Bare Knuckle Juggernaut Set

[fdesalvo]

MY GOD.  How can such powerful pickups have such clarity, depth, and balance; be organic yet modern, and touch sensitive at the same time??  HOW?

No down-tuned, djenty 8 string bass guitar here.  This is a fixed bridge, 6 string Ibanez Prestige RG that will see nothing other than standard E with some dropped-d tunings. 

These lean in the way of modern tones, but somehow still retain an organic quality.  The bridge is super fluid and crushing, while being tonally balanced in this basswood Ibanez.  It's got THE nicest clean tone of any humbucking bridge pickup I've ever owned.  The neck is spectacular and very fluid with a single coil quality, as well!  I can't wait to track with these!  Sounds amazing through my fender/marshall-inspired amp! 

1. neck
2. bridge/neck split
3. bridge/neck
4. bridge parralel
5. bridge

Hard to capture the color of this beautiful paint job.  I'm holding the guitar by the neck, so the strings appear off-center.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I installed one of these in a Floral Jem for a customer recently.
I was pleasantly surprised how great these sounded for a passive pickup.
They felt like they had the overhead/underwound clarity of my EMG57-66 set, but with a bit more quack in the neck pickup.  These are fine pickups.

 

[fdesalvo]

I installed one of these in a Floral Jem for a customer recently.
I was pleasantly surprised how great these sounded for a passive pickup.
They felt like they had the overhead/underwound clarity of my EMG57-66 set, but with a bit more quack in the neck pickup.  These are fine pickups.

I feel like I saw that vid of yours.  yeah, man.  Very caught off guard by these.  Probably due to the fact that 99% of all videos featuring these were recorded by dudes playing severely down-tuned djent on 19-string guitars.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I installed one of these in a Floral Jem for a customer recently.
I was pleasantly surprised how great these sounded for a passive pickup.
They felt like they had the overhead/underwound clarity of my EMG57-66 set, but with a bit more quack in the neck pickup.  These are fine pickups.

I feel like I saw that vid of yours.  yeah, man.  Very caught off guard by these.  Probably due to the fact that 99% of all videos featuring these were recorded by dudes playing severely down-tuned djent on 19-string guitars.

So was that Jem, it was tuned to Dropped C, but still retained a lot of clarity & detail.

 

[fdesalvo]

Rehearsed with these today. New perspective.

These are very dark through my rig, so if you have a dark axe, pass these up. Tone stack on amp and pedals compensated nicely.

Very rich and liquid tone from both pickups. Not a versatile set that will take you through an entire set with one guitar in my situation, but again, this guitar is purposed for heavy stuff. 

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Rehearsed with these today. New perspective.

These are very dark through my rig, so if you have a dark axe, pass these up. Tone stack on amp and pedals compensated nicely.

Very rich and liquid tone from both pickups. Not a versatile set that will take you through an entire set with one guitar in my situation, but again, this guitar is purposed for heavy stuff.

What rig is that?

I pumped the jem that I installed on through the Bogner Uber model & it had loads of clarity, but I also dial back the low end considerably already as the Uber has more low end than any guitar player could practically need if a bass player is around.

 

[fdesalvo]

Rehearsed with these today. New perspective.

These are very dark through my rig, so if you have a dark axe, pass these up. Tone stack on amp and pedals compensated nicely.

Very rich and liquid tone from both pickups. Not a versatile set that will take you through an entire set with one guitar in my situation, but again, this guitar is purposed for heavy stuff.

What rig is that?

I pumped the jem that I installed on through the Bogner Uber model & it had loads of clarity, but I also dial back the low end considerably already as the Uber has more low end than any guitar player could practically need if a bass player is around.

I built a Fender/Marshall master volume head. Has a variety of switchable boosts for tone and adjustable negative feedback. Was able to adjust the pedals I use to drive the front end to suit the Juggs. 

These are a maxon od 808 and a tumnus, which are amazing together and separate.  I essentially had to take the treble on both and bring them up from about 12:00 to almost 5:00. 

 

[fdesalvo]

Update!  The honeymoon is over.

After playing with these live, I've decided to take advantage of BK's return policy.  These are being replaced by a pair of Rebel yell's.  In the end the Juggs were too hot for my liking and were just too fat in this particular guitar.  I'd say if you have a warm sounding guitar, avoid the Juggs.  I will try to withhold reviews until I get to test them in a live application, outside the vacuum of my studio.