Weirdest Looking Pickups

[Mincer]

One of the few things that is standard in guitars is the size/shape of pickups. While neck sizes vary, and pickup color codes do, we have all agreed on the size of humbuckers & single coils (for the most part). There are some brave companies (or silly?) that redesigned what pickups should look like. It pretty much guarantees that you won't be able to find replacement pickups.

I wanna see some weird ones.

Here is the 1982 Fender Elite Tele pickups..they actually sounded good, but not like a Tele.


Here is a Gibson V2, from around the same time. What I remember about this guitar is that it is one of the heaviest I'd ever played. Probably 12+ pounds.



Here is whatever this is:

[Demanic]

Deathbuckers are kind of different.

[ArtieToo]

I think it's hard to beat the Rick Turner T1 pickup. But, IIRC, it's a pseudo copy of the original Rickenbacker pickup design from around 1932.

[Wound_Up]

Alumitones are pretty weird, though they're a standard shape.

The old Silvertone guitars used some pretty proprietary shaped pickups, IIRC

[Edgecrusher]

I always thought these were strange looking pickups...

[Mincer]

Love these pics.

I found a cool site here that goes through a lot of strange ones.

[ErikH]

To me, the P-Rails look strange.

[beaubrummels]

Not only weird, but an innovation I wish was still available on all guitars.


Paul Bigsby did his own thang...


I don't know if there is more pickup behind those plates, or it's just large plates surrounding a somewhat normal-size pickup


Tri-sonics are interesting. No pole pieces but the cover is designed to manage the magnetic field.


Les Paul low-impedance pickups

[ArtieToo]

Come to think of it, my "Cobain" EPI ET-270 has fairly ugly pups.

[eclecticsynergy]

Rauta Customs has made some unusual pickups, including one that looks sorta like the offspring of a P-Rails and a Charlie Christian.

[eclecticsynergy]

Ruokangas "Captain Nemo"

[ArtieToo]

Rauta Customs has made some unusual pickups, including one that looks sorta like the offspring of a P-Rails and a Charlie Christian.

I don't think those fit into an "ugly" pup thread. Those are kinda gorgeous.

Oops. He said "weird." Not ugly.

[jeremy]

those gibson v shaped pups always seemed weird to me. id love to see under the cover to know whats goin on

[Mincer]

Yeah, I just mean 'non-standard'. If pickups didn't have to be replaced, and were incorporated with the overall design of the guitar, what would they look like? Personally, if pickups were hidden (and sounded good), I think that would be cool, and it would change the design of the guitar. Some of those Japanese pickups are pretty funky. And I love the designs of some of the boutique pickup builders. I love thinking outside the box, if it is done for a reason.

[Synapsys]

G&L MFD pickups.