what's your favorite pickup? can be any brand

[DeepEnd]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[Ancient Mariner]

But there's so many variations on those themes. Do I like a PAF, Dirty Fingers or P90 better? Should I want an Abigail Ybarra wound strat PU, just a 'standard' strat single or something noise-cancelling from Lace? I've loved Brian Setzer's Gretsch tone on stray-cat strut and that sound has always been with me, but I've never owned a gretsch.

 

And some PUs don't work for me personally. I loathe Duncan pickups (tried a few, sound horrid to me even though they sound great for others) but like Dimarzio and Gibson humbuckers, Dimarzio, Fender & GFS singles. There's a lot of variations in 'Fender or Gibson'.

 

And TBH so much of the tone is down to amp and speaker too, that it's much more than just this or that guitar (and with enough drive & EQ it's almost impossible to tell between single & humbucker).

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Only Duncans I ever buy are Seth Lovers and Antiquity humbuckers for wealthier customers as they're the the same pickup as far as I can hear/tell/make out.

 

DiMarzio and Duncan I think have fallen foul of offering too much choice and making it too confusing

[Ancient Mariner]

You're probably correct - I have no idea what they offer these days, and my experience is only really with their 'classic' lines: '59s, custom custom, JB & JB strat size vs super distortion, IBz, mini humbuckers, FS1. It's probably really hard to know when to stop developing new stuff to 'grow' the biz.

[badpenguin]

Well, Gee, thank you for allowing any brand. That's kind of you.

*Shakes head, and wonders if this is worth it......*

 

It really depends on what I am in the mood for.

As STOCK pickups go there are very few that beat out a set of Matsumuko MMK45's. Also the V1/V2 and V7/V8 from Ibanez has that special tone that I adore. Others hate them. That's fine, more for me.

Replacements..... my personal fav pickup on the planet is the Dimarzio DEP107 Mega Drive. One of the original hi-gain pickups, that can easily be tamed by playing style.

Second is the Duncan P-Rails, tied with a Lawrence XL500. the P-Rails can achieve a lot of different tones, and all sound equally good. the Lawrence sounds like itself.

 

For P90 's, LOVE the Duncans.

For singles, I prefer a set of Kent Armstrong Lipstick tubes.

 

[jtr654]

EMG 89 for active Gibson PAF and T Top full Humbuckers than Gibson Minis for replacements Dimarzio Super Distortion and PAF &SD JBs. I haven't bought a replacement pickup for decades so all my choices are 80's or older.

[AlamoJoe]

An DiMarzio Super Distortion which I bought in the early 80's...Had it a Les Paul for a year then took it out. Now it's in my '81 Stratocaster at the bridge position. It's where it should have been years ago....It honks baby and feeds back like a banshee when I want it to.

 

[Mark Wein]

I don't have a specific favorite but I do like the Suhr DSV humbuckers that I've had in a few guitars. For single coils I like the Duncan Antiquity strat pickups or Kinman for noiseless. I also have a set of BG Pure 90 pickups in one of my Les Pauls that I like quite a bit too. Never been much of a DiMarzio guy. I'm sure I'd like a lot of other companies if I tried them like Fralin and Lollar and whatnot but I just haven't had the need.

[Pine Apple Slim]

I love the Wilde L45/L48TL combo in my tele. Makes my tone pot actually useful. Super transparent, dead quiet, balanced. Great clean or high gain.

[Beyer160]

Alnico V P90s for me. I like the fact that they're equally at home playing pretty crystalline cleans, chunky Stones-y light dirt, or straight up rawk crunch. They also respond brilliantly to the volume knob. I've found that even the cheapest Chinese P90s sound decent, and are downright good once you swap the magnets for A5s. I've got an Eastwood with stock pickups modded this way and an LP Special with Gibson P90s and they sound awfully similar. I tried putting A2 magnets in a P90 Agile once, and didn't dig it- it just sounded kind of muffled or congested without the highs and lows the A5s have. I've had A2 Strat and humbucker pickups I thought sounded good, though.

