Pick Ups

[rwinking]

I think I mentioned that I got this great deal on an H-150 last month and when I took it home and looked at the pickups, they were Jim Wagner Fillmores which are flat out wonderful. I have a 535 with Seth Lovers and they are just as nice. I have a 170 and a 140 that had Schaller's that I didn't like, so I put in Dimarzio Silver Anniversary PAFs. I guess the point I am trying to make here is that it is possible that in all the years of playing in bands, I may have blown my ears out. Or, the Silver Anniversary PAFs sound every bit as warm and fat as the other two I mentioned and they are a lot more reasonably priced. There are slight tonal differences in them all and part of it is in the guitars, I am sure. However, it doesn't seem to matter which pick up it is, they all seem to make me smile as soon as I plug the guitar in. I am just flat out lucky to have such a great selection to choose from.

[AP515]

I've also got/had some pups with the reputations and prices to reach boutique status. Frailins, Gibson 57's, Bursbuckers 1 and 2, Seth's, Dimarzio's; but, to my ears they are a lot like SD 59's. I've heard many worse, but not many that are leaps ahead (well maybe the Seth's). I think my fingers make everything sound alike.

[JeffB]

Ive made a vow to never swap out another pick up as long as I live

I dont want to even think about them too much anymore.

I do have a swap coming up however and I will get someone else to do the rewire and swap.

Ive had custom wound pick ups from different winders, different sets from UK and US winders as well as a local guys, Brierly pickups and others. Ive had Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, Fender, Gibson, PRS etc, all the usual suspects.

Ive also swapped out p/ups daily for a decade for other people.

My take after it all, I dont care. P/ups arent where its at for me.

If I dont like a guitars sound before a p/up swap I still wont like it after multiple p/up swaps.

There are guitars I didnt like the sound of through certain amps but thought they were ok married to other amps.

One set of humbuckers that seem to work on any guitar Ive already liked is the Dimarzio 36th anni and AT-1 combination.

A friend recently snuck a set of SD antiquities into my H150 with out telling me. The bridge was a JB Antiquity and the neck is a standard neck antiquity. They sound good. So did the set of SD 59's that were already in there.

The guitar is a good sounding guitar, anything will sound good in it.

Anyway, that just me

[tulk1]

Ive made a vow to never swap out another pick up as long as I live

I dont want to even think about them too much anymore.

I do have a swap coming up however and I will get someone else to do the rewire and swap.

Ive had custom wound pick ups from different winders, different sets from UK and US winders as well as a local guys, Brierly pickups and others. Ive had Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, Fender, Gibson, PRS etc, all the usual suspects.

Ive also swapped out p/ups daily for a decade for other people.

My take after it all, I dont care. P/ups arent where its at for me.

If I dont like a guitars sound before a p/up swap I still wont like it after multiple p/up swaps.

There are guitars I didnt like the sound of through certain amps but thought they were ok married to other amps.

One set of humbuckers that seem to work on any guitar Ive already liked is the Dimarzio 36th anni and AT-1 combination.

A friend recently snuck a set of SD antiquities into my H150 with out telling me. The bridge was a JB Antiquity and the neck is a standard neck antiquity. They sound good. So did the set of SD 59's that were already in there.

The guitar is a good sounding guitar, anything will sound good in it.

Anyway, that just me

Think you're on to something, there. In all the pup swaps, I've really only noticed a real difference a couple of times. Magnets, wires, surrounds. They all work.

[RickFinsta]

My bottom line is I want something articulate, and with some depth of character.

 

I've got a Rio Grande BBQ bucker I needed rewound and Tom Brantley did the job - I can't tell the difference in new versus old recordings. The differences become bigger if you run series/parallel and/or coil tap switching (where you're hearing the coils interacting in different ways) IMHO, but most quality humbuckers are good, and especially the boutique units. The best part of SDs is the consistency - you know exactly what you're getting. Some pickups, in my opinion at least, are like the Marshall JMP - a one-trick pony, but many are very versatile.

[yoslate]

My bottom line is I want something articulate, and with some depth of character.

 

I've got a Rio Grande BBQ bucker I needed rewound and Tom Brantley did the job -

 

You wouldn't happen to live in North Carolina, would you? I worked with a marvelous guitar tech, Tom Henry, a friend of Tom Brantley's. Tom Henry used to work for Andy Turner, when he was an amp tech in Winston Salem (Nothing Shocking), before he got Mojotone off the ground and moved to Burgaw. Tom Henry has Tom Brantley do a lot of pickups and rewinds for him. Absolutely swears by Brantley's pickups, and they're well under a lot of boutique p'ups in price.

