Murdersgalore
New member
I recently scored an Ibanez RG2EX2 in a trade with a friend. It came with a set of SD Blackouts and was a pretty nice looking guitar for a cheapie. It is white with black binding. It has simple understated elegance which is what I like about Ibanez designs. Betraying it's looks however, is the fact that the neck is complete shit. It is badly in need of a fret job but not worth the money to have one done by a professional and I don't require that kind of work often enough to justify buying the tools to do it properly myself. That being said, it's still quite playable with higher action than I care for.
I really dig the sound of the SD Blackouts though and I have an Ibanez S Prestige that feels great. It came equipped with the usual uninteresting factory ho-hum in the form of the INF 1 and 2 combo. Medium output pickups that aren't terrible, but aren't special either and have a tendency to be muddy without some amp tinkering. I swapped out the pups between the two guitars and the Blackouts are a great fit for the S. Unfortunately, one of the things I did not care for was the way the RG looked or sounded with the bland INFs. Typical black covered pickups, which looked fine in the black S series with it's smokey chrome hardware, looked like cheap plastic shit in the RG.
Money is tight these days for just about anyone. I didn't want to waste a whole lot of money on pickups for what would essentially be a back-up guitar. One alternative is the GFS pickups sold by Guitarfetish.com. I have owned a few different sets of these and, though cheap, were not any better than the INF's sound wise, though they come in a number of different configs that can be aesthetically pleasing (yes, looks matter). While I was poking around trying to make the decision of whether to pull the trigger on the not-all-too-exciting sound of the GFS pickups a company called Dragonfire Guitars was brought to my attention.
Dragonfire is a subsidiary of TNT Guitars which, if I am correct, is an importer of various Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian made guitar parts. Both companies sell very similar products and their website designs are also quite similar. As I browsed their pickup selection I could not believe the prices. For the price of a single GFS Humbucker (which is already unbelievably cheap) you can get a matching pair of Dragonfire pickups. I thought to myself, in typical first world western elitists fashion, there is no way in hell these things could be any good. I like to gamble, however, and for only $34 for a matching set of Dragonfire Power Rails I figured fuck it, they'll fill the holes and at least look better than those bland pieces of black plastic.
I chose the white and black "Power Rail" set after doing a little Photoshopping to see what they would look like in the guitar. Here's what their website has to say about these pups:
The total cost was roughly $45 including shipping. That's almost half the price of a Dimarzio D activator or X2n which is what I believe these pickups are supposed to be mimicking.
They arrived in a typical cardboard box with the peanuts and a smaller box inside containing the merch. Inside the box was the pickup set and wiring instructions. The tops of the pickups were covered with protective film as you would expect. The plastic bobbins were unremarkable. The materials did not look or feel particularly cheap. They were as advertised with your typical 4 conductor leads color coded in red, white, black, and green.
Installation went without a hitch and the dimensions meet the f space humbucker standard. Measuring DC resistance with a multimeter gives 14.9k for the bridge and 9.8k for the neck. So, they don't exactly measure up to their advertised specs. Then again, very few pickups I have measured do.
I wired these to the factory 3 way switch with no coil splitting. Wiring was typical (1. bridge only 2. mix 3. neck only). The bridge position clean is bright and twangy, many might consider it overly bright. Bass response is punchy and tight. Mids are ample favoring the mid-high end of the spectrum. Those using sensitive tube amps may have trouble getting it perfectly clean. The neck pickup was much better balanced tonally. The brightness in this position is perfect. It has good sparkle and clarity with no mud and the typical neck position scooped mids. The middle position is, to my ears, the best position for clean tones. Not as edgy as the bridge and not as scooped as the neck. The output of this combo is well matched for most applications with the bridge being slightly hotter than the neck as usual.
Distorted tones is where these shine. If you are a blues player these are not for you. These pickups are very hot. The hyped mid-high frequency in the bridge position seems purpose built for high gain djentiness with just enough bass to growl without mud. Though the mids are not as smooth as I would like, these are very aggressive sounding (moreso than the Blackouts). They do, however, have a tendency to be a bit thin in single note applications such as soloing. The neck pickup is perfect. yes, you read that right. This cheapo communist built neck pickup could rival any other hot passive in the neck position. The tone is round and buttery smooth with just the right amount of definition and pick attack. Chords ring clear. Both pups seem to be well potted with little to no monophonic feedback.
Are they better than your favorite Dimazio, Duncan, EMG, or other more expensive offering? That, of course, is subjective but they certainly could compete. They feel well built in my hands but it remains to be seen if they can withstand the abuses of extended live applications. I am impressed and these have certainly exceeded my skeptical expectations. They may very well exceed yours too. And, for $34 for a matched set, it is a hard bargain to beat. Hands over better than most stock pickups. If you have the spare cash, love heavy tones, and want to experiment these are definitively worth a try. At these prices, hell, they're almost disposable with the neck version certainly being a diamond in the rough.
