MF_Kitten
Set up us the bomb
This clip just got me super interested in that Bare Knuckle Nailbomb. I haven't played a passive pickup in.... god, probably 7 years. But your tone in this video was fucking sick, though I realize alot of it was from the Axe-FX, i mean just the general tone of the guitar itself was awesome. How would you compare the Nailbomb to say, an EMG 81-7? Can it do more than just the super tight "djent"y sound?
the Painkiller i put in my 8 string nailed the "super badass tight metal tone", and i'm a fan of the EMG 81 for metal stuff myself, so i guess that says something. it's basically trying to achieve the same type of thing as the emg 81, but it's voicing is different.
to my ears, the 81 has a really tight low end, but not that much of it, so it stays tight. the midrange has a slight boost, but it's in a large area, and it doesn't need more boosting because the lows are lower already. then it has a little more treble and high mids, and finally a whole bunch of presence. the overall effect is that it ends up sounding more boosted, and is more "ready" for the amp.
the painkiller has a tight low end, but not as little of it as the emg 81. then there's a teeny scoop in the low mids, and a large boost in the general high mids area. this is where it's aggressive sound comes from. then, to avoid shrillness and scrapy sounds, it has a smooth high end. it's got a whole lot more dynamics than an emg 81, and the output isn't as "punch the amp in the face", because it wants you to turn the gain up to meet it instead of it sacrificing it's rawness and dynamics to meet the lower gain. it soudns fatter and more growly than the emg 81, for sure.
that's the only BKP i have first hand experience with, and i've owned the emg 81 before too, running it through the same rig in the same tunings. i think it would be best served in a 7 string in a drop tuning, like you guys, as it really sounded mean as hell for that stuff.