I'm posting this for anyone who might be considering a first set of BKPs, and especially if they are doing that because they are not happy with a guitar. I'm not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs here, so please excuse the enthusiasm of a newcomer to BKPs.
I've recently had my first set of BKPs put into a guitar that was a complete dud when I took delivery of it (a 2006 Gibson SG Custom Re-issue VOS). Not a particularly cheap guitar, but as delivered it had no tone, not much feel and no future in my guitar rack. I was so underwhelmed that I didn't bother with it for months, then I took it for some SG nuts to play and they thought it was great. So I came to the conclusion that I just wasn't an SG kind of guy.
Anyway, while pondering whether to sell it I thought I'd give it a chance with a set of BKPs. I read in some magazine that Tim reckons the majority of a guitar's tone comes from the pickups rather than the wood and construction (I think that's what he said anyway) so this one seemed like a good test, since acoustically it sounded like gnat playing a banjo and plugged in it managed the impossible trick of sounding muddy and tinny at the same time. On top of that it seemed a complete waste to have a guitar with three pickups wired to give only three combinations (Bridge, Bridge and Middle, and Neck).
So after talking it over with Tim, I had a set of PG Blues and a Mississippi Queen for the middle, and Tim did them in a very natty aged gold finish to match the existing hardware (you know the SG Custom with the Lyre Vibrato looks like a six-string Cadillac - all in the best possible taste...). Need I say Tim's finish looks much better?
But the sounds are something else again. From being a complete slapper, this guitar is a total siren now. I can't go anywhere near it without having to play it, and that can go on for hours before I realise what time it is. The combination of sounds with the out-of-phase PG set and the MQ P90 tones combined is just endless. There's so much air, body and subtlety in the sounds, I would neverhave believed it possible of the same guitar. OK, I did tighten up the screws on the tailpiece and get a TonePros bridge, so that might have improved the sustain, but really this thing is born again. I was sceptical about how much difference a new set of pickups (and a change of wiring) could make to a guitar that just seemed acoustically hopeless, but I've got to hand it to Tim. It feels great and sounds out of this world.
So, my point is, if you are unhappy with a guitar and thinking of dipping your toe in with Bare Knuckles for the first time, I reckon my experience ought to encourage you to give it a go. I'm certainly looking at some of my other guitars now - ones I'm very happy with - and wondering what might come of a little tweak or two from Tim.
I might get round to posting some sound samples if anyone's interested, because I think this combination gives some very distinctive tones. Really justifies the three-pickup layout.