Bare Knuckle Pickups Irish Tour and Crawler Set

Irish Tour middle & neck single coils: 6.3/6.3k, alnico V, flat profile. Crawler humbucker: 15k, vintage cut alnico V. Humbucker with 4 conductor wiring. Handmade in the UK. Further specs: see the BK-site.

Installed in an MXG-strat (custom made by Patrick Eggle in conjunction with guitarshop Maximum Guitars, The Hague, Holland. Swampash body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard. Irish Tours and Crawler replacing a Rio Grande Muy Grande HSS-set, because humbucker was a tad microphonic. The Crawler is a signature-pickup developed for Geoff Whitehorn (played in and worked with Bad Company, Paul Rodgers, Procol Harum and The Who).

This is as good as it gets on a superstrat. Irish Tours are gritty, punchy, clear, but never harsh and very 3D. Very lush with enough bite, big sounding, especially neckpickup. Since I've installed these I've stopped using chorus and phaser. They handle overdrive/distortion very well. Can't stopping playing.
The Crawler provides smooth, creamy, fat overdriven tones, with enough treble in the topend, but will never sound harsh. With the volume rolled down, this bucker cleans up very nice. Will do any style. In splitmode the single coil from The Crawler is a perfect match for the Irish Tours. Sparkling exquisite stratty sounds. Full humbucker in combination with single coil in the middle, delivers a big stratty sound, suitable for jazz, blues, pop, rock. I use this mode alot.

Been playing for 30 years, these pickups are a giant leap when it comes to tone. There's something magical about Bare Knuckle-pickups. So musical, so inspirational. And no hum. Absolute topnotch and worth every penny.

Pickup features: Single and Humbuckers
Impedence or other specs: Varies

Model of guitar or bass: Tyler Classic and Les Paul Custom
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Tyler Shur model & Gibson stock
Other pickups on guitar: Shur,s on the Tyler
Artists using this pickup: Geoff Whitehorn
You musical style(s): Blues/Rock/Coutry/Jazz crossover
Reason for pickup change: Bridge posion on Tyler prone to feedback on higher gain settings and the Gibson lacked a defined character and felt a little harsh

Perceived output level: The Irish tour is pure Stevie Ray while the Crawler set is smooth yet powerful like Kossoff meeting Dann Huff
Tone: Irish Tour is edgy but smooth. The Crawlers are smooth& rich but with a nice bite, the neck has undertones of a classic Strat but the fullness of a Les Paul
Sonic evaluation: Hughes & kettner Duotone, Edition 20 tube, Fender Champ 12, Peavey Delta Blues

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: These pick ups are eminantly flexible and both suit many styles

Comments: In the past 15 years I,ve owned 7 Strats, 2 Ibanez Artists, 1 Yamaha SG, Manson Customs ( a gold 27 fret quilt top with horse inlays was stolen from my friends car. Has anybody seen it?) 1 PRS, " Gibson Les Pauls, 1 Heritage 535 and 3 Yamaha Pacifica,s . Some of these I been equiped with standard pick ups or a selection of the following...Di Marzio,s/Seymour Duncan Jeff Becks/ Hotrails/EMG single coils, 85,s 89,s/ Pearly Gates, and Kent Armstrongs but I,ve NEVER PLAYED anything as good as these Bare Knuckles. Infact the other guitarist in our band has fitted a Bare Knuckle Boss set which he is raving about too! Anyone considering changing their pick ups should call Tim at Bare Knuckle and stop looking elsewhere, period!