Pickups for a Custom Make

What are some good ones? I just want that really simple slightly saturated but not overdone tone. Maybe Van Halen ish but with a bluesy feel. Idk. If anyone has any suggestions lemme know.

I hear Bare Knuckles pickups are great, but they cost around $200 a piece. I like Rockfield pickups a lot. This is a hard question to answer. What I think is good will be crap to someone else. I've tried DiMarzio and a slew of duncans, but there is just something about the Rockfields in my Michael Kelly I really like.

Anderson

lol. If I want Rockfields I might as well just get a standard Mock. Bad thing is I haven't seen any more of them in that wood grain finish with the racing stripes. =(

By standard Mock do you mean a BC Rich Mockingbird? I never cared much for the look of the Mockingbird, but one with a natural finish and racing stripes sounds interesting. I didn't realize they were putting Rockfields in the Rich's now. I haven't been looking at guitars since I got my MK as I am satisfied (at least, for now ;)) with it and I have 6 others to play around with. I've been thinking about changing the pickups in my Rich pictured above, but I haven't decided on what I want in it. I may just leave it stock though. Like I've said before, this guitar may be worth something someday.

jeez... that's a lot of knobs... sweet guitar though

Thanks. It has active electronics with 2 9 volt batteries in it. It also has phase and blend knobs, volume and tone and a couple of switches that just seem to make it a bit brighter.

@ Fender - That's a BC Rich Bich. Just fyi I guess. But if anyones wondering heres a Mockingbird.

it looks like a Jackson Kelly :) Sweet guitar, reminds me of a battle axe for some reason

@fender

how did you manage to navigate all of them like that! lol jk
So your pups are both hot and you have a few switches that mess with the tone and such? that's something I've never heard of before, and it's pretty much awesome! your tone pallet must be insane too

Agreed.

@ Ozz.
You are correct. It is a B.C. Rich Bich. I only pictured it to show you. I wasn't calling it a mockingbird. It is a 1982 US handmade Bich supreme, neck through body construction. I just looked at some of these on music zoo.com and they are going for 4000 - 5000 bucks! But they don't say what year they are. They look brand new and most have no paint, just finished wood, usually koa. They look sweet though!

@ case.
The pickups aren't hot all the time. Those three switches in a row control the active electronics. The bottom two 'turn on' the batteries and the 3rd, I guess, is a kill switch or something came loose in the rats nest of wires in this thing. I'm not real happy with the tone. The phase knob (bottom left) just seems to make it muddy. The active electronics are ok if just one switch is engaged. If you do both at once its like a nuke going off in your amp. There is so much signal. Things start to get really loud and even your clean channel will distort. I usually play it with the actives turned off, the phase knob turned down so its like a normal guitar, and the rest of the knobs up full. Sometimes I'll play with the switches on the bottom right to give it more edge, but thats about it. Someday when I get the time I will go through and make sure everything is set up to B.C. Rich specs to make sure these knobs are doing what they are supposed to do. I love the way the guitar feels and plays!

It is a pretty sweet guitar man. Gotta have loads of sustain with that neck through design too. You should definitely hold on to it, unless you need the money, I would not sell that guitar.

I'm not planning on selling it. I learned to play on this guitar so it has major sentimental value too. My dad has had it ever since I could remember. When I was a kid I thought all guitars looked like this! It turns out to be almost the opposite. I've never seen another one in person.

@fender
that'd be a sweet guitar to learn on :)

Just did a little more research. The paint job is most likely not original unless this is a custom made. Its supposed to be a natural finish. I figured this wasn't original from the look of the serial number. Its a little hard to read like there is a lot of finish on it. The pickups were usually cream colored. Its worth probably a little less than $1000 since its not original. My dad got this guitar in the late 80's. I think some of the wiring is off too. Apparently it is supposed to have a stereo output. So that way you could run each pickup to a different amp or different effects. Thats kinda neat. I really need to open this back up and take another look inside.

Looks like a great guitar man. Pretty killer. If you took it to someone they could probably get all the electronics going again for pretty cheap. If nothing else it stills looks killer though!