Deciding on pickups is tough

  • Thread starter Thread starter sandman
  • Start date Start date
I remember playing a guitar with a Crunch Lab in the bridge and it sounded AWESOME! You can't get much more progressive than a pickup Petrucci was a part of.
 
If high output is what you are looking for I would suggest trying EMG if you haven't already.

I personally prefer low output pickups and let the amp and effects do the work.
 
braintheory said:
For me it became much easier once I realized how much better vintage pickups sound and feel and there are many hidden gems that are very affordable. It made all the pickup guys recommend here worthless to me besides Lundgren for something modern and different in a cool way
Click to expand...
You think vintage everything is better though, which simply not the case. It's not like everyone started making shit beyond 1995. In a lot of cases gear has improved.
 
anomaly said:
You think vintage everything is better though, which simply not the case. It's not like everyone started making shit beyond 1995. In a lot of cases gear has improved.
Click to expand...
Not at all the case. With my current collection of amps and guitars I actually have a bit more recent made than vintage stuff. Where I feel most strongly on vintage gear sounding better is pickups, tubes and speakers. Try it for yourself with pickups and tell me what you think. It needs to be though an apples to apples comparison in the same guitar

I’ve had pretty much every pickup I’ve seen get recommended on this forum and many more. Up until 3 years ago I didn’t own a single vintage pickup. It started with ‘60’s Gretsch’s, ‘80’s Bill Lawrence’s, ‘70’s Mighty Mites and kept going. Try any Wagner, BKP, MCP, Arcane or whatever you like compared in the same exact guitar and I think you’ll see like me how sterile and boring they are to play through afterwards. Like a typical from concentrate vs fresh squeezed juice analogy

I love lots of great modern guitars like Marchione, Deimel, Brondel and EGC. Lots of great recent amps like Larry, Wizard, Naylor, Alessandro, Robin, Gjika, Bogner Snorkler, and Megalith Beta. I do still feel most modern guitars and amps aren’t inspiring vs great vintage gear, but love those. With modern pickups fwiw I do like still Lundgren and Tone Specific, but they don’t have the liveliness of vintage pickups
 
braintheory said:
For me it became much easier once I realized how much better vintage pickups sound and feel and there are many hidden gems that are very affordable. It made all the pickup guys recommend here worthless to me besides Lundgren for something modern and different in a cool way
Click to expand...
Wow. I read this and though for a minute I was on that other forum. :confused:

OP, the pickup rabbit hole is endless. There too many choices and too many good modern winders to choose from. Is there magic in vintage pickups? Sure. But old doesn't always equate to better. I would pick a few brands and start narrowing it down.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rsm
Findthetone1 said:
Wow. I read this and though for a minute I was on that other forum. :confused:

OP, the pickup rabbit hole is endless. There too many choices and too many good modern winders to choose from. Is there magic in vintage pickups? Sure. But old doesn't always equate to better. I would pick a few brands and start narrowing it down.
Click to expand...
This is just my honest opinion from having tried everything that’s been recommended here over the years and many more with apples to apples comparisons in the same exact guitars. Of course I don’t love every vintage pickup (some I hate), but I’ve done my homework and just find recent stuff really sterile/lacking life in comparison. I still play Tone Specific’s and Lundgren though. Up until 3 years ago I didn’t own a single vintage pickup fwiw. I loved Wagner’s and other stuff guys here are into. Since then I’ve been out of the pickup matrix so to speak
 
braintheory said:
Not at all the case. With my current collection of amps and guitars I actually have a bit more recent made than vintage stuff. Where I feel most strongly on vintage gear sounding better is pickups, tubes and speakers. Try it for yourself with pickups and tell me what you think. It needs to be though an apples to apples comparison in the same guitar

I’ve had pretty much every pickup I’ve seen get recommended on this forum and many more. Up until 3 years ago I didn’t own a single vintage pickup. It started with ‘60’s Gretsch’s, ‘80’s Bill Lawrence’s, ‘70’s Mighty Mites and kept going. Try any Wagner, BKP, MCP, Arcane or whatever you like compared in the same exact guitar and I think you’ll see like me how sterile and boring they are to play through afterwards. Like a typical from concentrate vs fresh squeezed juice analogy

