Guitar Pickup Review

Bare Knuckle Peacemaker Humbucker Set

The Peacemaker is the signature humbucker pickup set for Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson. What makes the Peacemaker different from the lineup of Bare Knuckle hot-vintage options? Let’s start by taking a look at the end that is justifying the means.

Hailing from southern Kentucky, Black Stone Cherry is a little bit of what you might expect. And a lot of what you don’t. Yep, you have your Southern Rock and your Hard Rock. Now sprinkle in flavors of down-tuned Metal and a bit of Blues with lots of groove. Here are some examples:

Installation

The Peacemaker pickups are going in a double-hum mahogany body with a 25-1/2″ scale maple neck and maple board. The harness has BKP/CTS 550K pots, Switchcraft 12120x 3-way toggle, and a Pure Tone 1/4″ output jack. The strings are 10-46 and in a standard tuning. This is the same test guitar that I use for many Bare Knuckle evaluations. It can have a bit of an attitude and I know if a pickup sounds good in it that the pickup will sounds good in anything. LOL!

Bare Knuckle Peacemaker w/ Woodtech Bobbins
Bare Knuckle Peacemaker w/ Woodtech Bobbins
Evaluation

When they describe the neck tones as “fat and Juicy”, they aren’t fooling around! HaHa! There is a big bold presence that practically oozes out of the bobbins of this bad mama jama! This is the neck humbucker that you’re looking for if you want an overflowing ripe tone hitting your ear holes into submission. Think of Dickey Betts meets Derek Trucks with a little Duane Allman.

The Peacemaker bridge is quite versatile. It has the clarity for great note separation in the big full powerful riffing grooves. It also has the push to drive your lead work into scorching terrain. A little more focused than the neck counterpart, but just as luscious. The tone of this pickup sets a footprint across the voicing necessary to cover a lot of ground. One might even go as far as to say that it can get a little brown.

Bare Knuckle Peacemaker
Bare Knuckle Peacemaker
Demo

First up is Chris Robertson talking about and giving a demo of the Peacemaker pickups:

Chris Robertson of Black Stone Cherry Signature Bare Knuckle Peacemaker demonstration

And this excellent video demo from BKP:

Micky Crystal Demos the Bare Knuckle Peacemaker Humbucker Set

But wait, there’s more:

Kris Barras demonstrating the Peacemaker humbucker bridge and neck set

For the cherry on top, here’s a thorough 14+ min tone test:

Peacemaker Tone Test By Danny Dela Cruz
Specs

Peacemaker Bridge
Series – 9.705 K
Inductance – 5.189 H
Split – 4.843 K
Split – 4.85 K
Parallel – 2.421 K
Magnet – Alnico 5

Peacemaker Neck
Series – 8.485 K
Inductance – 4.013 H
Split – 4.212 K
Split – 4.268 K
Parallel – 2.119 K
Magnet – Alnico 5

Conclusion

The Peacemaker is good for all blues, rock, metal styles and more. It is available in 6, 7, and 8-string configurations. You can choose from over a dozen bobbin colors, and an incredible array of selection of covers, radiators, and TVs. You can customize with screw or bolt poles in about a half-dozen finishes. And of course, you have a selection of mounting leg length and type of lead wire.

For reference, this Bare Knuckle Peacemaker humbucker pickup set evaluation was conducted with a Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller.  In addition, real cabs in use are Marshall 1960BMojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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