“Mayones and Bare Knuckle have a strong relationship going back many years so I was honoured when Dawid and his team asked me to design a custom humbucker set specifically for their guitars.

The brief was to create a bridge and neck humbucker set voiced to reflect the playing styles of Mayones players and for the optimum translation of tone from these amazing guitars.

Dawid sent over a Duvell and a Regius for me to use in R&D and over the course of several weeks the concept of the ‘TKO’ humbuckers was borne.

A lot of Mayones customers play progressive, technical styles of rock so I decided to use a combination of ceramic powered bridge humbucker and Alnico V powered neck humbucker. This produces an excellent combination of power and range of tone, producing 3 very distinct tones from bridge, bridge/neck and neck selections on the pickup selector.

Mayones guitars are extremely resonant due to the choice of premium timbers and construction methods and it was important that the pickups capitalised on this naturally rich, percussive tone.

The ‘TKO’ bridge has plenty of output, bass notes track very quickly, mid range is punchy and highs sound full with plenty of weight behind each note. Neck tones are clean and open with a woody snap and great balance of output with the bridge.

Mid position split coil tone is very tight and percussive with a very clear cut in the highs.

Overall the ‘TKO’ humbuckers offer a wide range of saturated rhythm and lead tones coupled with dynamic cleans perfect for modern rock guitar styles and they’re the ultimate partner for Mayones Guitars.”

– Tim Mills (Bare Knuckle)