Looking at Bare Knuckle pickups

i like knuckle. ragnarok good. stockholms great. stormy monday real good.
 

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Bareknuckle makes some good stuff. I had a VHII in a Jem a while back and it was killer. Plus a riff raff set in a few different guitars. As other's mentioned before, the clarity is what sets them apart
 
I've had several of the BKKP sets. The Holy Divers are really nice pickups. I'm running them in one of my Charvels. Have a set of Rebel Yells in a LP as well.

 
I had the RiffRaff BlackDog and Mule. The last was the Mule I asked for it unpotted that was the best of the bunch. But I sold em all and went Wagner AmericanSteele sets in my LPs and couldn’t be happier. The potted BKs lacked a ton of sensitivity IMO but some love em
 
homespun said:
Thanks for the review. I like how the neck pickup is wound to about half the resistance on the Holy Diver set. I’ve always had to lower the neck pickup too much on closer matched DC resistance sets. I’d like the neck pickup to be closer to the strings so that it is not “moofy”.
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Be aware that while the neck DCR may be half that of the bridge, output levels are more balanced than it would seem.
The bridge is wound with thinner wire, so the difference in DCRs doesn't reflect the difference in output.

Yes, the Diver bridge is a fairly hot wind,about equivalent to a JB.
But the Diver neck not underwound. I'd say it's about average in output, for a humbucker.
Above average in tone, though.

IMO the extra clarity of BKPs benefits their neck winds immensely.
I love all three of my BK necks.
 
MetalThrasher said:
If you don't get along with a JB in the bridge, I would look at another BKP. The holy diver is based on a JB, I had one in a seven string, and it reminded me of a JB. However, the holy diver neck pickup is good!
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I've always felt the Holy Diver bridge was an optimized take on the JB. What a JB would want to be, if it could.
It retains what makes the JB so good in superStrats, yet mitigates some of its flaws.

Lows don't get mushy with gain, and it seems a little more focused overall.
That's not to say it's polite - still has hair and a wild edge, and it sings the way a JB does.

But best of all for me, it cleans up pretty well. Not like a vintage output hum, of course, but good enough.
That's been my biggest beef with JBs (and why both of mine are presently sitting in boxes).
 
I’ve listened to Tone Zone vs JB comparisons. The Tone Zone has way too much high end. Very shrill. The JB is closer to what I like. I have to turn down the treble and presence with the Tone Zone compared to all my other guitars which get along with my settings.

Maybe I’ll try a Holy Diver in the bridge first and if I dig it, I’ll swap out the other two pickups.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
Be aware that while the neck DCR may be half that of the bridge, output levels are more balanced than it would seem…
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Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. No other pickup set matches volumes without cranking the neck pickup down too far for it to sound its best.
 
homespun said:
I’ve listened to Tone Zone vs JB comparisons. The Tone Zone has way too much high end. Very shrill
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I’ve had a TZ and a JB in the same guitar and this just isn’t true. Unfortunately the only way to compare pickups is to put them into a guitar you are familiar with and play them. Judging guitar pickups by internet clips is like judging paint color by feel.
 
tallcoolone said:
I’ve had a TZ and a JB in the same guitar and this just isn’t true. Unfortunately the only way to compare pickups is to put them into a guitar you are familiar with and play them. Judging guitar pickups by internet clips is like judging paint color by feel.
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Well, the Tone Zone in my Ibanez is annoyingly too shrill and so is the Air Norton in the neck. I have to adjust my amps for this one guitar. The others get along with the same settings.

I’m not saying i want a JB, just that it’s the less annoying pickup. I viscerally hate these Dimarzios.

I’ve only ever tried 4 Dimarzio models but they’ve all left me wanting. I’d say they’re barely marginally better than stock pickups and in my case not worth bothering with again.

I’ve tried a larger number of Seymour Duncan which have been better than the Dimarzio but the only one I really liked was the Whole Lotta Humbucker. The rest were decent except for Screamin Demon which sounds like garbage.

I understand you can’t judge a pickup by a demo on YouTube but you can weigh the differences. Like saying the JB is less shrill and has more mids.
 
