Bare Knuckle Pickups PG Blues

Humbucking passive pickups wound out of phase to give that Peter Green sound.

Installed in 1998 Gibsol Les Paul 1958 Historic Reissue

PG Blues set installed - neck and bridge - aged covers.

Replacing Gibson 57 classic pickups

Found 57 Classics to be too muddy.

Output level is vintage - 7.7K neck 7.72 bridge

Used with Engl SE Special Edition Amp & Marshall 30th Anniversary combo.

The sound from these pickups is unbelievable, the balance from neck to both pickups on to the bridge is perfect.

All three settings sound great, they really bring my guitar to life, but most people will be most interested about the middle out of phase tone. And it is brilliant. Far better than the old magnet turn over thing that you can do, if you want the Peter Green out of phase sound, you must get these pickups !

I play 60's / 70's / 80's rock, and these pickups can cover all those eras effortlessly, don't let the low output figure fool you...these pickups rock !

I would definitely get these pickups again, in fact I may do so to put on my other guitars....the sound is so infectious.

Would like to try othe Bare Knuckle Pickup humbuckers as well to see how they sound.

Theses pickups look as good as they sound as well, aged covers...much better than the Seymour Duncan Antiquity aged covers or the Gibson VOS aged covers.

All the rave reviews of these pickups are true, it's not hype, they are the real deal !

They have transformed the sound of my guitar, and they will do the same for your guitar - buy some now !

Humbuckers that are wired to give that out of phase sound in the middle setting like the Peter Green TONE.

Being a fan of Peter Greens for 30 years and also Gary Moore for many years my attention was caught last year when I discovered that Bare Knuckle where producing a set of Humbuckers that recreated the Greeny tone. I then set out to recreate that guitar, after looking for a suitable guitar that I could relic I eventually found an excellent Les Paul copy.Believed to be a Japanese Epiphone but complete with a Gibson style headstock and Gibson decal, although not the exact colour match to Peter's. Overall it ticked all the boxes for this project.

The overall output is lower than the usuall good quality Humbuckers but it's the middle setting that sets these beauties apart from anything else.The Greeny tone is legendary and these match that sound all the way, how to describe the sound I don't know, just listen to Need your love so Bad by Fleetwood Mac and then you will know. When they where fitted I intended to try them out for 5 minutes and ended up playing 3 hours, the 30 year wait was over just awesome for Blues but add some distortion and Parisienne Walkways just oozes out.

I would'nt change these pickups for any others, to my knowledge these are the only ones that produce that TONE ! Get the aged covers to complete the look. A word for Bare knuckle, I had to send the neck pickup back because I could'nt get that tone at first (they had not been wired to give that out of phase tone, their genuine mistake) after calling them they turned the pickup around within 48 hours and could'nt apologise enough BRILLIANT PRODUCT & BACKUP off Bare Knuckle. Other guitars '79 Tokai Strat,'83 Tokai Strat, Gibbo Classic L.P. Jap Fender Tele & Washburn Monterey Acoustic

Passive humbuckers.

Built to match the original Peter Green/Gary Moore pups for that 'out of phase' tone.

Check the web site for detailed specs.

Have installed this matching neck/bridge set in my 2007 Les Paul standard replacing the original Burstbuckers. I believe Gary Moore is using these gems.

I can't get off on the Burstbucker rasp - guess its down to personal taste. I wanted a more rounded vintage tone that lets the sound of the instrument through.

I also fancied the versatility of the middle out of phase sound ala Peter Green. I tried the reverse magnet mod on the Burstbuckers, it was OK but I wanted more tone (don't we all!).

Output is fairly low but this in line with the vintage PAF spec.

I have a Marshall TSL and a Peavey Delta blues with a few pedals.

OK, the important bit - the sound. The bridge and neck by themselves are all I ever wanted, giving everything from transparent clean sounds with real character to biting rock distortion.

Pull in both pickups and you are in real PG territory - hollow, woody tones but with real flexibilty if you play with the volume and tone controls.

These pups are perfect for my music; blues to classic rock. Not sure they would be suitable for shed - go get some EMGs or wardogs!

I've been playing for too many years but these pups are something else - just love 'em to death.

