Guild humbuckers - alternatives?

[Supernautilus]

I have an old DeArmond electric that I've been struggling to find the right pickups for. It's basically a super cheap version of the Polara, so I was thinking maybe I could find some Guild humbuckers for it. Alas, I haven't had any luck finding any. Vintage HB-1s are too expensive. The newer HB-2s come standard in their latest Polara and Surfliner guitars. But I can't seem find them for sale separately anywhere.

So I'm basically looking for one of the following options:
- find an HB-1 or HB-2 clone of some sort
or
- find another humbucker, like a standard sized PAF-style, that sounds similar to an HB-2 or the older HB-1


If anyone has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

[freefrog]

No advice but I'm not sure I'd recommend contemporary Fender/Guild HB's (those made in Korea with ROHS stickers): they look nice but are built in a "discussible" way, with covers whose material is not magnetically transparent. Now, the bridge pickup of a Starfire RI is something interesting, with its lower DCR and inductance than for the neck unit (I think they use AWG 41 to wind this one and it certainly gives it a recognizeable character).

If it's for a DeArmond guitar, real vintage Rowe/DeArmond pickups of all kinds can still be found for reasonable prices, FWIW. They remain what they were, IOW cheap pickups often designed to look fancy rather than to sound good. But their technical flaws give them a unique low-fi / garage-band vibe that I personally appreciate as such. YMMV.

[Supernautilus]

No advice but I'm not sure I'd recommend contemporary Fender/Guild HB's (those made in Korea with ROHS stickers): they look nice but are built in a "discussible" way, with covers whose material is not magnetically transparent. Now, the bridge pickup of a Starfire RI is something interesting, with its lower DCR and inductance than for the neck unit (I think they use AWG 41 to wind this one and it certainly gives it a recognizeable character).

If it's for a DeArmond guitar, real vintage Rowe/DeArmond pickups of all kinds can still be found for reasonable prices, FWIW. They remain what they were, IOW cheap pickups often designed to look fancy rather than to sound good. But their technical flaws give them a unique low-fi / garage-band vibe that I personally appreciate as such. YMMV.

Thanks for the info. This a really cheap guitar so I have no issues with Korean pickups. In fact, I was considering the "Surf 90" pickup from Guitar Fetish, which is supposed to be their take on a Dearmond Dynosonic. I have no idea how accurate that is though. Probably not very lol.

As I said, I would have no problem with the contemporary Guild HBs too but I can't find any for sale anywhere. I found a few listings on Reverb but they are all expired/sold. Oh well, I'll keep looking.

[ToneFiddler]

The HB-1 are available for aftersale, at least half a year ago, but can't find them anymore right now.
They pop up used from time to time, be patient.
Never had vintage ones so i can't say if they are different.
still not sure i like the modern production ones. The got quit some lowend (i guess because of the wider coil spacing) and are bright but not as clear a i hoped.
if i cut the bass before the amp it's fine, but the mids are definitley not as cutting like a PearlyGates or something. More of a hollowness/scoop.
I'd say the duncan sh-1n 59s are closest in the duncan world.
post #5:

https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/pickups-like-the-old-guild-hb-1.153373/

it seems i am not the only one with this opinion.

[freefrog]

Thanks for the info. This a really cheap guitar so I have no issues with Korean pickups. In fact, I was considering the "Surf 90" pickup from Guitar Fetish, which is supposed to be their take on a Dearmond Dynosonic. I have no idea how accurate that is though. Probably not very lol.

As I said, I would have no problem with the contemporary Guild HBs too but I can't find any for sale anywhere. I found a few listings on Reverb but they are all expired/sold. Oh well, I'll keep looking.

Some GFS PU's are really good for the price IME but their DynaSonic clone seems more cosmetic than anything else... "Real" DynaSonic's are very deep because of their heigth setting screws but their character is worth a bit of routing in a guitar body IMHO... and the current Gretsch version is faithful to the original design, without being too expensive.

FWIW. Good luck in your quest. :-)