The ShadowMusic Web Community

Does anyone have any experience of these pickups - specifically whether to go for the zinc base-plate option or not ?

Well I've never tried them but I know they've had good reviews.

You could do worse than listen to this clip of Hank himself playing a set:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQaZZuizTe4

Frankly, all that puts me off them is the price. Ridiculous to pay £175 when many pickups that are just as good if not better cost half that.

Would agree these are a pretty expensive option at £175
Must be a pretty high profit margin for someone in the supply chain!!!!
Some Far East manufactured pickups at around £30 a set are pretty good value for money,
if considering upgrading a budget Strat.
I have been extremely delighted with the quality and tone of the factory fitted pickups
as fitted the Squier Strat Classic Vibe range.(Simon Neil Model)
Think I read somewhere that these pups are made in same Chinese factory as Tonerider?

Mike

I recently bought a Classic Vibe loaded scratchplate, complete with pickups. Sounded pretty good.

(Looked nice as well - tortoiseshell on a Dakota Red Squier MIK Standard.)

Ernie Lamprell swears by them. I have Toneriders in my blue strat and they are really good. Apart from Kinman moderns though i cant really tell a lot of difference between all the different brands

Hi , I dont normally post much on this site but in this instance I do have some experience of Bareknuckle Apache pickups. I bought a set some years ago when they first appeared and fitted them to a 62 American vintage reissue strat. Possibly it was the characteristics of that guitar , but I was quite disappointed with the sound - I found them rather middly, sort of woody and I changed them for Toneriders which immediately gave that guitar a new lease of life and nailed the Shads sound ( at a fraction of the cost). An even cheaper option would be Ironstone pickups which I used in another guitar to replace Fender custom 54s ( which I found very sharp) and are again terrific.
I suppose it depends on what you want to spend, and what sort of sound you want. I dont think Bareknuckle are bad pickups, its just a question of what rocks your boat,

Hogann

I couldn't recommend Ironstones from my experience. To my ears they sounded no better than the standard pickups I'd just taken off (MIM Classic 60's). In fact when I put both sets on eBay, the standard ones fetched more!

The guitar now has Fender 57/62's which I still consider the best I've ever tried.

I fitted a bridge Apache pick up to my Squire Strat in place of the Humbucker. From memory it cost around £70.00. I was more than pleased with it.Being only a Bedroom player my advice is maybe questionable. But I thought I was reproducing a great Shads Sound with it.