Looking at Bare Knuckle pickups

  • Thread starter Thread starter homespun
  • Start date Start date
homespun said:
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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I guess it depends on the depth of the route in the neck position of the guitar. As I said, having it that close might work fine for very heavy stuff, helping maintain that clarity but for plugging straight into a single channel amp it didn't work. I definitely love it in the bridge, it's what you make of it because I have the height adjustment back there. I was surprised because I liked the JB, thinking it would be a crap pickup. But I love the Lollar back there. Good luck with your decision. Definitely not a cheap pickup.
 
I went through a bit of a phase with BKP, in the end I fell out of love with them.

I think what did it was I kept going back to the best tones I've heard on record/by the guitarists I am influenced by and none of them would have been created using a BKP, doesn't mean they're not good as they are, they're great etc, but for £180 per pickup (at present) they're simply not worth it anymore IMHO.

I know tone isn't simply in pickups but more so within the amp and the fingers anyway.

I also find that most pickups if tinkered with can gain lots of string to string definition and clarity (as BKP are famous for), just a case of tuning them in with height adjustments not just for the pickup itself but also for the pole pieces as well as pots/cap upgrades.
 
Holy diver and and alnico nailbomb are my 2 favorite bridge pickups out there.
if they didn't jack their prices I'd have them in almost every guitar I won.
nailbomb/cold seat neck is a great combo , the HD 'set" is also very good ,I had it in my Bernie Rico Jr custom 7 string and they sounded killer.
I' also had a Miracle man in an RG7620 and through a Recto it slayed.
 
tallcoolone said:
I’ve had a TZ and a JB in the same guitar and this just isn’t true. …
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Well, I looked into this more and you’re correct. It shouldn’t be true. The Tone Zone is supposed to be a bass boosted, more low mids pickup with the treble rolled off.

There’s either something wrong with the pickup or there’s some sort of bass cut installed. Or the Dimarzio installed isn’t a Tone Zone.

I didn’t take it apart yet so I’ll do that today.

tallcoolone said:
… And apologies I didn’t mean to doubt you—it was wrong for me to say what you heard ‘wasn’t true’. …
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No need for apologies. If I’m wrong it’s good for me to know.
 
My only experience with Bare Knuckle pickups was with my Fender Marr Jag (two single coils). It was a very versatile sounding guitar with the pickups, and switching options. The pickups were clear, rich and full.
 
homespun said:
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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Are you sure there's not a wiring issue going on? I haven't had a TZ, but I have had a few Air Nortons, and my preception would never have been that it was shrill; if anything, they're bass heavy. Again, might be a difference is ears or the terms we use to describe things, but if the AN is actually shrill, check the wiring man.
 
homespun said:
Well, I looked into this more and you’re correct. It shouldn’t be true. The Tone Zone is supposed to be a bass boosted, more low mids pickup with the treble rolled off.

There’s either something wrong with the pickup or there’s some sort of bass cut installed. Or the Dimarzio installed isn’t a Tone Zone.

I didn’t take it apart yet so I’ll do that today.


No need for apologies. If I’m wrong it’s good for me to know.
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Aaaand just saw this; doh, sorry!
 
grooveHT said:
Are you sure there's not a wiring issue going on? I haven't had a TZ, but I have had a few Air Nortons, and my preception would never have been that it was shrill; if anything, they're bass heavy. Again, might be a difference is ears or the terms we use to describe things, but if the AN is actually shrill, check the wiring man.
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There is a treble bleed on the volume.
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but that shouldn't affect the circuit with the pot at full volume. Unless the pot is messed up and has resistance at 10.
 
Deoxit in the volume pot does seem to bring back some of the low end but it still sounds pretty crappy. I think I'm going to replace the pots and go from there.
 
homespun said:
Deoxit in the volume pot does seem to bring back some of the low end but it still sounds pretty crappy. I think I'm going to replace the pots and go from there.
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This checks. I think the pickups that I have in my Axis Super Sport are only a bit more low output than the TZ, and they're fairly beefy in the low end too.

Also, I've occasionally received pickups where the colored wires were reversed at the factory, so wiring for what i thought was series ended up in putting the pickup in parallel; this was problematic with a P-Rails from Seymour Duncan, as I didn't even think that kind of problem was a thing.
 
I'm replacing the pots now but all I have on hand are pots with push-pull DPDT switches. May as well figure something interesting to do with them.
 
I had a Pig90 in my PRS SE ll soapbar and it was screaming brutal for high gain.
 
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I put in new pots. Gave it a Kinman treble bleed and replaced the tone capacitor with the same value that was originally in it. Changed strings and intonated it for 9s. It's much better now. The Tone Zone is still pretty crappy, very flubby and loose on the low end, but someone just sold me a Nailbomb for a good price.
 
scottosan said:
While overseas, I can still technically claim American made, just not made in America :D
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Handwound by an American in Japan pickups. What a pitch!!!! American Underground Pickups. Oh, and put prices on them like they do at Daiso.
 
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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I hope you post some clips.
 
Just revisiting the thread - if this guitar made a Tone Zone sound annoyingly shrill there was definitely something wrong.
TZ has big bottom even in the brightest of guitars.
 
Oh. My. 🤩

The Bare Knuckle Nailbomb came in today. I can barely believe this tone. Amazing.
 
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