These people who say.." test the pickups through some grunge box " excuse me, at what time did you lose your mind ? You may as well plug into a fucking toaster in search of a result.
When I want to save a new set of strings on a guitar like yours, I loosen the strings at the machine heads, remove the springs from the sound block, and then remove the trem from its mounting posts. Obviously, it wouldn’t work for a 6-screw trem, but for 2-point trems it is simple, effective, and easy to put back together. I’m sure you know that is a reasonable option and that there’s a good reason you took the route you did, I offer the advice to those reading who might not have thought of that solution. Cheers.
I know this is an older comparison but the thing is the true grit does have a similar ish output to tex mex maybe a bit higher 7. something to tex mex 6.8, however the eq is quite different between the two the true grit are more mid so you have to account for that, and they like to be driven (volume) vs the fender ones that have the highs, also it helps to use a .022 cap in the electronics (.047typically OEM), just changing the capacitor and keeping the tex mex would make a marked difference in tone, without changing to the true grit. in the end however it's one persons preference over another, personally I like the bare knuckle brown sugar on my tele but again the tele is a bit different tones than the strat style..
Hey maybe mic the amp and turn it up so we can hear the pickups over the string noise. I love bareknuckle and fender pick ups and there is definitely a difference on the cleans. As soon as you put them through fuzz/over drive the pick up choice doesnt matter though. The difference between those pick up choices really comes downs to the companies making them. Bareknuckle is a small team of people with great quality control, fantastic customer service and lots of customization options and Fender is a corporation who leaves you on "read" when your telecaster shows up in the mail with unsolderd pick ups (actually happened to me). You quite literally get what you pay for
Dude how can you compare these pickups the way you are playing!! When you play clean is like you are plucking the strings, then you play chords with high gain on a NECK PICkUP!!
Exactly! 90's billy Corgan says Hi! It's just like you're trying to get grithy sustain and definition out of a muff in other than a bridge position....
I swapped my tele bridge pickup for a BK cobra. It's amazing. It screams, cries, growls, is sweet and sends love....such an wonderful pickup. Definitely worth the money. I play through a Soldano decatone.
I mean … why True Grit if you want the glossiness 😂😂😂 it is the most flat sounding imo maybe it would make a difference if you try Old guard, the mule or Triptych lol
Thanks for the comparison, interesting to hear bkp not really something that should cost three times of a fender. On paper it should but in reality it doesn’t really! I agree with you man
I am listening through a pretty reference audio chain and there wasn't that much difference between the two other than the Tex Mex having a more nasal, honky strat tone to it. I think the playing to test the cleans was good but its like you ran out of patience when the gain came on. I wanna hear how the pickups cover chords that cover like 5 octaves and how well the notes differentiate from eachother, floating harmonics, how they sound when you turn the volume knob down, feedback, buzz. The more I watch this video the more I'm realizing that you aren't comparing these on their own merits, you just really like the Tex Mex and wish the BKs sounded like a more expensive version instead of letting them be their own thing. The only time you actually try to put your feelings on the difference in tone into words you use really floaty ambiguous words like "harmonics" and "frequency" which just makes it sound like you can't properly express your preferences. I am not by any means a fanboy of the brand, I primarily use Fishmans- but the Bare Knuckles are hand wound in a factory in the UK by people that love guitar instead of being mass manufactured by machines in Mexico. If you care about that sort of thing the price isn't that hard to swallow and besides, they're clearly products aimed at 2 different crowds. Video reviewed
@@neach-brathaidh-fala There are 170,000 words in the English language and he didn't even use adjectives. Frequency is literally just a word used to describe how often something happens; your wifi router has a frequency, your power outlets have frequencies, the CPU driving whatever device you're using has a frequency. It isn't a descriptive word. Harmonic is just as meaningless. Both of those words are literally nouns. Nouns are non-descriptive. I feel like I'm talking down to you but I don't know how to remind you of that without sounding condescending. Stop defending objectively bad writing.
