Bare Knuckle Pickups Mississippi Queen

mississippi queen humbucker sized P 90 single coil.Impedance: neck 6.5/bridge 7.6-calibrated set alnico4 neck, alnico5 bridge.

installed in gibson les paul classic+ 1993.Position:neck and bridge.Replacing gibson 57classic and 57 classic+.the reason for the change is that the 57 classics were too dark for me with not enough clarity and definition and the bass strings sounded like one when playing chords i thing one of the reasons for this is the alnico2 magnets

the output is vintage with more power in the brdge.I am playing with mesa lonestar special/great amp by the way/.using some effects too:tonebone classic,boss chorus and compressor sustainer,dunlop wah.The tone is perfectly balanced very transperant ideal for clean work.with drive the pickups sound amazing too very warm but with single coil clarity.I like les pauls with p 90 - no humbucker mush but still enough power even for metal I thing.I play alot of styles:jazz funk blues rock metal and these pickups can do it all with great vintage nuance.

If destroyed or stollen I will buy again the same ones.They do the work for me perfect.I am playing for 20 years.own some other guitars too /prs and fenders/Soon I will change the pickups on the prs mccarty with Bareknuckles too.Nothing to dislike here- handcrafted quality on highest level and the customer service is second to none.Tim answered all of my emails at the same day or even in hours and was very kind and extremly helpfull.Great job!

Humbucker sized P90 pickups.

I had a set put into my 1999 Gibson Les Paul Standard; although I love to play the guitar I have never been happy with the sound it makes. So I decided to have the factory fitted pickups (490R/498T) replaced. After describing what sound/tone I was looking for My local dealer recommended that I give the Mississippi Queens a try.

The Mississippi Queens sound loud to me, but I think that is because they also sound HUGE; deep, resonant and clear which is what I was looking for. In comparison, my '96 LP Custom, which still has the original humbuckers, sounds far more compressed. I am the only guitar player in a classic rock band, so I need to be able fill out the sound and cut through in the mix. The Bare Knuckle MQs certainly do the job. I now have a Les Paul that sounds the way I think it should.

I would recommend these pickups to anyone who plays rock; particularly if you have a valve (tube) amplifier - a marriage made in heaven.

Calibrated set of Mississippi Queens (humbucker sized P-90's) with nickel covers.

Neck DC:6,8k Alnico IV
Bridge DC:7,5k Alnico V

I installed these in my 2007 Les Paul Standard Faded in both neck and bridge position.

The original Burstbucker Pro's sounded not that bad at all, but they were too harsh and thin sounding for my liking without the sweetness I was begging for.

I thought Matt Bellamy from 'Muse' is also using the BKP MQ's.

The output level is strong enough for most applications (maybe except for metal).

I'm using an Engl Screamer 50 combo with some delay and a footswitch for switching between my clean, crunch and distorted channel.

The first thing I noticed with the Mississippi Queens is that they had a lovely, big, wide, strong, extremely clear and sweet sounding clean tone. I can't put the guitar down since I've fitted these pickups...
The middle position sounds like heaven with the best of both worlds from Fender and Gibson. These are extremely quality hand made pickups!

They made my Gibson sound like I a huge, vintage tone monster. It became my favorite Les Paul and during the first gig with the MQ's I already had some people asking about the sound coming out of the Les Paul. That's not without a reason...

I've found the tone of my dreams, period. These are VERY touch sensitive pickups and the harder you hit, the even better it sounds! Truly amazing...

If it was destroyed or stolen, I really don't know what to do......
I'm very, very careful with it and I can't even think about letting this guitar go for some reason..

I've been playing for almost 10 years now and I've already had almost everything you could imagine, from Lollar to Seymour Duncan, Voodoo, Rio Grande, WCR etc...

I love the unique character that all the Bare Knuckle Pickups have. The only very important thing is to find the right pickups for the right guitar...it ended when I found the BKP Mississippi Queens.

I'm feeling more than only 'satisfied'. I've found the perfect guitar with the perfect pickups after spending years with other pickups, guitars etc. Thanks to Tim Mills from BKP England though.
Great service as always and they deliver outstanding quality hand-crafted pickups.

