Bareknuckle pickups worth the cash ?

I’ll just leave this…

Yes, there’s no magic or fairy dust in pickups. They’re literally just plastic, magnets, and copper wire.

With that said, Tim knows tone and he knows how to wind pickups to achieve a specific voice. Sure, for the price of a set of BKP’s, you could dip into the world of pickup winding, but good luck nailing the voice you’re looking for. That shit takes lots of time, lots of practice and lots and lots of failure.
 
I replaced the dimarzios with some aftermath pickups in my Ibanez j custom (I forget which pickup I ordered for the middle pickup). Huge difference and very versatile. Middle pickup is so clear and has just enough spank to it
 
I don't think any pickups are worth that much money to me. That's not to say BKP's are bad, I'm sure they're fine. As long as the materials are equivalent quality and the pickup was constructed competently, there is no "better" only taste differences. Any 2 pickups using the same bobbins, magnets, pole pieces, wire and winds are going to be very similar sounding if not identical. It doesn't matter who winds them or where that person is or how much the pickup cost.

That said, there's no harm in buying them if you can afford it. It's your money, if you think they'll make you happy go ahead.
 
guitaryates said:
I don't think any pickups are worth that much money to me. That's not to say BKP's are bad, I'm sure they're fine. As long as the materials are equivalent quality and the pickup was constructed competently, there is no "better" only taste differences. Any 2 pickups using the same bobbins, magnets, pole pieces, wire and winds are going to be very similar sounding if not identical. It doesn't matter who winds them or where that person is or how much the pickup cost.

That said, there's no harm in buying them if you can afford it. It's your money, if you think they'll make you happy go ahead.
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All you folks who say "pickups is pickups", would you say the same about guitars? How about guitarists? There's no artistry involved, deep experience, feel?

I have no experience with BK myself, and no skin in this game, it's just weird to me to write them off as the same as everything else. In general, my experience is that nothing is exactly the same as anything else.
 
Dave Merrill said:
All you folks who say "pickups is pickups", would you say the same about guitars? How about guitarists? There's no artistry involved, deep experience, feel?

I have no experience with BK myself, and no skin in this game, it's just weird to me to write them off as the same as everything else. In general, my experience is that nothing is exactly the same as anything else.
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Comparing pickups to complete guitars and musicians is an odd comparison and not relevant because they're all completely different things.

Sure there's knowledge required to make pickups but no magic or "feel". It's a very basic device. On top of that, if you like a specific pickup design that doesn't make it better for anyone except yourself. BKP isn't doing anything extraordinarily different from any other winder.

Watch the recent PG interview with MJ from Seymour Duncan. She has decades of documentation on pickups she's examined and made. If an artist wants a new version of a custom pickup they bought in March of 1992 she can recreate it because she has the recipe not because of any "feel". If the same recipe is used the result will be almost if not identical.

Likewise if a BKP has the same recipe as a Duncan or even a Chinese made pickup they will sound very close if not identical. There's no voodoo. Maybe nobody makes an off the shelf pickup with the exact recipe as a specific BKP pickup. It's a legit point but that doesn't make the BKP better, just different. At that point you have to ask is the difference worth the cost? Maybe to some people it is. To me it isn't. Plus there are so many winders out there I'm sure there's one who makes something along the same lines as any given BKP pickup for a lot less.
 
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Dave Merrill said:
All you folks who say "pickups is pickups", would you say the same about guitars? How about guitarists? There's no artistry involved, deep experience, feel?

I have no experience with BK myself, and no skin in this game, it's just weird to me to write them off as the same as everything else. In general, my experience is that nothing is exactly the same as anything else.
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There is pretty much a way to handwind/scatter wind a pickup and that’s about it…

It’s like mounting a tire or doing an oil change. There are ways to do it wrong, but there really isn’t any art or anything to master where your going to get a different result than anyone else. If it’s mounted and balanced and torqued correctly that is the whole job.

