… but I passionately loathe fish, so I got me a Mule. A whole set of it actually. lol
I’ve always been curious what’s all the rage about Bare Knuckle pickups. One thing I knew for sure: they are most probably overpriced due to the boo-teek hype of today and there is no way in hell I’m paying more than 400 USD worth of whatever currency for a pair.
But thanks to my day starting ritual of going through the classifieds, I stumbled upon a Mule set, with chrome covers, two conductor, long legs, pristine condition in box with coaster and sticker (the latter two are very important, they obviously make the things sound better… lol) for around half of it’s MSRP, making it a reasonable investment.
Popped 'em in the cheapo Ibanez semi I scored a few weeks back (I never really understood the idea of the ceramic HBs in a semi to begin with apart from being cheap). The installation was pretty much seamless, especially given that this is the first semi that I have ever worked on (well apart from reversing the selector positions, but when I realized it was already put together and it’s not something that I am willing to take the thing apart again for)
Anyways, they seem to be everything the company promises: very vintage, very well balanced, very articulate and very touch sensitive. They can really go from barely driven to full on distortion just by picking - exposing every bit of my inconsistencies that I never noticed on my “metal” pickups. So all in all a happy camper here. Based on first impressions these are really excellent pickups, really cream of the crop, but are definitely overpriced. IMHO no production model pickup should ever cost that much, period.
Here’s a small sample, comparing the Mule to the stock pickups using the small Autumn Leaves excerpt I did last time around w/ te walking bass. In the clip with the drums, the OEMs are hard panned left, the Mule hard panned right. The Mule is definitely more “lively” and thicker sounding. The OEMs feel kinda “anemic” compared to the new toy.
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Thanks for sharing @nexion218 , these mules do sound classy.
Have you tried them for some iron maiden style / wall of Marshall sound? I thought that’s what they were designed for.
I have BKP nailbomb in a few guitars, very very versatile pickups and great dynamics like yours.
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Ay, look who’s back! Good to see you, I honestly though you deserted or went M.I.A… 
Well, I can imagine them doing great with Maiden because they fared surprisingly well under heavy gain even in a semi hollow guitar, but I only switched on the gain pedal for a few minutes because I intend to keep them in a semi and use them for the mellow stuff. But I’m sure they would sound sexy in an 80s style hard rock/heavy metal axe!
Btw the Mules are already out of the Ibby… I found a sweetheart deal Korean Epi Sheraton (something I always wanted) so poor Ibby did it’s job (assured me that I am indeed interested in having and using a semi hollow ), but it has to go now. It’ll stay for a few more weeks, because the Epi needs new frets and some minor touchup for a pair of dings. NGD thread coming when it fully blinged. Until then, a couple of pictures from the transplant process:
P.S.: I literally picked up the Epi on xmass day, had no spare strings at home but wanted to install the Mules in it so badly that I decided to put up with the added difficulty of not removing the strings… Great succes! 
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That’s nice christmas gift! I like how you protected the guitar with that tape. That’s something I should do too as I ripped on a few finishes in the past…
Looking forward to the full NGD thread 
Having to gut the thing through the F holes there really is no other way methinks… With a solodbody I can easily remove everyrhing and do almost all the soldering away from the guitar and do the last few joints inside the cavity, but with a semi that’s no option, not to mention the process of fishing out the electronics and then back in…
The NGD thread may take a few weeks, b/c Mr. Luthier fell sick plus he has a very good reputation resulting in a sea of guitars waiting to be repaired/serviced everytime I visit his store. But I left him a bottle of premium booze made from his preferred grapes to make sure he has his priorities right when returning to full health… 
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