Barden Strat Deluxe pickups- tell me the truth

[jbp]

OK, I've been wrangling around on a few other threads about these pickups and only a few questions remain:

1) Pickup Height Sensitivity: I've heard the tone changes a lot when you adjust Barden pickups. How so? Do they get darker, brighter, beefier, etc? What can I expect?

2) Amp Settings: Given Bardens are "hi-fi" pickups, what happens to your EQ settings when you switch over to a non-Barden equipped guitar? How much tweaking , if any, do you have to do?

3) Barden's recommendations from the website re: caps and pots: Do they work for you? Perhaps folks have other favorite combos.

[jbp]

Yeah, yeah...I know: 1 bump/day. I'm such a rebel.

any Barden-ites care to comment?

[jaybird1]

I loved them a buddy has them in a strat plus and they are the really nice for just about everything! but they are just pickups man your eq will be alright and they act like any other pu as far as adjusting them. IMO

[jbp]

Originally Posted by jaybird1

but they are just pickups man your eq will be alright and they act like any other pu as far as adjusting them. IMO

I think you're misunderstanding my point on this one.

Ever switched to a different guitar only to have to tweak the crap out of your amp settings? I'm wondering if Bardens require you to re-vamp your amp settings because of their specific hi-fi voicing/unique sound as opposed to a guitar with traditional pickups.

[mountain blues]

Mine did. I ended up letting them go. Me and Bardens didn't work.

[Ray Gianelli]

I've used them for years now. Adjusted fairly low in the pickguard. I keep the guitar's tone controls rolled back to about 6-7, switch to other guitars with no EQ issues, although on the other guitars I tend to keep the tone controls on 10.

HTH

[jbp]

Originally Posted by jbp

OK, I've been wrangling around on a few other threads about these pickups and only a few questions remain:

1) Pickup Height Sensitivity: I've heard the tone changes a lot when you adjust Barden pickups. How so? Do they get darker, brighter, beefier, etc? What can I expect?

2) Amp Settings: Given Bardens are "hi-fi" pickups, what happens to your EQ settings when you switch over to a non-Barden equipped guitar? How much tweaking , if any, do you have to do?

3) Barden's recommendations from the website re: caps and pots: Do they work for you? Perhaps folks have other favorite combos.

Trollin' for more opinions...

[cochese]

You mean will things be different like going from a Telecaster to a Les Paul? That is really more dependent on your amp and you rather than the guitar or pickups. Some magic amps will sound great no matter what guitar is plugged into them without adjustment.

As to the Bardens I've used them a bit over the years and even played a friends guitar that was a Strat style with a Seth Lover humbucker in the bridge Barden in the middle and a JB Jr in the neck. It worked well there. You will never know until you try but be for warned. Bardens sound like Bardens. They are very clean and have a hefty amount of output and can be a bit bright in certain guitars and hands. If you like a very clean but loud pickup that is very articulate and is really quiet the Bardens may be for you. If you like your pickups dark and you like an overwound pickup tone go eleswhere.

The only clip I have of those pickups with a distorted tone was my Anderson Strat with a Barden Duotone in the bridge and two Barden singles but I mainly used the bridge and bridge middle settings. http://www.guytron.com/images/mp3/nigeria.mp3

You might listen to some old Kings X as he used Bardens a number of years ago.

[jbp]

Here are a few phrases that many folks have used to describe Bardens:

- Transparent or revealing
- Powerful
- Punchy
- Clean or articulate or sensitive
- Balanced

Two words I don't often hear? Warm and Rich. And that frankly concerns me.

Agree or Disagree?

[farkas]

I'm getting more warmth out of my Bardens in my mid G&L 1990's S-500 than I had with the stock pickups. Monstrous is how I'd describe them. I was afraid of loosing quack and the SRV neck pickup sound, but working with my tone controls gives me everything I had with the stock pickups, plus now my S-500 has a warmth and sustain it didn't have before. I'm thinking of putting the Duo-Tones in my Heritage 535 now. I'm addicted.

[jbp]

Farkas, that's good news indeed. I would've guessed that the stock MFD pickups in the S-500 would've been warmer than the Bardens.

[Jon C]

the Bardens are warmer than the stock MFDs in the S-500 IMO ... they are not vintage Strat holy grail warm, but def. warmer than the ceramic MFDs.

the "buzziness" or "edge" or however I described it in the other thread about the S-500 MFDs describes a lack of warmth relative to the Bardens.