P90s in Humbucking Size with coil tap

Stagg 335 copy, excellent guitar and unbeatable value for the price
Both positions
Standard
N/A
N/A
Standard pickups were Okish but the neck in particular was plunky and lifeless

Clear and chimy clean (almost Eric Johnson like tones - wierd, eh?), grinding crunch and gritty snarling under gain (Hiya Gary, wotcha Eric (young Beano Eric, that is)-:). The reaction to the tone controls is everything it never was before, subtle variations and such a wide range of sounds,- can easily get SG with P90s sound, LP thunk and fenderish chime but with underlying (underhanging?) balls. Pickup height is critical, the sound was already excellent, but experiment with all gain levels at each height to get the best for sustain, clarity and grind. Although they are single coils, they are well shielded and no problem with noise on stage, even when trouser flapping.
Rivera 50 and Fender Supersonic.
Eclectic rock and blues - (not metal or shred, although my mate demoed both of these aspects which it does with ease) absolutely magnificent.
Both position are the dog's bollocks

Would buy them again without hesitation, worth every Euro.
Been playing 30 odd years, got several Strats (US and Bitsas) with noiseless pickups and a custom made telecaster.
Love the Bare Knuckles in this guitar - hate nothing, I am just astonished by the transformation.
Compared with the usual suspects and got advice on line from the Seymour Duncan and Bareknuckle forums - usual mix of "never tried them but I've heard that ...." type hot air specialists but also some contributors with some truly helpful remarks.
Chose these after much thought and the unbeatable courtesy and helpfulness from Tim and his colleagues at Bareknuckle, amazing, I don't know how they keep it up!
Completely satisfied with the sound, the range of tones, the reaction to the controls, smooth, linear and varied. I can play this all night and do everything I want, before, it was a one or two blues number limited experience.

Passive single coils

Gibson SG Special

Replaced stock Gibson humbuckers. The output seems slightly lower (I don't know the DC readings) but the tone is so much sweeter. I play mostly blues and rock and these pickups are ideal for both sweet cleans and biting 60's/70's rock. The guitar sounded quite brittle and harsh with the stock pickups and the MQ's have really opened up the sound. Each string is articulated clearly, whereas the stock pickups tended to blur together slightly.

I have not notived any "block" characteristics as all, as the previous reviewer has mentioned.

I'm delighted with the pickups, they've teken my guitar to a much higher level. They're not the cheapest but you get what you pay for. Customer service is also of the highest standard.

Single coil Passive P90 style PUP

They were installed in a modified Stratocaster with P90's.

OK first thing is this pickup was not in one of my guitars personally, it was in a good friends who I play in a band with and we AB'd the set against other P90's for a long time...(several hours)
Personally I have had Apaches, Mothers-Milk, Trilogies, Country Boys, Miracle Man and The Boss Set in my guitars and have sold them all...I have been playing for over 30 years and engineered and recorded for many years also...so sound is my business.
I also have played bucketloads of Jap Strats with Di Marzio Collection Pups, Texas Specials and also USA vintage specials.
Now the Mississippi Queen is not a bad pickup and definitely better than some, its got good throw...quite good top end too (compared to factory Duncans and the like).
BUT when we did extensove A/B tests against a Lollar P90...its flaws became apparent very quickly.
These flaws are...its quite blocky in terms of dynamics, that is it does not really give nicely to dynamics (like so many say Bareknuckles do) when you place them next to a Lollar P90 they tend to sound a bit sterile and inorganic and ungiving...and thats a fact!! If your business is only playing full on metal riffs you probably wont care about this tho...but others will!
The A/B sound of the Bareknuckles vs Lollars was a fact I did not want to hear at first because I owned a lot of Bareknuckles (and I liked them at first) and I did not want to pull them out of my guitars, but we went over and over it (and not just on one amp) and everytime the Lollar P90's sounded much nicer, more dimensional, more musical, nice natural compression ...all that stuff.
So I decided to sell all my Bareknuckles..because very single one of them had that blocky quality..especially on a sweet crunch tone they just dont cut it, not in my books anyway.
Since then I have AB'd Lollar Imperial Humbuckers, Teles etc...with the Bareknuckles and both my friend and I ended up selling all our Bareknuckles...I went off them totally after hearing Lollars because of the above reasons.
So yeah...shop around thats all I can say!!
Dont believe all the hype!!! (I wrote some of it myself)...people often write these things when they are in the honeymoon period or they havent done extensive A/B ing, again Bareknuckles are better than a lot of factory produced PUPS, but thats not exactly a great achievement.
I have since learned that "scatter wound", "Alnico magnets" etc... are not "magic" words...there is more to building a good sounding Pup than this and I honestly dont think Tim has really learnt all the little details yet (read the Tonequest Report on this!!), there are significantly better hand wound pups out there in pickup land (and cheaper!!) than Bareknuckles...believe it or not!!

I have since sold them...so I would never replace them or buy them again.

Humbucker sized P90, 7K (neck), RW polarity

Fender USA Ash bodied Telecaster (2005) installed in the neck position. Kent Armstrong hot rails in the bridge. Don't know who uses it but people should be using it!

Changed the stock single coil lipstick type pup as it was ok but I wanted more meat and tone. I originally had a BKP Boss in the bridge but it didn't have high enough output as I am the only guitarist in my band and need to fill a lot of range/output. This P90 sits very well against a mid-high output humbucker in the bridge position in my opinion.