The support from Tim Mills at Bareknuckle is great. Ring him for advice on which pup to buy and you'll get an honest answer. There is a 14 day replacement option too but frankly I didn't need it.

Expensive - perhaps, but you are getting real vintage materials, hand wound pups and classic sounds.

Great value - oh yes! Try 'em and buy 'em.

Peter Green Bareknuckle pickups - The PG Blues humbucker set features Alnico II unpolished magnets, scatterwound bridge coils of 42AWG plain enamel wire and uniquely wound Heavy Formvar neck coils for the legendary out of phase mid position. Vintage correct solid nickel silver baseplates and covers along with totally unpotted coils.

Their appearance is so much more attractive than Gibson and other pickups - and I have the regular models rather than the preaged ones but the metals covers are just sexier. How come it's taken so long to do this?

Installed into a Tokai Made in Japan Love Rock - Google The Ultimate Les Paul to read about this particular guitar.
Both pickups replaced but not the volume or tone pots. Just before leaving the guitar in the store for the PU change I played for 10 minutes through a Koch Studiotone (my main stage amp for small clubs) and was asking myself this guitar sounds fantastic why am I changing the pickups?
Because I really enjoy and appreciate Peter Greens early records (With John Mayall and early Fleetwood Mac and Otis Spann) and I wanted to check them out after reading (and hearing)Neville Marten's reviews in UK Guitarist and UK Guitar Techniques.

These aren't hot pickups - if you are looking for high gain metal or dollops of overdrive or perma crunch go elsewhere.
They are not even 'potted' so I was a little worried that they might start squealing or feedbacking at high volumes. Their output in volume terms is equivalent to Gibson Classic 57, Burstbuckers. Less 'hot' than the 496R and 500T found in the Les Paul Classics.
I play Blues, rock, jazz and country through a Koch Twintone, Koch Studiotone, Laney VC 30, Mesa Boogie Subway blues, Dr Z Mini Z and a Fender Pro 15 watt amp. I don't use effects much.
Let me start by saying these pickups FAR EXCEEDED my expectations - they have a lot of sound in them. Now most of us get up onstage and within an hour have both volume and tone knobs on 10 on our Humbuckers?Right?
Try setting volumes on 7 and tones 7 and adding or subtracting small increments gives you a fantastic range of tones and textures - (like an active pickup system)You can actually get a very wide range of 'classic' sounds from these pickups in each of the three PU selector positions.
The bands I play in are so fed up about hearing about news pickups, strings, cables etc... I don't mention it any more - in both cases after the first set/rehearsal everyone was asking how was I getting such a sweet range of tones - So these PGs give you a fantastic (a very rare word for me to use)pallette of sounds.
The middle pickup setting is even better than I hoped and small tweaks of either volume or tone knobs take you to new places in tone heaven.
On the neck or Bridge pickup put on Fresh Cream or Disraeli Gears and enjoy yourself then Led Zep one for all those Telecaster sounds then some Hendrix - you get the picture. So you also have all the great known LP sounds on top of the Need your love so bad PGreen sound.
Very versatile pickups I totally agree with the guy who said "I sit down for 10 minutes and 4 hours go by". These pickups are a pure GAS pleasure to tone heaven with clean, crunch or overdrive amp settings.
They also remind me of the Jimmy Page Pickups with all the push/pull pots and different configurations without the hassle.

I would get replacements straight away.
I have been playing for over thirty years and have or have owned most 'classic guitars' and amplifiers.
These Pickups are great - the basic tone is 100% PAF territory (yes I know all PAFs sound different)and they are also very versatile.
I would say that they have such a range of sounds you might think the guitar had a Varitone (like the ES 345 or 355) but I know a lot of players don't dig on those or even or a Jimmy Page configuration.
Anyhow the basic LP sounds and the Peter Green sounds are all there and more.
BTW No squealing at high levels.
Sounds great through both English and American tube amps.
I agree with the guy who said:
The sound is phenomenal for all rock and blues. amazing clarity and warmth. great clean and overdriven. Exact 50's paf sound and in a league of their own. I try to be critical when writing reviews but these really are VERY good.

Features: Humbuckers, passive

Impedance: Not sure of the impedance

Model: Installed on a Gary Moore signature Les Paul

Position: Installed in Bridge & Neck positions

Replacing: Burstbuckers

Reason for change: The Burstbuckers are good pickups, but a bit thin sounding

The output level would appear to be slightly lower than most humbuckers I've tried.

