Bareknuckle Pickups Partnering With Ibanez Options

[Todd Simpson]

It seems that BAREKNUCKLE pickups are partnering up with IBANEZ to provide pickups for their JCUSTOM and Custom Shop line of guitars. I congratulate the guys at BK from coming up from nothing and now being a vendor to the stars as it were and for making KILLER pickups. My question is this...


Given the massive expansion of BK, do you think they will fall victim to "Boutique Vendor Syndrome" and start mass producing their stuff and losing control of quality and start to make crappy stuff?

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[Azzaboi]

I don't see how this is possible - aren't BareKnuckles all hand-wounded, which is the main reason for their dirty/gritty tone! How can they mass produce it?

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[Mertay]

Weird times as guitars are getting cheaper but pickups are getting more expensive

As far as I know Dimarzio works full machine and though rare even then faulty pickups can be reported of forums. SD is I guess playing in the middle, there's a video of the SD factory and personally I was a bit surprised (in a good way) not how big but how many people worked there;







So yeah there is a chance BK "can" hire enough people to produce more in an unideal expansion and decrease the quality even if the demand got so high (compared to their prices) which to me is unlikely.

I'm not an expert but as far as I understand BK has a smoother high cut as their signature sound. A pickup today is something very simple to make and I'd expect bigger companies to replicate that sound sooner or later, this is probably a bigger risk for BK instead of decreasing quality cause of demand.

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[PosterBoy]

How many Jcustom and custom shop guitars do Ibanez produce?

I can order a set of Bare Knuckles directly and get them with in 4 days. They have dealers world wide who have a fair amount of stock and boutique makers that use their pickups as standard.

I'd imagine they pump out a good few pickups a month, some people say the quality or magic has gone down since it was just Tim doing the winding, but I don't know about that.

I bought my first set in 2006 and they are fantastic, but there are too many variable with my 2nd set I bought in 2012, since I'm coming to the realisation that 24.75 scale and humbuckers isn't for me

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[Todd Simpson]

That's exactly my point here. I'm afraid they may be growing a bit beyond their britches and the quality may start to suffer on their pickups. Boutique brands that cork sniffing pickup fans (like myself) appreciate are prone to get torn apart when they slip even a little.

I"ve see this happen over and over again with various brands. I hope to goodness it doesn't have with ProTone Pedals. They are great pedals and hand built. Sometimes what is good for the bottom line can kill a business in the long run. There are other vendors as well, like Homewrecker Pickups (so far the most killer lead/solo pickup I've ever tried is one of their high output hand wound diddie) and even our own VonHotch.com custom guitar picks who I hope and pray are able to keep up the amazing quality that makes them what they are!!

Todd

I don't see how this is possible - aren't BareKnuckles all hand-wounded, which is the main reason for their dirty/gritty tone! How can they mass produce it?

Sadly, Jcustom and Custom account for thousands of guitars. So it's not like they can wind a few extra. They are going to make a HUGE order per usual, like they would with duncan, and expect a HUGE shipment and then use those over the course of time. I hope bareknuckle doesn't choke on this.

How many Jcustom and custom shop guitars do Ibanez produce?

I can order a set of Bare Knuckles directly and get them with in 4 days. They have dealers world wide who have a fair amount of stock and boutique makers that use their pickups as standard.

I'd imagine they pump out a good few pickups a month, some people say the quality or magic has gone down since it was just Tim doing the winding, but I don't know about that.

I bought my first set in 2006 and they are fantastic, but there are too many variable with my 2nd set I bought in 2012, since I'm coming to the realisation that 24.75 scale and humbuckers isn't for me

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

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