Bare Knuckle Pickups Stormy Monday

2 humbuckers

Replaced stock pups in my '98 McInturff Polaris. The Polaris pickups were ok but were a bit brittle in certain settings

I play largely blues and blues rock. Very articulate and sustainy. Used it with a Carr Mercury. Very good sound clean and will get a nice grunge going as needed

A little pricey but you get what you paid for. the tone is pretty much outstanding. If you use a lot of vibrato and smooth lines you will be amazed as to the quality of the sound. But it also gets dirty. Possibly the only genre I would say nix to would be metal or extreme hard rock.

Stormy Mondays are passive humbucking pickups. Mine were supplied as a calibrated, matched pair with two-conductor (core and earth), vintage-style, braided cable and alnico II magnets. Four-conductor options are available with non-braided wire and you can get them with alnico IV.

The pickups are in a 2003 Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus that has also been modified with Crazy Parts 1959 vintage NOS wiring harness.

This is where these pickups score big. With the alnico II magnet, think Slash and the SD APH-1 Pro. The BK nails the Slash tone bang on, no messing, and scores over the SDs because they are scatterwound in North Devon, UK by a man called Tim.

Rolling the neck tone off gives you sounds that are akin to woodwind instruments. They have a quality to their sound like flutes at tone level 5, and like wooden recorders at 0. Beautiful.

In the neck, you have some more rawk to play with. Here they are noticeable warmer than Burstbuckers or other PAFFY pickups, but a tweak to the tone on the amp can get you close to Angus Young, Joe Perry and all that crowd. Note that I did try BK's PAF-alike Mules and found them too gainy and difficult to control (for my liking) through my Orange head. Stormy Mondays are the thinking man's vintage rock pickup.

Overall rating = fab. These pickups have transformed my ??350 Epiphone into something that sounds easily as good as guitars costing three or four times that amount. Aside from the obvious poly finish on the Epi, I would actually challenge someone to tell the difference between a Stormy-Monday-loaded Epiphone and a Slash signature guitar.

The only penalty for all this awesomeness is the price. Granted, you can get SDs for less on eBay and the like, but they are not scatterwound in North Devon, UK by a man called Tim.

Stormy Monday Pickups wound to include gold hardware and coil tap wiring.

I purcahsed a 1979 Gibson ES-347. I took the guitar to my local Luthier and had him remove and inspect the pickups in the guitar. He informed me that the guitar had the orginal epoxy sealed Gibson Humbuckers that were manufactured for a short period of time (maybe 3 to 4 years). I tried the guitar at my home with the original pickups and could not get a desireable sound from the instrument and decided to make a change. I called Bare Knuckle and spoke to Tim about the type of instrument I had and what I was looking for and he recommended their Stormy Monday pickups. I requested gold screws and magnets because I was going to install the pickups without covers and extra long coil tap wiring to allow my Luthier to drop the origial pots and harness and install the new pickups properely by desoldering them at the switch rather than cutting the original pickup wires and splicing the new pickups in. Bare Knuckle accomodated my request, no problem.

I have many different guitars to include old ES-335s, Historic Es-335s, Old Gibson & Epiphone guitars that have classic P-90 pickups and I must say that the Bareknuckle pickups rank amongst the best. The pickups are heavy on the midrange tone but not overwhelming. The respond very well to pick attack and what I like most about them is when overdriven they mantain note articulation and definition. Drop your guitar volume down a little and the pickups clean up. Hit a note softly and the pickups clean up and respond. Attack a note hard and the pickups respond with some overdrive and bite. Really great tone, great response and great note articulation and definition.

When I picked my instrument up from the shop I asked my Luthier what he thought about the pickups? He had played Nail Bombers and other Bareknuckle pickup configuations but not the Stormy Mondays. He responded by saying I would have a whole lot of fun with the guitar and that he would not hesitate to recommend the pickups to his customer. I agree with his opinion.

Overall rating a 9 to 10. If stolen, yes I would replace them.

