BKP at NAMM

webrthomson

I like Mules, but all of the higher outputs have left me a little unimpressed, thought I've yet to try the Painkiller - I hear very good reprorts about that.

But like many here I've not ordered any BKP's since I started using Oil city's - Ash makes one hell of a pickup - I much prefer his higher output ones too.

usedtobe

Other factors can affect the sound, though, pickups are just part of it, no..?

Adam_MD

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

You can put the same pair of pickups in two different guitars and guess what?  They’ll sound different.  

Personally i think pickup demos are a waste of time unless they’re using your guitar and an amp you’re familiar with what’s the point? I’d rather talk to the builder tell them what I have, what I want to achieve and get some advice than trawl though a load of demos which don’t tell me anything anyway.  

FelineGuitars

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

I was one of the earliest Bare Knuckle dealers - back in 2004
I have been with them all through the growth years from when Tim was winding at home.

His product is great and we still stock them and sell and use them in our builds.

However other small makers also get their act together nicely 

Through our customers bringing them in we have been able to hear many of these other brands for ourselves 

The Creamery , Mojo and Oil City  all bringing some killer product to the table.

Now we struck up a rapport with Ash at Oil City and worked with him to develop some new pickups which became part of the Masterwound Range (briefly called ASL till Ash realised it made more sense to maintain the OCP name on them)

Many of these were done to fill gaps in the stuff we carried on the shelf and saw a need for, and we came up with a few of the model names too.

We stock these with great delight and no hesitation in suggesting them when they will be right for the the needs of the customer sound-wise.

We hare not bound by any brand loyalty as we have some amazing stuff on our shelves including BKP, Oil City, Monty's Pickups and TV Jones, so we are always going to simply suggest the ones that in experience will  deliver the sound closest to the customer's wishes.

Bare Knuckle's growth has allowed them to have their own parts made through a matter of scale and investment  which is really nice . Hopefully as other firms grow they can invest in similar ways.

I am looking forward to seeing what the Bootcamp models will bring to the table and will judge them by sounds alone.

DefaultM

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

I get what you mean, but I wouldn't want to put up sound clips if it was my business; simply because the customer isn't going to have the same gear.

I've got the BKP Mules in a Les Paul. They're alright, but they don't sound like the clips on the website. What if I'd complained about it? That's time spent troubleshooting with the customer, and at the end of it they might start asking to return them. 

DefaultM

Also, now I've seen the price of the pickups I'd buy I don't really understand this range.

Looking at Peach the humbuckers are £89 whereas a Nailbomb is £95.
I thought that these would be aimed at players who can't afford the boutique price, but if you've managed to save up £89 another £6 is nothing. 

Strat54

Looking at Tele pickups (which I do a lot!) the Bare Knuckles are still pretty inexpensive compared to the likes of Lollar. The BKP's come in at £80 less for a set. Then there's a huge price step up to the likes of boutique producers Theo Dahlem and Ron Ellis who are circa £350 for a set....the latter changing hands on the speculators market at around £500 for a set due to the 2 year wait list. 

thegummy

It's kind of weird that outside of this forum I'd never heard of Oil City Pickups but on here a lot of people rave about them.

Think I might try them out in the near future as I'm considering a set of humbucker sized P90s and Oil City have a few models.

p90fool

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

I kind of get what you mean, but I had a small involvement at the prototype stages of one of his pickups, and he did use a soundclip I sent him as a demo on the website for a couple of years, but as a lone sample of a single pickup through unknown gear it was actually pretty meaningless. 

I guess the only thing that matters is that if he's busier than he needs to be through word of mouth alone then there is little point in the hassle and expense of further promotion.  

All I would add is that although you have no reason whatsoever to take my word for it, as a working guitarist for nearly 40 years who's also an obsessive modifier I found Ash at Oil City to be extremely knowledgeable, interesting and on my wavelength when discussing exactly what I wanted. 

digitalscream

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

I've never found audio clips to be of any use whatsoever when choosing pickups, because very few people have the same rig as me or play the way I do.

With that in mind, having somebody whose ears you trust to talk you through the way certain pickups react to your playing is absolutely invaluable - and Ash @ Oil City has built a reputation on here for being able to accurately do just that for many people. That's why he sells a lot of pickups to folk on here.

Philly_Q

digitalscream said:

Strat54 said:

Oil City pickups certainly seem inexpensive, but then again he's winding pickups from home so that certainly helps keep costs down. Not sure I'd buy from them, I mean a pickup website without a single video or sound sample...what?? You certainly don't hear much about them away from this forum, which is of no surprise with so little in the way of marketing or even myth.

I've never found audio clips to be of any use whatsoever when choosing pickups, because very few people have the same rig as me or play the way I do.

I agree, audio clips are of no use to me because nobody plays as badly as me or sounds as bad as I do.

But seriously (not that that wasn't serious), I think the only way to get an idea of which pickups will work for you is to try them, as many as you can.  Once you get familiar with a few pickups from a manufacturer's range - for me it would be BKP, DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan - then you can look at the descriptions of their other models, using the ones you already know as reference points, and make informed decisions - or at least educated guesses - about which you might like.

I'm sure common models like the Duncan JB or 59, or DM Super Distortion are also useful reference points for discussion if you go to one of the smaller UK builders.

Alterlifeson

Tim explains the concept behind the range in this video:



To me, it sounds like a well thought out idea. I'm by no means a pickup fanatic, i couldn't tell you what voltage or magnet types my guitars have, they just sound good to me. I guess these are aimed at those types of player who get a case of option paralysis when browing for a new set. The choosing is pretty much doen for you.

Jetfire

Tbf, that video really explains it all. Fair play to Tim.

thegummy

Seems like a great guy, the video just made me even more excited about receiving my "full fat" Bare Knuckles in the post whenever they're going to arrive!

ThorpyFX

thegummy said:

Seems like a great guy, the video just made me even more excited about receiving my "full fat" Bare Knuckles in the post whenever they're going to arrive!

What did you go for? 

Tat2dstesh

I all honesty has no-one seen this and thought, Seymour Duncan custom range. 3 humbuckers 1 ceramic, 1 A5 and 1 A2, but anyway, I have tried BKP and thought they sounded preety good, as good as my SD stuff, yeah but not for the price. I know one thing I do love my oilcity I have in my SG, but I might pick one of these BKP up when people decide to sell on after trying for 5 minutes and it not being the sound they want. Guitarists we are very fickle with equipment haha. 

thegummy

ThorpyFX said:

thegummy said:

Seems like a great guy, the video just made me even more excited about receiving my "full fat" Bare Knuckles in the post whenever they're going to arrive!

What did you go for? 

Mule with aged nickel covers (for a les Paul)