Bare Knuckle Pickups for Guitars

Bare Knuckle Pickups for Guitars

Bare Knuckle Pickups is an England-based manufacturer of hand-wound, custom pickups that offer a range of single coils, humbuckers, p90s, and bass pickups. The team of builders led by founder and studio guitarist Tim Mills construct Bare Knuckle Pickups for guitars entirely by hand using vintage-correct materials and in-house machined components. This allows precise dialing-in of the pickup’s tone and responsiveness.

The humbucker design connects two single-coil pickups with oppositely-oriented poles in order to cancel out the buzz and humming that occurs with many single-coil pickups. Humbucker guitar pickups offered by Bare Knuckle Pickups offer these two options:

• Two conductor hook-up: Only allows wiring for series operation (humbucking).
• Four conductor hook-up: These can be wired in series/parallel, in/out of phase, and for coil splitting.

Hand-winding pickup coils use a technique called scatter-winding, which involves wrapping fine copper wire by hand in a random or scattered pattern around a bobbin. By varying the tension and placement of each turn of wire in a random winding pattern, the spacing between turns of wire increases, you lower the overall capacitance of the coil.

The lower capacitance allows for a better frequency response to the vibration of the guitar strings. The result is a more open tone and dynamic sound that responds well to complex and nuanced playing techniques employed by solo and lead guitar players.

Alnico magnets are created with an alloy of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt (Al-Ni-Co). Several different formulations are used for manufacturing the Alnico magnets used in pickups. Formula II and V magnets are the most common.

• Alnico Formula II pickups provide a smoother tone frequently described as warm and vintage.
• Formula V magnets produce a wide range between the high and low tones and scooped mids. Formula Vs offer clarity at high gain levels and give a punchy bass.
• Ceramic magnets have similar qualities to the formula V magnets and produce pickups with high output, tight bass response, and bright, cutting highs.

Bare Knuckle Pickups come in a range of styles and configurations. Depending on what type of pickup you choose, it installs at either the bridge, middle, or neck of the guitar.

Bare Knuckle Pickups has three types of pickup: humbucker, single coil, and soapbar.