Humbucking early PAF exact copy for my Sadowsky Jim Hall model archtop guitar.
Impedence 7.2 ohms, Alnico II, Double wax-potted, gold cover

Installed on a Sadowsky Jim Hall Model Archtop Guitar
Single pickup in neck position
Replacing the stock DiMarzio custom wound pickup
I changed this pickup because I knew the sound on this guitar could get much better. The stock DiMarzio was just a little plain sounding with not so much warmth or "aliveness".

perfect output level. About the same as the stock DiMarzio.
Playing thru a Divided by 13 JRT 9/15
The tone is incredible, thats why I'm writing this review. I havent seen any reviews using these incredible pickups in Archtops, and it absolutely kills it!!! Total warmth, totally organic woody sound that screams JIM HALL. Completly alive sound!!!!!
I play jazz.

If it were stolen, I absolutely would re-order the EXACT same thing. I've been playing for 25 years. I also own a 59 es-175 with an original PAF, and I cant make up my mind which of these guitars sounds better or which I'd like to play!!! The Stormy Monday pickup is the PERFECT MATCH for these guitars.(alnico II, double potted, 7.2 ohms)
I lOVE the Tone. I'm stopping the search for tone after this pickup on this guitar. It nails it and end of story!!!!
I've tried a lot of other pickups and even comparing it to original PAF's, I dont think the originals have THAT much on these. Its close, maybe the original because they are worth so much but in a blindfold, you might not be able to tell. These pickups make playing addictive and its hard to stop. Best yet, you can order them for a little over $100... no searching for $2000 PAF's .... These are it. I eventually will put them in every guitar i own.(except for my original vintage guitars) I'm EXTREMELY critical when it comes to tone. These make you smile when you plug in and hit your first run of notes. Warm, FAT, ORGANIC all across the tone spectrum at any levels. I'm a Bare Knuckle Believer for life!

Humbucker. Scatterwound. Alnico 2 magnet. Impedance is somewhere in the upper 6's or lower 7's.

1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom
Neck position.
Stock pickup.
Carvin C22B on the bridge.
I don't know who else uses it.
Wanted a superior clean and vintage warm tone.

Output level is very similar to the standard.
I run it through a Marshall JCM600 by itself or with an assortment of delay, reverb, flanger and distortion pedals from Boss,Beringer and Danelectro. Mostly, though, I just play it straight through the amp into my Carvin 2x12 cab. The tone is very warm, balanced and pure. It sounds like a vintage PAF and has some of the best clean tones on earth. Never too trebly or harsh, just pristine and pure.

Rock, blues, shred, pop, ballads, contemporary Christian, a bit of jazz. It's a great match for all of these.

Best used on neck.

If it were lost or destroyed, I would definitely replace it. I've been playing some 30 years. Also own an Ibanez AS-73 with Jason Lollar P-90 pickups and a Charvel Journeyman with a Seymour Duncan TB-4 which I will soon replace with a Bare Knuckles Warpig.

I love this baby! There's nothing I hate about it. When I want something light and airy, this is one of two pickups I always go to. The other is the Lollar P-90 neck pickup. The Lollar is more trebly and articulate. The Stormy Monday gives a more balanced midrange and bass tone, but I love them both and use them all the time.

I have the Torres Engineering Jimmy Page upgrade kit on my Les Paul and get some unbelievably wonderful out of phase and single coil tones from the Stormy Monday with this wiring arrangement. Check out Torres Engineering. I get 30 or 40 different tones out of it. The Stormy Monday sounds good in all of them.

The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is the price. It's a little steep, but then, it is scatterwound by hand and this is the price you have to pay for top end quality.

I have used a Seymour Duncan '59 which I liked a lot, too, but I think this one is mellower and warmer. I took the pickup cover off my Les Paul and am getting slightly more pronounced clarity since I did that. I'm very satisfied with this pickup. It's perfect for what I want in a neck pickup; namely, sweetness, warmth, clarity and the ability to let the strings speak for themselves. The Stormy Monday is a sweetheart and well worth considering when looking for a vintage PAF sound that is never muddy or harsh.