Of Diezel amp and BKP...

I POSTED THIS TOPIC IN MAIN RIG TALK SECTION BY MISTAKE, I THOUGHT IT MAKES MORE SENSE IN DIEZEL FORUM. SORRY FOR DUPLICATE TOPIC

Hi Guys,
As usual, before pulling the trigger I would like to get some advice from the ones here on Rig Talk who have tried or are currently using Diezel amps with BK pickups in their guitars.
Here is what is it about:

I have a 2009 Gibson LP Studio with stock pickups (490R neck and 498T bridge). Body and neck are Mahogany, Rosewood fingerboard.
My amp is Diezel D-moll.

Since I changed from Engl to Diezel 3 years ago (best thing I could have done ! ), I don't play my LP anymore due to a terrible midrange heavy and dark sound of this guitar and its pickups through D-moll. Bridge PU is OK for distortion but not for cleans, and neck PU is muddy as hell with distortion and cleans are OK.
In order to get an acceptable sound out of it, I have to constantly have the mid-cut ON and dial loads of treble on my amp.
My main guitar has Dimarzio D-Activator bridge and Paf Pro neck and it's night and day compared to my LP with stock pickups.

Therefore I would like to upgrade my LP with nice PU that will bring it to life again, and I have decided I will go with BKP, for their extended range of tones and clarity.

I have already a metal oriented guitar for heavier styles, and I am looking to make out of this LP my allround guitar from anything from Funk and Pop to heavy rock (imagine Metallica Black Album as heaviest).
I intend to use coil splitting for single coil clean kind of sound and direct mount the PU.

After some hours of research on this forum and youtube, I have come up with this solution:
- The Mule neck and Riff Raff bridge, or
- Riff Raff neck and Alnico Nailbomb bridge.

I fear Nailbomb is too high output for what I want, and Mule neck will be too weak if splitted. D-moll has tons of gain on tap, I don't need necessarily high output PU to get a heavy sound out of it.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice, and sorry if the post is too long.
Looking foreward to read you guys.

Cheers.

Hi there,

I never got on with the 490 or the 498 either and swapped to bareknuckle crawlers. I no longer have that guitar as I moved away from Gibson to Musicman. It might be worth considering the new Transition Dimarzio's, they're a jack of all trades pickup that can be split.

Having said that I loved my Crawler pickups so if you definitely want BKP the best thing I can recommend is email Tim @BKP and ask his opinion. Tell him what you play through, what guitar it is and what tone you're after and he'll give you a quick and honest response.

The Mule neck and Riff Raff bridge

Have these loaded into a 08 LPC.

Hello,

I use a Juggernaut and my other guitar player have aftermaths, they are really nice, but I would recomend for 6 strings the black hawks, alnico V. great sound through any amp.

I have a VH4 and I am still struggling to get the right tone with the juggernaut, anyone her can care to give a hand?

As I said in the other thread:

I have A D-Moll. I also have BKP Rebel Yells. In a Les Paul custom. Wouldn't you know, I only went a did a recording!

I had Suhr SSH+ in the bridge of my Suhr T (2 HB config) but they were way to hairy into the DMoll. I then tired a Luke III with DiMarzio Transitions (ceramic) pickups and it was a winner. I swapped out the Suhr stock pickups for BKP Aftermath in the Suhr and it was crushing.

I'd imagine if folks do not like the DMoll it's either the wrong pickup combo or wrong speakers. Makes a world of difference.

Thanks all for your replies. Helps a lot.

UberschallEL34":1ge7beu9 said:

I'd imagine if folks do not like the DMoll it's either the wrong pickup combo or wrong speakers. Makes a world of difference.

Click to expand...

Fully agree with you Uberschall, I had many exerience like this with D-moll: RL cabs did not work well, but FL cabs make it shine.
Then Gibson PU or Seymour Duncan PU did not work well for me, but Dimarzio and hopefully BKP seem to work well.

Rezamatix":1ge7beu9 said:

Low output pickups sound great thru Diezel amps. BKP is great quality. Try and go for Alnico magnet only though.

Click to expand...

This is so true. D-moll has tones of gain, I can get uber heavy sound out of it even with low output PU.
Reza your sound on this video is freakin' heavy and brutal, love it.

I think Paintkiller, Juggernaut and Crawler are too mid-heavy and high output for me.
Remember my LP is dark and very middy, like if you had a KFC chicken wing stuck in your nose. I need to brighten it up and get extreme clarity.

