Who's the biggest pickup genius

  • Thread starter Thread starter VonBonfire
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Greatest pickup designer

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    39
VonBonfire said:
I think I would agree with this assessment. I believe Shaw had a hand in the '57 classics which just smoke in a ES and BL pioneered the rail humbuckers (supposedly Joe Barden did also) and his pickups are some of the best pedal steel pickups on the market also. His 710 is magical.
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I deleted my post since I had to reconsider some things lol. Tim Shaw is great to me because of the Dirty Fingers and excellent PAF and Mini-humbucker reissues he had in ‘70’s/‘80’s. I don’t like ‘57 classics and didn’t know he was behind those

As far as I’m aware the first blade pickups were the Gretsch Supertrons in the ‘60’s. My all time favorite pickups, so whoever designed those maybe is the biggest pickup genius to me. BL was great too though and also designed some of the very good ‘70’s Gibson pick ups, at least some ‘60’s Hofner pickups and maybe others I’m not aware of. No doubt he brought plenty to the table

Besides Fender and Seth Lover, I don’t think the others listed belong in the same conversation, at least for sound quality
 
VonBonfire said:
Copy. That Fillmore had the higher output but still can be PAF like if I recall. Seems interesting. Might have to check that out one of these days.
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I didn’t care for the Fillmore neck. It sounded a bit hollow to me. Jim described it to me as sounding more stratty than his other neck pickups (but hotter), so that makes sense. I had almost all his pickups and liked most the Darkburst and Iron Man’s (for hot pickups), but there are just better pickups there IME in terms of overall tonal complexity/detail, which for blues is much more important imo than most metal heads care about (although they should imo). I think a lot of guys here like Wagner’s since they’re tighter than many other low output pickups and their tone quality is pretty good overall, but not amazing. For me I’d just go with some of the vintage hidden gems or Tone Specific for something recent. For metal they’re not as suited since they’re loose/softer textured notes (but authentiy voiced), but for blues like you do that’s not a problem
 
DanTravis62 said:
Personally I have a hard time finding neck pickups I like in gibson scale guitars - Scotts A2 custom he made me is probably the best, but it's always a battle of finding something with enough treble content
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I had this issue with my Les Paul’s neck pickup too. Everything seemed too dark even with 500k pots. I ended up rewiring the guitar with a single master volume, two tone controls, and a spin-a-split mod for the neck pickup. Gay name but great function. Basically it’s a volume pot for just the slug coil of the neck pickup that lets you blend it from full humbucker to full single coil and anywhere in between. I’d barely crank it down from 10 (full humbucking) to like 8 which was just enough to get some shimmer back into the tone. Sounded great.
 
DanTravis62 said:
Personally I have a hard time finding neck pickups I like in gibson scale guitars - Scotts A2 custom he made me is probably the best, but it's always a battle of finding something with enough treble content
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Amen--the Custombuckers that come in the new Gibson Historics are great. Thinking of trying a HB From Hell DiMarzio for my next HH stratish build. Wagner Crossroad neck I like in LPs but still want more bite
 
braintheory said:
I didn’t care for the Fillmore neck. It sounded a bit hollow to me. Jim described it to me as sounding more stratty than his other neck pickups (but hotter), so that makes sense. I had almost all his pickups and liked most the Darkburst and Iron Man’s (for hot pickups), but there are just better pickups there IME in terms of overall tonal complexity/detail, which for blues is much more important imo than most metal heads care about (although they should imo). I think a lot of guys here like Wagner’s since they’re tighter than many other low output pickups and their tone quality is pretty good overall, but not amazing. For me I’d just go with some of the vintage hidden gems or Tone Specific for something recent. For metal they’re not as suited since they’re loose/softer textured notes (but authentiy voiced), but for blues like you do that’s not a problem
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Thanks for this, it helps. I sent you a PM with some stuff.....
 
I don’t know about best as so much depends on taste and goals but I’ve owned pickups from almost everyone on the list plus several others and if I had to choose only one builder at the moment I’d say Arcane. Along with sonics, I like how they look, the build quality, and my interactions with the company have been good. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of clips online to hear which I’m sure makes choosing one difficult. The ones I own have exceeded my expectations.

I know my post says new member but I’ve been a member since 2012. Much prefer to read than post
 
TheGreatGreen said:
I had this issue with my Les Paul’s neck pickup too. Everything seemed too dark even with 500k pots. I ended up rewiring the guitar with a single master volume, two tone controls, and a spin-a-split mod for the neck pickup. Gay name but great function. Basically it’s a volume pot for just the slug coil of the neck pickup that lets you blend it from full humbucker to full single coil and anywhere in between. I’d barely crank it down from 10 (full humbucking) to like 8 which was just enough to get some shimmer back into the tone. Sounded great.
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My preferred solution is generally to use a phat cat in the neck position, but I'll look up the spin a roony or whatever the fuck it's called
 
DanTravis62 said:
My preferred solution is generally to use a phat cat in the neck position, but I'll look up the spin a roony or whatever the fuck it's called
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lol. I found it on the Seymour Duncan website where they show a bunch of different wiring techniques. That's the awful name they gave it. I just use it for consistency.

The only real flaw in the system is that when you blend to full single coil mode, the pickup still sees 500k pots, so it can get a bit strident compared to a real single coil that wants to see 250k pots.

I didn't do this when I wired up my guitar, but if I was smart I'd have built my own dual gang pot and had the spin-a-split on the top pot and an extra resistor on the bottom pot to blend at the same time so that as you dial the pot down to full single coil mode, the extra resistor would be blended into the circuit so the single coil would see the equivalent of 250k resistance like it wants to see.


edit: here's the wiring diagram I drew up for it:

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Curtis Novak

I’ve played them and they are indeed the best pickups I’ve ever played or heard.
 
James at Rewind Pickups for me. I own a few sets of his pickups - all distinctive and all sound great to my ears.
 
Other

Walter Fuller designer of the P90, P13, and Charlie Christian pickups. For my tastes nothing sounds as perfect with overdrive, fuzz, or high gain distortion as a good P90.

Henry DeArmond creator of the Dynasonic. They are simply gorgeous sounding clean, and also work great with overdrive and fuzz.

The P90 and Dynasonic are my all time two favorite pickup types.
 
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braintheory said:
I deleted my post since I had to reconsider some things lol. Tim Shaw is great to me because of the Dirty Fingers and excellent PAF and Mini-humbucker reissues he had in ‘70’s/‘80’s. I don’t like ‘57 classics and didn’t know he was behind those

As far as I’m aware the first blade pickups were the Gretsch Supertrons in the ‘60’s. My all time favorite pickups, so whoever designed those maybe is the biggest pickup genius to me. BL was great too though and also designed some of the very good ‘70’s Gibson pick ups, at least some ‘60’s Hofner pickups and maybe others I’m not aware of. No doubt he brought plenty to the table

Besides Fender and Seth Lover, I don’t think the others listed belong in the same conversation, at least for sound quality
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Filteron/supertrons: designed by Ray Butts
 
Bare Knuckle Pickups because no one else makes that high of output for a tele single coil.

I have/had pickups by most of those on the list and they've all been good to be honest.
 
I'm going to get crushed for this, but for the music I grew up with and frequently play, the most innovative advancements in design and performance came from...EMG. Yes, I said it. Active pickups changed the tone of heavy music in my opinion, and raised the bar on attack and clarity for hard rock and metal.
 
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