You’re super invested in this topic. You really pulled the “it’s not fair you didn’t even give it a chance” card? Just pickups man. Unless it’s just bad playing, you don’t need all that to hear what they’ll do once he starts playing. The BK’s are just muffled sounding in comparison. And I love their other pickups I’ve tried. But none of the Bootcamps, I’ve not heard a video yet that makes me want to buy them, but it is hard to find videos (real ones, not promos) of the Old Guard. I’ll probably either say fuck it and spend the money, or just stay with Cavalier Pickups. He makes great stuff for around $150 a set.
@@81ghale "They're just pickups man. Unless it's just bad playing, you don't need all that to hear what they'll do once he starts playing" Are you drunk? The rest of your comment is Greek to me, wtf are you talking about lmao
With so many fender pickups to choose from and so many tones available for you to call them hot garbage is crazy, especially given that tone is subjective cause what you hate someone else may absolutely love!
The Boot Camp sounded like some chinese generic S type pickup. Tonality wise it was as close to a fender sound as i am to being Pamela Andersons next bra designer.
I think you just highlighted what I don't like about BareKnuckle single coils. I had a set of Sultans and I wasn't impressed too much with them. They just sound kind of dead on the highs. No sparkle to them really. They were ok and I kept playing thinking it was just me, but by this vid, it wasn't. For the money Tex Mex's are a great pickup. I favor them by far and away in this comparison.
Happy I could help. I wanted the bare buckles to be better lol but they just aren’t. And the fact that you had even “fancier” ones and they still didn’t do the job is upsetting.
Interesting, I have a custom s style built which I picked up this week. I went for the apache set, and compared to what is in my other s style with stock fender pickups, I just find them inherently bright, almost to much so. I'm scouring RUclips for some less bright sounding alternatives.
I have a road worn 50s strat with the Tex mex pickups and I agree that they are pretty darn good. I enjoyed this video in particular because I have been in a similar situation too many times where I spent the money and the time researching and installing “upgrades” only to be disappointed. It’s not like you can do a test drive or anything. Pretty much if you install it, it’s yours. Thanks for the heads up on this upgrade!
I have a 1997 California series strat... came with stock Tex Mex's.. Still sticking to it. It's not clean tbh, but that's where I get these overtones and extra harmonic content which just gives it so much vibe.
Bare knuckles do have more mids, softer highs but i heard slightly more articulation around the fast picking. A neck position is very forgiving of bright pickups like the tex mex. for eg i used to have custom shop 69s. Awful in one guitar but great thru an orange rocker so its really depends on the rig in my experience and how you play. I feel that so many pickup makers are overpriced for what is very little materials and slight tweaking of the spec to offer more choice. Thanks for the video. Nicely done 👍😎
The BN’s sound like they have a wet blanket covering them or something. Glad I saved the money on these, I was considering the “Old Guard” set, but I’ll just spend the extra $75 or whatever on a set of their Brown Sugar’s or some Lollar’s.
I agree that the fenders are far superior here 👍🏻 I had a true grit humbucker in the neck of one of my guitars. It was awful, terrible pick up. However, the Brute Force pickup is fantastic, and I've got the set in 3 of my guitars. The neck in particular is one of the better neck pickups I've played and it's turned into my go-to neck pickup, even if I change the bridge pickup from time to time.
These people who say.." test the pickups through some grunge box " excuse me, at what time did you lose your mind ? You may as well plug into a fucking toaster in search of a result.
Sorry, but that Bare Knuckle eats that stock Fender for lunch.
Yeahhh ❤
Boot Camps are the BK cheaper set. Not much cost difference from the Fenders. Definitely not "THREE times the price".
Compared to the Tex Mex set it’s close.
He should have put some BK cobra's in that strat. I bet his jaw would've dropped on the floor.
When I want to save a new set of strings on a guitar like yours, I loosen the strings at the machine heads, remove the springs from the sound block, and then remove the trem from its mounting posts. Obviously, it wouldn’t work for a 6-screw trem, but for 2-point trems it is simple, effective, and easy to put back together. I’m sure you know that is a reasonable option and that there’s a good reason you took the route you did, I offer the advice to those reading who might not have thought of that solution. Cheers.
