes the height or thickness of the coil can be the clue they need to identify them for you.

this
the miracle man is not a loud pickup, not super high output, despite of its fair amount of compression and high DC resistance, and neither among the tightest pickups out there
it's a great ceramic lead pickup with surprisingly good split sounds, a big low end and piercing but pleasing high end depending on what you're after
it's actually one of the oldest and most unique sounding BKP models
not a big fan of the neck model but I'm pretty sure it would sound great in the bridge position too
Riff Raff, Mules, Black Dog, VHII's, Cold Sweat

Charlie-AKA

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2022, 10:14:04 PM »
It sounds like miracle man could be wired wrong. Every time I've had an issue with a BKP it turned out I'd just gotten one wire wrong or the pot had gone bad.
Email the guys at BKP about your issue also. I think one of the guys there told me that they used to sell parts of pickups including baseplates. We've never heard of a counterfeit BKP. But I have one that someone has monkeyed with that I think is an Aftermath that someone modified by possibly swapping a magnet and adding an aftermarket pickup cover. It's still a mystery pickup though, someone may have just put a BKP baseplate on it and who knows what the pickup was originally. It's possible someone modded your miracle man and did a cr@ppy job. Definitely try to get a meter reading on it also.
Currently: Silo, Rebel Yell, Crawler, VHII, Juggernaut, Holy Diver, Impulse, Cold Sweat neck, Impulse neck, Aftermath neck.
Formerly: C-Bomb, Piledriver, Cold Sweat, Mule, all my non-BKPs 😉

darkbluemurder

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Re: Fakes?
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2022, 07:50:26 AM »
I would also say check the wiring - red to hot, black to ground, green and white together and taped. If you are using coil splits, then green+white go there.

Kindly note that every manufacturer has a different color code so if you go by color there are more chances you are getting it wrong.

Good luck,
Stephan