I was lucky enough to check out some of the Ghost Machine Guitars models a while back. One of the things that jumped out at me was the BKP Stockholm HSP90 pickup in the neck position of one of the guitars. It’s a P90 in a humbucker size, hence HSP90. And let me tell you, it caught me off guard.
First off, I’ve never been interested in a P90 pickup. I just never understood what it is or what it does. And I seemed to see them in guitars that seemed to be getting tones that didn’t relate to my goals. And what’s going on with them? I mean, why are they that size, but they have a single row of pole pieces? Are they humbuckers or are they single coils or whatever?
And that’s what I get for not trying new things. lol!
This guitar had a BKP Warpig in the bridge position, and while I’ll discuss that at another time, let’s just get it out of the way and acknowledge that the Warpig is a big mean brutal take-no-prisoners pickup. So I thought it was a gutsy choice to put a P90 in the neck to match up against such a monster. And then the Stockholm taught my doggy a new trick.
Wow! Big and loud and modern. This bad body doesn’t serve up a heaping helping of your grandpa’s rock. It straps you in the chair and force-feeds you a powerful dose of heavy hard-rocking tone.
For a neck position, it was well-defined and had plenty of transparent clarity – if you know what that means, you know it’s not redundant. And you know I was playing a high gain amp setting. haha! And yet nothing mushed out or nothing too fizzy. Nice punch in the low end and a surprising amount of bite in the highs. I really like the roar from the mids and how it all worked together to deliver the quality of voice that BKP is known for having.
This bad boy was a nice surprise and definitely taught me a lesson in letting my ears be the judge of the tone.
Darth Phineas is a long time music industry insider who provides his readers with unbiased reviews on musical instrument and guitar gear. You can read more of his reviews and check out industry news on his Facebook community Darth Phineas