[jimsoloway]

Pickups are not irrelevant. There are good pickups and not so good pickups so pickups do make a difference but I believe the cut off point for great pickups is actually a lot lower in the price range than some people claim. A lot of the revered boutique pickups really are great but so are the best pickups made by Duncan and DiMarzio. When we were actively building our guitars, I had the opportunity to try most of the top boutique pickups but in my own guitars (including my Heritage), I've been using DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs in the neck position (the only pickup I use) for several years. I love everything about this pickup. The output level is right for me. It has great clarity without sacrificing warmth. The fact that it's potted makes it quieter when I make contact with it (which I do fairly often) and best of all for me, because I know the pickup so well and they have such great consistency from one pickup to the next, I know exactly what I can expect from the pickup before it goes in.

[rwinking]

I think I have had the experience that a lot of you are talking about in that there are not so good pick ups and then really good ones. I am not much of a pick up snob, but there really was something kind of harsh about those Schaller's. All of the other ones are great. I also agree that playing a guitar without an amp and listening to it's sonic characteristics acoustically make the difference. All of my Heritage guitars sound really nice acoustically.....nice sustain, warmth and a bit of a growl. Putting a decent pick up on them just brings that out.

thanks everyone

 

rick

[RickFinsta]

I honestly don't remember where I found Brantley but I'm in Wisconsin. I think it was $50 for a rewind and the turnaround was pretty fast.

[High Flying Bird]

Pick ups... It's all so individual. My buddy, Joe, has a sweet H-150 that came with SD '59s. I didn't like the tone, the bass player didn't like the tone and Joe didn't like the tone. Brent sent us a set of Schaller's and that guitar was golden with tone.

 

It might be because of the small basement we play in. Who knows. It is all subjective. When I ordered my 357 I wanted soap bar P-90s and Marv said no. I compromised and got SD Phat Cats. I liked them so much that I replaced the HRW's in my 535 with Phat Cats. A humbucker sounding P-90. I can't stand the Lawler hot P-90s. The SD's have a clearer tone. Not so muddy. If a pup can't get clean I don't want it.

 

Let the amps do the talking... and the stomp boxes. ;^)

[JeffB]

Pickups are not irrelevant. There are good pickups and not so good pickups so pickups do make a difference but I believe the cut off point for great pickups is actually a lot lower in the price range than some people claim. A lot of the revered boutique pickups really are great but so are the best pickups made by Duncan and DiMarzio. When we were actively building our guitars, I had the opportunity to try most of the top boutique pickups but in my own guitars (including my Heritage), I've been using DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs in the neck position (the only pickup I use) for several years. I love everything about this pickup. The output level is right for me. It has great clarity without sacrificing warmth. The fact that it's potted makes it quieter when I make contact with it (which I do fairly often) and best of all for me, because I know the pickup so well and they have such great consistency from one pickup to the next, I know exactly what I can expect from the pickup before it goes in.

I agree, it seems to work for me in any guitar Ive had and tried one in.

Ive never been looking for a holy grail/historic/iconic sort of sound just one that sounds about right to me in any situation.

The 36th anniversary seems to keep me happy.

 

 

 

 

I was rummaging around in the place my guitars and gear is and found a set of Fender hot Noiseless p/ups and remembered how how good they sounded while I was using them at gigs. I also remembered how much less I liked them at home.

All that reminded me of this thread.

On the one hand, at gigs they had punch and clarity, no 60 cycle hum(Its actually 50 cycle over here) and they delivered close to the sound in my head. I was confident with that guitar that I was going to sound good, I never had to walk back to the amp and tweak after sound check. Sometimes I would turn and look at my amp while playing and think what a fantastic sound.

I could have the typical glassy top end and usual strat p/up qualities or tweak the guitar controls and have that big fat deep warm single coil strat sound. Listening out front of house it was a killer strat sound. I loved it.

On the other hand, at home they still had all the things I liked about them but they also contained this metallic sound, a kind of sizzle that I couldnt dial out and eventually it annoyed me so much I ripped them out.

That sound was never an issue for me at gigs.