The springs are too hard to out back on for me to do that lol
I take all strings off then after, re- wind or twist them back on as they were
I know this is an older comparison but the thing is the true grit does have a similar ish output to tex mex maybe a bit higher 7. something to tex mex 6.8, however the eq is quite different between the two the true grit are more mid so you have to account for that, and they like to be driven (volume) vs the fender ones that have the highs, also it helps to use a .022 cap in the electronics (.047typically OEM), just changing the capacitor and keeping the tex mex would make a marked difference in tone, without changing to the true grit. in the end however it's one persons preference over another, personally I like the bare knuckle brown sugar on my tele but again the tele is a bit different tones than the strat style..
Hey maybe mic the amp and turn it up so we can hear the pickups over the string noise.
I love bareknuckle and fender pick ups and there is definitely a difference on the cleans.
As soon as you put them through fuzz/over drive the pick up choice doesnt matter though.
The difference between those pick up choices really comes downs to the companies making them. Bareknuckle is a small team of people with great quality control, fantastic customer service and lots of customization options and Fender is a corporation who leaves you on "read" when your telecaster shows up in the mail with unsolderd pick ups (actually happened to me). You quite literally get what you pay for
Dude how can you compare these pickups the way you are playing!! When you play clean is like you are plucking the strings, then you play chords with high gain on a NECK PICkUP!!
Exactly! 90's billy Corgan says Hi! It's just like you're trying to get grithy sustain and definition out of a muff in other than a bridge position....
good comparison , thanks for the demo
I swapped my tele bridge pickup for a BK cobra. It's amazing. It screams, cries, growls, is sweet and sends love....such an wonderful pickup. Definitely worth the money. I play through a Soldano decatone.
Very interesting. A ceramic blade pickup on a tele. Very cool! I’m sure it screams for sure through the Soldano
I mean … why True Grit if you want the glossiness 😂😂😂 it is the most flat sounding imo maybe it would make a difference if you try Old guard, the mule or Triptych lol
Thanks for the comparison, interesting to hear bkp not really something that should cost three times of a fender. On paper it should but in reality it doesn’t really! I agree with you man
BKs are superior IMO
its a matter of taste i replaced my texas special in the neck with a true grit and not going back
Really enjoyed this video ! Thanks !
I'm really shocked with your opinion I heard another demo of the Apache in the neck and it sounded incredible. Tone can be infinitely complicated.
I replaced mine with the cobra pickups absolutely love them
I am listening through a pretty reference audio chain and there wasn't that much difference between the two other than the Tex Mex having a more nasal, honky strat tone to it. I think the playing to test the cleans was good but its like you ran out of patience when the gain came on. I wanna hear how the pickups cover chords that cover like 5 octaves and how well the notes differentiate from eachother, floating harmonics, how they sound when you turn the volume knob down, feedback, buzz.
The more I watch this video the more I'm realizing that you aren't comparing these on their own merits, you just really like the Tex Mex and wish the BKs sounded like a more expensive version instead of letting them be their own thing. The only time you actually try to put your feelings on the difference in tone into words you use really floaty ambiguous words like "harmonics" and "frequency" which just makes it sound like you can't properly express your preferences.
I am not by any means a fanboy of the brand, I primarily use Fishmans- but the Bare Knuckles are hand wound in a factory in the UK by people that love guitar instead of being mass manufactured by machines in Mexico. If you care about that sort of thing the price isn't that hard to swallow and besides, they're clearly products aimed at 2 different crowds.
Video reviewed
Harmonics and frequency are both technical terms, not floaty and ambiguous.
@@neach-brathaidh-fala There are 170,000 words in the English language and he didn't even use adjectives. Frequency is literally just a word used to describe how often something happens; your wifi router has a frequency, your power outlets have frequencies, the CPU driving whatever device you're using has a frequency. It isn't a descriptive word.
Harmonic is just as meaningless.
Both of those words are literally nouns. Nouns are non-descriptive. I feel like I'm talking down to you but I don't know how to remind you of that without sounding condescending.
Stop defending objectively bad writing.