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homespun said:
I understand you can’t judge a pickup by a demo on YouTube but you can weigh the differences. Like saying the JB is less shrill and has more mids.
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That’s what I’m saying—IMO you can’t. Like I mentioned, I’ve had both of those pickups in the same guitar back to back and I found the TZ to be a much darker pickup vs the JB. And apologies I didn’t mean to doubt you—it was wrong for me to say what you heard ‘wasn’t true’. I meant for me. It sucks, I know—I’ve prob bought, installed, removed and sold at least 2 dozen Duncan and DiMarzio pickups alone. They react differently from one guitar/amp/rig/hands/ear to another. Now you can kind of get a ballpark by output but it’s a really broad range there as well. And forget it once you start getting into magnets.

Pickups are fun to experiment with but the rabbit hole is crazy deep—thats why once I find something my ears and hands like I tend to stick with it now. Good luck brutha—warm up that soldering iron!
 
tallcoolone said:
That’s what I’m saying—IMO you can’t. Like I mentioned, I’ve had both of those pickups in the same guitar back to back and I found the TZ to be a much darker pickup vs the JB. And apologies I didn’t mean to doubt you—it was wrong for me to say what you heard ‘wasn’t true’. I meant for me. It sucks, I know—I’ve prob bought, installed, removed and sold at least 2 dozen Duncan and DiMarzio pickups alone. They react differently from one guitar/amp/rig/hands/ear to another. Now you can kind of get a ballpark by output but it’s a really broad range there as well. And forget it once you start getting into magnets.

Pickups are fun to experiment with but the rabbit hole is crazy deep—thats why once I find something my ears and hands like I tend to stick with it now. Good luck brutha—warm up that soldering iron!
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Yeah, that’s why I’m considering just going with Lollar dBs. All my other guitars have Lollars and I’m pleased with them. They just don’t do the metal thing.

I know it could also just be the guitar that is bright. Ugh. I’m having choice anxiety. I sure don’t want to spend $190+ on a trial pickup. I’ll probably hate it, too.

Yeah. I’m the guy that hates everything. 😂
 
homespun said:
Yeah, that’s why I’m considering just going with Lollar dBs.
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For what guitar?

I just put one in the bridge of a Paul copy using standard 500 ohm pots. I couldn't lower it down far enough in the neck position...I can go further into that problem if you want. It's incredible in the bridge though I have not gigged it yet I have high hopes for that pickup.
 
homespun said:
I sure don’t want to spend $190+ on a trial pickup
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Amen. Kinda why I started w/DiMarzios, then Duncan. The Duncan board is a pretty good resource—a lot of those guys have swapped out dozens of pickups in the same guitar which is really the best way to isolate what you are hearing.
 
homespun said:
Ibanez RG655.


Pray tell.
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I don't know if it would work for metal or not because I don't play that kind of stuff but I didn't have enough range of adjustment in the LP neck to use the neck DB successfully. The result was it had more attack than a person could stomach. I could take your breath away using a metal fingerpick. It was too much. Very 3-D when set that close. Every detail and flaw in your playing exposed. But that attack...I couldn't dial it out because not enough range of height adjustment. It was like jabbing you in the ear with an icepick.

So thinking I had probably blown $220 on this experiment I threw it in the bridge, replacing the JB that was in there. I have more range of height adjustment back there and can lower it down more and it is absolutely killer. I can do everything from honky PAF tones to raise it a little closer and take advantage of higher output with a bit less compression and more clarity than the JB. I've only begun to explore that pickup, there are a lot of tones there. The 4-way conductor might be worthwhile depending on what you do. I just bought the standard model.
 
VonBonfire said:
I don't know if it would work for metal or not because I don't play that kind of stuff but I didn't have enough range of adjustment in the LP neck to use the neck DB successfully. The result was it had more attack than a person could stomach. I could take your breath away using a metal fingerpick. It was too much. Very 3-D when set that close. Every detail and flaw in your playing exposed. But that attack...I couldn't dial it out because not enough range of height adjustment. It was like jabbing you in the ear with an icepick.

So thinking I had probably blown $220 on this experiment I threw it in the bridge, replacing the JB that was in there. I have more range of height adjustment back there and can lower it down more and it is absolutely killer. I can do everything from honky PAF tones to raise it a little closer and take advantage of higher output with a bit less compression and more clarity than the JB. I've only begun to explore that pickup, there are a lot of tones there. The 4-way conductor might be worthwhile depending on what you do. I just bought the standard model.
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Thanks for the info. I like a little extra top end in the neck pickup but it sounds like it is too much. Maybe I’ll grab a dB bridge and try it.
 
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