Help Bare knuckle pickups - Crawler or Emerald

markguitarblaze

Hi 

This is only my second posting so apologies for any failings in etiquette etc.

I've just bought a Les Paul Custom and I'm looking to fit new pickups. I'm caught in a sad time warp involving 70s blues/melodic rock - eg Thin Lizzy so was drawn to the Emeralds but then heard the Crawler set on the BK website and loved them.

To state the blindingly obvious, the sound will ultimately depend on the guitar the pickups are fitted to and being a great believer in letting your ears make the decision I've been looking for sound bites of each set on a LP custom - to no avail. Does anyone please know of any links or are you able to advise on the relative merits of each set. Many thanks for any advice. Mark

PhilKing

You can got to the Bare Knuckles web site (https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/) and they have sound bites. I have most of their pickups, since I started using them over 12 years ago. I have Emeralds in a LP Custom. I have had Crawlers in, but for my ears, Crawlers sound better in bolt on and lighter guitars. Another option is the Abraxas, which I have in a PRS Singlecut and an original Hamer Sunburst. My original set was an Emerald in the bridge and a Mule in the neck, which is a great combination if you like Gary Moore, Paul Kossoff & Peter Green. The Abraxas is a hotter PAF, where the Emerald has more harmonic content. Given what you are into, I would go with the Emeralds, or the Emerald/Mule combination.

markguitarblaze

Many thanks Phil. Greatly appreciated.

Kalimna

I have a VH2/Nailbomb combo in one build that sound fantastic, and a pair of Abraxas in a padouk bodied stripey-Van Halen inspired effort. Also sound fantastic.
i think the upshot is that you won't go wrong with a set from Bareknuckle whichever you choose. 
Cheers, Adam

TTony

markguitarblaze said:

To state the blindingly obvious, the sound will ultimately depend on the guitar the pickups are fitted to and being a great believer in letting your ears make the decision I've been looking for sound bites of each set on a LP custom - to no avail.

TBH, I think the sound depends on the guitar that the pickups are fitted to as you say, plus the amp/fx that the guitar is played through, and (probably more than the other factors combined) the player who's actually playing the guitar.

Listening to clips might give an indication of the differences between the two pickup models, but only if all the other factors are equal (as well as recording conditions, hardware, etc).

I've had a few BKP models through the years, and never been anything other than satisfied with them.  They couldn't have grown as big as they have without very good products (and marketing), so I doubt that you could make a bad choice.  Could I blind-test identify which pickup was which?  (Probably not).

As another option, had you thought about talking to one of the boutique pickup makers about what you're looking for, and see what they suggest?  People like Oil City don't have marketing departments to fund, so more of the cost price goes into the product itself, and Ash is very available to people seeking advice on which of his models would best fit what they're looking for.


In other news, the BKP forum looks like it has really quietened down since its heyday ... where'd everyone go???

axisus

I'm still not convinced of the 'uniqueness' of all the pickups out on the market. Cheap ones don't sound good, expensive ones sound good.

markguitarblaze

Thanks for everyone's comments. For anyone's interest; Bareknuckle have come back and said that the Emerald and Crawler sound bites were all recorded using a moderately bright mid 1980s Les Paul custom. Thanks again guys. 

John_P

I didn't get the sounds I wanted from the crawler set I tried but I really like the emeralds.   I'm not sure if you are gigging or playing at volume but they sound great in a loud band mix.