How do you get your Bardens to sound good?

[T-51]

I tried Bardens once and found them to be very trebly. I know alot people find them to sound great. How do they do it? What pots and cap values are used? Any other advice. Thanks in advance for your help. - Ian McMillan

[Roel from Holland]

Yes, they are more trebly, more hi-fi than most other pickups. At a certain point (well....after 7 years ...) I got fed up with them...I played a Tele with Suhr and a Tele with Fralins..........and bought a set of Suhr pu's for my beloved 52RI.

[Mike Better]

mess with the pickup height a lot.. they are very sensitive to that. I use 250k pots all around, and roll off a little on the tone usually. The best advice, though: practice. Bardens put out what you put into 'em, and a better touch will reward you highly.

Mike

[Lance]

I had them for a year in one tele. Messed with the height, caps, pots....I just like a more gritty and raw tele sound. Bardens just don't sound that way.

Anyway...they work for others just not for me.

[Drak]

I use 250K pots as recommended, and I keep mine adjusted on the low side, and I use 11's.

I think there is a rush to always raise pickups as high as humanly possible, and that approach (for me) doesn't work well with these.

I do not have a vintage bridge either, I have a Brass bridge with 6 individual saddles, maybe this makes a difference, I dunno, but I love the tone of mine.

I had them in my Tele, then removed them for almost a year in favor of the stock neck and a HD S-90 bridge just to try something different.

You are all right in your opinions, it's just that some prefer that sound, and some don't. I prefer the Barden tone, and the noise-free operation almost buckles my knees, just like some of you like the gritty sound, I cannot stand SC noise, and am a big proponent of noise-free pickups, which they excel at.

Hey, to each his own tone!

[Joe Neri]

Get a set-up by a good guitar tech, including pup height, and the Bardens will sing! I didn't believe their advertisement until I installed a set - "Best Pickups on the Planet!"

[Kurt]

Pickup height is critical. On the bridge pickup I also have it slightly slanted so the the blade nearest the bridge is a bit further away. In addition, I've backed off the guitar treble control quite a bit. Neck pickup was pretty easy to dial in. Good luck.

[GuitarJonz]

Did you change amp settings sunstantially with Bardens, when compared to vintage style single coils?

[Tele295]

Turn the amp up loud.

Oddly enough, the pronounced EQ/high fidelity sound of Bardens comes through only as excess treble at lower settings because of the way your ear can't hear low-end at low volumes. Remember "Loudness" controls on stereos? Just a low-end boost for low volumes.

I did an outdoor festival 4th of July with my Barden-equipped Thinline, and had to keep adding treble at the amp. Even the bridge pickup was so big and fat, it sounded like an archtop.

[Jakedog]

Don't have any Bardens yet, but from a technical standpoint, adjusting pick-height would be the first thing I would do. Pickups are after all, magnets, and those magnets effect the performance of the string when you strike it. Too close, they restrict the strings movement, resulting in a brash, or trebly sound, and less sustain. Backed off, they allow the string to vibrate more freely, resulting in warmer sound, and more sustain. What kind of magnet is being used in the pickup also has a huge bearing on string performance, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.