I really dig the sound of the SD Blackouts though and I have an Ibanez S Prestige that feels great. It came equipped with the usual uninteresting factory ho-hum in the form of the INF 1 and 2 combo. Medium output pickups that aren't terrible, but aren't special either and have a tendency to be muddy without some amp tinkering. I swapped out the pups between the two guitars and the Blackouts are a great fit for the S. Unfortunately, one of the things I did not care for was the way the RG looked or sounded with the bland INFs. Typical black covered pickups, which looked fine in the black S series with it's smokey chrome hardware, looked like cheap plastic shit in the RG.
Money is tight these days for just about anyone. I didn't want to waste a whole lot of money on pickups for what would essentially be a back-up guitar. One alternative is the GFS pickups sold by Guitarfetish.com. I have owned a few different sets of these and, though cheap, were not any better than the INF's sound wise, though they come in a number of different configs that can be aesthetically pleasing (yes, looks matter). While I was poking around trying to make the decision of whether to pull the trigger on the not-all-too-exciting sound of the GFS pickups a company called Dragonfire Guitars was brought to my attention.
Dragonfire is a subsidiary of TNT Guitars which, if I am correct, is an importer of various Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian made guitar parts. Both companies sell very similar products and their website designs are also quite similar. As I browsed their pickup selection I could not believe the prices. For the price of a single GFS Humbucker (which is already unbelievably cheap) you can get a matching pair of Dragonfire pickups. I thought to myself, in typical first world western elitists fashion, there is no way in hell these things could be any good. I like to gamble, however, and for only $34 for a matching set of Dragonfire Power Rails I figured fuck it, they'll fill the holes and at least look better than those bland pieces of black plastic.
I chose the white and black "Power Rail" set after doing a little Photoshopping to see what they would look like in the guitar. Here's what their website has to say about these pups:
The total cost was roughly $45 including shipping. That's almost half the price of a Dimarzio D activator or X2n which is what I believe these pickups are supposed to be mimicking.
They arrived in a typical cardboard box with the peanuts and a smaller box inside containing the merch. Inside the box was the pickup set and wiring instructions. The tops of the pickups were covered with protective film as you would expect. The plastic bobbins were unremarkable. The materials did not look or feel particularly cheap. They were as advertised with your typical 4 conductor leads color coded in red, white, black, and green.
Installation went without a hitch and the dimensions meet the f space humbucker standard. Measuring DC resistance with a multimeter gives 14.9k for the bridge and 9.8k for the neck. So, they don't exactly measure up to their advertised specs. Then again, very few pickups I have measured do.
I wired these to the factory 3 way switch with no coil splitting. Wiring was typical (1. bridge only 2. mix 3. neck only). The bridge position clean is bright and twangy, many might consider it overly bright. Bass response is punchy and tight. Mids are ample favoring the mid-high end of the spectrum. Those using sensitive tube amps may have trouble getting it perfectly clean. The neck pickup was much better balanced tonally. The brightness in this position is perfect. It has good sparkle and clarity with no mud and the typical neck position scooped mids. The middle position is, to my ears, the best position for clean tones. Not as edgy as the bridge and not as scooped as the neck. The output of this combo is well matched for most applications with the bridge being slightly hotter than the neck as usual.
Distorted tones is where these shine. If you are a blues player these are not for you. These pickups are very hot. The hyped mid-high frequency in the bridge position seems purpose built for high gain djentiness with just enough bass to growl without mud. Though the mids are not as smooth as I would like, these are very aggressive sounding (moreso than the Blackouts). They do, however, have a tendency to be a bit thin in single note applications such as soloing. The neck pickup is perfect. yes, you read that right. This cheapo communist built neck pickup could rival any other hot passive in the neck position. The tone is round and buttery smooth with just the right amount of definition and pick attack. Chords ring clear. Both pups seem to be well potted with little to no monophonic feedback.
Are they better than your favorite Dimazio, Duncan, EMG, or other more expensive offering? That, of course, is subjective but they certainly could compete. They feel well built in my hands but it remains to be seen if they can withstand the abuses of extended live applications. I am impressed and these have certainly exceeded my skeptical expectations. They may very well exceed yours too. And, for $34 for a matched set, it is a hard bargain to beat. Hands over better than most stock pickups. If you have the spare cash, love heavy tones, and want to experiment these are definitively worth a try. At these prices, hell, they're almost disposable with the neck version certainly being a diamond in the rough.
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