I love lots of great modern guitars like Marchione, Deimel, Brondel and EGC. Lots of great recent amps like Larry, Wizard, Naylor, Alessandro, Robin, Gjika, Bogner Snorkler, and Megalith Beta. I do still feel most modern guitars and amps aren’t inspiring vs great vintage gear, but love those. With modern pickups fwiw I do like still Lundgren and Tone Specific, but they don’t have the liveliness of vintage pickups
Click to expand...
just to second this- I loved modern pickups, but then when I tried the pickups sam recommended, there was definitely an improvement - my favorite pickups are still lundgren m6, but outside of that i would take the vintage pickups over everything else ive tried
 
braintheory said:
This is just my honest opinion from having tried everything that’s been recommended here over the years and many more with apples to apples comparisons in the same exact guitars. Of course I don’t love every vintage pickup (some I hate), but I’ve done my homework and just find recent stuff really sterile/lacking life in comparison. I still play Tone Specific’s and Lundgren though. Up until 3 years ago I didn’t own a single vintage pickup fwiw. I loved Wagner’s and other stuff guys here are into. Since then I’ve been out of the pickup matrix so to speak
Click to expand...
I get it. And I'm not in total disagreement. I don't have a whole lot of vintage pickup experience but I do know that when I replaced a modern Dirty Fingers with original Shaws it was night and day. I wouldn't discount modern winders though. There are some really good ones out there. As is everything else, it's all subjective to ones own ears.
 
braintheory said:
Not at all the case. With my current collection of amps and guitars I actually have a bit more recent made than vintage stuff. Where I feel most strongly on vintage gear sounding better is pickups, tubes and speakers. Try it for yourself with pickups and tell me what you think. It needs to be though an apples to apples comparison in the same guitar

I’ve had pretty much every pickup I’ve seen get recommended on this forum and many more. Up until 3 years ago I didn’t own a single vintage pickup. It started with ‘60’s Gretsch’s, ‘80’s Bill Lawrence’s, ‘70’s Mighty Mites and kept going. Try any Wagner, BKP, MCP, Arcane or whatever you like compared in the same exact guitar and I think you’ll see like me how sterile and boring they are to play through afterwards. Like a typical from concentrate vs fresh squeezed juice analogy

I love lots of great modern guitars like Marchione, Deimel, Brondel and EGC. Lots of great recent amps like Larry, Wizard, Naylor, Alessandro, Robin, Gjika, Bogner Snorkler, and Megalith Beta. I do still feel most modern guitars and amps aren’t inspiring vs great vintage gear, but love those. With modern pickups fwiw I do like still Lundgren and Tone Specific, but they don’t have the liveliness of vintage pickups
Click to expand...
Right now I'm pretty content with the typical standards, like the Duncan distortion and emg-81. Can't say I've even tried any vintage pickups older than from the 90's. I do like the BL l-500xl though.
 
70 Mach 1 said:
i know what im looking for tone and output wise.
so i read the specs and reviews and the make a half ass crap shoot
Click to expand...
Honestly that's about all anyone can do unless they have endless pickup supplies. You really don't know until it's in your own guitar.
 
Findthetone1 said:
Wow. I read this and though for a minute I was on that other forum. :confused:

OP, the pickup rabbit hole is endless. There too many choices and too many good modern winders to choose from. Is there magic in vintage pickups? Sure. But old doesn't always equate to better. I would pick a few brands and start narrowing it down.
Click to expand...
When in doubt, I trust DiMarzio. :yes:
 
c'mon man, pickups don't matter.


fricker-fu.jpg




/S
 
anomaly said:
Right now I'm pretty content with the typical standards, like the Duncan distortion and emg-81. Can't say I've even tried any vintage pickups older than from the 90's. I do like the BL l-500xl though.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with those as far as newer pickups go. I really like the vintage Bill Lawrence’s, but for high output my favorite vintage ones overall are the Dirty Fingers and Schaller Blades (cheap too). We all like different things of course, but if I get questions on pickup recommendations I just cut to the chase with what I liked most
 
braintheory said:
We’re in 110% agreement here lol. Even as a die hard vintage pickup guy I even really hated the ‘70’s Super distortion and X2N I had. How they became one of the most popular pickup brands is beyond me
Click to expand...
rsm said:
View attachment 399381
Click to expand...



I get why the X2N is popular, even if it's not a tone i enjoy at all - it started the "stupidly high output" craze since re-popularized by Patriot and a couple of other brands

but the super distortion, crunch lab, and the vast majority of their pickups have a nasal high mid thing that is impossible to dial out and i cannot physically stand playing it

it's like adding 80s solid state amp distortion EQ on top of whatever the rest of your rig is - I can literally pick out on albums when they are using a super distortion just based on the palm mute sound, it drives me actually insane
 
Findthetone1 said:
I get it. And I'm not in total disagreement. I don't have a whole lot of vintage pickup experience but I do know that when I replaced a modern Dirty Fingers with original Shaws it was night and day. I wouldn't discount modern winders though. There are some really good ones out there. As is everything else, it's all subjective to ones own ears.
Click to expand...
Yeah the vintage Dirty Fingers are awesome and my experience comparing others to their vintage equivalent counterparts has almost always been very similar to that comparison

Of course it’s subjective and I still regularly do try plenty of recent made pickups. In fact I have a Ron Ellis Gretsch set coming soon (I know how TGP of me lol), but as always I’m gonna have to do my homework comparing it to my various ‘50’s & ‘60’s Gretsch pickups in the same guitars. I’m guessing it’ll be about as good as we can get for something recent made, but ultimately still not be as good. Will see…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top