Bare knuckle pickups.

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MASTER VOLUME

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
75
Reaction score
0
Location
UK
Hi , I'm considering changing the bridge pickup in my 2005 LS 85F to a bare knuckle pickup.
The only problem is which one to choose.
Who's changed their tokai mk2 pickups for bare knuckles and how did they compare ?
I'm particulary interested in if they were more powerful or not . The dc reading on my bridge pickup is 11k ohm which is quite high for a PAF copy. The bare knuckle PAF style pickups range from about 8k to 10k ohm, which is lower.
All suggestions and comments are welcome :D
 
Mate i don't know why anyone would pay the ridiculously high prices for BNK pickups .there are plenty of boutique pickup makers around that offer as good or better for heaps less. I came across a guy in America who makes hand wound pickups for a fraction of the price and they are amazing quality and sound for the price check them out here.
http://www.highorderpickups.com/
There are plenty of other pickup builders around so have a look before you spend a fortune on BKP's.

Cheers Mick
 
I was also thinking about getting some Bare Knuckes to my Tokai, but with the price of one Bare Knuckle, I can buy a Seymour Duncan JB+Jazz set.
I think I'll stay with the Seymour Duncan set.
 
Never tried Bareknuckles but I highly recomend Dr. Vs Wolfetones,a friend of mine put them in an old Reborn and we both felt he got a great "new" guitar as far as old Goto pickups were hidding real guitar tone......I know understand why Tokai has choosen Rolphs pickups for LS-380 models.......
 
email pete biltoft at vintagevibeguitars.com, he'll make you a set to your specs for around the same as a set of SD's. He makes the best pickups I've ever heard.
 
Thanks for the replies folks, they have made my decisions even harder now :D
How do the GFS pickups compare to the stock pickups. I had looked at those before but was put off by the low price thinking they may be no better than the tokai ones.
Been looking at the Leosounds for a while too, I've got a set of Leosounds mudcat in my tele and they sound great, wasn't sure what the growl dogs were like ?
Volker, how do the growl dogs compare to the stock tokai pickups?
Thanks for all the suggestion guys, I'm sure this has been debated many times before, but doesn't make it any easier to choose :D
 
Just to confuse you even more there's http://www.swinesheadpickups.co.uk. Hand wound in the uk for half the price.
I'll be trying some of these before the BKP's just on price alone.
Remember that DC resistance is not all in terms of pickup output. The manner in which it's wound, thickness of wire used and the strength of magnets used will all add to the sound.
BKP mention the fact that their pickups are scatter wound, apparently this makes the pups brighter sounding and with more character.
The only thing is the price, are they worth twice as much as an Seymour Duncan (I'm a big fan of their Custom 5 for a bridge pup).
One of the advantages of bare knuckle is their product range and pup naming.
You want that AC-DC sound, buy a Riff Raff, want something eighties metal, get a Painkiller.
Personally I'm going to try the swinesheads first as I can get two for one, the Runaways sound kinda up my street, although I mat get one of their double single coil things (AMP) for my strat type thing.[/url]
 
Sorry,i can't compare the growl dogs with mkII's,because i have only vintage Tokais.I have a set of gream gen's,witch have a alnicoII-magnet
and they sound very similar to the dimartio's,they are stock in my LS100.

Volker
 
MASTER VOLUME said:
Hi , I'm considering changing the bridge pickup in my 2005 LS 85F to a bare knuckle pickup.
The only problem is which one to choose.
Who's changed their tokai mk2 pickups for bare knuckles and how did they compare ?

I don't have changed the pups on a Tokai - but I have the BK Mules in my Edwards ... clear, even in the neck position, powerful and assertive, with nice overtones ... and they can 'dirty' ... :wink: :wink:

If your guitar is bright sounding and you use to play some bluesey stuff ... take some different ones - or you'll have to roll down your tone knobs ... 8)

Roger
 
Since starting this thread I have purchased a new bridge pickup for my LS85F.
I decided not to spend ?100 on a bare knuckle pickup, instead I got an Irongear rolling mills bridge humbucker for the measly sum of ?25 including postage.
I had read some reviiews of them and was a bit suspecious as they got straight 10/10, but hey, it was only ?25.
Well I must admit it sounds great for a cheap pickup.
Compared to the stock tokai mk2 ,they are a little less powerful (9k compared to 11k), but the harsh treble is gone and the overall tone is a lot nicer and smoother. There's better note separation and better harmonics as well.
Great for playing led zep and AC/DC :D
I would recommend trying these as a cheap upgrade.
Not sure how they compare to other pickups, has anyone else tried them ?
 
They sound kinda funky, especially for the price.
I'm tempted to try one, mainly at that price.
 
Hey MV,

I've got sets of Bare Knuckle Pickups in most of my guitars, including my trusty old LS70F, and they're frankly superb. :)

I prefer the Hot PAF type like you mentioned, but wanted a more mid-biased sound, so I opted for a set of Black Dogs (8.5 & 10k) to replace the SD 59 & JB that I'd had installed to replace the original mkII's. The Black Dog does have quite a dark intense tone (especially if your Love Rock has a dense mahogany back), and these proved to be a bit much after a little while, and I needed to increase the treble response. I'd bought a set of covered Emerald's (10 & 12k approx) for another guitar, which I'd since sold on, but replaced the original pickups, so I thought I'd give them a try in the LS70F. They've lifted the tone of the guitar, as they're a brighter pickup anyway, and work really well with the dense back of the Love Rock, and work really well for classic rock as well as some heavier styles.

Why pay more for BKP's? It's hard to explain, but they just have that extra "oomph" that makes a good guitar sound like a great guitar. Plus the fact that they're hand wound in Britain, by people who know about how their pickups work with guitars.
 
Our other guitarist has just got an irongear hot slag for his Burny.
Tomorrow night I'm going to do a compare and contrast to the SD custom 5 in my explorer as we have band practise.
Their customer service seems top notch, which is always a good starting point.
 
I was gonna get a hot slag, but decided it would be too hot for my main guitar.
I'm interested in what it's like as may consider one for another guitar.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top