Bare Knuckle Nomads Set: What is it? Pickups for Telecasters come in numerous sonic shades, and to that end Bare Knuckle already makes quite a few. In fact, adding this new set, the company has 11 different flavours, including the historic Blackguard sets; the Flat ’50s have been powering this writer’s Tele for the past few years. “I wanted to create something more controlled and powerful that would cater to my heavier sounds just as much as the ambient and cleaner side of what I do,” states Rabea.
Like his Triptych set for S-style guitars, the Nomads use a different magnet blend. “In order to make them synergistic with the Triptych set, I decided on a similar approach,” says Bare Knuckle founder, Tim Mills. “I opted for Alnico III magnets in the bridge coil and Alnico V in the neck.
Alnico III has the lowest pull of any of the Alnicos used in guitar pickups and this, paired with a relatively hot wind of 43 AWG plain enamel wire, allows for the high-end to really breathe and for plenty of extension in the bottom-end. “It puts all of the dynamic headroom at the player’s control, either by rolling back the volume or digging in more with the pick to push the signal harder.” Both pickups are well crafted, and the bridge uses what looks like a traditional copper-plated steel baseplate.
Tim tells us it’s actually “a much thicker 1950-style baseplate that would have been zinc-plated, but we decided copper-plating would be a nice touch to change things up. “.
