Members samal50 Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 I bought a cheap fretless electric guitar from Hadean guitars. I'd think the pickups could be better. I like the guitar style and that it's fretless but these no name pickups I think could use an upgrade. What pickups should I consider? I think these are humbuckers since they're not single coil pickups. I'll be using the BOSS SY-300 guitar synth pedal so I'm not sure if any specific pickups could make everything fall into place and give a better sound. I'm willing to experiment here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted June 28, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 28, 2016 Any chance of a pic? Specs? Body material? Set neck...bolt neck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kevman Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 Is it like this one?: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 I bought a cheap fretless electric guitar from Hadean guitars. I'd think the pickups could be better. I like the guitar style and that it's fretless but these no name pickups I think could use an upgrade. What pickups should I consider? I think these are humbuckers since they're not single coil pickups. I'll be using the BOSS SY-300 guitar synth pedal so I'm not sure if any specific pickups could make everything fall into place and give a better sound. I'm willing to experiment here. Will you be using the regular guitar sound in addition to the SY-300's sounds? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. The SY-300 should work with just about any standard pickups, and that includes just about anything you'd want to run as replacement pickups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 Will you be using the regular guitar sound in addition to the SY-300's sounds? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. The SY-300 should work with just about any standard pickups, and that includes just about anything you'd want to run as replacement pickups. This is true but if you do swap, I'd get something articulate and clear with a little power, as you will be adding effects. The power can drive the effects better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 I agree. Unless the guitar sounds horrible through a normal amp, you might be better off focusing on the rest of your chain first. I have seen some imports come in with absolutely horrible pickups. When I bought my plexiglass Flying V the pickups in it were a complete joke, paper bobbins, and about 10' of extra wire in the cavity made it a bees nest for hum. It was obvious they were junk just looking at them. I didn't buy it for the electronics and the neck and body wound up being very good. The pickups in that one don't look bad. You could check their DC resistance by hooking up a meter to then end of the guitar cord and reading them. If they are over say 7000 ohms and sound dark and muted, then getting something closer to a Vintage pickup wind may get you cleaner and brighter tones. If the existing pickups are hotter, a synth may benefit from that hotter wind. You might getting a better sustain without frets. The higher gain usually have less highs and compressed overtones which might produce a better and more stable lock on a note for the synth sounds. May not sound as good through a normal amp, but for a synth setup hotter may very well be better in this case especially since you have a dead tone from the fingers and need all the sustain you can get. Don't know how well a fretless will work with a synth however. Any kind of pitch/harmonic offset may cause a synths ability to lock on a note to go nuts. I'd think the pitch could fluctuate between notes really bad if your fingering isn't dead on. I played violin for many years and getting perfect finger placement is very difficult. Getting it with a synth that wants to see a perfect chromatic scale would be more trouble then its worth, but there again, the synths I've used required a hex pickup which was quite different. Fretted guitars have fixed intervals and the chance of getting a bad note lock are much less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mikesr1963 Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 Did you re-EQ your amp and pedals for that guitar or did you plug in and expect it to sound like what you've been playing? If you want all your guitars to have the same output when you plug into the same rig then I would change them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mikesr1963 Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 Let me add on other thing. I discovered this within the last year. I have and LP copy I love to play but the stock HB's would get muddy quickly when adjusting the tone knob. Basically made it a one trick pony. I was considering changing the pickups and before I ordered them I said to myself, what the hell, I'm going to put strat caps in it. That worked perfectly and I was really quite stunned by it. My tone pots now work from 0 to 10. So I would first check the caps used in that guitar and I would switch them out with different values. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samal50 Posted June 29, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2016 Not sure what a tone pot is. I would think the pickups determine the tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samal50 Posted June 29, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2016 Yes, but in green: http://www.rondomusic.com/eg628cgr.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samal50 Posted June 29, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2016 This would be the reason I think I want to change my pickups. Like driving a Mustang with Corvette engine, I bet it'll make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samal50 Posted June 29, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 29, 2016 are you saying change pickups only if I'm not dependent on effects but direct tone from guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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