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Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:54 am
by Toe-Knee
I got this pickup in a trade and so far i'm not exactly pleased with it.

My issues are
Too Grainy
High end can be very fizzy
The lows are really boomy
Too saturated (and i normally play emgs :facepalm: )

So I figured with all of these negative qualities so to speak i'd try and make the best of them and recorded a bit of Death

https://soundcloud.com/boyes/crystal-mountain

It definitely works for this. It managed to make my SLO sound solidstate :facepalm: and well I can't see this pickup sticking around for long

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:10 pm
by SuperFlyinMonke
I agree, for the most part. That pickup and I did not get along. It needs to be pretty far away from the strings to retain the clarity. I really didn't like how grainy the low end was, but the mids and highs sounded clear, defined and sweet.

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:55 pm
by JonVengeance
I didn't like this pickup until I lowered it back from the strings. Now I think it crushes in my Les Paul Custom. We used that guitar the studio for our last recordings to do all the rhythm guitars and I was really pleased with the tones.

What kind of guitar do you have it in? It was recommend to use by bkp in my LP since that guitar was a little dark

Btw, I liked the tone in your clip and didn't think it sounded particularly solid state

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:07 pm
by Toe-Knee
Its in a MIJ Jackson DKMGT which i believe is alder with a bolt on maple neck.

It's currently about 7-8mm from the strings possibly more. I've also tried this across other guitars such as my RGA thats mahogany with a maple neck with very similar results just a bit thicker which wasnt good as the low end is pretty intense anyway with this pickup.


I have a couple of new pickups on the way from Bulldog to test out so we'll see how they go.

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:11 am
by Elessar [Sly]
Lowering it might be worth a shot. It just sounds like you went with the wrong pickup choice. BKP have a decent range of pups that are great.

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 4:23 pm
by Toe-Knee
Elessar [Sly] wrote:Lowering it might be worth a shot. It just sounds like you went with the wrong pickup choice. BKP have a decent range of pups that are great.


Aye it just wasn't the right pickup for the guitar. I stuck the Fullshred in that I also got in the trade and it works far better in this guitar.

I have used a fair few BKPs since 2005 and i've enjoyed them all other than this and the warpig. I do prefer Bulldogs however as they have a tighter low end i find and a more open sound.

Re: Bare Knuckle Painkiller test

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:04 pm
by ajaxlepinski
Sounded pretty good to me and I listened to it on my iPhone 3 speaker! Sounded like my P90 cranked... A classic, tasty sound indeed!