#1
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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. |
#2
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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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#3
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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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ƃuoɹʍ llɐ ʇno əɯɐɔ ʇɐɥʇ |
#4
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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! |
#5
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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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#6
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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
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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 |
#8
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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. |
#9
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No need to look any farther than Fender for pickups they make good ones. |
#10
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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. |
#11
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Check out D. Allen pickups.
__________________
Shayne |
#12
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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. |
#13
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http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/mer...bucker-pickups |
#14
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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 |
#15
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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. |