What brand of pickups do you have/prefer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter monkie
  • Start date Start date

Which brand of Guitar Pickups do you have/prefer?

  • Single Coil

    Votes: 14 36.8%

  • Humbucker

    Votes: 24 63.2%
  • Total voters
    38
monkie

monkie

New member
Ok, here it goes.... I'm freakin bored right now. BTW, I'm at work with absolutely nothing to do. I've done all my work last week and now all I have is nothing but time...... and this forum. lol:D. You guys are my only friends at this time, and my only fun.:cool: Okay, enough abou me.

So, since I'm so hella freakin bored I'm going to put up another post/thread because I want to upgrade my guitar.

I have the stock single coil (don't know the brad) on my strat, which is pretty noisy when playing in distortion. I tried a friend's humbucker (custome Alnico) and felt in love with it. I'm getting myself some new pickups or else a new guitar. What do you guys think?

What brand or types of guitar pickups do you have or prefer? Why do you choose this over the others? What style of music do you play?

I'll bet back in a few minutes to check on the post. See-ya!:D:cool:
 
Apples and pears I'm afraid - buckers will never sound like single coils and single coils will never sound like buckers.
 
TelePaul said:
Apples and pears I'm afraid - buckers will never sound like single coils
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lest you coil-split them :rolleyes: I have GFS Dream 180's (alnico V) and they are excellent in both humbucking and single-coil modes. I NEVER miss not having a strat or a tele.

and single coils will never sound like buckers.
Click to expand...

true that :D

i do like single-coil clarity and punch with cleans, but humbuckers just sound fuller and nicer with crunch, for power chord rhythms, etc. good old "PAF" has its own clean tone, though. it may not be glassy clean or "pure", but it's great for a lot of clean tones.
 
singles is what I have at the moment on my strat. Thinking about getting a guitar with humbuckers, but can't decide which one.
 
My main recording axe is a Strat with two CS54's in neck and middle and a Seymour Duncan JB SH-4 in the bridge.
 
"Single coil" and "humbucking" are not brands: they are configurations. There are many brands of each type.
 
First step might be ask if it's the hum that bothers you or the sound of the pickup. If it's just the hum, then look into shielding. I did that with my MIM strat years ago and it really made a diff. Not 100% by any means - but a MAJOR improvement.

I prefer single coils on everything. They really articulate well. Humbuckers sound blurry/foggy or something - YMMV
 
I use Seymour Duncan pickups. In my Tele I have a Hot Rails.

I have a set of the mini-buckers in my Epi Les Paul Deluxe. Right now my Ric 650D is at the shop have a JB humbuckers in the bridge and the Jazz humbucker in the neck.

All of the pickups have a coil switch that lets me select single vs dual coils. Good stuff.

Tony
 
I have humbuckers,single coils,lipsticks,P-90s and whatever you call the ones on a Gretsch.Preference is a moving target in my book.
 
I like a single coil sized humbucker in the bridge position of most of my Strats and Teles, and I prefer a alnico single coil in the neck position of the Teles. The 2 pickups blend in the middle position for a very sweet tone. This is mainly from playing in clubs for the last 30 years with all the neon lights that make a single coil buzz like crazy when you kicked up the gain for a solo.
I use the DiMarzio Chopper-T for several Teles and with a coil tap switch it has as a very fine single coil sound-in humbucker mode it reminds me of a mini humbucker-similar to a Firebird's sound.
 
I don't have a preference overall, but make the decision on a situation by situation basis.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
acidrock said:
I have humbuckers,single coils,lipsticks,P-90s and whatever you call the ones on a Gretsch.Preference is a moving target in my book.
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that's true, there are so many sounds. even standard 'gibson' form-factor humbuckers can be so different. My GFS Dream 180's and also Retrotrons Alnico 2 Memphis' are SO not blurry/foggy!

Many of filtertron form-factor pickups from Gretsch and TV Jones are humbuckers by design, but are famous for their sparkle/twang. My GFS pickups are sort of modeled after them, but with a tweak.

