Bare Knuckle Boot Camp Old Guard Strat

The Old Guard Strat set is a gateway to something I’ve been wanting to get in to for a while. You guessed it, the Bare Knuckle line of single coil pickups! While the Standard Range of single coils has a dozen models to choose from, the Boot Camp line pares it down to Old Guard (vintage), True Grit (vintage hot), and Brute Force (contemporary) models.

The Boot Camp series is made by hand, but the options are distilled to output, style, and color (where applicable). This makes the inventory more accessible as well as more affordable. I think we can all agree that getting a high-quality hand-made boutique-quality product at a more attainable price is a most welcome thing these days!

Additionally, Bare Knuckle offers 5 (five!) vintage options from the Standard Range. While I do have the Pat Pend ’63 Veneer Board set, where does one go from there? It doesn’t take a disturbance in The Force to tell you the smart play here. Jump in to the Boot Camp option as a baseline reference. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Installation

The Old Guard Strat pickups are in a 1990 American Standard Stratocaster w/ maple board and 22 frets. Strings are 09-42 with standard E tuning.

The harness is the new Mojotone Solderless Convertible Strat Guitar Wiring Harness, from the mind of their pickup guru David Shepherd. This has CTS custom taper pots, CRL 5-way switch, Switchcraft jack, and Mojotone Dijon .022uF capacitor. This harness has dip switches for either standard switching or “blender” switching, which allows blending of the neck and bridge pickups,

Evaluation

The Old Guard Strat set is exactly what you are looking for when you think of the best of the late 50s and early 60s single coil tones. You have a sweet sounding high-end attack with chime and sparkle across the mids. The tone profile pulls back on the lows and extreme highs just a little bit, while elevating the mids ever so slightly. This further balances the EQ so than the typical hollow and scooped character.

The flat pole pattern helps with an additional responsive feel on the more modern flatter radius boards. It is also handy on a more traditional radius for less of a string pull that allows longer ringing and more clarity on the complex chords, where every note matters. The middle position is RWRP for quieter operation in the 2 and 4 positions.

Speaking of the in-between positions, the Old Guard Strat set is excellent for those Slow Hand and SRV tones when you dial in a right amount of dirt from your amp. Pristine cleans and snarling grit are the sweet spots of these single coils. The clear, present, vintage voice comes to the table with excellent balance and a woody timbre. I’m finding them to be excellent for the big cowboy chords and the quintessential 80s power ballads.

Specs

Demo

Here is an official demo of the entire Old Guard series. The single coils section starts at about the 0:57 mark.

Conclusion

These single coils are a no-brainer, in my book. The base price is very much inline to be vying with the competition. BKP is also now offering free shipping on qualifying orders. Nothing to lose and everything to gain! While an excellent set of single coil pickups in their own right, they can guide you on your journey through the BKP tone gallery. More highs? Less mids? Stronger lows? You’ll know exactly where to go and what to choose.

The Old Guard Strat set is going to be good for blues, rock, country, pop, alternative, and more! You can get them à la carte or as a full batch. They are availabele with your choice of black or white colors. If you just must let your freak flag fly, visit the BKP Accessories Shop to access Strat Singlecoil Covers in colors to meet your needs.

For reference, this Bare Knuckle Old Guard Strat single coil pickup set evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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