Pickups : Beginner Guitar

[LadyInTears]

nice points dudelove. thats what im sick about on soft these days mainly with teleplayer and others asking for pickup suggestions when they cant hear the difference.

well i had a rg550 with stock pickups and i thought they sounded great, but after i had my rg450 i did a A/B comparison and spotted all the differences mainly clarity, non muddy etc.

Beez has also helped me alot in this aspect, so probably people would stop being so obsessed with changing pickups when they have crappy gear, and if you wanna change, just get those pickup stickers, looks cool like vintage dimarzio evo's.

 

[superpotato_30]

me ah?

No, my pet rock.

 

[dudelove]

but for my tele and my lp copy the pickups.. i can hear the difference... HAHA.

its probably psychological.

 

[teleplayer]

nice points dudelove. thats what im sick about on soft these days mainly with teleplayer and others asking for pickup suggestions when they cant hear the difference.

LOL. I only asked about the invaders & dimebucker, and seth lover and burstbuckers what-.- and I never post redundant thread already lo!! I also cannot help it if you can't post in your buy/sell section... although I feel really sorry for you...

 

[dudelove]

u know what everyone should do?

stop thinking abt changing gear this that give u better tone this that.. just go practice. i've seen a guy plugged into a crap amp, and a some nonsense guitar. great tone, reason, his playing is flawless, super clean. its the fingers man.. sometimes, we just find the easy way out and point our finger at the gear we have.

 

[THOA]

but for my tele and my lp copy the pickups.. i can hear the difference... HAHA.

I dunno what else to say to this. Can get heart attack sia...

And yes, I can DEFINITELY hear the difference between the JB and Custom.

 

[teleplayer]

I dunno what else to say to this. Can get heart attack sia...

And yes, I can DEFINITELY hear the difference between the JB and Custom.

erm as in, I can't hear the difference in the seymour duncan website... but I can hear the difference for my guitars...

 

[zax]

erm as in, I can't hear the difference in the seymour duncan website... but I can hear the difference for my guitars...

just focus on playing guitar and stop asking so many questions .

 

[Whitestrat]

good pickups with good amp=hear big difference
good pickups with shitty amp=no difference

I wouldn't generalise like that... Pickups give a different voicing to a guitar, regardless of amp. Good amp or bad amp at home might not be such a key if the player jams in a studio with different amps than what he already has at home.

So just by saying that you shouldn't change pickups if you have a lousy amp is a bit misguiding.

 

[alshit]

Maybe one of the reason why you guys can't hear the differences between the online sound samples is because you are listening through a normal laptop speakers or some really low end earphones/headphones. Try listening through a monitoring headphones or speakers, you should be able to tell the tones apart.

 

[Whitestrat]

sobz.... T_T can someone tell me if there's any difference between:
http://files.seymourduncan.com/audio/support/humbucker/Track33.mp3
http://files.seymourduncan.com/audio/support/humbucker/Track35.mp3
haiz...

35 is more mid-heavy, and a little more biting than the 33. Both sound like they're using the same setting and same setup for recording. I like 33. It sounds a little more gritty because the mids aren't there to cloud it. 35 has more mids, but listen to how much highs are coming through. It's definately the more gritty pup of the 2.

 

[teleplayer]

JB Lol.

 

[superpotato_30]

Play both at the same time.. simple solution make your own judgements.

 

[Plastic]

u know what everyone should do?

stop thinking abt changing gear this that give u better tone this that.. just go practice. i've seen a guy plugged into a crap amp, and a some nonsense guitar. great tone, reason, his playing is flawless, super clean. its the fingers man.. sometimes, we just find the easy way out and point our finger at the gear we have.

Yeah, but what if you give that guy better? A better amp, a better guitar. Wouldn't he sound much much better?

 

[teleplayer]

erm plastic, if the amps are good and the guitars are good, is it easier to spot the flaws?

 

[Plastic]

No, it doesn't work that way.

Plus, I'm using it with his analogy.

 

[dudelove]

Yeah, but what if you give that guy better? A better amp, a better guitar. Wouldn't he sound much much better?

yeah definitely. that would be kickass awesome. but really lah.. improving technique would improve your tone for sure. but choice of gear definitely plays a big part too..

 

[superpotato_30]

Plastic bro were you the one i traded the john 5 tele for the gibby sg classic?

 

[Whitestrat]

Yeah, but what if you give that guy better? A better amp, a better guitar. Wouldn't he sound much much better?

To quote YJM: "You can't shine a turd".:mrgreen:

 

[THOA]

erm as in, I can't hear the difference in the seymour duncan website... but I can hear the difference for my guitars...

You can hear the difference between your two guitars because a tele is different than an LP. It's not just pickups you're referring to here. It's everything about it.

I wouldn't generalise like that... Pickups give a different voicing to a guitar, regardless of amp. Good amp or bad amp at home might not be such a key if the player jams in a studio with different amps than what he already has at home.

So just by saying that you shouldn't change pickups if you have a lousy amp is a bit misguiding.

+ 1. Thank you, sir, for bringing up a point that I personally feel as well.

One has to understand that the most important part of any audio signal chain is the input and output. In most audio circumstances, it is the mic and speakers. On the guitar it's the pick up (which is by technicalities a mic) and the amp.

Yes, amp gives a good bulk of the tone, but not entirely. You feed a good amp with a lousy guitar tone signal, it's gonna sound lousy anyway. What's worse, a good amp will amplify it. I have personal experience backing me while recording an acquaintance playing guitar. His stock pickups makes his tone sound like a mosquito, no matter how we tried to tweak. Damn obvious on headphones.

Pedals can only help so much with the tone voicing and shaping but without a good signal being capture from the guitar via pickups... as Whitestrat puts it, you can't polish a turd.

That being said, as Dudelove puts it, alot of people change pickups without truly understanding why they need to. There's little to no proper understanding of the characteristics of the guitar, and how to choose the right pickups to match the guitar to suit the type of tone you are looking for. Hot pickups doesn't necessarily equate to good hard rock/metal tone.