Lipstick pickups are single-coils with shield covers, but you can also get them in a humbucker design (2 lipsticks conjoined twins). GFS has a model like that in a standard humbucker form factor - they have very good reviews. In fact, if I ever wanted a strat, I'd put 2 single lipsticks from GFS in neck and middle and a humbucker lipstick in bridge.

Just browsing through a pickup storefront's inventory and reading can be educational. Then check their reviews on Harmony Central and forums. Google unfamiliar terms (such as "PAF" or "filtertron" or "soapbar").
 
lpdeluxe said:
"Single coil" and "humbucking" are not brands: they are configurations. There are many brands of each type.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my bad. I was at work when I post this; I was kind of in a rush so I didn't have enough time to put down the options for different brands. The poll says "brand" but what I meant to say was "type". In the thread I did ask "What brand or types of guitar pickups do you have or prefer?" Peace.:cool::D
 
My favourite pickups on any of my many guitars are Evolution 7's (for 7 string Universe) from Dimarzio (humbuckers BTW). Very thick 'round' tone that gives amazingly tight rythm and creamy lead. Totally noise free, not even the slightest hum or buzz but great for controlled feedback when required.
A lot of people bash active pups but I have to say that an 81/85 combo is great for lead. I just find that they have no punch or bottom end power when compared to passives like Dimarzio. Horses for courses though and it all depends what you are playing/recording. I tend to mix up most recordings with a number of guitars anyway.
Dimarzio Breeds are amazing for lead that uses a lot of harmonics and light pinch techniques but they are not as 'hot' as the EMG's or the Evolutions. This suits the sweep pick solos better alothough I find a noise gate is necessary as they are a bit more prone to picking up electrical interference.
 
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My Schecter C-1 Classic has Seymour Duncan SH-2n (Jazz) and SH-4 (JB), and I love them. They can go from the cleanest clean to outright scream.

It helps that it has a 5-way switch that does different splitting combinations too, but I rarely use those modes. There is an insane amount of Treble when they're split...too much for my liking.
 
I prefer playing my single coil guitar for various reasong but when it comes to recording I use the single of the humbucker loaded guitar depending on requirments. It's nice to have both in a mix as they offer such differing perspectives on the same riff.
 
Brand: DiMarzio
Type: Humbucker
Models: Super Distortion and X2N
 
Single coil strat pickups for blues! No one will ever deny SRV's tone.
 
please try this pickup

please try langcaster pickup
It is very good ,you can found it website by Google
 
Gear_Junky said:
that's true, there are so many sounds. even standard 'gibson' form-factor humbuckers can be so different. My GFS Dream 180's and also Retrotrons Alnico 2 Memphis' are SO not blurry/foggy!

Many of filtertron form-factor pickups from Gretsch and TV Jones are humbuckers by design, but are famous for their sparkle/twang. My GFS pickups are sort of modeled after them, but with a tweak.

Lipstick pickups are single-coils with shield covers, but you can also get them in a humbucker design (2 lipsticks conjoined twins). GFS has a model like that in a standard humbucker form factor - they have very good reviews. In fact, if I ever wanted a strat, I'd put 2 single lipsticks from GFS in neck and middle and a humbucker lipstick in bridge.

Just browsing through a pickup storefront's inventory and reading can be educational. Then check their reviews on Harmony Central and forums. Google unfamiliar terms (such as "PAF" or "filtertron" or "soapbar").
Click to expand...

I have a made in Mexico Fender Strat that I upgraded with GFS pickups-2 single coils, one has a reverse winding, and the Retro-tron alnico 'Liverpool' humbucker. The guitar really sings now, the retro-tron is great when it's either in coil split or humbucker mode.
For a humbucker equipped guitar I like the original 'PAF' style-I once had some Super Distortions on a Flying V and I never liked the clean tone of those pickups.
I would like to check out some P-90's in the future though-I recall a friend had an early SG with a single P-90 that played and sounded exceptional!!
 
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