About Bare Knuckle Pickups
Hand-winding industry-leading pickups for over fifteen years.
About Bare Knuckle Pickups
Bare Knuckle Pickups is a privately owned business based in the South West of England, UK. We specialise in hand-wound electric guitar pickups; traditional skills and uncompromising values form the basis of a hard-working and forward-thinking company. Our values mean we are always ready to come out fighting and stand up for what we believe.
Every pickup we make at Bare Knuckle is wound and made entirely by hand, in-house, by a dedicated team of pickup winders. The team is headed by Bare Knuckle Pickups founder and MD Tim Mills, who has been a professional guitarist for over twenty-five years.
The idea for Bare Knuckle came from Tim's time as a session guitarist, when he needed to recreate a wide range of tones that would cover a variety of different playing styles. After many years on the road playing for British blues rock artist, Elkie Brooks, Tim decided to utilise his experience as a guitarist and started making his own pickups. Tim soon found the great tone, descriptive names and unique designs, that remain the benchmark of Bare Knuckle, put his hand-wound pickups in high demand.
The team at Bare Knuckle is fanatical about music, and all of us are dedicated guitar players. We don't allow sets of hypothetical rules to determine how our pickups sound; we use our hands and our ears. All of our pickups are designed, voiced and tested in rehearsal, in the studio, or on stage; anywhere but on paper and always in the hands of a guitar player. Time and price aren't the deciding factors in a Bare Knuckle pickup construction; outstanding tone and reliability is.
Here at Bare Knuckle we are committed to producing the best sounding pickups possible, and we pride ourselves on our exceptional customer service. We want you to get on with playing your guitar, knowing that we have provided you with the ultimate pickup for the job. After all, that's why we're here in the first place, and that's why we warranty our pickups not just for a few years, but for life.
Please feel free to contact us, either by telephone on +441326 341313, email [email protected] or through our social media channels for advice on the right choice of pickups for you and your guitar.
The history of the Bare Knuckle Boxer
The image of the boxer that has always been used alongside the Bare Knuckle logo is an extremely evocative image and something we often get asked about. Resplendent in boxing tights and sash with his slicked down hair and waxed moustache the identity was at first a bit of a mystery as the original image found had no title or name. Initially the names of Cornishman and 3 time world champion Bob Fitzsimmons and US heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan were put forward as names for the man in the picture. It was in fact Bob Fitzsimmons’ manager, bare knuckle fighter Jimmy Carroll.
The Bare Knuckle Boxer
Born in London in 1852, Jimmy Carroll (birth name Jim Fleming) was a light weight division fighter with an agile and scientific approach to boxing often using the heart punch during bouts. While his early career was spent boxing in London the majority of his professional fights took place in the US, where he fought in excess of 200 rounds defeating fighters such as Andy Bowen, Sam Blakelock, Tommy McManus and Mike Scully. It was during this time that Jimmy sparred with and later managed fellow Englishman Bob Fitzsimmons, as well as training and backing various other fighters of the day.
Jimmy Carroll, as used by Bare Knuckle Pickups.
The original image we used on our very first adverts and packaging came from an early cigarette card which has now been accurately redrawn by illustrator Karl Pitwon.
Please feel free to contact us, either by telephone on +441326 341313, email [email protected] or through our social media channels for advice on the right choice of pickups for you and your guitar.
