Yeah, I know it's crap. The whole thing was fifteen bucks plus an output jack; I wasn't asking for much. When I bought it I was pleasantly surprised that it made any sound at all. I never put new pickups in it because I always figured even the cheapies would be way more than the price of the guitar. You don't put gold rims on a Chevette, you know?
well, how good is the wood/fretwork? if the guitar plays well and sounds good unplugged, it might deserve a good pickup, even if it costs more than the guitar. think "final product".
I've also heard good things about GFS stuff -- I'm putting a couple of those Dream 180s in the semi-hollow frankenstein-thing I'm building.
yep, great choice. but you might also consider retrotrons for that, depending on what sound you're going for. Memphis would be the Alnico 2 (weakest ones), Liverpools are Alnico 5 - they're hotter (which isn't necessarily better, depends). (Nashvilles are ceramics and I don't care for that).
I was I was thinking of putting some of those Mean 90s in this one. Anybody heard anything good about those? My main concern is that I read somewhere that the dream 90s from there have the same construction as my fakebuckers, that is, an ordinary single coil sitting on top of two flat magnets. I don't just want to upgrade to another fakebucker.
Yes, you can hear/read plenty of good things about
Mean 90's. They're nothing fake, they're a "P-90 in humbucker form factor". There's no claim to dual-coilness, they don't look like dual-coils and they're not dual coils. But they will be nice and quiet, because of the shielding (metal cover). They're also alnico, so I'm sure I would like them
They will be a huge upgrade (soundwise).
For me, if I like a guitar visually and if it sounds good unplugged (yes, you need to do it in a quiet room) and if it's made from solid wood, I will consider it worthy of upgrades, regardless of how cheap it was. That's if I plan to keep it.