I'm using a re-issue Marshall JTM45, but these pickups work great through a Line6 PodXT too. The Neck pickup sounds excellent through a Vox wah pedal.

I think the tone is really well balanced. The bass on the neck pickup is a little bit high at the moment, but I'm sure it will fall in line when I adjust the pickup height.

I play Blues Rock & hard rock, and I find these to be among the best pickups I've ever come across for this type of music. The bridge cuts through really well & the neck is fatter than a standard Les Paul neck humbucker. The in between setting gives the closest Peter Green tone that I've heard anywhere, due to the reverse wound neck pickup that sounds 'out of phase' when the two pickups are selected. I've tried the reverse magnet mod that everyone talks about, and while it was mildly enjoyable, the mod doesn't compare to what Bare Knuckle have come up with in the design of these pickups. Another thing that I really like about these 'buckers is that when you roll the volume slightly off (on either PU), the sound clears really well. I don't know a lot about pickups, but I find this to be a necessary requirement for ANY pickup. When using the tone controls, there are a lot more variations in sound, From Bluesbreakers era Clapton to Boogie style ZZ Top!. If you want to play all-out death metal, these are probably not for you, but I think the 'blues' in the title is underselling these pickups. They sound great playing hard/classic rock, definitely with a vintage touch!

If these PU's were stolen, I'd hunt the perpetrator down and beat him to death with the guitar he was going to put them in! Seriously, I'd be straight onto Bare knuckle to order another set.

I've been playing 25 years, and my other guitars are a standard strat & an Aria ProII les paul from the Matsumoku factory era. I might even put a set in the Aria!

There's nothing I 'hate' about these PU's - they do exactly what they claim to do!

I really like the 'woody' tone of my GMLP, but these pickups have literally brought it to life. They take a bit of getting used to, but the more you play them the more sounds you can coax out of them.

Pickup features: Humbucker, passive
Impedance or other specs: Neck impedance around 7.0, bridge around 7.5. Alnico II magnet, electrically out of phase.

Model of guitar or bass: Installed on a 2003 Gibson LPPP
Position: Calibrated Neck and Bridge set
Pickup being replaced: Originals Burstbuckers PRO
Reason for pickup change: I want to ear the true voice of my guitar

The output is vintage

I use Orange Amps. My overdrive/distortion are Fulltone, MI Audio, Barber. FX effect are Dunlop Crybaby, MXR Phase 90 and T-REX Replica.

I play in a italian rock band, Pearl Jam style. I have also played for years classic blues like P. Green, J.L. Hooker and B. Guy, and rock and roll like Led Zep and AC-DC.
This pickups is a good match for all music played with feeling.

Comments: At home I play my Les Paul unplugged. I write my songs and play my riffs without amps. My guitar have a balanced and resonant woods, and I love it's sound.
I changed a lot of pickups: Gibson, Duncan and others, and no one of this pickups have taken the true voice of my guitar.
The PG Blues have nothing of special. It don't pumps mids, bass or hight and don't have lot of output. If I put my LP in a good clean tube amp, the sound is clear and clean.
This pickups simply keep the sound of your guitar and send it to the amp.
I also own a Rory Gallagher Stratocaster, that are made of excellent woods. This guitar is lucky to have a set of Fender pickups that really translate his good voice.
If you don't like the sound of your guitar unplugged, you can try to set the EQ with the right pickup. But, for me, if you buy a good guitar and not a piece of shit, it's hard to find a totally umbalanced instrument. You will find in a good guitar a little emphasis of bass, hights or mids.
Many pickups dramatically changes the original voice of a instrument.
For example, the Burstbucker PRO have lots of bass and hights. It sounds good with a guitar that have only mids, but do you know a good guitar with only mids?
In my LP the neck Burstbucker PRO sounds very muddy on the bass strings and the bridge too sharp on the high strings. It's not the real sound.
I have finally found the right pickups. With the PG Blues you can play clean, dirty or all you want. Do you want to play blues? Plug in a Barber Direct Drive and then in a Plexi or a Twin Reverb. Do you want to play rock? Switch on a MI Audio Crunch Box in face to a Orange Rockerverb.
You can play all style of music and find your own sound with a lots of amps and effects, with a good guitar and this pickups.
Before order this beauty, I asked some question to Tim Mills of Bare Knuckle. He help me to find the right pickup.
Thank you, Tim

Humbucker

Intalled on 1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard
Bridge and Neck
Replacing a Les Paul Studio neck and Seymoor Duncan 59 bridge.

