So you wanna talk about guitar pickups, huh?

Synergy/MTS Forum

Help Support Synergy/MTS Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Zander said:
guitarcomet said:
I had an Air Norton once...a buddy talked me out of it.
I never even got a chance to put it in a guitar. :(
Woah! Whatever did he tell you? The Air Norton looks like a nice pickup.

What did you install in place of the Air Norton?
It IS a nice pickup, used by the likes of John Petrucci, Buckethead, and many others whose names escape me at the moment :)
 
"Hit the strings as hard as you will play them. If they slap the fingerboard,....."
GtrGeorge: if they slap, consider adjusting your technique, as well. It wont make a bad guitar good...but people...you gotta PLAY these instruments!....good technique can really get the best sound from a guitar..and in the hands of insensitive player?...it gets old fast.
GtrGeorge
..say, anybody here actually make music, or just posts about it (lil joke.....)...sorry, I just wish we had more audio round here.
 
kylendm said:
Has anyone on here tried bare knuckle pickups? A lot of people rave about them, are they really worth the money?

They are really good pickups - well designed and well made
They sound really great and have an orgnic tone that just rocks
They seem to have a clarity and definition (apparently from the scatter winding's effects on the way the coil responds)
I just know that they sound really good and that I fit them to loads of guitars - both custom built guitars and mass produced ones with great effects

The Bare Knuckle Pickups forum is very friendly and fun place to hang out too
I'm on there a fair bit myself http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php
 
The reason I said 'hit the strings as hard as you will when you play, and see if they slap the fingerboard,' I'm paraphrasing, is that some guitarists
will set a low action, and when they practice or even rehearse they will not hit the strings as hard as when they are actually performing.
When I was in the business, the retail and repair end, the most common
request was "low action, but no buzzes," to the point where the strings were as close to the 21st fret as they were at the nut!
"Low and fast" action can be a "security blanket" of a sort. It takes more effort, it's more work, to play higher action and/or heavier gauge strings.
Sometimes it produces a very different change in style.
When I listen to recordings of myself from the 60s,70s, 80s,90s,00s, there's a profound difference, and I don't mean speed, or, "nailing someone elses lead." I'm my own worst critic. Those who know me from then to now, say I'm playing the best I ever have, now.
It doesn't matter what I think, it's what the audience thinks, and I play the highest action I've ever used.
The other thing is the preoccupation with "nailing" someone's solo "exactly
like the record."
Well, we all, of course, start out that way. Being able to reproduce someone else's playing style is a validation, especially among other guitarists.
All except for the performer who played the solo to begin with.
I purposely do NOT copy leads note for note. You have to develope
your own voice, and copying won't do it. You can hardly avoid taking bits and pieces from other artists to begin with, let alone note for note.
Try this.
Next time you are performing, live, and it time to solo, take your hand off the neck, CLOSE YOUR EYES, and begin.
 
As far as hotter pickups losing tone....
You don't have to turn then all the way up all the time. ;)
 
Man,

I tried a lot of pickups, and it became a joke among my friends and repairman!

Seymour Duncan - Custom Custom, Screamin' Demon, Invader, Distortion, Pearly Gates

DiMarzio - Air Norton, X2N.

Gibson - 500T, 57 Classic

Jackson - J80, J90C

They have been in varying guitars (which does make a difference!) The X2N and Invader are metal only, and a good choice if you have a cheap guitar you are trying to upgrade. I prefer the X2N. The Air Norton is a good neck pickup, Pearly Gates a good pickup (Billy Gibbons thinks so too!). The Custom Custom was not good for metal in my Explorer. The Screamin' Demon was poor in my Charvel Model 6 (basswood!) only the active J90C did metal well. I was using the Gibson 500T until my friend turned me on to the 57 classic. It rocks and does metal, got em in my Mockingbird, Explorer, Dean Z 79.

New to single coils. The standard MIM pickups are ok for beginners, the Fender Vintage Noiseless should be Vintage Toneless, and the regular USA standard set works great, but I like the Highway 1 set the best of all the single coils I have played.

Experiment and have fun!
 
Top