Fender vs G&L Tele Shootout

[RayBarbeeMusic]

The G&L ASAT Classic pickups are not hum canceling.

They are of the same basic construction as P90s, but with different materials and specs.

Aside from the pickups, the guitars are comparable. The G&L pickups are higher in output and more brash in midrange tone. They sit right in between a classic Fender pickup and a P90. The closest thing I’ve heard is the Gibson Alnico (“staple”) pickups.

IME, G&L build quality and attention to detail is not what it used to be...while Fender is making their guitars as good as they ever have. They’re even with each other in terms of quality.

You're thinking of the ASAT Special not the Classic.

Easy solution: Choose the guitar you like, put the pickups in you like. An ASAT classic takes any pickups a standard Tele will take. I have a DiMarzio ARea hot T and Area '67 in mine. I prefer it to a Fender for various reasons involving neck geometry. YMMV.

[ItsaBass]

You're thinking of the ASAT Special not the Classic.

Easy solution: Choose the guitar you like, put the pickups in you like. An ASAT classic takes any pickups a standard Tele will take. I have a DiMarzio ARea hot T and Area '67 in mine. I prefer it to a Fender for various reasons involving neck geometry. YMMV.

I was indeed talking about the ASAT Classic, though the same is true about any of the MFD single coils. They use Gibson style construction: steel poles with the magnets below.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

That's right; we're in a post-fact world now, in which people apply the concepts of agreement/disagreement and opinion to the physically proven truth. My bad for forgetting.

Magnets provide a certain amount of strength. How that strength is made to sound has to do with the design/engineering of the pickup in question.

Magnets do not have a tone. Period. You can say you don't like certain pickups, and it makes sense, but it makes no sense to say you don't like a certain magnet across the entire world of pickups.

You "disagree" with a technical statement on pickups by Bill Lawrence, and you are just announcing to everyone that you don't know what the hell you are talking about, and you are consciously choosing to maintain that ignorance.

What your'e doing there is an error in logic. Here's your presumption: "Bill Lawrence is the end-all-be-all authority on this issue, anything he claims is science, any other competing science is therefore not science".

Wrong on both accounts. There is more than enough evidence that different magnets have different sounds in the same pickup, EVEN IF you degauss one to approximate the strength of another. What your'e doing is claiming "science that I've read says bumble bees cannot fly, therefore, they cannot, any evidence to contrary shall be ignored and labelled 'not science'" and it doesn't seem to matter if someone shows you a whole hive of flying bumble bees.

[ItsaBass]

What your'e doing there is an error in logic. Here's your presumption: "Bill Lawrence is the end-all-be-all authority on this issue, anything he claims is science, any other competing science is therefore not science".

Wrong on both accounts. There is more than enough evidence that different magnets have different sounds in the same pickup, EVEN IF you degauss one to approximate the strength of another. What your'e doing is claiming "science that I've read says bumble bees cannot fly, therefore, they cannot, any evidence to contrary shall be ignored and labelled 'not science'" and it doesn't seem to matter if someone shows you a whole hive of flying bumble bees.

I am not in disagreement with you! I believe I have been misunderstood in my frustrated spew against the OP's posts.

I do not believe that Bill Lawrence is the be all and end all authority on pickups, nor have I said anything about other sources having no input on the matter.

What I do believe is that the OP has no idea what he's talking about...compared to Bill Lawrence – that Bill Lawrence is basing his opinions on an understanding of electronics theory and application, while the OP is just stomping around in the mud, claiming Lawrence is wrong. Is "Bill" hands down right about everything? No; nobody is. But the best the OP can offer is "I disagree," and nothing of intelligence to follow. THAT is what I was talking about in my reply to him. He can barely string a sentence together, and wants to loudly and publicly write off an entire magnet composition based on...I still don't know. Is that "competing science?" No. My point is that you don't write off a technical point by simply saying, "I disagree," and then a bunch of nonsense, and expect anyone to just accept it. Come up with an alternate/opposing technical point, and state it well.

My only real point is that any one type of guitar magnet should not be written off across the board. In an ideal world, the magnet used and the coil specifications work together to achieve a certain design goal. However, that isn't always the case. Sometimes crap just gets slapped together. As mentioned, there is a lot of correlation between ceramics and cheap-ass pickups...and many mistake this for ceramics being the cause of the crappy tone. Yet other companies make very well designed and sweet sounding pickups using ceramic magnets. And still more companies make very harsh sounding pickups using alnico magnets.

I did not say, nor do I believe, that different magnets don't have an affect on the tone of a pickup. That would be a crazy belief. I said that one type of magnet doesn't sound one way in all pickups. That's what I mean by the magnet itself has no "tone," period. You can't take a ceramic and accurately say "It sounds such and such a way, no matter what pickup you put it in," nor an alnico.

[AlexR]

^ You did actually make your point perfectly clear in earlier posts. I had zero trouble understanding it nor did your clarification change my first interpretation.

You are correct in your thinking, and I have a suspicion there's been some serious skim reading going on......that or people are deliberately ignoring your premise merely to be contrary.

[Lewguitar]

I'll have what Roy's playing...but only if I could get it to sound as good as Roy!

[RayBarbeeMusic]

My only real point is that any one type of guitar magnet should not be written off across the board. In an ideal world, the magnet used and the coil specifications work together to achieve a certain design goal. However, that isn't always the case. Sometimes crap just gets slapped together. As mentioned, there is a lot of correlation between ceramics and cheap-ass pickups...and many mistake this for ceramics being the cause of the crappy tone. Yet other companies make very well designed and sweet sounding pickups using ceramic magnets. And still more companies make very harsh sounding pickups using alnico magnets.

I did not say, nor do I believe, that different magnets don't have an affect on the tone of a pickup. That would be a crazy belief. I said that one type of magnet doesn't sound one way in all pickups. That's what I mean by the magnet itself has no "tone," period. You can't take a ceramic and accurately say "It sounds such and such a way, no matter what pickup you put it in," nor an alnico.

Gotcha. Agreed.