Building a guitar isn’t that complex either, just attention to detail really. No one is really reinventing the wheel, it’s a pretty straight forward process. Having the tools and experience goes a long ways, not saying that paint blemish or high fret is “good enough” and shipping it, redoing it until it’s right etc, that is really all your paying for.

Guitar players often are ones to believe in mojo and fairy dust and thinking one competent craftsperson is worth double because of association with a famous guitar player and so forth.

Look at Roger Mayer, good guy, good products, some innovation back in the day but for the last 5 decades or so his main selling point is “I worked with Hendrix”. Well Jimi was awesome and I guess if I pay the guy who knew Jimi some extra money it will make me that much more awesome by association.
 
Something is only worth what people are willing to spend. Given BKP's popularity and success, they are worth it to a number of players and I can see why.

That said, I wouldn't have purchased my BKPs if they weren't on clearance. They were definitely more than I'm used to spending on pickups but at a price I was willing to spend to check them out. The results they've provided have made them 'worth it' to me.
 
Anyone can wind pickups. Knowing what to do with the raw materials to achieve a specific voice is where the skill is involved.
 
ruso said:
Anyone can wind pickups. Knowing what to do with the raw materials to achieve a specific voice is where the skill is involved.
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True but I don't think that's the question. The question is does BKP has some knowledge that other winders don't have that makes them worth extra money? They don't. BKP may make different choices on their products but they don't possess some secret knowledge about pickups that others such as Seymour Duncan, Larry Dimarzio, etc don't have.

If you're looking for a specific voice you can get customized humbucker sets for less than the off the shelf BKP sets.
 
To reiterate, a custom set from a known quantity Canadian winder is about half the price. Ymmv.
 
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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Polymath or Silos. I have both and they’re not worlds apart but they are different. Rabea on YouTube has a good little A/B demo but the problem is you can’t capture feel in a demo like that. Sound wise the Silo is a hair fatter but the feel of the Polymath I enjoy more. What tuning are you going to be playing in? Drop C I’d go Poly, Drop B or lower Silo. My opinion but I’m also in the hard rock/prog group. The only con is the price. Also try to wire the pickups so you can get those split coil tones. If you want a modern, dynamic and great set of pickups then you can go wrong with either set. Musicstorelive is who I ordered from, not sure if that helps but they gave me a fair price and accurate eta on my order. Good luck!
 
katsumura78 said:
Polymath or Silos. I have both and they’re not worlds apart but they are different. Rabea on YouTube has a good little A/B demo but the problem is you can’t capture feel in a demo like that. Sound wise the Silo is a hair fatter but the feel of the Polymath I enjoy more. What tuning are you going to be playing in? Drop C I’d go Poly, Drop B or lower Silo. My opinion but I’m also in the hard rock/prog group. The only con is the price. Also try to wire the pickups so you can get those split coil tones. If you want a modern, dynamic and great set of pickups then you can go wrong with either set. Musicstorelive is who I ordered from, not sure if that helps but they gave me a fair price and accurate eta on my order. Good luck!
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Play in standard / drop d mostly ! Half step down maybe
 
Erock93 said:
Play in standard / drop d mostly ! Half step down maybe
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I do think both sets would work well, I’d go Polymath. They’re so great to play on. Amazing cleans, midgain and heavy tones. If you do get them update your post or start a new thread “Polymath Love” hahaha
 
katsumura78 said:
I do think both sets would work well, I’d go Polymath. They’re so great to play on. Amazing cleans, midgain and heavy tones. If you do get them update your post or start a new thread “Polymath Love” hahaha
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I will ! Thanks for the advice, pretty set on the Polymath set, just waiting to see if a used set pops up ( unlikely )
 
Erock93 said:
I will ! Thanks for the advice, pretty set on the Polymath set, just waiting to see if a used set pops up ( unlikely )
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I was looking for a set and I told them I was playing mostly Drop D , DropC#
Shinedown , Three Days Grace , Daughtry ( with heavier guitars )
And Tim said you will love the polymaths
He sent this link
 
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