Anyone have experience with Bareknuckle Juggernauts?

RifferMcDuck

Inspired
I have a set of these in one of my guitars, and while they can sound cool, man I'm in a battle with them right now. I clearly have no idea how in the hell pickup output actually works, but the output on the bridge is driving me nuts.

For example, I'll get a good mid gain preset running for one guitar with a Duncan Pegasus in the bridge (12.5k). AFX input is at about 60% tickling red. Then, when I want to use the Juggernaut on the same preset, I'll switch to the same guitar model, but with the Juggernaut bridge (13.3k), which is seated about 1.5mm higher than the Pegasus, I have to do a few things: adjust the AFX input all the way up to 100%, input trim to 2.0 or beyond, and basically just crank the preamp gain to get anywhere near the same gain levels.

What's driving me nuts even more so, is that I desperately want to lower the Juggernaut, since it's like 2mm from the strings, but I simply can't increase input levels any further.

Anyone have the same experience with these pickups? Why are they the way that they are?
 
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I have plenty of other bare knuckle pups, but not the jugg set. You should post on the actual BKP forum for a more detailed answer than here.

But really dude, you should have separate presets for each guitar.
 
I have plenty of other bare knuckle pups, but not the jugg set. You should post on the actual BKP forum for a more detailed answer than here.

But really dude, you should have separate presets for each guitar.

I was just coming back here for an edit. I actually contacted BKP just to be safe, and they said my issue didn't make sense and to take it to a tech right away. So I took it to my local tech a bit ago, and he discovered that the wiring was done incorrectly - it was based off the wrong schematics, and something about the wrong capacitor being used as well. So it's being fixed at the moment.

And yes, at the very least I'll have multiple scenes for different guitars, but sometimes presets too. It was just alarming how much I had to adjust between similar pickups.
 
I have the Jackson USA HT7 with the Juggernaut BKP's. The bridge pickup in my other 3 7-strings are a DiMarzio Blaze, DiMarzio Crunch Lab, and a Duncan Distortion.

Yes they all have different characteristics, and I use them for different things, but I never have to touch anything on my AX8. Same presets for all and certainly no changes on the input/output settings.

So as you noted, your case definitely seems to be an anamoly.
 
Bad wiring makes sense, the juggernaut bridge is one of the angriest pickups I’ve ever played in a passive. I love that thing.
 
Bad wiring makes sense, the juggernaut bridge is one of the angriest pickups I’ve ever played in a passive. I love that thing.

So glad to hear, I'm so excited to hear them in full form. I was so confused by how weak they were.

Reminder to others to double check the BKP schematics before installing any of their pickups. Apparently that's where the last tech went wrong.
 
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