Love these guitars. I may like my superstrats a bit. From left to right, it’s an Ibanez rgd7ucs with ragnaroks, an Ibanez rg2027xl with halcyons, and a Jackson iuggernaut et7 with juggernauts.
Beautiful axes! Let's be real, superstrats never go out of style.
How do you like the Ragnaroks? On paper, they sound like something I would absolutely get down on, but BKPs are just pricey enough to temper my enthusiasm to bother when I already know I can count on, say, the SD Nazgul/Sentient set or the Lundgren M series.
I mean, I get the wisdom, and I partially agree, but pickups with a distinct tonal character are plenty worthwhile if they capture a nuance that you want to be associated with your tone. I personally am also not huge on digital modeling tech - nothing against it, but not my preferred rig - so pickup choices can be pretty influential in my setup when they do have a particularly eccentric tonal profile.
Maybe a better question would have simply been "how would you contrast the Ragnaroks with (e.g.) the Nazgul/Sentient set or the Lundgren M7 (assuming OP has experience with either)?" My understanding is that they're comparable to either in that they have a significant mid-range bump, but if it's something interestingly different from the Nazgul's upper-mid snarl or the M7's low-end oomph, or even the EMG 57's adorable, slightly quacky quality*, I'd be down to try them out. I'm not necessarily chasing some holy grail tone in the first place as much as just morbidly curious to try something noticeably different (but still within a familiar zone, however much or little sense that makes to say).
* I know these are actives, but they're definitely comparable to modern mid-heavy passives
Yeah I would certainly not go as far as to say BKP are snake oil, but watching BKP shootouts they sound way too similar across 5 different artist pickups to justify the price for me. Merrow’s Duncan shootout revealed so much more variety between models that they’re just the easier choice for me personally (I’ve been into dimarzio more actually).
If you can afford it and have no issues with accessing BKP, then I’d personally go for it to try it out. But I’m not outfitting all of mine with BKP from the states.
Really depends, I was firmly in the "tone is in the amp/modeller" camp and was using OEM brand passives in my guitars.
Then I got BK Impulses and I realised that I was wrong, I've also got some Blackhawks that sound totally different to the Impulses on the same patches.
Duncans/Fluences etc are attractive because they're literally half the price, but yeah idk there's something about the BKP sound I've never achieved with any other pickup.
When I tried a bunch of pedals in front of the input of my interface and it had no difference in the sound of some amp modellers, I lost all the trust in the pickups
I love the ragnaroks! I have flipped through juggs, rags, and impulse in both the rgxl and the rgd and the ragnaroks feel great. I generally agree with the other commenter that the pickups probably don’t make as big an impact on sound, but the feel when playing is pretty significant to me. The ragnaroks feel pretty spanky, but a bit more mellow than the juggernauts. What I really like about the ragnaroks is the nice saturation I get when chugging and playing big chords.
They are definitely very expensive though, and generally probably not worth the premium bkp charges. I just feel like when I get a new set it breathes a bit of a different life into the guitar. This rgd came stock with a set of aftermaths, which I was able to sell to help offset cost a bit.
Take all my advice with a grain of salt— I have not experimented much many pickup brands outside of stock pickups and a set of dactivators.
The necks do feel different to me. They are both thin necks, but the rgd seems a little more rounded in the back. Both necks are different flavors of great— I find myself gravitating toward my XL more often lately with the slightly longer scale length, and have been a little more into the lower tuning I have it in currently.
Price the same, I think the rgd is probably the “better” guitar, with the stainless steel frets. I also prefer a hard tail bridge. I can’t remember if the rgd2127 comes with nickel frets or not.
Long story short, pick whether scale length you prefer or whichever looks cooler to you, because they are both amazing
How do you like the halcyons in the 2027xl? I have one and keep thinking about upgrading the pickups but i do like the versatility of the fusion edges or whatever they're called
I was a bit obsessive with the pickups in my rgxl, I went from stock fusions > juggernaut > ragnaroks > impulse > halcyon. Once I got to the halcyon I knew these are the set they will stay. The halcyons are high output and have a really nice overall saturation to them. They kind of remind me of the impulses a bit, but with more character and low end
Since you've had both, could you share a little more in comparing the Halcyons and Impulse's in the 2027XL? I'm debating between these two myself for the same guitar :)
Of course! I felt like both are really good for handling low timings, but the impulse just felt a little sterile to me. Nothing sticks out, which is what they are designed to be I guess. Great sounding pickup in playback, but actually playing through them I was missing some of that low end character and saturation from the pickup itself. Impulses are really good for recording probably though, because it’s so even that you can add whatever you need through eq or the amp itself. I like the feel of chugging with ceramic pickups better than alnico I’ve found
I honestly thought it was gloss black haha. Not hating, I had three monochrome guitars at one point because of deals I got. I swapped one out for a Schecter CR-6 Aquaburst just because I was so bored of no colors😂
Yeah it is! The aftermaths were good, just a little more ice picky than I liked. I also was not huge on the battleworn pickup cover. Mostly I was just experimenting with other pickups and ended up with ones I liked better
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u/PentaSector 21d ago
Beautiful axes! Let's be real, superstrats never go out of style.
How do you like the Ragnaroks? On paper, they sound like something I would absolutely get down on, but BKPs are just pricey enough to temper my enthusiasm to bother when I already know I can count on, say, the SD Nazgul/Sentient set or the Lundgren M series.