I hear pickups...

[Shoreline Music]

So, I've sold tens of thousands of pickups. I don't go to concerts much these days, but most of the time, I can tell the pickup being used just by hearing. I can even tell a Sunrise from outside the venue.

This Sunday, I walked into church and said, "Hey, who put a Baggs Anthem in their guitar? And why didn't they buy it from me, since I'm literally the only music store in town?".

Then I remembered that I had just sold a Larrivee OM3 with a factory-installed Anthem to a friend on the worship team. D'oh!

I then found myself remembering the days when I couldn't tell and didn't care about all this pickup stuff.

[Petty1818]

I haven't owned a music store and don't have as much experience as you but I totally get it. I remember a time when I could plug in a Matrix UST and play an entire show and love my tone. Then I started researching alternatives and it has literally been a nightmare ever since lol.

I can hear pickups as well but the funny thing is, I often pick apart my tone at every show only to listen back to live recordings from out front where my guitar sounds awesome. I need to stop worrying so much.

On a side note, what's your current favourite pickup system or even outboard gear (tonedexter)?

[Nymuso]

Well, I can tell a UST from a soundboard transducer from a sound hole magnetic from a mic, but that's about it. It does get a little confusing with a mix, but involve a mic in there anywhere, I can tell.

[varmonter]

Hearing a sunrise from outside the venue., now that's good..
I can hear when an acoustic sounds good or bad
But unless i can see the pup in the soundhole
i don't think i could tell an m80 from a kk.
I know what sounds good to me and i know
i am fussy so it takes some eq to make all
sound pleasing to me. I play an open mic
occasionally and find i like the mag pups
better as they sound passable generally
all the time. The kk not so much.
But all need tweaking outboard to sound
good to me.

[martingitdave]

Jon,

Glad you and your store were unharmed in the fire. Enjoyed the post. Yes, ignorance is bliss. :-)

[Bob Womack]

It's a funny thing: as we mature we amass all this knowledge and experience, experience and knowledge we wish we had when we were much younger.

Sometimes I think about the spillage of all this that occurs when someone dies. My father was a scientist, an environmental engineer. He finally made retirement stick when he reached his mid-70s. By that time he had become one of the foremost airborne pollution sampling instrument makers in the world. As he was designing an instrument he spent days on the phone with the Bureau of Standards discovering, and sometimes reporting, the latest standards for possible precision in measurement, so his instrument wouldn't be dated before it was completed. He had to have a broad and deep knowledge of chemistry, physics, mechanics, electronics, optics, metrology, meteorology, history, computer science, spectral analysis, etc. He was like a Renaissance man in his understanding and handling of various disciplines. Yet, when he died, all that assembled and organized knowledge went back to its unrelated, unorganized self, as it does whenever any man exits.

Funny, that.

Bob

[rschultz]

So true. It's taken me 10 years to get to where I like my tone. It's a combination of guitar, pickup, preamp/EQ/effects and playing style, and I understand how to get there. I hear pickups too... UST's mainly, or mic's (Anthem), or mags. It's a blessing and a curse. Ignorance is bliss, but I've never been satisfied with ignorance.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It's a funny thing: as we mature we amass all this knowledge and experience, experience and knowledge we wish we had when we were much younger.

Sometimes I think about the spillage of all this that occurs when someone dies. My father was a scientist, an environmental engineer. He finally made retirement stick when he reached his mid-70s. By that time he had become one of the foremost airborne pollution sampling instrument makers in the world. As he was designing an instrument he spent days on the phone with the Bureau of Standards discovering, and sometimes reporting, the latest standards for possible precision in measurement, so his instrument wouldn't be dated before it was completed. He had to have a broad and deep knowledge of chemistry, physics, mechanics, electronics, optics, metrology, meteorology, history, computer science, spectral analysis, etc. He was like a Renaissance man in his understanding and handling of various disciplines. Yet, when he died, all that assembled and organized knowledge went back to its unrelated, unorganized self, as it does whenever any man exits.

Funny, that.

Bob

Bob, that was both touching and terribly depressing. People like your dad needed a biographer, or ghost writer to document all that knowledge. That said, I guess we are all just specs of dust on a pale blue dot.

[Br1ck]

It is important to find something that works for you and stick to it. A lot of time and money can be wasted chasing the Holy Grail.

For me it is Dazzos and SunnAudio.

For you it could be K&K and a RedEye.

[Vancebo]

Identifying pickups is a great skill. Now only if you could make lots of money with it. Bummer.

[lkingston]

I just stopped doing sound professionally recently due to hearing loss. I still hear well enough to be a musician, but not enough to be any good at sound.

I used to be able to hear things like compressor settings, mic types, and which frequency was on the verge of feeding back before it was an actual problem. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you exact pickup makes, but I would be able to tell things like single coil and hum bucking pickups apart, and identify the technology behind the acoustic pickup (piezo, body sensor, dual mag/mic, etc.)

The other day, I took over sound responsibility at an open mic and people were coming up to me asking about the buzzing on the acoustic guitar. It turned out that it was a speaker cable instead of a shielded guitar cable. I didn’t even notice until it was pointed out to me and it must have been buzzing like crazy.

Strangely, this has made me even more obsessive about the quality of my guitar pickup and microphone! The reason is that if the sound is wrong just a little (if it is too bright or muddy), I cant distinguish what I’m playing enough to play well. But if the sound is dead on, it’s almost like I don’t even have a problem.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Shoreline Music

So, I've sold tens of thousands of pickups. I don't go to concerts much these days, but most of the time, I can tell the pickup being used just by hearing. I can even tell a Sunrise from outside the venue.

This Sunday, I walked into church and said, "Hey, who put a Baggs Anthem in their guitar? And why didn't they buy it from me, since I'm literally the only music store in town?".

Then I remembered that I had just sold a Larrivee OM3 with a factory-installed Anthem to a friend on the worship team. D'oh!

I then found myself remembering the days when I couldn't tell and didn't care about all this pickup stuff.

Hi, this is an interesting comment. However it indicates that you are detection the colouring of the pickup which is not the same as hearing the guitar sound exactly as it should acoustically , but louder.

[jonfields45]

I ordered a ToneDextor from Shoreline last week. I think this thread put me over the top after a couple gigs where the room was quiet enough I could actually experience some nuance of guitar tone, and playing electrical engineer ToneDexter advocate on other threads.

[guitaniac]

I have no trouble hearing a Baggs Anthem system (a personal favorite), but I really doubt that I could distinguish a Sunrise mag from a DiMarzio Angel mag or some other decent mag. My hat is off to John or anyone else who can do that.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It's a funny thing: as we mature we amass all this knowledge and experience, experience and knowledge we wish we had when we were much younger.

Sometimes I think about the spillage of all this that occurs when someone dies. My father was a scientist, an environmental engineer. He finally made retirement stick when he reached his mid-70s. By that time he had become one of the foremost airborne pollution sampling instrument makers in the world. As he was designing an instrument he spent days on the phone with the Bureau of Standards discovering, and sometimes reporting, the latest standards for possible precision in measurement, so his instrument wouldn't be dated before it was completed. He had to have a broad and deep knowledge of chemistry, physics, mechanics, electronics, optics, metrology, meteorology, history, computer science, spectral analysis, etc. He was like a Renaissance man in his understanding and handling of various disciplines. Yet, when he died, all that assembled and organized knowledge went back to its unrelated, unorganized self, as it does whenever any man exits.

Funny, that.

Bob

Its funny that a thread about discerning pickups could spark such a touching commentary as this, but I'm glad it did.