Bareknuckle pickups worth the cash ?

I like the Juggernaut, Aftermaths (in one guitar) and the Ragnaroks. These, in general, IMO are articulate pups. I lower them to 6-8/64ths vs 4-5/64ths for others. Otherwise, for me, they just pick up too much pick noise.

I’ve tried lots of pickups over the years and have come to recently settle on the Lundgren M6/7 and the SD Black Winter and SD Nazgul. I play metal. To each his own.
 
While I typically swap out stock pickups, I never really bought into the hype of 'boutique' pickups. Found a set of Bare Knuckle Black Dogs on sale in a color combination that suited a guitar I bought and thought I'd try them. I can now see why there's so much hype over some brands, I've been very impressed with the tone, clarity and note separation compared to less expensive aftermarket pickups.
Musikron said:
Going into a Fractal I'd say there isn't much of an advantage over a more reasonably priced set like Dimarzios.
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Not sure what you mean by this. If you mean that a Fractal blurs the lines between pickups of differing quality, I would have to disagree. Using different types and brands of pickups, cheap to 'expensive' is audibly noticeable using a Fractal.

If you mean that you can make cheap pickups sound better using a Fractal, I agree that it's possible to dial in tones that allow cheaper pickups to sound 'better' than they are.
 
I have a set of Mule's in one of my PRS Cu22's and love em, ive had Holy Diver's, Rebel Yell's and Miracle Man's as well, all great pickups. I think they're worth the money, but I also use Duncan, Suhr, Dimarzio whatever will get me to what I want to hear tone wise.
 
Had a few sets of BKP pickups years ago. Only one that impressed me was the VH2 bridge model. I've found Duncans are good enough for most everything, also some good Dimarzios like the Luke Transitions and the Axis customs.

I'd love to get a set of Charvel pickups for my Suhr modern, but don't think they're going to offer them OTC anytime soon....
 
Erock93 said:
Are bareknuckle pickups worth the higher price tag ? Around $400-$600 for a set up in Canada,
Just wondering if they're a well step above something like Seynour Duncan's which I'm currently running
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totally bro!, the best out there, incredible pickups!
 
Pretty sold now ,
For all you BKP boys , I play hard rock / progressive mostly, recommendations on models that may suit best ?
 
I have owned painkillers and aftermaths in the past and I can't say they are any better under high gain than my Duncans and Dimarzios. I think most would be hard pressed to hear the difference between bareknuckles and Ibanez pickups under high gain.
 
I have had many on many guitars, to all worked well, but those who did are amazing. I have a set of Rebel Yells in a LP and sound superb, also a set of Irish Tours SC.
 
I've had a Rebel Yell set in my previous guitar and now I have a Polymath set. Both 7 string versions. I use coil splitters and with Polymath I can cover really every genre. From now on, I'll have only Polymath, they sound sweet, punchy and without any harshness. Don't be discouraged by the nominal low output, they are more than sufficiently punchy. The sound is focused and well balanced, with a lot of harmonics, even on the lowest 7th string. They are also perfectly paired. They sounded smoother and less grainy to me than Silo, as I was considering similar pickups at the time. They sound very rich when recorded. I've had a few different pickups before, for which I wanted so much to work but there was always something that bothered me. This set - it just works. I'm truly happy with them, that's it for me. I'm sticking with Polymath.
 
Erock93 said:
Pretty sold now ,
For all you BKP boys , I play hard rock / progressive mostly, recommendations on models that may suit best ?
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I concur with this:
Holbert71 said:
I have the Suhr Doug Aldrich in my PRS 594 and they are fantastic. Can get the John Sykes tone all day with them.
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I have the Aldrich on a RG550LTD. My favorites for hard rock after decades swapping pups. And if you ant to go into classy P90ish territory, but still humbucker, Dimarzio Bluesbucker
 
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Nailbombs are great for pretty much any metal tone. I use them on a 6 string tuned down as far as F# and they still sound reasonably tight considering, but I think the lowest to go with them and still have the clarity and percussion is around G#/A.

Anything above that sounds sublime.
 
Well, obviously I'm a fan :)

This picture is from a couple of years ago and I've since sold a few as I’ve sold a couple of guitars and settled on pickups in others. The Mule's are great for classic PAF tones and I have them both in my PRS 594 and my 594SC. I’ve been thinking recently I should switch the DC to Rebel Yells. I have a Suhr HSS with a Crawler in the bridge that is awesome. I had a Les Paul with Rebel Yell's and that was a fantastic set for a more hot rodded tone. Abraxas in a PRS P245 that works really well with a Freeway switch for lots of options. Just great pickups all around. I tried a couple of different Suhr pickups and they never really grabbed me. Same with a few other popular brands. I always come back to BKP.

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For that kind of money you can buy a winder and some enamel wire. Make your own pickups. Theres no real magic to pickups - wire gauge, magnet type, number of winds, potted or unpotted. After you wind your own for a bit, you get a feel for what’s going to work best in whatever guitar. If there’s any mystery to pickups it’s in how one set sounds fantastic in one guitar and less than fantastic in another.
https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-too...0DPYa_F_yyY7TsYJzvjpJfO8HJaw8xnAaAolMEALw_wcB
 
I wouldn’t pay nearly that much for a pickup. There really isn’t anything special going into them that any other builder isn’t doing, and your paying a lot for the name. Not a bad product by any means, but it’s just all the same wire, magnets, gauge, number of turns and such at the end of the day.

It’s like a fuzz pedal, if it’s just 11 parts and the schematic already exists, provided someone doesn’t have some ultra rare NOS transistor, what makes one worth hundreds more than another guys other than fancy product name, logo, cosmetics and such ?

Again, not knocking them, I’ve had a nailbomb for ages, and think it used to be way cheaper years ago, but it’s really not any different than SD’s I’ve got too:
 
I like to say pickups are advertised alot like IPA beer in that theres so many buzzwords thrown around but at the core...its still just a magnets and a wire. But then i look at my bucket of pickups ive bought. I however....cant justify spending the money for bareknuckle pickups. I almost bought a set of mules a few years ago, but instead went for saturday night specials by SD. That bridge pickup is about my favorite thing ive ever heard.
 
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