You’re super invested in this topic. You really pulled the “it’s not fair you didn’t even give it a chance” card? Just pickups man. Unless it’s just bad playing, you don’t need all that to hear what they’ll do once he starts playing. The BK’s are just muffled sounding in comparison. And I love their other pickups I’ve tried. But none of the Bootcamps, I’ve not heard a video yet that makes me want to buy them, but it is hard to find videos (real ones, not promos) of the Old Guard. I’ll probably either say fuck it and spend the money, or just stay with Cavalier Pickups. He makes great stuff for around $150 a set.
@@81ghale "They're just pickups man. Unless it's just bad playing, you don't need all that to hear what they'll do once he starts playing"
Are you drunk?
The rest of your comment is Greek to me, wtf are you talking about lmao
Something i dont like = garbage
With so many fender pickups to choose from and so many tones available for you to call them hot garbage is crazy, especially given that tone is subjective cause what you hate someone else may absolutely love!
The Boot Camp sounded like some chinese generic S type pickup. Tonality wise it was as close to a fender sound as i am to being Pamela Andersons next bra designer.
I think you just highlighted what I don't like about BareKnuckle single coils. I had a set of Sultans and I wasn't impressed too much with them. They just sound kind of dead on the highs. No sparkle to them really. They were ok and I kept playing thinking it was just me, but by this vid, it wasn't. For the money Tex Mex's are a great pickup. I favor them by far and away in this comparison.
Happy I could help. I wanted the bare buckles to be better lol but they just aren’t. And the fact that you had even “fancier” ones and they still didn’t do the job is upsetting.
Interesting, I have a custom s style built which I picked up this week. I went for the apache set, and compared to what is in my other s style with stock fender pickups, I just find them inherently bright, almost to much so. I'm scouring RUclips for some less bright sounding alternatives.
I have a road worn 50s strat with the Tex mex pickups and I agree that they are pretty darn good. I enjoyed this video in particular because I have been in a similar situation too many times where I spent the money and the time researching and installing “upgrades” only to be disappointed. It’s not like you can do a test drive or anything. Pretty much if you install it, it’s yours. Thanks for the heads up on this upgrade!
Do a clean solder and they’ll never know ;)
@@TheMixWithABD 🤣
I replaced my Seymour Duncan 'Quarter Pounder' pickups with Fender 'Tex Mex' ones in my Custom Tele and I'm happy with it!
I have a 1997 California series strat... came with stock Tex Mex's.. Still sticking to it.
It's not clean tbh, but that's where I get these overtones and extra harmonic content which just gives it so much vibe.
I was shocked the BK’s lacked so much harmonic frequencies
@@TheMixWithABD Surprising for me as well. Thanks for the comparison btw. Awesome channel👍
These pickups remind me of fat 50s. I hate them, but other people love the sound.
Bare knuckles do have more mids, softer highs but i heard slightly more articulation around the fast picking. A neck position is very forgiving of bright pickups like the tex mex. for eg i used to have custom shop 69s. Awful in one guitar but great thru an orange rocker so its really depends on the rig in my experience and how you play. I feel that so many pickup makers are overpriced for what is very little materials and slight tweaking of the spec to offer more choice. Thanks for the video. Nicely done 👍😎
Just put apache single coils in my strat and it was a total waste, all the pickups are dark and sound like my tone is rolled down half way
Lol forgot I left this comment but I just had something else wrong I don’t remember, these things rock
I want a neck exactly like that one!
The BN’s sound like they have a wet blanket covering them or something. Glad I saved the money on these, I was considering the “Old Guard” set, but I’ll just spend the extra $75 or whatever on a set of their Brown Sugar’s or some Lollar’s.
I agree that the fenders are far superior here 👍🏻
I had a true grit humbucker in the neck of one of my guitars. It was awful, terrible pick up.
However, the Brute Force pickup is fantastic, and I've got the set in 3 of my guitars. The neck in particular is one of the better neck pickups I've played and it's turned into my go-to neck pickup, even if I change the bridge pickup from time to time.
I agree the fender sounds better
I don't like new pickups.
I don’t like pickups
@@willrivaldoi don’t pickups
I've said for a while now. Fender make the best strat pickups, hands down.
Bareknuckle especially when the proper caps are used sound better all around more versatile.