Bare Knuckle Pickups Miracle Man/Trilogy Suite set

Hand wound set: 1 passive ceramic humbucker (Miracle Man) at 18K and 2 passive Alnico 5 single coils (Trilogy Suite) at 13.5K with the middle pickup being RWRP. The humbucker was a 4 wire since I was wiring it for a coil split and also F-spaced to be used with a tremelo.

I am a professional luthier and installed this set in a handmade guitar(mahogany body, maple neck, bubinga fretboard, Callaham steel trem). The guitar has a 5-way blade switch and a push-push switch on the volume pot to split the humbucker, giving you 2 more pickup options in the 1 and 2 positions. I have used a BKP Mule set and a Cold Sweat F-spaced humbucker in other guitars and was impressed enough with them to try this combination as I was looking for something with output and sound similiar to active pickups, but with more organic qualities than actives tend to have.

This is a very high output set. Tim at BKP is very accurate in his descriptions of these on his website. The Miracle Man sounds very similiar in output and sound to an EMG 81 but not as sterile. If you want Zakk Wylde sound but without the battery, this is it. Nice thick bass, razor sharp mids and screaming highs with brilliant harmonics. The more distortion the happier this pickup is while maintaining articulate individual notes and a nice bloom with chords. Great sustain with the mahogany and steel trem block. The beauty is in how well this pickup splits. Don't sell this pickup short by installing it without a split...you'll be missing out. You lose a little of the bass thickness, but it cleans up nicely for beautiful articulate solos and blues stylings. Combines nicely split with the RWRP Trilogy Suite middle pickup for a less aggressive humbucker sound. The Trilogy Suites are also very articulate with a nice bottom end. Perfect match to the Miracle Man if you want the versatility of the 2 single coils rather than another humbucker in the neck. You can still get a nice Strat-chime in the middle switch positions but don't expect vintage sound since they are overwound. The neck position can give you something of a Tele quality without the brittleness or a little blusier with the treble on the tone rolled down (I used a .047 orange drop cap with this combo). Almost no background noise with any of the pickups but they are all very touch sensitive to pick dynamics. These will force you to be a better player since you can't hide mistakes with these. These are ideal for metal, but are surprisingly versatile to lighter rock and blues and do cleanup nicely. This may sound cheesey to a gigging musician, but I test guitars and pickups through a Fender GDEC, because it offers such a wide range of amp/effect models so I can really run them through a variety of settings to see what they are capable of. I don't alter the amps tone or the presets so they remain a constant benchmark to compare to. In this case there were very few of the 50 presets that weren't nicely usable with the guitars volume, tone or switchings adjusted accordingly.

I've been very impressed with BKP products. Tim answered my e-mails quickly and was very helpful with pickup suggestions for my applications. The pickups came with a lifetime warranty/installation instructions and sample wiring schematics. This is very helpful, because there is not an industry standard for pickup wiring colors. I often wonder how many bad reviews on Harmony Central were caused by incorrect wirings where someone tried a rewire by comparing to a different brands wiring. Ideal tone is an individual thing, but matching these pickup voicings to a warm body wood like mahogany and using them for the right music, you won't be disappointed. I like the BKP Mules for more vintage sounds, but I am considering this set as a standard if I build a guitar for someone who wants a hard rock or metal application and the ability to still sound good clean. These are expensive (don't remember the exact price due to the British Pound to Dollar conversion awhile back), but if you are looking for that little extra something that will standout over the guitarists playing the normal active electronics, this could be it for you. I wonder how good Zakk would sound with this set :)