Bare Knuckle Black Dog Set

Origins of the Black Dog

You see the name Black Dog and your brain instantly goes to sweat groove burn and sting. The riff machine in your head starts blasting Jimmy Page hammering out a John Paul Jones line until it becomes a timeless hard rock anthem. Engineered in the golden window of Zeppelin IV, Andy Johns captures what Page describes: a Les Paul smashing into the desk, pumped through a pair of 1176 compressors chained together, triple tracked and mixed to tower over everything else.

Given the timeline, those tones come from straight up Gibson PAFs, no secret sauce and no mystery parts. Still, guitar forums overflow with wild theories about Page’s setup and nobody ever nails it down. So Bare Knuckle names a pickup Black Dog and takes a swing at bottling that essence. Is it historically perfect? Nah. But does it matter? Not one bit. This set packs such a wide and dense spectrum that you don’t need to triple track to get the same wall of sound. This set does the heavy lifting with one take.

The Black Dog vs The Mule Showdown

Bare Knuckle lays it out plain: the Black Dog runs poly wire to echo the offset coils of The Mule but with more output and more grind. That doesn’t mean it’s a Mule clone with a new jacket. But let’s stack the numbers anyway. The DC resistance between them sits under a 10 percent swing, which most builders would chalk up as normal variance. The inductance? Practically spitting distance. Even the coil offsets hang in the same neighborhood.

Now does that prove they share the exact same winding pattern? Not at all. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. That’s not the point. The point is how much difference the insulation itself makes—poly versus plain enamel. It’s a killer case study in how a simple material swap tweaks the whole tonal personality. And that, friends, is the kind of nerd fuel that keeps gearheads like us up all night.

Dropping the Black Dog In

For this test drive, the Black Dog humbuckers land in a double hum machine wired up with Bourns 500k pots, a Switchcraft 12120X 3 way toggle, and a Switchcraft quarter inch jack. I go short leg baseplates because that makes life easier in just about any humbucker cavity. Bare Knuckle lets you order the Black Dog with all the trimmings, but this set rocks it raw: uncovered black bobbins, four conductor leads, and that sweet hit of butyrate aroma that screams “vintage legit.”

These pickups beg to be wired smart, so they go into series parallel for this run. No phase gymnastics here. This is about chasing that Page inspired snarl without overcomplicating the wiring harness. Sometimes you want it stripped down and straight to business.

Unleashing the Black Dog

The moment the amp gets dirty, the Black Dog earns its keep. I had some hesitation going in, since descriptors like “deep” and “smooth” often mean muddy or sluggish. Not here. This set gambles with that low mid push and wins big. It has a throaty growl that gives the bass end weight without turning it into swamp water, and it slots into the mix like it was meant to be there.

The top end shows up with swagger. It’s bright enough to cut, thick enough to punch, and never strays into brittle harshness. Leads higher on the neck slice through while keeping the muscle intact.

On a clean channel, the Black Dog expands into a massive canvas. Chords bloom into wide open textures, full yet articulate. Add in the versatility of four conductor wiring, and you unlock an arsenal of tones that keep cleans crisp and authoritative. This pickup does not just survive clean tones… it thrives on them.

Demo

Here is Bruce Dickinson throwing down with a Black Dog bridge and a Riff Raff neck. The action starts at about 1:46!

Specs

The Black Dog Verdict

Let my hesitation be your warning shot: not every pickup descriptor translates the same way. One builder’s “grunt” can be another’s “mud bath.” The Black Dog avoids that trap and brings grunt that actually grooves. It thrives in blues, classic rock, punk, grunge, hard rock, heavy blues, and even sprinkles of hair metal and early metal. This set flexes across styles without losing its identity.

Bottom line: the Black Dog roars with muscle, versatility, and enough swagger to hold its own in any rig. Now, the big question. Does it nail Page? My ears hear the Black Dog closer to the 80s and 90s Page vibe than the raw early 70s Zeppelin era.

Customization is another ace up the sleeve. The Black Dog comes in 6, 7, and 8 string formats, with long or short legs, vintage braided or four conductor wire, a rainbow of bobbin colors, multiple pole screw choices, and a ton of cover options. You can make this pickup look as wild or as stealthy as you want.

For reference, this Bare Knuckle Black Dog humbucker 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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