Any Bare Knuckle specialist ?

fremen

Axe-Master
Vendor
I'm considering swapping pickups in my main guitar, a mahogany Ibanez RG with a HH combination and 5 positions selector.

Currently I have a DiMarzio Norton in bridge and a LiquiFire in neck. Would a pair of Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell be suitable for this kind of wood ? The DiMarzio are OK but really lacks personality, especially the Norton which is the more "neutral" DiMarzio pickup. I may also consider other brands, like Suhr etc, or even DiMarzio (Evo 2/Air Zone ?). Or even Seymour Duncans ? But I don't know these at all, don't know how they would sound for cleans specially…

The sounds that I like are :
Position 5 (bridge) : fat and modern at the same time : enough highs to cut, but no shrill highs. The DiMarzio "The Breed" is quite like that but may be too dark on a mahogany guitar. Although I like metal and prog metal the most, I also play cleaner things, including blues-rock so versatility is important. So too high output pickups and ceramic are not on my list. Actives neither.
Position 4 : Fender quack but fatter
Position 3 : classic neck/bridge position of a Les Paul
position 2 : As 4
Position 1 (neck) : enough output for legato playing, but quite classic. I liked the DiMarzio "Air Zone" on another guitar in that position.

Any suggestions are welcome ! I currently have the budget for a pair of Rebel Yell so considering the reputation of Bare Knuckle, these would be my first choice at the moment…
 
I have RYs in a maple cap / mahog LP... not quite the same, but close enough to be relevant I suppose.

Pos5: sort of. they lean more on the modern side (at least the bridge) IMO, but not extremely so. I would describe the bridge as probably a little brighter than what you describe - definitely not "smokey blues," but also not shrill. On a solid mahog guitar, it might be more like you described.

Pos3: Yup.

Pos1: legato, check. classic? sort of. It's not a PAF clone, but it's also not THAT different from some other PAF clones I've tried. I think it's voiced a little sweeter, and it certainly has that howlin' kinda' vibe to it.

I can't speak for pos2&4 as I'm not coil tapping. FWIW, I'm using .015 (neck)/.022uF (bridge) NOS Russian PIO caps (K40y-9's IIRC) with stock Gibson pots, vintage wired.
 
Dude!!!!
If you contact Bareknuckle and tell them what you are after, and what they are going into...
They will reply with some recommendations.

This is what I did..and they recommended something that I had not considered.
And I could not be more happy with their choice!!

Do it! They are more than happy to help.

Cheers.
 
...Actually..

Having re-read your post.
My needs were almost exactly the same as yours, and also going into a 2 humbucker mahogany Ibanez..

They suggested a Coldsweat bridge and a VHII neck.

Like I said above...
I am so happy with this selection.
 
I think Tim is partial to the Coldsweat bridge :D
That's what he suggested to me too (same LP).
I would've taken his advice, but a deal came along, and, well, you know.
 
Thanks guys, I'll check those Cold Sweat samples ! Although I like the Rebel Yell clean demo by Steve Stevens himself the most :

squidz66, were the previous pickups in your Ibanez some DiMarzios ? If yes, how would you describe the change ?
 
I'm guessing your RG is basswood? If so, Tim from BK recommended the Holy Diver set or Holy Diver bridge and Emerald neck as he mentioned they've had a lot of luck with that combination. But definitely shoot them an email at the support address on the site, you'll likely get a response within a day or 2.
 
I'm guessing your RG is basswood? If so, Tim from BK recommended the Holy Diver set or Holy Diver bridge and Emerald neck as he mentioned they've had a lot of luck with that combination. But definitely shoot them an email at the support address on the site, you'll likely get a response within a day or 2.
Thanks ! My RG is mahogany, not basswood. Just noticed the Cold Sweat is ceramic and I'll prefer alnico. I'll email Tim soon
 
I use BKP since 2005 and had a lot of them, especially humbuckers.
You should be pleased with a Holydiver bridge/Emerald neck or Holydiver bridge/VHII neck. Those two combination are incredible in superstrat type for progressive stuff and a lot of things really.
Anyway, be aware that for 5-way H/H ibanez wiring, you'll need to order the neck humbucker with the magnet flipped for correct operation (only necessary if the neck pup is single screws poles; on double screws pole pickups - like the Aftermath - the offset in the wiring is non-existent and you can just install the pickup the other way around)
 
Another recommendation for contacting Tim and asking his opinion. I told him what I was after for one of my strats. He advised that they didn't keep a standard item that would give what I wanted and so he offered to wind me a custom set based on a set of original '62 Fender strat pickups. I took him up on his kind offer and couldn't be happier with the result.
 
Back
Top Bottom