Post by slartibartfarst42 on Jul 6, 2014 9:05:27 GMT
I bought this set some years ago but thought I'd include the review here to help get the new forum rolling. I've amended it from the original review to account for my greater experience and knowledge these days. I'll import other reviews here too as I go along. The guitar used for these pickups was an Ibanez RGT42, which is a maple neck-thru with mahogany wings and a locking trem.
Cold Sweat neck
This is undoubtedly a VERY popular pickup in the Bare Knuckle range. If you look through the Bare Knuckle forum you could be forgiven for thinking that the only neck pup that BKP make is a Cold Sweat at times! Having tried one for myself I can certainly understand why it is so universally liked. The pickup has some versatility and can do pretty much everything very well. It is extremely articulate and well defined by any standards, with a lovely creamy tone that retains a crisp clarity. If you want to spend time shredding at the neck then this is perfect as note definition is precise and it responds well to pick dynamics. This pickup's primary home is shred but it's by no means a one-trick pony. It will do Dave Murray's fluid legato style very well, though it’s a sharper sound that Dave Murray has. Although not really a Blues pickup, it will adapt to Blues reasonably well and coil tapping will give more tonal options. It takes gain in large doses but cleans up very well indeed. In terms of power it comes in with a DC resistance of 8.3 which allows plenty of the guitar's natural tone to shine through but hot enough to really rock. A highly effective Metal pickup with an appealing degree of versatility.
Cold Sweat bridge
While the neck version of the Cold Sweat enjoys universal acclaim the bridge version seems to be, surprisingly, largely ignored in the Bare Knuckle range. In fairness, I initially ignored it myself because it wasn't really as hot as I wanted and looked too bright on the Bare Knuckle website. The name of the pickup would suggest that it's like a Gibson Dirty Fingers but it's not. The tone is certainly reminiscent of John Sykes' tone but it's not a simple duplication of that tone.
The tone is lovely and rich in a classic Gibson way, with fantastic articulation, which is a characteristic all scatterwound pickups seem to share. There's a very satisfying growl to the tone and the cleans are surprisingly good for a ceramic pickup. Like the neck version, it coil taps really well. The amp I was using at the time had three channels, which were basically clean; overdriven and high gain. I naturally tended to move to high gain and never really liked the overdrive channel before but these pickups were a revelation. 80’s style overdrive really brings out the immense tone that this pickup offers and playing through that channel became a favourite. All of a sudden my guitar had this wonderful character that the pickup brought out. The Cold Sweat will also go well beyond that as I dumped masses of gain onto the amp, even maxing out the controls, and it took it all in its stride. You do lose some of that rich character with all that gain but I assure you that this pickup will do high gain Metal very effectively indeed. More obviously 'Metal' pickups might be a better choice for some, but if you want loads of growl with a bit more vintage character then the Cold Sweat is a pickup that won’t disappoint.
It was certainly a bright pickup but that brightness wasn't overpowering at all and in a Les Paul it would end up a lot more balanced. The Bare Knuckle website can be a little misleading as to how bright this pickup actually is. I think what helps the Cold Sweat is that it has a decent amount of bass to balance the high side and though it appears to be scooped, it actually has a reasonable amount of upper mids, which on the EQ chart seem to be lumped in with the treble. As an example, consider the Bare Knuckle 'Emerald' for a second. As far as the EQ chart is concerned, it appears to be less bright than the Cold Sweat yet when I tried an Emerald bridge it was in a mahogany guitar with a maple neck (darker than the guitar that used the Cold Sweat) and the pickup was so incredibly bright that I had to send it back. The Cold Sweat was actually a darker and more balanced sounding pickup despite showing more treble on the EQ chart but the Emerald just had no bass to offset the treble whereas the Cold Sweat does.
It's a great shame that the Bare Knuckle 'Cold Sweat' bridge is so often overlooked because it's a very impressive pickup. I think its problem is also down to its strength, which I realise sounds a bit daft but bear with me here. The thing is, if you want a 'Metal' pickup, options like the Holydiver, Miracle Man, Aftermath etc. are possibly better choices. If you want something a little more 'Classic' sounding but with loads of balls, aggression and tightness, the A-Bomb is possibly a better option. Conversely, if you want something that is simply 'Classic Rock' and 'vintage' you have things like the Mule and Abraxas etc. You could argue that each of these pickups do their individual 'thing' better than the Cold Sweat but that's exactly why the Cold Sweat is so fantastic to me; it does all of those styles pretty much as good as the more specialist pickup. Shove one in the bridge of a Les Paul and you have a pickup that is capable of a vast range of styles and pulls them all off with great assurance. For anyone with a Les Paul who is looking for a highly versatile instrument and a classic Les Paul sound, I really can't recommend a Bare Knuckle 'Cold Sweat' bridge highly enough. I wish to God that more people with a Les Paul (or even other guitars because it will work in other instruments too) would try the Cold Sweat because I'd be amazed if they were disappointed.
