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Good Humbucker at a Fair Price


burton4snow

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Looking for a Humbucker nothing used I already have some options for that. Someone that sells a decent humbuscker at a decent price like GFS or Tonrider, but tell me specific models that you have had good Luck with. It is going in a G&L Fallout tribute series. I Blues to Hard rock, no Metal. Thanks

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There's a guy on eBay that sells used pickups. I got my Ibanez V7/V8 set for about 20.00.

http://stores.ebay.com/Boyds-Guitar-Warehouse?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

If you know what you want, you can save quite a bit. Personally, I would suggest the Ibanez V7/V8 set. Perfect for blues and rock. Mid output with tone to spare.

 

I agree. The v7/v8 pairing is much maligned and under rated.

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I agree. The v7/v8 pairing is much maligned and under rated.

 

 

Yes, they are decent pickups. However, the geetars that Ibanez frequently outfitted the V7 V8 lines of pickups with were marketed to the metal crowd. Those geetars needed hotter pickups for the metal crowd to attain their tonez with, as in squealing pinch harmonics and preamp stage overload -- hence, the bad reputation.

 

 

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Neck or bridge? And just get a Duncan or Dimarzio. The marketing recommendations should be adequate.

 

Incidentally I have an RG; 1000% maple - tuners, Floyd, frets, you name it even the neck scale - maple and the V7 and 8 both were lacking in clarity. Quite a feat although because of the 24th fret, the V7 had that plinky metal clean. I used to hate the middle pickup but after the guitar fell out of use I put that in a Carvin neck for hum free blues. Does ok like that.

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For blues and Classic Rock you'd probably do better with a Vintage wound PAF with Alnico magnets.

 

If you buy from GFS watch out. That guys sells mostly Artec pickups and most of them are hot wound which gives you too much gain and mud tones.

 

A classic PAF used 42 AWG plain enamel wire and had an impedance between 7.5 and 9K ohms. Anything hotter wound and you're into the metal zone and have to turn the volume down too much to get a clean tone. A PAF should clean up turning a 500K put down from 10 to 8 depending on what you're plugged into.

 

Dimarzio and Seymour do make some Vintage winds. Some even have hotter winds but they get around it by using different powered magnets.

Magnetic strength, Wire size and number of winds are key to a pickups gain and tone.

 

The key here is the longer and thinner the wire is the higher the resistance. You can have two pickups read the same DC resistance but one uses a longer thicker wire and can sound totally different then the other.When looking at specs, if the wire gauge and DC resistance can help you gestimate what kind of sound the pickup may produce.

 

The only unknown factor is the Gauss of the magnet (and of course the quality of the build, scatter wind, how tightly the winds are, bobbin and coil core materials etc.Many of your generic pickup makers use pre charged magnets and will likely have similar magnet strengths. They just vary the wire size and length to get different sounds. Your higher end manufacturers use all 3, Length, size and Magnet strength to get all the tonal varieties possible.

 

After that it really comes down to personal preference using that Instrument and also factoring in the amp rig. Buying pickups are like buying mics. You may get a mic that suits your voice well and it can sound very different depending on what PA you're plugged into. Other people can adapt their voice to a number of different mics and sound good through them all. Then of course there are mics that sound nasty with all voices but someone may like that megaphone/telephone sound for creating specific works of art.

 

Add in the fact there are more pickups being made then ever, and all those pickups are going to sound different in different guitars, amps, Pedals, and played by different artists, its nearly impossible to get specific a consensus on what my be best.

 

This is why I cant even give you specific advice on what to purchase. I can only give you the specs to target based on what might work to get the sounds you want. Blues and Classic Rock is all Vintage pickups unless you want a more modern tone, and then it comes down to experimentation of how much is enough.

 

This guy at premier seems to have come to the same conclusions I have through testing different pickups. I've come across many others who have also.

 

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21912-tone-tips-decoding-the-paf-humbucker

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I listened to a a few You Tube videos that compared GFS with Dimarzio and Duncan and you can real tell the difference. THe Duncans and Dimarzios just sounded better. So I think I am going to bite the bullet and get a Duncan Custom Custom or a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary. Those sounded the best. I was almost going to get a Duncan JB because that is the most highly rated and reveiwed humbucker on the music store websites, but in a video someone put it up against the Custom Custom in the same guitar and it sounded like Mud. The Custom Custom sounded way better to my ears.

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I listened to a a few You Tube videos that compared GFS with Dimarzio and Duncan and you can real tell the difference. THe Duncans and Dimarzios just sounded better. So I think I am going to bite the bullet and get a Duncan Custom Custom or a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary. Those sounded the best. I was almost going to get a Duncan JB because that is the most highly rated and reveiwed humbucker on the music store websites, but in a video someone put it up against the Custom Custom in the same guitar and it sounded like Mud. The Custom Custom sounded way better to my ears.

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I listened to a a few You Tube videos that compared GFS with Dimarzio and Duncan and you can real tell the difference. THe Duncans and Dimarzios just sounded better. So I think I am going to bite the bullet and get a Duncan Custom Custom or a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary. Those sounded the best. I was almost going to get a Duncan JB because that is the most highly rated and reveiwed humbucker on the music store websites' date=' but in a video someone put it up against the Custom Custom in the same guitar and it sounded like Mud. The Custom Custom sounded way better to my ears.[/quote']

 

I've had both those pickups... The CC is more compressed and higher output, loved it in the bridge of my Les Paul, sounded huge and mean, not so much in my Strat. The 36th is more vintage sounding to me, more versatile. Both good and good choices/options.

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I've had good results with the Golden Age Humbuckers from Stewart MacDonald in several projects.

 

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickups/

 

 

Vintage vibe, great price. Wake up your guitar! For authentic classic tone, Golden Age humbuckers feature Alnico 5 magnets and AWG42 coil wire just like the originals.

Inspired by legendary pickups of the '50s.

Alnico 5 magnets give that warm classic tone. AWG42 coils are wound on black or zebra bobbins, fabric-taped, mounted on a brass baseplate, and wax-potted for microphonic suppression. The output wire is 4-conductor plus ground, allowing versatile custom coil-tapping, series/parallel, and phase switching options to expand your sound.

 

Wiring diagrams and vintage dimensions make installation in most humbucker-equipped guitars easy.

[TABLE=width: 100%]

[TR]

[TD]Bridge models:[/TD]

[TD]9.0K ohms, 2.015" polepiece spread[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Neck models:[/TD]

[TD]8.0K ohms, 1.97" polepiece spread[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

 

 

 

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Try Wilkinson WVCN/B designed with Seth Lover's spec in affordable price and great sound. They are PAF-style pickup with Alnico V magnets. Check the video below for the sound. GL!

 

 

I agree. The whole Wilkinson pickup line is a good choice. Reasonably priced and very good quality. I had both humbuckers and single coils and they sound very well. No need to buy posh pickups. With Wilkinson you get basically the same for half a price.

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