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  #1  
Old 10-16-2013, 09:08 AM
AcousticMoose AcousticMoose is offline
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Default Big Brand vs. Hand-Wound Pickups?

I love my Telecaster but don't foray into the world of electric as often as I do acoustic. I've been looking through a few boutique/custom electric guitar builders and would love to hear input on builders who use their own pickups vs. builders who use established companies to build their pickups - Seymour Duncan, EMG, Lollar, etc.

Would you rather buy a guitar from a small company making their own pickups or using pickups from the mainstream, trusted names?

Also, if anybody has a company I should checkout I'd love to hear it.
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Old 10-16-2013, 09:50 AM
s2y s2y is offline
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Kinda depends on the tone I'm looking for. On an archtop or semi-hollow, I might want something handmade. Something heavy distortion, I might want EMG or Duncan. I can't deny that Fender Noiseless Tele pickups are amazing and not too expensive.
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Old 10-16-2013, 10:18 AM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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Originally Posted by AcousticMoose View Post
Also, if anybody has a company I should checkout I'd love to hear it.
Check out Bill Lawrence and Keystones for your Telecaster. A living legend and amazing pickups for the money. I don't know what Telecaster you have but my impression of the Keystones is they can be very microphonic or pick up the acoustics of the guitar or with tone turned back very much like the CS Nocasters I currently have in my one Telecaster.

I have Lollar Imperial in my Collings and they're (with the guitar) more like the 50+ year old ES-335 I was able to experience than the new ES-335s.

TDPRI site might have a few TB of disk space dedicated to the topic.
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Old 10-16-2013, 11:54 AM
BTF BTF is offline
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If it's the pickup side of the equation, I must say that I was MORE than impressed by Lindy Fralin!! I had to have a 1962 Strat pickup rewound earlier this year and he did a stellar job. Not only was his staff more than professional, he called me while winding the pickup to ask what I was looking for sound-wise! Talk about customer service! The pickup sounded superb. His stock pickups are great as well. I'm a Fralin convert...

As to big house manufacturers, I like Seymour Duncan as well. I've put dozens of his pickups into all types of guitars over the years and they all sounded very good. I had a Strat with Bill Lawrence L250s and got good marks on those as well.

Good Luck!
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Old 10-16-2013, 11:54 AM
redir redir is offline
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Joe Barden Danny Gatton T-Style pickups for a Tele are about the best it gets in my opinion. In fact all round for clean sound, clarity, sensitivity, harmonically rich and lots of volume Bardens can't be beat.
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Old 10-16-2013, 12:29 PM
toomuchfun toomuchfun is offline
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I only have one experience with custom pickups and it was a good one. I got a stock set of Don Mare donocasters a few years back. I was going to put them in a different Tele, but ended up swapping them with the original pu's in a '88 52 reissue. It was a perfect match and the improvement in string to string balance was very noticeable. They are still in there and the originals will stay in the case. Don will custom make to your tastes, but the stock ones nailed the blackface sound for me. I can plug it into any amp and it sounds good to me. He has an interesting website.
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  #7  
Old 10-16-2013, 12:31 PM
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stephenT stephenT is offline
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I use David Budz exclusively for pickups. One man operation, hand wound and magical every time. I've used most of the guys out there including the legendary Alan Hamel and his protégé Ron Ellis. Nothing beats Budz for touch sensitivity, balance, dynamic range, bloom, harmonic content,..etc.

www.budzguitars.com
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Old 10-16-2013, 12:35 PM
terrapin terrapin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AcousticMoose View Post
I love my Telecaster but don't foray into the world of electric as often as I do acoustic. I've been looking through a few boutique/custom electric guitar builders and would love to hear input on builders who use their own pickups vs. builders who use established companies to build their pickups - Seymour Duncan, EMG, Lollar, etc.

Would you rather buy a guitar from a small company making their own pickups or using pickups from the mainstream, trusted names?

Also, if anybody has a company I should checkout I'd love to hear it.
To address your first question about small company pickups versus established companies. First, companies like Seymour Duncan and Lindy Fralin and Jason Lollar although small companies are VERY well established. As far as pickups from the likes of Fender or Gibson I think they are pretty hum-drum and generic sounding unless you go for their Custom Shop stuff. I am a Strat player (I have 5) and think the stock/standard Fender pickups are boring and uninspiring. The Custom Shop stuff is a WHOLE other story!

I am a firm believer in small company, hand-wound pickups. Next to your amp, the pickups are the most important component of your sound. The differences between stock/standard pickups and small company/hand wounds are subtle, but definitely there, and well worth the added expense.

As far as what I would recommend? Go online and listen to demos and clips, call the winder/builder and talk. There is some GREAT stuff out there, but as to which? That is all subjective.
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  #9  
Old 10-16-2013, 01:11 PM
dovetail dovetail is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AcousticMoose View Post
I love my Telecaster but don't foray into the world of electric as often as I do acoustic. I've been looking through a few boutique/custom electric guitar builders and would love to hear input on builders who use their own pickups vs. builders who use established companies to build their pickups - Seymour Duncan, EMG, Lollar, etc.

