Bare knuckle vs. EMG vs. DiMarzio

[RLG167]

Mahogany body plus EMG 81/60 is an awesome combo! Despite what many believe the wood does make a huge difference in the overall tone.

Come to think of it, James Hetfield's Eclipse and Snakebyte have the same setup (mahogany/mahogany, EMG 81/60), and so do the Jim Root (Slipknot) signature Strat, Tele, and Jazzmaster. Those are the 2 off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure the Gibson Zakk Wylde LP is mahogany/mahogany but with an 81/85

 

[ASoC]

A lot of those guys also use guitars with a 24.75" scale lengths, which contributes to a darker sound with less of a snappy attack and less high end resonance. I guess that also really helps EMGs sound their best.

 

[RLG167]

I'm going to take the EMG's out of my Vendetta and sell them to go towards a set of Ceramic Nailbombs. Which in US dollars translates to roughly $282, plus whatever shipping is. Think it's worth it?

 

[witeter]

Out of all the BKP's i tried the Ceramic Nailbomb was probably my favourite i used to have it in a mahogany bodied PRS SE custom 24. It does thrash great and lends itself to fast riffing really well. Just dont expect it to be 'better' than anything else, BKP's offer another flavour and for me their trademark is their excellent clarity. However I prefer EMG's over BKP's, imo nothing gets close to the rhythm pups EMG offer for metal.

 

[TommyG]

I have tried many Dimarzio pickups and a few Seymour Duncans.
I had 1 set of EMG's 808's in a guitar and I did not like them at all. (I know the 707 and 808 pickups were not their best offerings)

After installing BK Blackdogs in my Schecter C1 Elite, I now understand why so many people like Bare Knuckle pickups.
They really do sound better and have great clarity.
They just sound like they are better at bringing the full frequency range to your amp.
Its kinda like you have been missing something until now.
The feel is very nice and controlled.

I am waiting on my Ceramic Nailbomb pickup now for my 7 string.

 

[RLG167]

Well, I just took the EMG's out of my Vendetta, and it was quite a mess. I should've taken pics to show how horrendous it was. First, the pickups themselves were switched. The 81 was in the bridge, the 85 was in the neck. Second, they're the new 'solderless' ones with the 3-pin plugs, but besides the plugs, everything else was soldered. It had 250k pots which I think weren't right (all my other EMG loaded guitars have 500k pots), and nothing-and I mean NOTHING AT ALL-was covered, all the solder joints were open. No heatshrink tubing or even electrical tape. They weren't even secured, the wires were just flopping around in the back. Anyways, I don't want to spend the few hundred it'll be to get the EMG's back in with the PROPER equipment, so I'll probably just sell them on reverb.com or somethinG and buy DiMarzio's. I want the Bareknuckles, but the Nailbombs are $315 for a covered set! And I couldn't find a US distributor that has Nailbombs in burnt chrome (I think that's what the color is called), so I'd have to order them straight from BKP and spend a fortune on shipping.

 

[jc986]

Any BKP dealer can order you whatever pickups you want and would usually charge the same amount as they sell their in stock ones for.

Also 81 bridge / 85 neck is how 99% of factory installed EMG's are configured. EMG's( as well as any other active pickups) should be using 25k pots, not 250k or 500k (those are for passive pickups). I'm not sure what you mean by the solder joints not being "covered". It doesn't sound like anything abnormal with the wiring to me unless the pots were actually 250k instead of 25k.

 

[RLG167]

Any BKP dealer can order you whatever pickups you want and would usually charge the same amount as they sell their in stock ones for.

Also 81 bridge / 85 neck is how 99% of factory installed EMG's are configured. EMG's( as well as any other active pickups) should be using 25k pots, not 250k or 500k (those are for passive pickups). I'm not sure what you mean by the solder joints not being "covered". It doesn't sound like anything abnormal with the wiring to me unless the pots were actually 250k instead of 25k.

