pickup upgrade noob

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jerberson12

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hi guys,

im thinking of changing pickup from my Epiphone Special II ($150). The pickup that comes with it is an open coil alnico V humpbacker. Anybody knows of a good one for this guitar?

and btw, if I want to upgrade pickup, do you usually change just the pickup or the whole pickupt system (electronics, knobs, etc)?

better be doing this instead of buying a new $700 guitar.

jerberson12
 
jerberson12 said:
hi guys,

im thinking of changing pickup from my Epiphone Special II ($150). The pickup that comes with it is an open coil alnico V humpbacker. Anybody knows of a good one for this guitar?

and btw, if I want to upgrade pickup, do you usually change just the pickup or the whole pickupt system (electronics, knobs, etc)?

better be doing this instead of buying a new $700 guitar.

jerberson12
Click to expand...
Humpbacker? Humbucker, maybe?

Why is it that you want a change in pickups? What is it about your sound that you are dissatisfied with?
 
It's easy to spend as much on replacement pickups as you have in your guitar. Yes, you could improve your tone if you do it but you have to ask yourself how much you really love that axe before you sink that kind of money in it. You will not recover anything like the money you put in it when it comes time to sell. If you really love the guitar, go for it.

If you decide to go forward do yourself a favor. Take the time to do some real homework. There are many flavors of humbuckers that will fit in your guitar. Only you can decide which one is best for the tone you're after. Read the manufacturers sites and the many articles that are available and learn what the artists you like are using. There is much more to know than you can get in a thread in a forum. I'm sure some folks will post some recommendations. Read about those and make your own decision.

It would be helpful if you would post what kind of music you're into and what kind of tone you're after.

As far as replacing the other electronics...
Pots, switches, resistors, and capacitors are relatively cheap. IMHO if you are going to upgrade the pickups on an inexpensive instrument it's a no-brainer that you should upgrade the rest.

One last thing. You don't say what kind of amp you're using. A good amp is much more important than good pickups for good tone. If you don't have an amp that can do the job, the pickup upgrade is not the best use of your money.
 
Milnoque said:
As far as replacing the other electronics...
Pots, switches, resistors, and capacitors are relatively cheap. IMHO if you are going to upgrade the pickups on an inexpensive instrument it's a no-brainer that you should upgrade the rest.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. A complete rewiring job on a LP-like guitar is a PITA to do, and it probably won't make a bit of difference to his sound unless he's got a problem with what he has. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
If you do your homework AND get lucky

and find a pickup you really love, you can always keep the pickup when you move up to a better guitar. However, I have a Special II that plays like a dream, and has aftermarket pickups that I really like. Wish I knew what they were, as they were already in there when I bought it. $89 used at GC, and it's one of my favorites.

As was asked before, what kind of sound are you looking for, and what's the rest of your setup? I concur that the pickups are probably the least of your worries, but I could be wrong.
 
ggunn said:
Not necessarily. A complete rewiring job on a LP-like guitar is a PITA to do, and it probably won't make a bit of difference to his sound unless he's got a problem with what he has. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm waay too lazy to try that if I don't have to. And that guitar's not like some off-off brand either. And with the thinner body, who knows what kind of space issues you might run into.
 
hi guys,

what i am looking is the kind of music that greenday and blink 182 play. Since im not a pure guitarist (im a keyboardist), i dont have hardware amps. I only have Guitar Rig software. Im just wondering maybe a better pickup will sound better.
 
I've never been sure about how a pickup will sound before I put it in the guitar - I've replaced almost all the stock pickups in the guitars I have, though. My son has an Epiphone Bully SG (cheapest one they ever made, I think), and we put a Gibson Dirty Fingers in it - that one pickup cost more than the guitar. Sounds pretty good, and the Epi plays pretty well, too. If he upgrades guitars, we'll definitely move the pickup to the new one.

In another SG clone, I put a Rio Grande Texas/BBQ set, and they both sound really good.

In yet another SG clone, I put two Gibson P94 (single coil - double coil size) - they're awesome, and very different from the double coil ones.

I've got a Gibson SG Supreme with 57 classics (stock) - I like them, too - I know they're sold separately. (and for the type of music you mentioned, these might be perfect)

One place I tend to screw up with pickup selection is getting ones that are too hot - then I have to turn them down on the guitar to avoid overloading whatever it is I'm plugging into. The P94s are stupid hot, for instance. One time, I had a Seymour Duncan Invader that was, in my opinion, unusably hot - in fact, the magnets were so strong that it seemed like they actually pulled the strings down and affected tuning.

When I change the pickups, I also change over to CTS pots if they're not already there, and put my own capacitors on the tone pots. I leave the switches and jacks alone for the most part. I'm pretty sure Epi uses CTS pots and generally decent electronics, so it may not be worth switching.

(btw, if you're soldering pots, be sure to solder the ground connection to the pot body *before* you solder other wires to the terminals - to solder the ground connection effectively, you have to heat up the whole pot, and if you already have wires attached, that heat bleeds off into the rest of your system)

All that said.... The stock Epi pickups didn't sound *that* bad. If you're not liking your sound, be sure to think first about what you're plugging into. You didn't say what, but it's worth pointing out that a decent preamp with a D.I. makes a *big* difference over going direct into a computer line in, for instance.
 
jerberson12 said:
hi guys,

what i am looking is the kind of music that greenday and blink 182 play. Since im not a pure guitarist (im a keyboardist), i dont have hardware amps. I only have Guitar Rig software. Im just wondering maybe a better pickup will sound better.
Click to expand...

I'm curious about that too.
 
Well, I know Green Day's been on a P-90 (allegedly stock Gibson) kick for a while, don't know if Billy's over that now or not.

Couldn't tell you the name of a Blink 182 song, so I'm sure not the guy to ask about that.
 
I was actually curious how pickup much upgrades have an affect on the quality of tracks recorded via modelling software.
 
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