Cold Sweat neck
This is undoubtedly a VERY popular pickup in the Bare Knuckle range. If you look through the Bare Knuckle forum you could be forgiven for thinking that the only neck pup that BKP make is a Cold Sweat at times! Having tried one for myself I can certainly understand why it is so universally liked. The pickup has some versatility and can do pretty much everything very well. It is extremely articulate and well defined by any standards, with a lovely creamy tone that retains a crisp clarity. If you want to spend time shredding at the neck then this is perfect as note definition is precise and it responds well to pick dynamics. This pickup's primary home is shred but it's by no means a one-trick pony. It will do Dave Murray's fluid legato style very well, though it’s a sharper sound that Dave Murray has. Although not really a Blues pickup, it will adapt to Blues reasonably well and coil tapping will give more tonal options. It takes gain in large doses but cleans up very well indeed. In terms of power it comes in with a DC resistance of 8.3 which allows plenty of the guitar's natural tone to shine through but hot enough to really rock. A highly effective Metal pickup with an appealing degree of versatility.
Cold Sweat bridge
While the neck version of the Cold Sweat enjoys universal acclaim the bridge version seems to be, surprisingly, largely ignored in the Bare Knuckle range. In fairness, I initially ignored it myself because it wasn't really as hot as I wanted and looked too bright on the Bare Knuckle website. The name of the pickup would suggest that it's like a Gibson Dirty Fingers but it's not. The tone is certainly reminiscent of John Sykes' tone but it's not a simple duplication of that tone.
The tone is lovely and rich in a classic Gibson way, with fantastic articulation, which is a characteristic all scatterwound pickups seem to share. There's a very satisfying growl to the tone and the cleans are surprisingly good for a ceramic pickup. Like the neck version, it coil taps really well. The amp I was using at the time had three channels, which were basically clean; overdriven and high gain. I naturally tended to move to high gain and never really liked the overdrive channel before but these pickups were a revelation. 80’s style overdrive really brings out the immense tone that this pickup offers and playing through that channel became a favourite. All of a sudden my guitar had this wonderful character that the pickup brought out. The Cold Sweat will also go well beyond that as I dumped masses of gain onto the amp, even maxing out the controls, and it took it all in its stride. You do lose some of that rich character with all that gain but I assure you that this pickup will do high gain Metal very effectively indeed. More obviously 'Metal' pickups might be a better choice for some, but if you want loads of growl with a bit more vintage character then the Cold Sweat is a pickup that won’t disappoint.
It was certainly a bright pickup but that brightness wasn't overpowering at all and in a Les Paul it would end up a lot more balanced. The Bare Knuckle website can be a little misleading as to how bright this pickup actually is. I think what helps the Cold Sweat is that it has a decent amount of bass to balance the high side and though it appears to be scooped, it actually has a reasonable amount of upper mids, which on the EQ chart seem to be lumped in with the treble. As an example, consider the Bare Knuckle 'Emerald' for a second. As far as the EQ chart is concerned, it appears to be less bright than the Cold Sweat yet when I tried an Emerald bridge it was in a mahogany guitar with a maple neck (darker than the guitar that used the Cold Sweat) and the pickup was so incredibly bright that I had to send it back. The Cold Sweat was actually a darker and more balanced sounding pickup despite showing more treble on the EQ chart but the Emerald just had no bass to offset the treble whereas the Cold Sweat does.
It's a great shame that the Bare Knuckle 'Cold Sweat' bridge is so often overlooked because it's a very impressive pickup. I think its problem is also down to its strength, which I realise sounds a bit daft but bear with me here. The thing is, if you want a 'Metal' pickup, options like the Holydiver, Miracle Man, Aftermath etc. are possibly better choices. If you want something a little more 'Classic' sounding but with loads of balls, aggression and tightness, the A-Bomb is possibly a better option. Conversely, if you want something that is simply 'Classic Rock' and 'vintage' you have things like the Mule and Abraxas etc. You could argue that each of these pickups do their individual 'thing' better than the Cold Sweat but that's exactly why the Cold Sweat is so fantastic to me; it does all of those styles pretty much as good as the more specialist pickup. Shove one in the bridge of a Les Paul and you have a pickup that is capable of a vast range of styles and pulls them all off with great assurance. For anyone with a Les Paul who is looking for a highly versatile instrument and a classic Les Paul sound, I really can't recommend a Bare Knuckle 'Cold Sweat' bridge highly enough. I wish to God that more people with a Les Paul (or even other guitars because it will work in other instruments too) would try the Cold Sweat because I'd be amazed if they were disappointed.
