what pickup should i get?

[Whitestrat]

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.

I think they both go hand in hand. The pickups will only be part of the equation. The amp forms the rest. A good amp will reveal the limitations of your pickups. A great set of pups will reveal the limitations of your amp.

But the key factor is, before you go and spend top dollar on a killer set of pups, take the time to not only know what tones you want, but rather, understand the history of pickups. Understand the PAF, as well as the reasons for DiMarzio creating the super distortion. Once you understand those, you'll understand how well your current rig works, and how best to modify it to what you want.

For example, say I'm after a Michael Romeo tone. Would I get it with a Mesa Boogie and a Jason Lollar Imerial PAF wind? No. But not because the components are bad. But you must understand that MR's tone results in compression and saturation. Pumping levels of gain will not solve your problem, simple because the PAF is the weak link there. It doesn't deliver enough juice to saturate the gain circuit to begin with. he uses an X2N in the bridge and a Tonezone in the neck. The whole idea is to drive whatever pedal or amp he's running into ridiculous amounts of saturation, and that gives him a dynamically dead tone, that's super usable for his playing, which is not pressure sensitive. A small tap already yields a great amount of output. So he's able to play any way he likes, and he gets his tones, no matter what.

Getting a Joe Bonamassa tone, say on "Black Night", on the other hand, is a matter of simply playing your amp loud enough that the amp opens up and breaks up slightly and you get a bit more distortion from simply hitting the strings harder and sounds quite clean when you pick soft. If you're playing at low volumes, a PAF with a TS808 set to 0 gain would work wonderful. Just concentrate on your picking. Here's something where an X2N/Invader will definately not work. The TS808 would have been pushed too hard to maintain a sweet low gain tone and kill what you set out to achieve.

So both components matter, and understanding how the whole chain works will save you a lot of money, and time.

 

[subversion]

tone is the sum of all equipment employed, never a component highlight

 

[harrotty]

hey man, changing a set of pickups will cost u a bomb...

 

[subversion]

not true. the cost of changing/re-installation isn't much; $50+/-...

 

[harrotty]

how abt the pickups, i heard they are not cheap. the better ones costing ard 130 to 190 each or more.

 

[subversion]

the cost of the pickups per se & the replacement charges are to be distinguished. pickup prices- onus on buyes to check them out with the relevant stores/ dealers/ distributors. there're used pickups to be acquired as well, in the after-market.

 

[Whitestrat]

how abt the pickups, i heard they are not cheap. the better ones costing ard 130 to 190 each or more.

$130 to $190 per pickup. That sounds like DiMarzio/SD pricing.

My PAF Clones were $400USD per pickup.

DiMarzio/SD is dirt cheap!

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

heh, showoff!!!

 

[subversion]

Seymour Duncan offers a calibrated set (as sold @ Davis GMC) of their popular models for $190+/- per pair. for example, the P-Rails pair (below) lists for $199...

 

[Whitestrat]

heh, showoff!!!

Hahaha... No lah... Just trying to put things in perspective...

 

[loldude333]

I faced the same dilemma as you. My current setup is an all-stock Ibanez RGTCR2 (basically a 2005 Ibanez RGT42DX, just with a cross inlay of the usual sharktooth) and my trusty Line 6 PodXT Live thru PA (as i usually play in church). I used to play thru a Laney HCM30R amp, some dirt cheap thingy that i picked up at the Swee Lee sale back in the days when entry was free. Well the amp sounded like crap, but being a noob back then i thought that it could never be the amp, after all all amps are the same aren't they? So well i got this really crappy sound outta of that old monsta and knowing how much i paid for the Pod and with that mindset of amps, i naturally thought it was the pickups. However, it wasn't until i plugged it into a PA 1 year later (yes, before that i had never plugged into anything else but that crappy amp) that i realised how good the setup actually sounded. Actually it sounded like crap, but that was simply because of the amp colouring the tone coming outta my Pod. So my friends helped me do some tweaking and now i've got the tones i like. Sometimes some guitarists ask whether i've swapped out the INFs for something else, and they go away rather surprised when i say no. People may criticise the INF series of pickups; i'm not a fan myself, but now i recognise that there's more than the pickups affecting the tone. As whitestrat also mentioned, knowing your history helps a lot too.

 

[shokakukai]

very interesting posts whitestrat and loldude. i wanna up ur reps but idk how

ahaha so what will be the conclusion of all this discussion? haha

 

[loldude333]

Haha click on the sheriff's star beside the 'blog this post' option to the bottom left of the post heh heh.

I guess it depends on how the TS decides to assimilate and interpret our comments. Maybe he'll follow whitestrat and get a coupla Skatterbranes. Now THAT would make a difference.

 

[busteraider]

well from what i see...
guys seem to say while the pickups are important, the amp and setup are crucial in bringing out the overall tone.
or something to that extent o.o

now i'm not sure what i'm gonna do but you guys hv given me a lot to think abt! thanks so much ^^

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

you could list out your current gear for curiosity's sake.. maybe it'll be easier for us to put things into perspective just as i've mentioned in my previous post

 

[Likui]

I think the best pickup you can get is 1 that gives the sound that you like. Only your ears can tell you no one can.

 

[busteraider]

you could list out your current gear for curiosity's sake.. maybe it'll be easier for us to put things into perspective just as i've mentioned in my previous post

well, now i'm just using my rally gl-400 with the nux mighty15 amp, no pedals or anything...

 

[harrotty]

I think the best pickup you can get is 1 that gives the sound that you like. Only your ears can tell you no one can.

agree with Likui..

 

[Whitestrat]

Maybe he'll follow whitestrat and get a coupla Skatterbranes. Now THAT would make a difference.

Yes it would... But at USD$400 a pop, you better be sure that's what you want before you commit!!! Hahaha!!!

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

busteraider:

actually, with just a guitar and an amp, the next logical choice would be to expand your tonal options with pedals. that only applies if your not one of the guitar-into-tube-amp purists.. :twisted:

oh, and one more thing, there are many other ways you can change the raw tone of your guitar. the electronics plays a role and so does the distance between pickups and strings. what you could do is to play with the pickup height first to adjust your tone. you could refer to the faq section of dimarzio's or seymour duncan's website for some general steps. you could also read of more about how different valued potentiometers and capacitors (the tone and volume knobs) affect tone. play with these first to explore your current pickups full tonal capabilities before deciding whether you like them or not.