[1001gear]

My no idea. Chinese $10 a set (American riptail) Strat pickups can sound pretty good. Matter of fact, cheap Asian single coils are the only ones that have caught my attention. Never got into boutique pickups and don't play up to what my ear would give a tiit anyway. I mostly play my Carvin Bolts with stock pickups.

[billybilly]

Every guitar demands a certain pickup, based on the sound you want and the guitars inherent tone. That said, I don't like ceramics or actives.

[WRGKMC]

^^^ I'd definitely second that. Matching pickups to the specific instrument is an art form given all the pickups available now.

 

I have a couple or other oddballs I've snagged during the years too.

 

One is a Shadow Humbucker I bought off EBay years ago. I've never been able to find any info on it. Shadow mainly makes Piezo elements for acoustic instruments but they must have tried their hand at making pickups at some point

 

Most people would think its a horrid pickup and they'd be right. It's signal strength and frequency response are OK but It produces a high levels of microphonic feedback when you gain it up.

 

Most people would ask why would you favor a microphonic pickup and why wouldn't you pot it with wax? Well its sealed and I believe the manufacturer intentionally made the pickup that way.

 

Years ago I bought a Teisco, semi hollow Les Paul Shaped body. The thing had been in a basement for decades, all falling apart. It didn't even have a back for it. I made a back out of thin plywood, glued it back up, stuck a strat neck on it, then put a TOM bridge and Tail on it. I used the Shadow for the neck and vintage Mighty Might HB (the kind EVH used) in the bridge.

 

The guitar produces wondrous tones both clean and driven. With the clean settings I can nail early Beatles tones. Then when I gain it up and gradually bring the Shadow HB up in volume to the verge of microphonic feedback I the most amazing sympathetic string sustain harmonics. I've never gotten those sounds from any other instrument. The closest recorded instrument would be similar to the guitar parts Pete Townsend did on the Who's Next album 1959 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Joe Walsh gave him, or possibly the lead parts Steven Stills got with his White Falcon on the CSN&Y One way Street album.

 

Excellent read here on Townsends guitar http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/gretsch.html

 

I often use the same chain, even the exact same guitar cable — an old Whirlwind — when I’m recording. But if you try to fluck with the setup — for instance, play the Gretsch through a Zoom pedal — it doesn’t work. It’s got to be that exact combination of stuff. There are lots of setups that produce great sounds. This is ancient wisdom. Seek and ye shall find.”

 

I have tried that pickup in other guitars too, mostly solid bodies and it failed to measure up. I suspect Shadow intentionally made the pickup to have microphonics so it would replicate what many poorly made pickups did back in the day. The fact it sounds best in a Semi hollow would make sense too based on what Shadow makes for acoustic and Jazz boxes today.

 

It was probably a Jazz pickup never intended to be rocked out but its my own personal, unique gem out of the hundreds I've owned. No one will ever be able to duplicate the sound I get from that instrument because its too unique both electronically and build wise. I even broke all the rules in instrument building and used oil based enamel paint which put a softer skin over the nearly petrified weather beaten wood. I can tap on the body when its gained up and it sets the strings into a self sustaining drone.

[WRGKMC]

 

For other guitars, I do like Mini Humbuckers.I used them back in the 70's when all the hit records were being made with them. Then I went several decades using all different types. Now I'm back to using them in several builds. I even put a set in my Epiphone DOT with some conversion rings and love the tone they get, similar to my 60's Riviera which had them. Minis will let you get tones from Fenderish single coils, P90's up to a vintage PAF except with a bit less bass response, which I in fact prefer.

 

I get more wood tone and less mud compared to most HB's They clean up when dialed down to 8 on the volume knobs and produce minimal overdrive with the volume on 10. Then you can use pedals to gain them up as needed. The cool part is the leads tens to sound more like SRV with a touch of single coil tone there and barre chords produce vintage rock tone. Getting that specific sound from full sized just isn't possible.