Reason: Didn't like the bridge pickup and wanted to try the out of phase sound.

Amp: Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue
Style: Blues, Blues-Rock

Totally delighted with the sound :-) To be honest I wasn't expecting such a dramatic inprovment. Treble pickups is finally usable with plenty of character. Rhythm pickup(usually my favourite) sounds amazing especially for clean sounds.
I also really like the out of phase middle setting.
Best of the lot, the notes on the low strings now sound incredibly defined and clear.

Would definitely replace with the same if damaged or stolen
Playing for 30 years. Also own Strat with Rio-Grande(OK) pickups.

These pickups are all I need, tone is very important to me as I don't play fast.

ALnico II magnet.
Neck pickup wound permenantly out of pahse with bridge so out of phase peter green sound when in middle position.

7.2 neck impedance
7.7 bridge impedance

unpotted

Installed a calibrated aged nickel cover set in 2oo3 les paul classic.

The sound is phenomanal for all rock and blues. amazing clarity and warmth. great clean and overdriven. exact 50's paf sound and in a league of there own. I try to be critical when writing reviews but these rly are VERY good

brilliant and great customer service

Set of two humbucking pickups wound permanently out of phase with each other. Bridge 7.8, neck 7.3. Fitted to a Gibson SG Custom with a BKP Mississippi Queen in the middle position (I reviewed that separately, although my comments are really about all three together). Wired with four conductors (not standard) in case I wanted to tap coils, switch phase back in etc. Also finished to match Gibson VOS aged appearance, although the BKP version is much better!

Fitted as part of a heart transplant to a 61 Re-issue Custom Shop SG Custom which I found very disappointing. I was thinking of giving it the boot but decided to try a BKP makeover and that was a good decision. I've now got a guitar that gives me a real thrill and distorts the space-time continuum (ie. I play it for ten minutes and four hours disappear). The original Burstbuckers which Gibson makes a great play of sounded feeble and flabby, and I sort of decided I must just not be an SG kind of a guy. I thought it was the guitar's body that really made the tone, so I didn't really expect new pickups to salvage this one, but I was completely wrong. Obviously it's not going to sound like a guitar with different body woods and construction, but it sounds bloody brilliant and completely distinctive now.

Output is what you'd expect for vintage-style pickups. You wouldn't choose these for saturated shredding anyway. Tim at BKP steered me expertly towards pickups that would sound good with this guitar, and something hotter would have sounded too dark with an all-mahogany body. The tone from the PG Blues set is exactly what I wanted - yes I can get into that Peter Green zone, I can play James Brown type riffs with that quacky kind of sound, I love it!!! There's lots of air and space in the tone (something sadly lacking in the Gibbos which were somehow muddy and thin-sounding at the same time), and now the guitar can do smooth, full-cream richness that encourages playing with a big dynamic range. Before, it just seemed to want to shout all the time. I'm pleased, in case it's not obvious!

