BKPs are awesome. I have a set of Nailbombs in my Soloist and a Painkiller in the bridge of my Les Paul and they absolutely destroy EMG, Duncan, DiMarzio and the like, like... not even in the same league.
Bold statement.
I've tried Painkillers, Nailbombs, Warpigs, Aftermath...IN MY OPINION the only one of those which is usable for tight stuff is the aftermath, but even that is very muddy compared to EMGs or for example the SH15.
I think BKPs are AWESOME for sludge, doom etc, it's like they're made for that, but modern tight fast chugging? no way, at least not if you want a defined sound....I know, people seems to love these pickups in some forums, but I wouldn't read too much into it, there's an extreme hype around them..
I've made and posted blind tests on several occasions (EMG vs. BKP) and every time people said that the BKP (without knowing it's the BKP) sounds muddy as fuck, they automatically assumed that the tighter pickup is the BKP (because of the hype) and unleashed all their verbal hate against the muddy piece of shit that they thought was the EMG but that really was the BKP.
when I revealed the results the typical "yeah, you didn't set it up right" answers etc came of course.
if you try to ignore the hype that's being made around ss.org, HCAF etc around them and put them in a fair blind test you'll see that even their supposedly tightest pickups (painkiller, aftermath) are not tight at all...at least not compared to an EMG.
the Aftermath still has a really nice smooth tone though, I DO like it a lot, just not for tight modern chugging....not saying it's not possible to record a good sounding clip with them (I've done it myself), but I just don't think it's the forte of BKP.
The Painkiller could sound nice if it didn't have that annoinf high mid fizz going on.
The Nailbomb and Warpig just sound like you're throwing a mud filled ballon against a carpet covered wall.
I've not tried the miravle man yet, people say it's great...but tbh I don't think I'll spend that much money for another BKP in my life.
so far the aftermath was the best BKP I owned, sounds nice....but stop saying BKP is tight compared to EMG!
I've tried a lundgren M7 which I really liked, but so far the best sounding passives I've heard are the Duncan SH15 and for mahogany guitars also the duncan SH6.
I am NOT trying to bash BKP, as I said, the aftermath sounds really good! Just not tight at all.
BKP also have a fantastic service, Tim is great...unfortunately there's no 30 days money back guarantee, so people automatically try to justify their purchase and keep repeating the same phrases that sold them on BKP in the first place...who wants to face the fact that that you've ust spent 170€ on a pickup that is about as tight as the stock pickup in epiphone les pauls? So of course the typical denial processes set in until they believe all that stuff themselves...and when they're confronted with a fair blind test they try to find excuses WHY the BKP sounds so much less tight than the EMG in the blind tests....
I't in to like BKP and it's uncool to dislike them.
Pros
-Tim is great with customer service, all around great guy
-They offer some voicings that are far enough removed from models offered by the rest of the big 3 (EMG/Dimarzio/SD) that certain models might be worth it for you
Cons
-Heavily overhyped (especially by some sites/sectors of the internet), and with what they end up costing you in the US they aren't worth it at all IMO. The hype that they are better than EMG/Dimarzio/SD is just from idiots drinking the Kool-Aid. For any tone you can think of you can find a pickup from the big 3 that will sound as good as a BKP (and often better).
this sums it up perfectly