 

Its not to say full sized HB's aren't as good, they're just different pickups that have a wider magnetic field which pick up a wider area on the strings. The width of a Mini is between a single and HB.

 

Its different then a P90 too. A P90 responds more like a single but has fat rich tones. The mini has a pick attack more like a full sized HB, an important aspect when it comes to actually performing. I think many pickups can sound good, but half of what players favor is how they dynamically respond to the players picking and fretted notes.

 

Too much gain, sucks the life out of the emotional response and makes the players performance dynamically monotone. He has to use his volume control instead of pick attack to change his loudness. A pickup too vintage can be really tough to riff on because all the notes take a hard pick dig to keep the not volumes even.

 

What's ideal for me is a pickup that has no dynamic shelves. I like having a smooth 1:1 dynamic change from the lightest touch sounding clean and the pickup gradually gains up as I dig in harder, hardest being a power chord and the lightest, clean arpeggios. Getting that form a single pickup isn't easy, but the Minis do a good job at it.

 

What I dislike most are overwound pickups, not only because their frequency response is limited but because all the notes wind up being the same volume no matter how hard you dig in. Maybe its because I first played acoustic instruments before playing electric but having the ability to play soft, loud and everything in between seems to have become a lost art with guitarists, especially those into playing metal. Its good you can get those sounds but variety is what I'm into.

 

The dynamic response is where the playing emotion resides. It does take a good deal of control to maintain even dynamics however. Electrics are already handicapped with a lack of dynamic response because of their sold builds and long sustains. I think allot of players use hot wound pickup compression as a crutch to cover up and right hand that lacks dynamic control, this the rise of so many companies making over wound hot pickups that produce signals closer to being binary, full on or full off no matter how hard or lightly you pick the strings.

[wankdeplank]

An old Gibson patent number from a '78 Les Paul Custom that I repaired - sweetest tone ever. Now sadly sold on in my Heritage.

 

Ah yes, the PAF sound. Scoffing at the boutique LP pickup crowd for years with their sheptones and their Fralins and Lollars, I used to stick with my stock Gibson and Seymour Duncan fare (my Hamers came with Duncans) and say they were just as good. Of course they were but where's the fun in that, so I ventured out and bought a set of scatterwound unmatched coil jobs from some new builder on Ebay cause I liked his spiel (and I made a lowball offer which he accepted). Originally slated to replace the 490R 498T in my Gibby, had to pull them back out as they really set off the proprietary static lacquer issue that many complain about with newer Gibbys (mine's a 2000). So I replaced the SD 59/JB set in my 93 Hamer Special and I gotta say, lo and behold if they didn't really add a new dimension to the tone - 3D if that makes any sense. Still I can't say that I don't enjoy my Gibby pickups or my Duncans. Replaced the JB in the bridge of my Hamer Mirage II with an F spaced Dimarzio Breed (a forumite's suggestion years ago) and it's an interesting sound and gives me the jangle in the middle position I was looking for. I later changed out the covered 59 in the neck with an uncovered one off the bay, and dang if that older uncovered 59 doesn't also sound better. I used the neck 59 from my Special (uncovered zebra) to replace the neck generic in my Peerless Robeli 335 copy and damn if that isn't the perfect pickup for that guitar and blends so amazingly well with the stocker bridge. For me it's all about fit and variety I guess.

 

But I play Strats mostly and love the vintage Fenderish sound though not necessarily their stock pickups these days. I use anything from GFS to Biltoft Vintage Vibes to Seymour Duncans (make a great Strat pickup IMO) to a crazy boutique ceramic that a previous owner installed in the neck of my Strat Plus that sounds amazing. P90s are nice but they're a little too over the top for what I do mostly (I do own one p90 guitar, a Washburn P290 and the stockers sound as good as any to my ears).