I've never had a guitar with an 81/85 set with the 85 in the neck and an 81 in the bridge. And a good way to tell, and I even emailed EMG about this, is that the bridge pickup will have the logo in gold and the neck pickup will have the logo in silver. The 85 was gold and the 81 was silver. As for the pots, that was a typo, my bad . I meant 50k. (My tablet apparently doesn't know what 50 is lol) and by covered I meant all the solder joints in the wires from the tone to the jack to the volume to the pickups didn't have heatshrink or electrical tape. I've never seen a solder joint without some kind of protective cover. It's hard to explain how awful it was inside, just trust me, not something you want the wires in your guitar to look like.

 

[jc986]

Neither pickup is exclusively a "Neck" or "Bridge" model. I like the 81 and the 85 in both positions depending on the guitar and what I plan to use it for. EMG states on their website though that the 81 is "traditionally used in the bridge position of your guitar".

I was just pointing out that having the 81 in the bridge and the 85 in the neck wasn't an issue at all and is in fact how pretty much any stock guitar with the 81/85 combo comes from the factory.

 

[HighPotency]

Well, I just took the EMG's out of my Vendetta, and it was quite a mess. I should've taken pics to show how horrendous it was. First, the pickups themselves were switched. The 81 was in the bridge, the 85 was in the neck. Second, they're the new 'solderless' ones with the 3-pin plugs, but besides the plugs, everything else was soldered. It had 250k pots which I think weren't right (all my other EMG loaded guitars have 500k pots), and nothing-and I mean NOTHING AT ALL-was covered, all the solder joints were open. No heatshrink tubing or even electrical tape. They weren't even secured, the wires were just flopping around in the back. Anyways, I don't want to spend the few hundred it'll be to get the EMG's back in with the PROPER equipment, so I'll probably just sell them on reverb.com or somethinG and buy DiMarzio's. I want the Bareknuckles, but the Nailbombs are $315 for a covered set! And I couldn't find a US distributor that has Nailbombs in burnt chrome (I think that's what the color is called), so I'd have to order them straight from BKP and spend a fortune on shipping.

Axe Palace has an order form if you can't find burnt chrome nailbombs in stock at any of their US distributors. I went through the order form and it came to $309.00 without shipping.

 

[RLG167]

I'm actually just gonna get the solderless kit from EMG. I thought it would be at least a couple hundred, but it's less than $40!! So I'll get that and that'll clean it up a bit and make everything easier

 

[RLG167]

In the meantime until I get those pups back in, here are a couple pics I took of it. I figured as long as all electronics and hardware are off, I might as well polish it up a bit. In the pics it's kind of hard to see, but it has a mirror finish. When I was done polishing it, I could see myself, even though it's not a solid color. The Dean Custom Shop used some pretty high quality finishes

 

[bzhan1]

I've literally bought $50 no name guitars from craigslist that sounded as good as $1k guitars with name brand pickups plugged into the same setup. The hype machine is real, the BKP CEO's yacht you're paying for is also real.

 

[RLG167]

Yeah, I'll just stick to my old favorite, the EMG 81/85. I have a few guitars with an 81/60, and I want to try the 81X/85X, I don't know what the X is for, but I guess I'll see . And I also want to try the Het Set \m/

 

[Alex79]

Out of all the BKP's i tried the Ceramic Nailbomb was probably my favourite i used to have it in a mahogany bodied PRS SE custom 24. It does thrash great and lends itself to fast riffing really well. Just dont expect it to be 'better' than anything else, BKP's offer another flavour and for me their trademark is their excellent clarity. However I prefer EMG's over BKP's, imo nothing gets close to the rhythm pups EMG offer for metal.

Pretty much what I would say:
"Better" is always difficult, it's so much in the eye of the beholder.

Basically, you know it's right when it feels right!

