Pickups don't matter?

[Aceman]

Like some angry guy proclaiming something that seems to go against all established wisdom.

Not denying the click-bait factor. Hazard of media. If you don't attract attention, often your message never gets through.

But there is wisdom, and then there are legends, myths, fantasy, and outright BS.
- It isn't easy to sort the facts out from the fiction. And in music, especially tone, there is a LOT of fiction.

[Aceman]

Been playing a few different guitars through my 5w Picovalve set to 2w tonight. Metalzone for distortion. Haven't touched the tone controls at all. And they all sound different.
Perhaps I shall have to make my own video at some point.

Do they? Or do you just think they do because you know they are different?

[Demanic]

Do they? Or do you just think they do because you know they are different?

Guess that you'll just have to wait for the video.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

[Mincer]

Not denying the click-bait factor. Hazard of media. If you don't attract attention, often your message never gets through.

But there is wisdom, and then there are legends, myths, fantasy, and outright BS.
- It isn't easy to sort the facts out from the fiction. And in music, especially tone, there is a LOT of fiction.

I ain't spending the time to sort through it, though.

[Hsb]

And here is a response from a pickup builder, he kinda agrees with Glenn but not completely

https://youtu.be/fZrxrWoKjwI

[misterwhizzy]

I’ve been really loving the tones from some of the resurgent new wave of classic rock bands, specifically Dirty Honey and Goodbye June. I watched a Rig Rundown with John Notto, and he mentioned his pickups were from Righteous Sound, so I looked them up and basically found a set of Alnico 2 PAFs.

I realize the story is already long, but to get to the point, I pulled my 59 set out of its box, put a roughcast A2 in the bridge—the roughcast A3 is never leaving the neck—and swapped them back into my Les Paul. It was all there. The bloom, the growl, the wonder of a lower output pickup doing rock and roll into a Plexi style amp.

Pickups absolutely matter.

[Kingkiller94]

Rewatched his video, and I have to say this has made me question Glenn as a source of advice. The pickups do sound different, not to the extent as if you were to go from say a single coil to a humbucker and some sound more distinct than others but they're still there. I mean the first two guitars are perfect examples of this; the second one is clearly driving the amp more and adds a tone of flub to the pull-offs. I've not seen a whole amount of Glenn's stuff, but he seemed reliable, but now I'm not so sure.

[Dr.Mavashi]

5. Every pickup sounds the same. For playing Uber-gained out metal..

Ace, so basically what you are saying that us 80s cats have the gold standard of musicality in the signal chain? Well DUH Dude!