Would you rather buy a guitar from a small company making their own pickups or using pickups from the mainstream, trusted names?

Also, if anybody has a company I should checkout I'd love to hear it.
IMO as far as tele's no need to get anything other than a new American Standard in ASH if a person wants a good example of a Fender Telecaster. They are as good as it gets.
No need to look any farther than Fender for pickups they make good ones.
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Old 10-16-2013, 01:16 PM
terrapin terrapin is offline
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IMO No need to look any farther than Fender for pickups they make good ones.

Good ones, perhaps.........Great ones, not IMO! Unless they are Custom Shop.

True story-Recently bought an American Standard Strat for a great price. I took it in to my shop for a full set-up. Got the guitar back and changed the pickups (ONLY change) from American Standards to Fender Custom Shop Eric Johnson's. I had to take the guitar back to the shop to have a bit of fretwork done. When my tech called me to say the guitar was ready, he said, "what did you do to this guitar? It sounds so much better it is like a totally different instrument!" That is from nothing more than going from just OK pickups, to quality, wound to a higher standard pickups!

Last edited by terrapin; 10-16-2013 at 02:23 PM.
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Old 10-16-2013, 03:15 PM
CodeBlueEMT CodeBlueEMT is offline
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Check out D. Allen pickups.
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Old 10-16-2013, 03:33 PM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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I've never tried a small company hand wired pickup before. All of my guitars have Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Gibson, Fender, and EMG pickups.

I'd be willing to try something though but I don't think I'd go in blind for a couple of hundred bucks and ship it to Canada (add in taxes). Perhaps if I tried one first hand (not music clips) I would change my mind.

Anyone know of a small shop that makes a humbucker similar to the Seymour Duncan '59? I love that pickup.
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  #13  
Old 10-16-2013, 03:49 PM
terrapin terrapin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dru Edwards View Post
I've never tried a small company hand wired pickup before. All of my guitars have Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Gibson, Fender, and EMG pickups.

I'd be willing to try something though but I don't think I'd go in blind for a couple of hundred bucks and ship it to Canada (add in taxes). Perhaps if I tried one first hand (not music clips) I would change my mind.

Anyone know of a small shop that makes a humbucker similar to the Seymour Duncan '59? I love that pickup.
Dru, the Duncan '59 has long been a reference for good PAF style pickups. However, I think the Lollar Imperials are the current 'Holy Grail". I know alot of folks with big dollar Les Pauls who have converted.

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/mer...bucker-pickups
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  #14  
Old 10-16-2013, 04:07 PM
dovetail dovetail is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by terrapin View Post
Good ones, perhaps.........Great ones, not IMO! Unless they are Custom Shop.

True story-Recently bought an American Standard Strat for a great price. I took it in to my shop for a full set-up. Got the guitar back and changed the pickups (ONLY change) from American Standards to Fender Custom Shop Eric Johnson's. I had to take the guitar back to the shop to have a bit of fretwork done. When my tech called me to say the guitar was ready, he said, "what did you do to this guitar? It sounds so much better it is like a totally different instrument!" That is from nothing more than going from just OK pickups, to quality, wound to a higher standard pickups!
The new AM standard come with CS pup the fat 50 guys you know this!
You may like the EJ (Big dipper) but that doesn't mean everyone does.
Different does/ doesn't mean the better for whoever.

True story for ya I have had about 30 strats since 1972 have had several different makers pups in many different strats all from guys that you i am sure have heard of.
My number 1 strat is a stock MIM classic 60's .It has custom 69's not sure if they are the same these days as the CS 69 but hey they work well along with the rest of the guitar.


In my first post I am talkin AM standard tele which has in fact CS tele pups
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Old 10-16-2013, 04:11 PM
terrapin terrapin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dovetail View Post
The new AM standard come with CS pup the fat 50 guys you know this!
You may like the EJ (Big dipper) but that doesn't mean everyone does.
Different does/ doesn't mean the better for whoever.

True story for ya I have had about 30 strats since 1972 have had several different makers pups in many different strats all from guys that you i am sure have heard of.
My number 1 strat is a stock MIM classic 60's .It has custom 69's not sure if they are the same these days as the CS 69 but hey they work well along with the rest of the guitar.


In my first post I am talkin AM standard tele which has in fact CS tele pups
OK, so sounds like we agree more than we disagree. Fender obviously "wised up" if they are putting the CS Fat 50's in the new AM. Stand. Strats. I never called the standard Fender pickups "bad", just uninspiring and "blah"!

BTW, the "big dippers" are John Meyer pickups, not Eric Johnson.

The Custom Shop Fat 50's are IMO the best pickups Fender is making.
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