[WRGKMC]

GFS pickups are all made by Artec. I've had 50/50 luck with them. Many use cheap magnets, overwound and sound like crap. The GFS site hypes the overwound pickups to sucker uneducated musicians like an auto dealer hypes the power of large engines in cars. They also overprice the pickups which you can buy on line for a much lower prices.

 

Overwound does not equate to a better pickup. It increased gain at the cost of loosing frequency response. Artec doesn't vary magnet strength when varying the number of winds either so anything the make that's listed as hot wound is pretty dreadful for tone. I have a couple of sets that are vintage wound that sound fairly close to the pickups they copy.

 

Knowing the actual Henry's of the key to knowing if the coils are going to match an original. # of turns and DC resistance don't give you a true story because the wire thickness and tightness of the winds are huge factors. coils aren't a match however. Henry's are the measure for the coils actual inductance. Without knowing that all the other parameters like DC resistance are useless. Artec doesn't list the Henry's only the DC resistance which isn't the same thing.

[wankdeplank]

The artec affiliation is well known which I don't see as either good or bad personally as they are made to order for GFS. And I have no doubt that what you say is true regarding their overwound fare, but in my case I've only ever purchased their vintage strat pickups which I've found to be comparable to much more expensive pickups including some boutique ones I've used. I've had good experience with the 60's repros and the Alnico IIs particularly. Not condoning GFS business practices necessarily but unrealistic hype has been a big part of the industry for quite a long time, particularly when it comes to metal it seems to me.

[Radar-Love]

 

Probably the DeArmond GoldTone humbucker, with close seconds for Gretsch HiLo'Tron, G&L MFDs guitar single coils, several Rio Grande pickup models, several Lollar pickup models, the Burns Trisonic, some of the old DeArmond gold foil single coils, DeArmond 2000 "Dynasonic" with the elevator screw adjustment for the poles, some of the Bill Lawrence / Wilde pickups...

 

 

[1001gear]

Hot rails in the bridge. I never got one and it nearly slipped my mind. Anyway, veryHO and no mud even though it's so hot it won't clean up at all. Best plug right in lead sound I've heard. Otherwise stock'll do me fine.

[mbengs1]

when it comes single coil sized humbuckers, i like the JB jr. and lil' 59. also the dimarzio fast tracks...

[1001gear]

.I'm pre biased against the JB. It's from that ice picky lead tone he used to use. I think leads should cut but they should be ballsy too.

 

The 59 is supposed to sound like a PAF - couldn't tell you but I'd use it.

[Delmont]

Favorite type: Strat. Yup, some are blah, some are magic. I have a friend with a set of recent limited-run Fenders that sound fatter than a Christmas goose. One of my Strats has a set of Fender 57/62s that I like a lot.

 

Favorite brand: Fralins! I have some of their Vintage Hots in my other Strat, and they're great. If I had to do it again, though, I'd get 'em with standard output for more quack and sparkle.

 

I hear Lollars and O.C. Duffs are great, too. And I've always been curious about Van Zandts.

 

I have a pair of High Order humbuckers in my Gibson. They do the job nicely, but I'm really not a humbucker fan, so I'm a bad judge. I do recommend them.

 

And my next next guitar will have a pair of Gibson P-90s. Theirs get better reviews than any of the booteek companies.

[Delmont]

Hot rails in the bridge. I never got one and it nearly slipped my mind. Anyway' date=' veryHO and no mud even though it's so hot it won't clean up at all. Best plug right in lead sound I've heard. Otherwise stock'll do me fine.[/quote']

 

Man, power to you! I had a Hot Rails in my old Strat's bridge for a while, and I couldn't get a good sound out of it to save my scurvy life. I've heard recordings of Coco Montoya doing great things with 'em, so I know it can be done. I just couldn't do it.

 

Just shows how personal guitar sound gets!

[Ancient Mariner]

That's right - different types suit different players, even using the same guitar.

[1001gear]

I just like that sound. It's a sound I can't get with overdrives for sure.