 

[Jaek-Chi]

IMO, EMG's don't have anything on BKP's, in any way shape or form. If you want that thick low feel, they have pickups that are crystal clear and not muddy like the EMG's, if you want crunchy distortion, they do multiple that put the EMG's to shame. I'm not bagging them by any means, i've had plenty of guitars with them and they are solid, but in all honesty don't stack up to BKP's, so if you are worried about sound quality or build quality, don't be.

Firstly it totally depends on the sound you are after. I wanted a crunchy, articulate tone that wasn't muddy or too lose in the low end, but had lots of mid range crunch and brutality and went for an Alnico Warpig, and i've never been happier. Heard aftermaths, nailbombs etc etc. If unsure, email BKP, they are super helpful. It cost me about $260 for just a bridge pickup, but the guys were amazing and i had my pickup that was sent to me in Australia in 3 days!

If you speak to them (they were a great help to me) and make the right, informed decision, i would imagine it hard to think you'll be disappointed.

Best of luck with the choice

 

[RLG167]

A bit off topic, but I decided to sell the Dean in the pics. If anyone's interested send me a message

 

[RLG167]

So I decided not to sell the Dean (it's my baby, I can't ) so after talking to the people at the store for about 2 hrs today, I finally decided on a DiMarzio Super 2 in the neck, and a DiMarzio Dominion (sig. pup of Mark Morton from Lamb Of God) in the bridge. The super 2 has the highest treble rating of any of the pickups on the DiMarzio website and a decent mid and bass, but since I really only use the neck pickup for lead, I wanted a pickup with powerful treble for clear and crisp leads, while not overpowering the bridge pickup. And the Dominion has a great Bass and Mid rating, with a generous Treble rating. And I love LoG, and that tone is exactly what I'm looking for. So we decided that the two pickups are pretty much a perfect match. I got them in white. I figured white pickups with the black magnets would look great in my guitar because it's aquaburst with chrome hardware, but the Dean logo on the headstock is also white, so it should complement the color scheme well. I never use a tone control really, so I'm going to re-wire it for a bridge volume and a neck volume, no tone. I was considering getting it routed for a Floyd, but I think a string-through configuration is a great way to keep it.

 

[RLG167]

Thanks everyone for your input, I really do appreciate it

 

[justinreagin]

Hey all, so in 90% of all my guitars I have EMG's, and the other 10% have DiMarzio's, but I was talking to a friend of mine who swears by Bareknuckle pickups, so I want some input here. So I know this will probably get a lot of EMG haters going "How can you compare EMG's to Bareknuckles?!" But can we just leave that out of this please? It doesn't really help anyone in this situation. So anyways, I've tried-and hate-many SD pickups, (yes, even the blackouts, which aren't bad actually), and when I'm not using my go-to beloved EMG's (81/85, 81/60 in two of them) I have DiMarzio Super-3's, Super Distortion's, and Liquifiers. Now my point is, at around $300 a set, plus whatever shipping from England costs and how long it takes to ship (I'm in NY), I think buying and installing a set of Bareknuckles is a bit of a gamble. My biggest point mostly is, I don't know how they sound. I've heard a lot of great things, but I'm just not sure. If I do decide to get them, what would you suggest for very high gain, aggressive playing? I want like an EMG 85 on steroids to give you an idea. I've heard the Misha Mansoor Juggernaut set is great for that. And with the new Ibanez line that comes stock with Bareknuckles, I was thinking of getting one, but I'll probably just buy a pickup set and put it in a guitar I already have, as I don't want to spend $2,500 just to try some pickups.
Thanks, RG

Being totally honest here, I purchased a set of Nailbombs for a Les Paul, maybe I expected too much, but I was not impressed at all, much less with the price tag they command. Maybe it was just a bad set or something, but it struck me as all hype. I've been happier with run of the mill Duncans, Emgs, and Dimarzios. I traded the nail bombs out and sold them, replacing them with Suhr Aldrich pickups, which I was quite pleased with.