Bare Knuckle Pickups (Bare Knuckle, or BKP) is a privately-owned business based in the South West of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, UK, specialising in hand-wound electric

guitar pickups The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with some exceptions) and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the d ...

.Guitarist Magazine, May 2005 The company was founded in 2003 by Tim Mills, who had previously worked with

Elkie Brooks Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1945) is an English Rock music, rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe (band), Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest su ...

and

Iced Earth Iced Earth is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band currently composed of only Jon Schaffer, formed in Tampa, Florida, and based in Columbus, Indiana. They were formed in 1984 under the name the Rose, then Purgatory, by guitarist, ma ...

Pickups

Bare Knuckle produce a complete range of

humbuckers A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...

single coils A single-coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or guitar pickup, pickup, for the electric guitar and the bass guitar, electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single-coil pickups ...

P-90 The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson Guitar Corporation since 1946, as well as other vendors. Compared to other single coil designs, such as the Fender single coil, the bobbin for a P-90 ...

, and other pickup varieties for both

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

. Ranging from original vintage models through to contemporary pickups such as the award winning 'The Mule' humbucker, 'Nailbomb' humbucker, 'Mississippi Queen' humbucker-size P90 and 'Apache' single coils.

Awards

* Gold award to 'The Mule' and 'Apache' * Guitarist Choice award to 'PG Blues Set' * Golden M award to the 'Nailbomb' * Best Buy to the 'Warpig'

Artists

Artists who have used the company's products include

Propagandhi Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock and metal band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski ...

Johnny Marr John Martin Marr (Birth name#Maiden and married names, né Maher; born 31 October 1963) is a musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has sinc ...

Claudio Sanchez Claudio Paul Sanchez III (born March 12, 1978)Sanchez, Claudio: "The Amory Wars Sketchbook", page 30. Evil Ink, 2007. is an American musician and writer best known for being the lead singer, guitarist and primary lyricist for the progressive roc ...

Jon Schaffer Jon Ryan Schaffer ( ; born March 15, 1968) is an American heavy metal musician. He is the rhythm guitarist, bandleader and principal songwriter of the Indiana-based heavy metal band Iced Earth, which he formed in 1985 under the name Purgatory. ...

, and Gabe Mangold. Additionally, several artists have signature pickups customized by BKP, including

Misha Mansoor Misha Mansoor (born October 31, 1984), also known as Bulb after the name of his solo project, is an American musician, best known as the founder of and one of the three guitarists in the progressive metal band Periphery. He is also a part of ...

Periphery (band) Periphery is an American progressive metal band that was formed in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Their musical style has been described as progressive metal, djent, and progressive metalcore. They are considered one of the pioneers of the djent mo ...

Juggernaut

Ragnarok model

Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – " Top Gun Anthem" – for ...

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

's band
Rebel Yell model
Josh Smith of

Northlane Northlane are an Australian metalcore band from Blacktown, formed in 2009. The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane have released six studio albums: '' Discoveries'' ( ...

Impulse model
Mike Stringer of

Spiritbox Spiritbox is a Canadian Heavy metal music, heavy metal band, originally from Victoria, British Columbia, publicly established by guitarist Mike Stringer and vocalist Courtney LaPlante in October 2017. The band's full lineup comprises married co ...

Halcyon model
and Rabea Massaad of Toska and Dorje (band), th
Silo model
Bare Knuckle Pickups are also fitted by guitar manufacturers, such as Aristides Instruments,

Fender Custom Shop The Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, housed within its headquarters complex in Corona, California, Corona, Riverside County, California, Riverside County, California. The Fender Custom Shop produces spe ...

Ibanez Guitars is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki was one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...

, Manson Guitars, Blackmachine, and Peerless guitars.

References

{{Reflist Guitar pickup manufacturers Musical instrument parts and accessories