Manxmofo":1ge7beu9 said:

Having said that I loved my Crawler pickups so if you definitely want BKP the best thing I can recommend is email Tim @BKP and ask his opinion. Tell him what you play through, what guitar it is and what tone you're after and he'll give you a quick and honest response.

Click to expand...

Definitely I will contact Tim for his opinion and will tell him what I think could be good for me based on what you guys kindly told me.

Paradigma_bizarro":1ge7beu9 said:

I have a VH4 and I am still struggling to get the right tone with the juggernaut, anyone her can care to give a hand?

Click to expand...

As Reza and many others mentioned, Diezels and specially VH4 it seems, do like low output PU better.
Are not Juggernaut too high output for a gain monster like VH4?
But anyway I think it takes time to get the best sound out of your gear, I spent so many days tweaking and just now after months I start being satisfied with part of my gear !

So far, I will try to have more info or opinions on:
- Rebel Yell set (Amberience video is guilty) or RY bridge with Mule neck
- Mule neck Riff Raff bridge
- Black Hawk set or BH bridge with Mule neck

Thank you all again for your help. I will contact TIM of BKP and let you know what is his recommendation.

Tschüss.

Personally I found the Mules not exactly "bright" - they are great pickups but even the BKP websites describes them as "fuller mids and better control in the high end". So keep that in mind for the neck position.

....... Riff Raff in the bridge

kahawe":1pk1kwla said:

Personally I found the Mules not exactly "bright" - they are great pickups but even the BKP websites describes them as "fuller mids and better control in the high end". So keep that in mind for the neck position.

Click to expand...

You're fully right, I did not read everything on their website, I only based my opinion on youtube and threads that I found about BKP.
It seems that the Mule is a very good neck PU but not sure it will brighten up my dark LP.

OK I will write to TIM @ BKP and ask him for his opinion concerning Riff Raff or Rebel Yells and eventually the Mule.

I let you know what he will say.

Thank you anyway for your support.

Docster":1pk1kwla said:

....... Riff Raff in the bridge

Click to expand...

I want one so bad now !!!


Cheers.

Hi Guys,

Just to share with you what the people from BK recommended me for my LP.

They told me that the Cold Sweat were the best match for a dark and mid-heavy LP. THey have very good definition and clean tones, and they are more on the modern sounding side.
But the Rebel Yell also were recommended, being according them more classic sounding than the CS.

So finally I want the best of both worlds and I will order a Cold Sweat neck and a Rebel Yell bridge.

One last question:
The guys at BKP only recommended to me sets of PU like RY set or CS set.
Will it be a mismatch or mistake if I take CS neck / RY bridge instead of a set ?

I don't think personally this is a bad thing but I don't have experience with BKP, this is the problem...

Thanks, cheers.

I'd go with the more modern bridge if you mix. The rebel yells are pretty bright. Almost Over The Top, which might be exactly what you're looking for. I have a 70s les paul that's mid heavy and they are too much. Keep in mind my les paul has a maple neck though.

slyvren":3c7bic1o said:

I'd go with the more modern bridge if you mix. The rebel yells are pretty bright. Almost Over The Top, which might be exactly what you're looking for. I have a 70s les paul that's mid heavy and they are too much. Keep in mind my les paul has a maple neck though.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.
My LP is Mahogany body AND neck, so probably darker than yours...
Imagine that currently with my fucking PUs I have to max the Presence on D-moll in order to get some brightness out of it.
And for clean sounds I use intensively the mid-cut to dial out the midrange.

I am pretty much sold on the neck PU: Cold Sweat. Everybody seem to agree that they are a great neck PU. They are slightly scooped, very bright and clear, which is perfect for my shitty guitar sound.

My problem for the bridge is that I really would like to go with CS set but I am not a big fan of Ceramic PU and CS bridge is ceramic.
That is why I want a CS neck and RY bridge, both Al5.
Some people say that RY don't have enough bass. I think it won't be a problem for D-moll to compensate for that, if this was really the case.
What scares me a little bit is that RY have plenty of mids, and I really don't want more !!!

I have found a guitar shop/tech in my area that sells BKP. I will visit him, and if I am lucky he will have some guitars loaded with CS or RY and I will be fixed. Cause now, I cannot decide between CS set, RY set or CS neck / RY bridge.

Cheers.

I have had the alnico Blackhawks in my guitar for about 2 months. I'm very satisfied with them and a VH4. . They cover a lot of styles that hum-buckers, from clean to mean, except for maybe super aggressive. But if I wanted that, maybe I could just raise them closer to the strings? The split coil sound is weaker, so for a single coil sound ... I think I'll just grab fendery sound from another guitar.