The really interesting thing is how the PG Blues set works together with the P90-style Mississippi Queen on the neck and bridge. I pondered long and hard how to work enough switchery-pokery into the SG's tiny cavity and four-knob layout to give me the kind of combination options I wanted, and eventually resigned myself to just having three volume controls and one master tone. It may not be the ultimate wiring for me, but that can wait. Meanwhile what I have is a selector that gives Neck, Neck and Bridge (out of phase - that's how PG Blues are supplied), and Bridge - like a Les Paul, not like the original wiring, which just gave Neck, Bridge and Middle, and Bridge. BUT here's the good bit: with the middle P90 on a separate volume (not linked to the tone control) I can dial that one in to blend with the others on any selector position. This gets interesting: because the bridge and neck are out of phase, the middle pickup is also out of phase with the neck, and in practice the way it's currently wired, the interaction between the three pickups means that I have to have the P90 on all the time, even if it's only on about 2, and mostly overpowered by the other pickup(s). Otherwise it cuts the top end of the other pickups. So there is a continuously variable range of tones to be had by blending all three together in different degrees, and because for all but the neck selector position, there is an element of out-of-phase cancellation of frequencies, it's an incredible palette of sounds, going from the straight sound of the pickup, through all the subtle vowel-like inflections that come in as you balance the levels between pickups, right up to full-on out of phase quack. With the P90 and neck being so close, there's a kind of crystalline mid-scooped sound with those two on full together. If you've ever played a Jimmy Page signature Les Paul with all his custom-switching options, that would give you an idea of some of the sounds you can get with this setup, although because this is a 3-way *blend* rather than a set of push-pull switches, it's probably more versatile. It might not suit everyone because it's not a straight switch between one pickup and another, but I've never really been crazy about the tones I get with two humbuckers combined in phase anyway. In practice, I find I can balance the levels between the pickups so that I can use the switch to flip instantly between three very tasty tones, and there are always endless variations by tweaking the knobs when I've got time (great to change the 'vowels' between phrases on a slow blues for example). It's a really exciting blues and rock guitar now. You could do jazzy stuff with it too, although there's no substitute for an archtop there.

I don't use any effects with it unless I'm playing on someone else's amp, when I'd use a bit of overdrive. A bit of delay and reverb when I'm feeling like it. My own setup is a Fuchs ODS head and 2x12 cab, and that provides great overdrive boost to kick in with the more extreme out of phase sounds, which need a bit of a volume lift if you want to match levels with in-phase sounds.

I am completely thrilled with them. Just brilliant, especially since they've made the difference between wanting to sell a guitar and not being able to tear myself away from it. The BKP pickups have totally transformed a very disappointing instrument into something really exciting. There's nothing to dislike, other than having to re-consider my position on pickups v. body as the major factor in tone! I didn't compare these to anything other than the original Gibson pickups and there's no comparison. This is my first experience of BKPs but suffice it to say that I'm looking at a few of my other guitars that have been behaving themselves very well until now, and wondering what a bit of Mills magic might to do them.
I've been playing for decades and I've got some pretty special guitars, and this SG Custom was just not in the same league, but now it's a cracker. In my collection I've got guitars that cover a lot of ground tonally, but this is doing things none of the others can. I've found my grail!
Tim Mills advised me on the pickups to go for, wound them with four conductors in case I wanted more switching options (although I didn't go for the optional 'coil-tap' on the P90) and produced a superb aged gold finish which looks drop-dead gorgeous on the guitar. Very nice to deal with and really knows his stuff. I'd trust him to revive any guitar I felt needed it after this experience.

Humbuckers, haven't measured the exact impedence, standard fit, hand wound to Greeny's original specs - however accidental they were. Alnico III magnets.

Pickups went into a Honeyburst Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960 made in 2000, replacing the Alnico 490T's that were in there as standard. The sound of the 490T's might suit some guys but I wanted more character and warmth. I'd bought pickups from Tim before - even had them up against Burstbuckers and found them to be much more "real", very 3 dimensional, so we discussed the tone I was after as being authentic vintage Peter Green sound having listened to countless Live recordings of Greeny(I recommend the Boston Live and Otis Spann sessions as his best tone and playing ever)

They are reasonably low output but they scream tone - especially in the middle toggle position in the out of phase position. All notes are clear and distinct and have that 3D presence. I'm using the Les Paul with a Marshall JTM45 head that's been restored to original specs and a 4 x 12 cabinet loaded with Greenbacks so I sound now very much like the real thing.

I would replace immediately if lost, been playing for 35 years, I own a genuine 1960 Strat,Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960 reissue, Marshall JTM45 fully restored to 1965 Specs, Cornford MK50H head, four 1x12 Marshall cabs all loaded with Celestion Blues, one 4x12 cabinet loaded with 25W Greenbacks, Groovetube D75, Groovetube Trio, RMC Wah, Korg G4, DD20,Roger Mayer fuzz Octavia, Sweetsound Univibe.The beauty about these pickups is that they allow you to be yourself within the specs in other words don't expect to sound like PG(unless you really want to)my tone improved to the point of not having to change guitars all night, the pickups are a perfect match for this particular guitar, and I'm working my sound from the guitar instead of pedals. So far I'm satisfied with this pickup.