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I purchased these pickups via the Axe Palace to place into my Schecter KM-7 MK1 (swamp ash body, maple neck, ebony fretboard, Hipshot bridge). My primary reasons on settling on these were feeling as though they could make this sometimes overly bright and thin guitar sound thicker in the lows and mids while slightly pulling back the highs; and as a player who’s never been quite as comfortable on a 7-string as a 6, I thought the compressed headroom of them would give an easier playing feel with distortion while still having enough headroom for dynamics to come through on cleans and mid gain tones.
Plugging in to my favorite high gain rig, the Ragnarok bridge immediately presented a huge, chunky tone. Palm mutes, power chords, and single note runs all sound deep with very focused, aggressive midrange, fairly tight lows and slightly rolled off but still open top end. You can still hear every note of complex chords even with gobs of gain, and they never sound thin regardless of your pick attack’s intensity. On clean and mid-gain tones, it’s obvious that it has a fair amount of output, but it has enough headroom and dynamics to not completely overwhelm the amp and oversaturate it. It offers far more in these ranges than its output would lead you to believe.
The Ragnarok neck has the same syrupy but clear mids and top end of its bridge counterpart, but with a more reduced low end. It sounds excellent for high gain soloing even on the lower strings. The still very high output means that the pick attack is remarkably consistent with high gain, though not overly so as you would find with active neck pickups or certain high output neck models. On clean and mid-gain tones it cleans up surprisingly well and offers enough headroom for playing dynamics to still come through.
These pickups have a noticeably lower resonant peak than many contemporary humbuckers with a greater emphasis on lower midrange than the often 2-3K peak metal-oriented pickups. Players who are used to more moderate output pickups might miss the extended dynamic range of that set, but the Ragnaroks absolutely excel at modern rock and metal tones, particularly rhythm tones. This would also be a great set for active pickup players looking to get into the world of passives without a massive departure from the feel that those players would expect. It’s truly a perfect marriage of active and passive sounds that I don’t think any other pickup brand (sorry, Fishman Fluence fans) has managed to achieve.
The price of these pickups will understandably cause some to balk, and I know that even players who enjoy other Bare Knuckle offerings may feel that the recent hikes due to inflation are just too much to justify. Still, I can’t recall a better-voiced set for modern metal. Between these and my Polymaths, I’m absolutely a Bare Knuckle convert now.
Plugging in to my favorite high gain rig, the Ragnarok bridge immediately presented a huge, chunky tone. Palm mutes, power chords, and single note runs all sound deep with very focused, aggressive midrange, fairly tight lows and slightly rolled off but still open top end. You can still hear every note of complex chords even with gobs of gain, and they never sound thin regardless of your pick attack’s intensity. On clean and mid-gain tones, it’s obvious that it has a fair amount of output, but it has enough headroom and dynamics to not completely overwhelm the amp and oversaturate it. It offers far more in these ranges than its output would lead you to believe.
The Ragnarok neck has the same syrupy but clear mids and top end of its bridge counterpart, but with a more reduced low end. It sounds excellent for high gain soloing even on the lower strings. The still very high output means that the pick attack is remarkably consistent with high gain, though not overly so as you would find with active neck pickups or certain high output neck models. On clean and mid-gain tones it cleans up surprisingly well and offers enough headroom for playing dynamics to still come through.
These pickups have a noticeably lower resonant peak than many contemporary humbuckers with a greater emphasis on lower midrange than the often 2-3K peak metal-oriented pickups. Players who are used to more moderate output pickups might miss the extended dynamic range of that set, but the Ragnaroks absolutely excel at modern rock and metal tones, particularly rhythm tones. This would also be a great set for active pickup players looking to get into the world of passives without a massive departure from the feel that those players would expect. It’s truly a perfect marriage of active and passive sounds that I don’t think any other pickup brand (sorry, Fishman Fluence fans) has managed to achieve.
The price of these pickups will understandably cause some to balk, and I know that even players who enjoy other Bare Knuckle offerings may feel that the recent hikes due to inflation are just too much to justify. Still, I can’t recall a better-voiced set for modern metal. Between these and my Polymaths, I’m absolutely a Bare Knuckle convert now.