what pickup should i get?

[busteraider]

hmmm was thinking of changing the pickups on my Rally Gl400, any idea what pickups i should get?
play more of pop/rock stuff, leaning towards the rock side i guess...
would be nice if someone could recommend a good pickup for that genre, something around $100 a piece. heard the tesla pickups are good :O
also, heard that having a cover on the pickup affects the tone, but how?

thanks!!

 

[Whitestrat]

What's wrong with your current set of pickups?

 

[shokakukai]

haha. before even jumping into conclusion that your pickups can't make the sound you're looking for, take a look at your set up. your effects, how you set your controls and eq.

pickups wont really make much difference. maybe theres a change in the attack, dynamics and all but i guess its quite subtle. not too sure though, only changed my pick up once cos my previous pickup died after trying to get it wired for coil split and out of phase switching. maybe because it didnt have 4 conductor wire hahaha.

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Hmm, well imo pickups do make some difference. I'm gassin' for that set of Suhr pups. My DIY strat currently has a bunch of crap pups, brand SeiQ. No info on it at all, at least, not that last time i searched google.


But agreed, check your setup too...
But if you're insistent on changing then you could go for SD JB/Jazz, got a lot of good reviews on that combination.

 

[subversion]

can we please know the amp you are using in the mean time?

 

[busteraider]

whitestrat>> nths wrong, jus thought it'd be fun to change the sound to something more tailored to what i want i guess o.o
sub>> nux mighty15, not too bad for the price i think

thanks to the rest for the suggestions... sorry i'm pretty noob at this but i can just get my setup checked at any guitar shop right? cuz i did the intonation myself from youtube vids lol.

 

[I Heart]

bro if you want a setup you pay for it...

 

[busteraider]

yes sir! will bear tht in mind next time i go down to peninsula >.<
thanks

 

[Whitestrat]

whitestrat>> nths wrong, jus thought it'd be fun to change the sound to something more tailored to what i want i guess o.o

Ok, then... what do you want?

 

[Whitestrat]

pickups wont really make much difference. maybe theres a change in the attack, dynamics and all but i guess its quite subtle. not too sure though, only changed my pick up once cos my previous pickup died after trying to get it wired for coil split and out of phase switching. maybe because it didnt have 4 conductor wire hahaha.

Er... pickups make a HUGE difference in tones.

 

[shokakukai]

i believe when one is able to get his settings right, able to make use of the pickup's characteristics then the sound of the pickups will shine. and the steeeeeeam tones come

i had a friend who switched to duncan invaders. no clear differences cos of how he set his pedals and amp. still sounded thin and fizzy because of that.

 

[busteraider]

Ok, then... what do you want?

like i sed mann, something good for pop/rock, but like with a warmer tone i guess...

 

[subversion]

sub>> nux mighty15, not too bad for the price i think

thanks for sharing

it's not about the amp's value-for-money in this case, but hearing the 'new' tone in action. pertaining to practice amps, i always tell friends this: http://theguitaraddict.blogspot.com/2008/10/should-i-swap-pickups.html

 

[busteraider]

thanks for sharing

it's not about the amp's value-for-money in this case, but hearing the 'new' tone in action. pertaining to practice amps, i always tell friends this: http://theguitaraddict.blogspot.com/2008/10/should-i-swap-pickups.html

haha oh my... thanks a lot for the insight but sry what is this 'new' tone ur talking about?

 

[bf0502tr]

haha oh my... thanks a lot for the insight but sry what is this 'new' tone ur talking about?

i think he's referring to the new pickup's tone in the same amp u're using

 

[subversion]

if you swap pickups, you'd be looking forward to hearing a differentiated tone/ 'new' tone so to speak, otherwise, you should be keeping your initial pickups. small amps/ amps equipped with small drivers won't serve you in this department, a $1K replacement pickup & the unlikeable default unit will sound very similar.

 

[Whitestrat]

i believe when one is able to get his settings right, able to make use of the pickup's characteristics then the sound of the pickups will shine. and the steeeeeeam tones come

i had a friend who switched to duncan invaders. no clear differences cos of how he set his pedals and amp. still sounded thin and fizzy because of that.

Yes, that's right, to a certain extent. But when you have gotten your settings right, you'll find that different pickups deliver different tones. Invaders and X2Ns are hardly good exmaples to demonstrate this.

 

[dudelove]

Er... pickups make a HUGE difference in tones.

I used to jump on the bandwagon that getting a better amp will be more benefitial than changing pickups. Its true though, but usually you'll need to spend LOTS more money buying a better, quality amp. A pickup change will set someone back maybe 300sgd? For a good set of pickups. Although those with 10w 6" speaker solid state amps, please upgrade those, a pickup swap won't help.

I only realised that pickups made such a significant change in tone when I actually did it for myself.

But here's the really important thing. You really really need to know what kinda tone you want to achieve and have a sound in the back of your head. Don't change just because stock pickups are boring or uncool.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

ahh, i've changed pickups many times because of itchy fingers.

personally for me, i changed my pickups because i wanted to try some over the edge sounds. so i swapped my (most probably) stock paf sounding humbuckers for evo / tonezone / airzone. all of these were pretty much voiced fairly differently from pafs so i achieved what i wanted in this aspect. same goes for my single coils. i've swapped my neck vintage single coil to humbucking protrack and then an air norton s. totally changed the way it sounded. itchy fingers of mine told me to change the middle single coil pickup to a vintage voiced humbucking too so that i did (some satisfaction from the totally silent humless pup now)

i'd say set yourself a more specific goal / end point you wanna achieve first before changing pickups (or any other part of your gear for that matter), then go ahead and try out those that might fulfil the role. if you're going for a "rock / pop" tone, that's a little too vague. you'll find yourself not knowing whether you got closer to what you wanted or not after a pickup swap in such a case because almost half the songs in the world fall under rock and pop! then, you'll have this thought nagging at you at the back of your head once in a while, making you wonder if you've wasted money.. and you continue to wonder because you don't know.. argh the agony!! >.<

 

[subversion]

I used to jump on the bandwagon that getting a better amp will be more benefitial than changing pickups. Its true though, but usually you'll need to spend LOTS more money buying a better, quality amp. A pickup change will set someone back maybe 300sgd? For a good set of pickups. Although those with 10w 6" speaker solid state amps, please upgrade those, a pickup swap won't help.

it's not a bandwagon occurrence; it's not a fad which comes & goes with a definite passing. the importance of having a deserving amp for particular intentions, is necessary. unlike yesterday when amp choices were limited, there are affordable offerings out there for our picking. used units are also there for considerations.

different pickups would effectively change the guitar's tone; it's virtually swapping 'throats'. the value in doing this becomes questionable when one can't hear the difference in that change.