Output is perceived as quite high but that is due to the great low and high end clarity. There is no perceived dip in changing to the grunty bridge pup. I am using it with a Laney VC30 112 with a 112 ext cab. It SOunds simply awesome. I also use it at home thru Amplitube2 and this also sounds great, perhaps even better.

The key word here is TONE! This has it in spades and i don't think anyone could not like it. I love it and advise others to try it, dunno about the bridge but for bluesy soulful neck rythmn or lead it takes the biscuit in my humble opinion

Overall I am stunned at how good this sounds. I have been playing 20 years and have never been so satisfied with my neck tone. My search for woody, throaty,thumpy versatile creamy, lovely, clean, dirty, bell-like, singing tone has ended. If you have a USA Tele it will probably be routed for a HB in the neck so do yourself a favour and try this out. With a 4-way switch it opens the tele up as a versatile sound palette, which is no mean feat with what is essentially a plank of wood with some wire stretched over it. Gotta love those Tele's!

Passive Soapbar pickup, sized to fit in standard humbucker mounting rings - DC measures around 10k

This pickup was installed in the neck position of a Gibson Les Paul Custom to accompany the Rebel Yell I have installed in the bridge - replacing the stock ceramics. The stock pickups were just flat and flabby, I was looking for more clarity. I was after a less 'woolly' tone, and was intrigued by the idea behind this pickup. Let me tell you, it delivers.

The output's pretty moderate, nothing real hot. I'm using this into a Mesa/boogie .50 caliber, through a few units and then to my homemade 212 loaded with old Plessey Blue Alnicos. It's a very warm and responsive pickup, with a relatively flat response - It breaks up wonderfully and is great for clear ringing clean parts and low gain leads.

I play a ambient progressive metal sort of thing, and this pickups suits what I was looking for very well indeed. I'm very happy with the purchase.

If anything were to happen to this pickup, I'd most definately have to go with Bare knuckle again. As I said in my other review, Tim was a pleasure to deal with - Always quick and helpful responses and my order arrived (in Australia) within a week of being placed.

I've been playing for a fair while and use along with the custom, a Gibson LP standard and Tele Thinline with a baritone neck as my main guitars. This pickup combination is by far my favoured of the three.

10

Single Coil passive P90 pickup.

Gibson Les Paul Standard (2000) in both neck and bridge positions. I replaced the stock Gibsons as I wanted something that would allow me to get big full rich overdriven chords as well as softening the edges a little compared with the Gibson buckers. I was inspired to get P90s after playing a special edition Gibson LP which had a set in - the tone was just so rich and sweet compared with stock Gibsons, I knew I had to get some. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age uses P90s and that's a good indicator of the tone

Thank God I chose these P90s (having never heard them before) and not something else. These ones are amazing. After I had had them installed we compared in the shop with a $6000 PRS with soapbars (the BKPs are a humbucker sized P90) and the difference was huge - the PRS sounded brittle and shrill compared with the warm roundness of the BKPs.

The tone on both pickups is just awesome. The stock neck pickup was pretty much useless for overdriven sounds before - flabby, too bassy, nothing I could use. Now, it sounds awesome no matter what I throw at it. Clean, it rings like a bell, with plenty of low end but tight, not all over the place. It is very balanced and the harmonics are very sweet. Overdriven, it sounds better than any other neck pickup I have ever heard. It's totally useable, big, bold, meaty low end tone. Palm muting on this one sounds amazing - think QOTSA.

I'm primarily a bridge pickup player though, and this is where it really SHINES. I have lost the razor sharp edge of the old pickups, and for metal playing, these P90s are not as good as stock Gibsons, but I knew that when I got them. Everything else, and I mean everything, sounds better than before. Much better. Its kind of like having the best of both worlds, Fender and Gibson - the balanced tone between strings of a Fender, and the clarity, but the fullness and richness of Gibson. Single notes no longer sound nasal and middy, instead coming through loud and clear, every note so sweet to hear.

I haven't been able to stop playing this guitar since getting the pickups installed.

Amazing pickups. I would definitely buy again, no question. I've had nothing but compliments, people in the shop where I had them installed were coming over (some of them amazing, experienced players) commenting on the fantastic sound (I was playing through a class A mesa amp, match made in heaven). Do yourself a favour and get some. These things are awesome.

I'll be getting a set of BKP humbuckers for my Gibson Explorer next, probably the Rebel Yell.

P-90 in a humbucker sized case

SG-Standard
Bridge Position
Stock Gibson 498T

Just looking for the P-90 sound without buying a LP Junior

Moderate output
Using Hiwatt / Marshall / Mesa Single Rectifier
Very good upper-mids and treble, sounds like an old LP Jr with a little extra.

This is the bridge position model

This is as good as it gets for P-90 sounds, amazing sound through DR series Hiwatt. Suprized to find it also sounds great through the mesa.