Author Topic: Not happy with my BKP (choice problem) (Read 5710 times)

Tim · « **Reply #15 on:** October 18, 2007, 04:19:04 PM »

With any pickup selection you can never 100% guarantee exactly how they will perform until they are in the guitar which is why we offer the 14 day exchange period which I feel is adequate time to get to grips with the tone and to swap the pickups if they're not what you thought they'd be.

Quality going down?!Not over my dead body!
We're still sat here making all your pickups by hand, one at a time the way we always have. If anything the quality is getting better as we're making all our own components these days too.

As you may have noticed in previous Tele neck related threads-I always suggest going with an open Tele neck if you're after a bright tone.If you want a Tele neck over DC7K they'll sound best without a cover.
Tele neck coils are amongst the smallest of the single coils and traditionally wound with 43 gauge so always sound warm no matter how you wind them.We now make the Blackguard Tele Series necks with 42 gauge as per the original '52 spec-these are much brighter and cleaner than the 43 gauge necks so you've got plenty of choice in the range.

As always, if you want any advice as to which pickups to go for, drop me an email or give me a call and I'll do my best to advise on the correct choice for your' playing style and guitar.

badgermark · « **Reply #16 on:** October 18, 2007, 04:37:30 PM »

Well I finally got the balance right, and everything is sounding as it should. Still not quite happy though. Great sounding pickups, but I have came to the realisation that they are not for me. Life is all about experimenting (says the chemistry student...) and I've decided high output pickups ain't my bag baby.

Going to swap them out for some Country Boys, Tim really is the bestest person ever.

38thBeatle · « **Reply #17 on:** October 18, 2007, 07:48:55 PM »

Yeah well you see I always favour low output pickups and for my Tele, the cb's were spot on because I wanted no nonsense traditional Tele tones because you just cannot beat it. Low output pickups give you more tone in my opinion-just my opinion but it is based on my experience on my own and my friends guitars. I am sure you will love the cb's-I wouldn't swap them at all. I mentioned earlier that I'd bought a set from a friend who'd been disappointed with his choice and I am passing them to a friend in the USA for his Tele and I will be interested to hear his views as a guy who has made a living out of music.He heard my cb's and wanted the same for one of his Tele's.

Tellboy · « **Reply #18 on:** October 18, 2007, 10:37:11 PM »

I've got 2 sets of Crawlers (in Les Paul and Ibanez), Apache, Piledriver, Boss and Riff Raffs (plus my son uses Nailbomb and MM). My Tele/Piledriver is probably my favourite guitar/pickup even though my Tele has an horrendous thick neck and several 'dings' and I've always been a Gibson fan. I find that it has an amazing range of tone (much of this from the volume control) from tradtional tele sound (volume wound right back - not quite as good as lower output tele pups) up to almost humbucker sounds - and like 38thBeatle I am a fan of the 4 way switch.

Like I've said before in other threads tone is very subjective and one man's tone is another one's poison. Sorry the Piledriver didn't work out for you but I'm sure you will be able to get the sound you want from one of the other BKP tele pickups.

badgermark · « **Reply #19 on:** October 19, 2007, 07:55:09 AM »

I'm not bashing BKPs, the Piledriver set sounds good but isn't for me. Luckily Tim is happy to swap them for me, hello Country Boys...

badgermark · « **Reply #20 on:** October 25, 2007, 06:29:06 PM »

Edited the thread title a little. I made the wrong choice for my needs. I thought I wanted a beefy tele tone, something with grunt. BUT! When I got the beefiest pickups on offer from BKP I realised I was wrong. I didn't like the sound at all. Well after getting them set up properly that is. Great sounding pickups though, I really recommend them to anyone wanting to give their tele some gonads.

So i sent them off to Tim who replaced them with a Country Boy set, something a lot quieter and better behaved. I'm glad I swapped. I realised after my voyage of self discovery that I love clean tones the most. I don't need my pickups driving my amp, I can stick an overdrive pedal on for that. Add a 4-way switch and Mark is super happy.

Elliot · « **Reply #21 on:** October 25, 2007, 07:27:07 PM »

Well done, you have reached stage 2 of your initiation into true tone - Now your'e not still thinking about hot Strat pickups are you - coz less is more with Strats.

badgermark · « **Reply #22 on:** October 25, 2007, 07:36:40 PM »

...I am thinking of hotter strat tones. Damn you. I swing wildly from WOW! Strat tone! To DAMN! This needs beef.

I'm not 100% happy with my amp, but still deciding on the MM set. Is it enough? Or should I have went with a Trilogy set... Decisions.

Peter Antal · « **Reply #23 on:** October 25, 2007, 07:51:13 PM »

You can always get a boost circuit that gives your guitar the extra output you need. Some even cut highs and boost mids to push your vintage singles into hot P90 territory. :) EMG and Guitarfetish both have some nice and cheap preamps.