Bare Knuckle Pickups Cold Sweat calibrated set

Matched set of traditional looking passive Humbucking pickups with polished Nickel covers. Bridge/lead pickup has a fairly high output using a ceramic magnet (14.1K Ohms according to Tim at BKP)and more conventional neck/rhythm pickup based on Alnico V magnets (8.35K Ohm apparently).

I fitted both pickups(I bought them as a matched "calibrated" from the Bare Knucke website)about three weeks ago and have now had a chance to get to know them, rehearsing and gigging with them fitted in my 1988 57 reissue Gibson Les Paul.I decided to replace the stock Bill Lawrence designed pickups (HB-R and HB-L)as I have recently upgraded my amp and cab rig and wanted a slightly more varied and more dynamic responsive sound.

Good punchy output for a passive pickup set surprisingly actually slightly less hot than the Gibson Original set that I was replacing (see above). signal path is decent lead into Dunlop Cry Baby > Catalinbread Serrano Picoso > 80's Rat > MXR Phase 90 > DOD OP250 (Analogman mojo mod) > Boss TU2 into a Cornford Roadhouse 30 watt Head set to just slight overdrive AC/DC style, (I clean up the tone by backing off the volume knobs on the guitar) into Cornford 2 by 12 and/or Marshall 4 by 10 cabinets. I use other wet effects and delays in the FX loop. I play mostly Rock-Pop and Loud Bluesy-Funk covers in a five piece band with a loud drummer, bass player, another guitarist and a singer mostly in small to medium sized Bars and clubs. The Neck pickup selected alone is very well balanced fat,warm and articulate with a tidy bass response, chimey upper mids and just a touch of sparkley treble which really shows off the sustain of this guitar very nicely indeed. The Bridge pick up has a tighter bass response majoring on fat mids and upper mids but with just the right amount of trebley punch and is not as bright as I expected, this was a pleasant surpise as I was expecting to have to have to rein in he treble using the tone pot. It seems to have only slightly higher output than the neck pickup, just nudging the front end of the amp a bit further in to breaking up fat riffing tones. What I like most about this set is the middle position, selecting both pups which by balancing the output of each pickup I can get a great range of useful tones from woman tone to Brian Robertson Lizzy lead breaks.

If these pickups were gone tomorrow I would probably replace them with a identical set but would definitely stick with something from Bare Knuckles, Maybe with the Bridge wound slightly hotter?
I have been playing for about thirty years and have a couple of MIJ 80s and 90s Fenders, but have going through something of a Gibson Les Paul and ES series phase over the last ten years or so. The Burstbuckers in my other newer Gibsons showed up the stock pickups of my old Goldtop and I had wanted an excuse to try out some Bare Knuckles and I'm really glad that I did, they have really rejuvinated a great sounding/playing guitar. If I have one criticism it is the lack of opportunity to get your hands on these sort of things to try before you buy, but I guess the next best thing is testemonial and reviews like this so carry on the great work HC. These are great Pickups, Tim Mills is, a very helpful,genius in my book and hey! they're British for a change :v)

Calibrated (Matched) Set, Passive Pick-ups.Nickel Covers. Also came with a set of Rotosound 10s and nice chinky BKP pick, nice touch. Also included are clear and concise instructions. They are the long leg 4 conductor type. The Bridge Pickup is built above ceramic magnets and the neck over, more traditional, Alnico V jobbies.

Installed in 1988 Gibson, Pre-Historic, "57" Goldtop Les Paul. Both neck and bridge. Bought as a calibrated set direct from BKP here in the UK.I love this guitar but have never been totally happy with the stock Pick-ups (Gibson "The Original" HB-R and HB-L humbuckers, designed by Bill Lawrence while he worked at Gibson in the late 80s) which had power but lacked subtlety when you back off the volume and were prone to being a bit "thick" tonally.Great for shredding but not much else.

Good strong output. A little Hotter than most PAFs. Bright treble on Bridge Pickup but with articulataion and enough fatness in the midrange and nice chunking bottom end. Neck pickup has a lovely balanced warm, fat sound with a well defined punchy, warm bottom end a bit like Burstbucker 2s but with slightly better seperation, cleans up nicely when you back off the volume pot.
I play through Marshall JCM 600 series amps and a Cornford Roadhouse 30 head through various Marshall cabs. Currently playing loud funky pop rock covers from Depeche Mode to ZZ Top.

If I lost these pick ups (Can't imagine how, but let's not tempt fate Eh?) I would by another set of Bare Knuckles Buckers, as they are superbly made.These do exactly what I hoped they'd do :v)

Passive hunbucker set
Ceramic magnet at bridge, alinco at neck.

Both pickups installed into my lefty Gibson Les Paul swamp ash studio.

I WAS replacing the stock pickups (read on to get what i mean)

I was always hearing the hype around Bare Knuckle and wanted to try em for myself, I rand em up and spoke to Tim who recommended this set.

Output level is less than my stock pickups, pretty quiet in comparrison!
For home use i run a line 6 spider 2 212, for live i use different Marshall heads, AVT 150, JCM 900 etc.
Bridge pickup is full of highs, so much that its painfull to play up the dusty end of the scale dirty! Theres some decent lows, but no better than any other passive pickup. The mids are this pickups saving grace, warm and very woody, just how a les paul should be. I really didnt like this pickup when played dirty, but it suprised me with a pretty good clean tone which i wasnt expecting from a ceremic magnet. Sadly a half decent clean tone just isnt enough to cut the mustard for me.
The neck pickup is where this set really disapoints, its really really poor. It just sound like a wooly mess, no clarity or string definition what so ever. The low output is really evident here, it doesnt even match the bridge pickup (before you ask, Yes i had them installed proffesionally, by no other than Mansons). To be honest you might as well not even have a neck pickup if its as poor as this.

Im sooo dissapointed that im having my stock Gibson units put back in. I think its a joke that a company can charge ??210 for a product this poor. The only good thing i can really say is that when i wanted a refund on them there was no fuss whatsoever.
Dont waste your money on these, get a set of EMGs or save even more money and get a Seymore Duncan JB, you'll get a much better sound and you'll have about ??50 more cash in your pocket.