Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and love.

[BlueStrings]

(ramblings ranty stuff ahead)

This isn't quite about particular pickups, but so I can learn to choose stuff.

I am thinking of changing the pickups of my guitar, they are too 'humbuckery'.
You see, I like to listen to some humbucker sounds, but when I am playing I want clarity, and I love the singy tone a strat can get, or how "stringy" a neck tele single is(think Lari Basilio, Nick Johnston).
So my priorities are low gain and cleans, that's easy: I should look into the low output category.

I was up until 2am yesterday scouring youtube, holy crap the Seth Lover is awesome. Is this really a humbucker?!?
But first, over here a duncan set would be around minimum wage for a month... and for some reason used prices are close to new prices
I have the money, it just seems, I'm no professional, it feels weird splurging for the money people could live a month for...
Second, I do know of 2 national pickup winders. They are more realistically priced for me, but there's almost nothing on youtube about 'em, or when there is, the quality is crap!

The winders together have a ton of models, how the heck I'm supposed to choose?
I know I love the Seths and the Suhr SSV and the PRS Santana neck, I have youtube showing many different examples, it might not be accurate to real life but it sounds good. Meanwhile I know I hate what I hear of the Gibson 57s, not so fond of 59/sentient/jazz. Either I really don't like -something- about those, or the common use cases of those make 'em sound weird.

I just have a bad case of choice paralysis.
What do I do? >.<

[GuitarStv]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

Even the best humbucker (and I'd consider the Seth Lover a pretty good humbucker) will sound compressed and middy compared to a single coil. Single coils just have more attack, and a relaxed mid range that sounds great clean and slightly overdriven. They pick up more nuance and work well if you are a dynamic picker with a heavy hand. I personally much prefer the sound of single coils with modulation effects too.

With more gain, the pushed and middier nature of 'buckers sounds really nice, and the noise reduction helps a whole bunch too. They seem to respond better with a lighter touch because they are less dynamic. I like/use Seths, and while it's a pretty decent and dynamic pickup (for a humbucker), you would never mistake it's sound for single coil in person.

Don't trust YouTube reviews. They're a good place to get an idea of what you want, but that's just a starting point. The fact of the matter is, your touch alone will create radically different sounds from the same pickups. The amp and (probably more important) the speakers you run through will really change the sound that you hear from a pickup. You need to actually play and hear what you're interested in through your rig (or very similar) to really get a feel for a pickup.

[Larioso]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

I try to think like - is this a well known product locally - and can I get rid of it without loosing too much.

If the pickup winders locally have good reviews - you can sell it if it does not do what you want.
- do you see ads for these sold locally?
- talk to sellers, and see which guitar they used it in, if same as yours?

It sounded like you thought of it as lost money if not up to expectations.

a) you might get used ones - Duncan or others
b) you can trade off if not working well

[Dave Locher]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

I have had good luck buying from unknown or little-known winders. Tell one of them what sound you are looking for and they should tell you which one or two models are likely to please your ears.

[Mincer]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

If you like the Seths, look at some videos of the Antiquities. They seem to do the 'clean and clear, is it really a humbucker' thing even better than Seths (although Seths are wonderful, too. It does suck that the distribution isn't saturated enough to bring the price down everywhere.

[AlexR]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

GFS make some good pickups for not much money.
And humbucker sized p90's might just be the ticket here. A little bit down the road from humbucker to fender type singlecoil tone.

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

You sound like me when I joined the Forum. I had just bought a pair of mid-'90s Les Paul Classic Premium Plus guitars and though I liked the tone of the stock 496R/500T pickups, they were just too hot for my style, genres, and my Mesa amps.

So I did my research, got the information, did some agonizing and took a chance on a set of Antiquitys for one guitar and a set of Custom Shop 50th Anniversary A2 Seths that Seymour did for Musician's Friend for the other. Exactly what I was looking for! The sweet, vintage HB tones of my youth. So versatile.

I also use stock Gibson '57s in my 335s and an LP Elegant I have...they're okay. A set of production Seths went into a LP Supreme, again with great success. And I also have some Historic Pauls with the A2 Burstbucker 1 & 2 sets. I like these too. It just depends on the gig and my mood, LOL. And one of these days I'll get around to dropping in some Seths, Ants or PGs into some of my other guitars.

In the end, you lay your money down and take a leap of faith. For me, the Seths and Ants were the right choices. There are other flavors of PAFs out there, but it's hard to go wrong with these Duncans.

Good luck!

Bill

P.S. And BTW, I almost always take a G&L Legacy (strat), and either an LP or ES-335 to a gig. The Legacy is my Number One. I play clean a lot, and pretty moderate amounts of gain on my Mesas. No metal.

Bill

[nexion218]

Re: Wondering about choosing trough youtube and other's opnion, price guilty, and lov

I have the money, it just seems, I'm no professional, it feels weird splurging for the money people could live a month for...

Been there, felt that. YOU earned that money, you ain't gonna bring it with you to the Other Side and the stuff that you can buy for it has the possibility to make you happy. What else do you live and work for? To contemplate the numbers in lower right corner of your bank account receipt? Also, no need to feel guilty for others' misfortune. Most probably you're not the one who caused it. Again - with a different emphasis - you EARNED that money. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Unless you're spending your bread money, nothing bad will happen. As for the rest of the question: trial and error will provide the answer.