Pickup Identity Help

skinfreak

I foolishly bought a Bare Knuckle pickup off ebay... silly me. The photo in the sale and description was mentioned as 8.4K - so it thought i was getting  a Cold Sweat.



I am only now getting around to checking myself and low and behold my multimeter says 7.15k. That puts it in Stormy Monday territory. Not what I was after! Might be a Mule which would not be bad but they're 7.3K.

It's a cool looking pickup - matt black (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115982475462). But any other way of identifying it for sure?
John

Funkfingers

The eBay listing photographs illustrate a BKP box. There might be something helpful indicated on that. There, again, that pickup could have been shipped in the wrong box.

skinfreak

Unfortunately it's the box for the pickup the person bought afterwards (Looks like he bought a VHII bridge). And my multimeter is spot on - just measured my Rebel Yell bridge which have me 14..61K (listing on the BK website is 14.4K).
Lurking on ebay and I cna see
PG Blues: 7.22k
Stormy Monday 7.4
Might even be a Mule!

Funkfingers

Taking the difference between your meter reading for a Rebel Yell humbucker and the published figure suggests a pretty tight tolerance.

That tolerance range, applied to the reading from the mystery humbucker, strongly suggests the 7.1k of a Stormy Monday Neck position pickup.

Looks as if you already answered your own question.

Those matt black pickup covers and nickel polepiece screws look great in black pickguard surroundings. Thus, your pickup would go nicely in the neck position of a Telecaster.

ICBM

It's always annoyed me that Bareknuckle don't label their pickups at all. It can't cost much - even a simple small sticker like the old Seymour Duncan ones would be fine.

skinfreak

Funkfingers said:

Those matt black pickup covers and nickel polepiece screws look great in black pickguard surrounds. Thus, your pickup would go nicely in the neck position of a Telecaster.

So where am I going to put the 7 P90s that are waiting for the role?!! ;-)

I am going to have to rethink my strategy though. 

skinfreak

ICBM said:

It's always annoyed me that Bareknuckle don't label their pickups at all. It can't cost much - even a simple small sticker like the old Seymour Duncan ones would be fine.

It's unbelievably irritating considering the code of them.

Philly_Q

It's odd that he's identified it as a neck pickup, but doesn't know which model it is.  Although the DCR does suggest it could be a Stormy Monday, PG Blues, Mule or Riff Raff neck - I doubt it's as consistent as one decimal place.

skinfreak

Sorry should have added - it has a newish "neck" sticker on the cable. 

Philly_Q

skinfreak said:

Sorry should have added - it has a newish "neck" sticker on the cable. 

Of course, I'd forgotten they had the stickers on the cables. 

skinfreak

Interestingly I emailed BKP direct and they said they'd help me identify the pickup. I'll keep you all posted...

guitargeek62

I hate this about BKPs, I always write the model number & position underneath just in-case they ever get mixed up with my inevitable swaps. 

That said, I rarely use BKPs these days!

FelineGuitars

Usually they tend to meter up lower than the specs (and depending on temperature too).

I would say it is most likely a Mule neck 

Hope BKP can help 

I have often discussed my annoyance at the lack of labelling, (and I have been a stockist of them for 20 years)

I do resort to putting my own little labels of some if we are fitting them in our own guitars

skinfreak

FelineGuitars said:

Usually they tend to meter up lower than the specs (and depending on temperature too).

I would say it is most likely a Mule neck 

Hope BKP can help 

I have often discussed my annoyance at the lack of labelling, (and I have been a stockist of them for 20 years)

I do resort to putting my own little labels of some if we are fitting them in our own guitars

See?! Thinking about the customer! Well done.

If it is a Mule then I think I'd be very happy indeed. In fact this little escapade has me changing my mind a little bit. This pickup might make it into my Satin Black Singlecut. Was aiming for the Tremonti but this does give me an idea.

Philly_Q

skinfreak said:

If it is a Mule then I think I'd be very happy indeed. In fact this little escapade has me changing my mind a little bit. This pickup might make it into my Satin Black Singlecut. Was aiming for the Tremonti but this does give me an idea.

Even if it's not a Mule, you could put an A4 magnet in and it's near as dammit.  Or you might just be happy with way it sounds now.

skinfreak

Hmmm....I just went back to an old thread when i bought the Rebel Yell off here. The seller said it was 14.9k and yet I'm reading 14.58k this morning.  Obviously there's some deviation coming from somewhere but could my meter be consistently lower? I've long forgotten my electronics GCSE and mow I'm typing I might well be making a mountain out of a molehile. 0.3k difference on a different day with different weather? It's probably nothing.

Also found a person on Reverb hocking a Mule at 7.1k also. Maybe it is a Mule...

Philly_Q

As @FelineGuitars said:

FelineGuitars said:

Usually they tend to meter up lower than the specs (and depending on temperature too).

I wouldn't get too hung up on the exact DCR readings.

timmypix

skinfreak said:

Hmmm....I just went back to an old thread when i bought the Rebel Yell off here. The seller said it was 14.9k and yet I'm reading 14.58k this morning.  Obviously there's some deviation coming from somewhere but could my meter be consistently lower? I've long forgotten my electronics GCSE and mow I'm typing I might well be making a mountain out of a molehile. 0.3k difference on a different day with different weather? It's probably nothing.

Also found a person on Reverb hocking a Mule at 7.1k also. Maybe it is a Mule...

DC readings are affected by temperature, so that will usually explain some variance. Have you got any way of measuring the magnet strength?

skinfreak

How would I go about doing that? I think that means no

OilCityPickups

skinfreak said:

Hmmm....I just went back to an old thread when i bought the Rebel Yell off here. The seller said it was 14.9k and yet I'm reading 14.58k this morning.  Obviously there's some deviation coming from somewhere but could my meter be consistently lower? I've long forgotten my electronics GCSE and mow I'm typing I might well be making a mountain out of a molehile. 0.3k difference on a different day with different weather? It's probably nothing.

Also found a person on Reverb hocking a Mule at 7.1k also. Maybe it is a Mule...

Warming a pickup in your hand for a few seconds will make more than 0.3k difference ... this is why DC resistance is total bullshit. 
Also just going between 50mm spacing and 52mm spacing will make WAY more than 0.3k 

ICBM

How to identify a pickup:

1. Install the pickup in your guitar.
2. Play it and listen to the sound.
3a. If you like the sound, it's a Good Pickup.
3b. Forget about everything else.
4a. If you don't like the sound, it's still a Good Pickup but you don't like it, so
4b. remove it and put something else in.



Sorry for the sarcasm, but remember that the variation in old Gibson humbuckers - all of which sound great, at least when someone knows they're from 1958-1960 - is probably greater than between many different models of PAF-alike pickups.