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It's always a happy day when all the parts you've ordered arrive at the same time.

Upon returning home from work, I went for a 2-mile skate through the park, ate dinner, and then started working on my new concept for the Strat. Gone was any notion of preserving any kind of vintage tonality from it; I wanted an early 80s, old school metal beast.

The pickup recommended to accomplish this was the Bare Knuckle VHII. On paper, it looks a bit like the Screamin' Demon. Physically, the pickup weighs more than my Miracle Man, which has a nickel cover! This is one beefy pickup!

I opted for a black pickguard with a white spider web design from All of their pickguards are made to order, so expect to wait about 2 weeks. It cost me roughly $50. Note: Hardware is NOT included. Black scratch plate screws from Allparts cost an additional $8.
The '79 Strat was not routed for a bridge HB, but the original owner of the guitar had done 98% of the routing for me. It took a minor bit of quot;woodworkingquot; with a hammer and slotted screwdriver to accommodate the vintage baseplate of the VHII.I will eventually be putting a kill swtich onto the guitar, but for my immediate purposes, I wired the pickup directly to the output jack. I can always put my amp in standby when plugging and unplugging. I will be ordering a black mini toggle switch this week, tho.

INITIAL SONIC IMPRESSIONS
When I first put the pickup in, I found myself thinking, quot;I wonder how this pickup will be different from the Mircale Man ...quot; The answer is this is a totally different beast!!!!

When the Mircacle Man clips, it creates a rich, smooth distortion that is very articulate with lots of harmonic overtones. The VHII, in comparison, is a swaggering, burly pickup. It has tons of attitude, and a much rawer and dynamic sound. I ended up lowering the pickup a bit in the end, as the bass was too mushy for me. When I lowered it, I lost some of the gain, but got all the bass taughtness back. (Amp gain is not something I need to worry about, anyway)

Next step for me is to put the pickup through its paces with the HomeBrew Electronics Big D overdrive pedal and a 1/2 stack, which I will be able to do at rehearsal Wednesday night. Between now and then I will just continue to stretch the strings and get acquainted with the VHII.

For someone looking to either capture that EVH tone (lots of bite, rawness, and harmonic content) but found that their pickups were just not doing it, this is the one for you. I got it because I wanted that vintage Maiden kind of sound. This is like Killers-era Dave Murray in a box!

Sounds like a bad ass pickup, in a very strange looking strat

i never heard of that company, it seems cool though. i havent heard of alot of companies , come to think of it...


Originally Posted by slash857i never heard of that company, it seems cool though. i havent heard of alot of companies , come to think of it...

Well, I've never heard of you before you posted in this thread

You can learn more about them here from : localhost/


Originally Posted by fusion101Sounds like a bad ass pickup, in a very strange looking strat

I'll take that as a compliment ...

hmmm i wonder if you can find a good place for the toggle on that guard...i can't tell where it would look best lol. man that's wild...kinda cool and i love minimalist guitars, i stripped down all my strats to 2 pickups 2 knobs and a 3 way and my next one will be a good old one hum one knob. thanks for the review on the BK too...i still need to get a nailbomb myself, i just keep putting it off for some reason.

-Mike


Originally Posted by XSSIVEhmmm i wonder if you can find a good place for the toggle on that guard...i can't tell where it would look best lol. man that's wild...kinda cool and i love minimalist guitars, i stripped down all my strats to 2 pickups 2 knobs and a 3 way and my next one will be a good old one hum one knob. thanks for the review on the BK too...i still need to get a nailbomb myself, i just keep putting it off for some reason.

-Mike

I think there is a place for a knob or whatever in the middle of the web.
Looks badass TO!


Originally Posted by wixomwhatI think there is a place for a knob or whatever in the middle of the web.
umm yeah that's what i was joking about lol...that's the logical place for it haha.

-Mike


Originally Posted by XSSIVEumm yeah that's what i was joking about lol...that's the logical place for it haha.

-Mike

Oh

Thanks for the review, TO. I like your guitar as well!

maybe a nice knob made resin with a real fly or spider imbedded. That would be so corny...

That guitar looks cool mate

To think, a few weeks ago that was 'just another boring strat'

That VHII pickup sounds great too! I think the Browcaster will probably have 1 of those instead of a Nailbomb. I think I'm just too much of a wimp for either a Nailbomb, Warpig or Miracle Man

Craig


Originally Posted by XSSIVEhmmm i wonder if you can find a good place for the toggle on that guard...

There actually is a hole in the scratch plate; it's just very difficult to see in that busy pattern!

Sounds nice! I'm glad you like the pickup. Would you opt for a volume pot eventually, you could put a chrome skull knob in the middle of the web. Now that'd look cool!

I'd have never thought of putting a web pickguard on a burst guitar. It looks cool, though. You'll definitely turn some heads with that thing. And turn some more when you start playing. I'd love to hear one of those.


Originally Posted by JacksonMIAI'd have never thought of putting a web pickguard on a burst guitar. It looks cool, though. You'll definitely turn some heads with that thing. And turn some more when you start playing. I'd love to hear one of those.

Clips coming soon!
Yes, my taste for guitars stage garb is a bit ourageous, but it's actually based off of sound logic (I hope ) ... a large portion of people at a gig either aren't musicians or are plain tone deaf. Still more people can't hear you properly for one reason or another. My goal is twofold - ONE, to have something memorable that people will at least mention. (quot;What was that band where the guitarist had the purple day glo guitar??quot;) TWO, sometimes you need to connect visually with people; some people respond to colour and light more than they do to musical notes. Whatever it takes to suck people in!

Thus endeth my sermon.