banner

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Worst pups you ever used

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: Worst pups you ever used

    Another one. Gibson P-94. I just used them at a guitar store where the previous owner installed it in the neck of a Epi LP standard with a Dirty Finger bridge. Love the Dirty Fingers but not the P-94. Just doesn't sound like an actual P-90. Belive me, I used actual P-90s before.
    Eh.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Worst pups you ever used

      None of these could be as bad as the pups on 60's japanese guitars, with the exceptions being of a few European 60's ones too.
      sigpic

      - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...?bandID=804435 -
      - https://soundcloud.com/mr-ds-bigband/tracks -

      Warning: May contain traces of NUTS

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Worst pups you ever used

        Dimarzio Area Strat Set - the classic "shattered glass sound" of cheep Squier pickups but without the cheep Squier price point. Couldn't send them back fast enough!
        “The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.” - Edward Van Halen

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Worst pups you ever used

          Originally posted by Archer250 View Post
          The stock Powersound pickups that come with low-tier Ibanez. Now what the **** was good about that pickup? Nothing. It's 'high output', but the neck is full of mud and the bridge is brittler than cracked glass.
          Ditto for me. Lifeless, thin and uninspiring.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Worst pups you ever used

            the stock epi pickups in my 90's SG 400 custom, super muddy, way over potted. the gold covers on them made them even worse. just all around terrible.

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Worst pups you ever used

              In my 40 plus years of playing guitar and 30+ years of being a certified pickup junkie, I can honestly say I have not played a pickup yet that I hated or though of as 'the worst'. There have been many that I pulled out just about as fast as they went in, but they found happy homes in other guitars.

              While not something that happens all the time, I have had high end, highly rated, big bux boutique pickups that were a huge disappointment and I've had some cheapest of the cheap, import crap held together with toothpicks, bubble gum and a paper clip that totally knocked my socks off. I've got a couple sets of Japanese buckers from the 70's that are killer and the three single coils on a 67 Kent 823 nail that corpulent BB King sting as good as anything.

              I know there is a lot of love here for GFS pickups, (and I've used some that did the job quite well) but their Hot Alnico Tele bridge pickup and one of the retrotron (can't remember which one) series sets were a total loss. Thin, reedy and treble laden with all the complexity of an undercooked, unsalted poached egg. That was just in one specific guitar however, (although a great one for hearing the true nature of a pup) and I'm sure they would be just fine in another guitar.

              The main thing I've found over the years is a pickup that sounds bad in one guitar can bring another guitar to life. How cool is it that a handful of winders are bringing back various pickups from the past that are quite different than the many PAF, P-90, strat, tele offerings. Those great old Teisco style and DeArmond style Gold Foils, Kingstons, Valco, Speed Bump, Hershy Bar, Horse Shoe, etc. I really dig the Kleenex or tissue Box pickups on the 50's Kay Barney Kessel models and the skinny blade/bar pups on the old Kay/Silvertone 'Thin Twin' Jimmy Reed models. Don't know if anyone is doing a repro on those or not, but would love to try em.

              Due to the various buy and sell places forums offer, I've been able to try a large amount of pickups. If I had to buy them new. that would not be possible. All in all, what a great time to be a guitar player....especially one that loves to mod and try new things. The plethora of used pickups out there provides a great way to find your voice. Plus, if it doesn't work out, someone is looking for what you have to sell and someone has what your looking for. As a matter of fact, I think I just bought a pickup that I sold a year ago!

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Worst pups you ever used

                Whatever they call the stock pickups on the LTD MH-1000 that I've got. They are a magic combination of mud, sog and have all the punch of a wad of wet toilet paper. They are supposedly modeled off a JB/Jazz combo but if they are it's in the same way that a couple chunks of termite ridden, rotten wood is modeled after a JB/Jazz combo.
                I don't "Play" so much as "Operate"...

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Worst pups you ever used

                  Originally posted by Archer250 View Post
                  The stock Powersound pickups that come with low-tier Ibanez. Now what the **** was good about that pickup? Nothing. It's 'high output', but the neck is full of mud and the bridge is brittler than cracked glass.
                  +1 , damn those pickups are awful... my first guitar was a cheap korean RG with powersound pickups, and by far they indeed the worst pickups
                  i have ever used.

                  second, i think emg HZ pickups (emg passive pickup series) are also pretty awful, they have worst of both worlds:
                  lifeless, anaemic and ice picky like a bad active pickup without any of the pros of the active design, ... I'm a big fan of their actives BTW.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Worst pups you ever used

                    Washburn's "Randall" UL and Ultra XL pickups were so bad, I wrote Washburn to complain! Ties with several older stock Epi humbuckers (though I do have an Alnico Classic set that sounds great in one guitar), the EMG Select stuff, many low-end singles and those horrible Ibanez Powersounds

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Worst pups you ever used

                      I'll just echo... 90's epiphone pickups and 90's MIM Fender pickups. It's what brought me here eons ago.
                      Oh no.....


                      Oh Yeah!

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Worst pups you ever used

                        Worst pickups I've used personally is a tie between the stock ones that came in my PRS SE and the stock bridge pup that was in my Vintage Modified Stratocaster.

                        The stock PRS were too muddy under high gain, which is what I predominately play through. No definition. They weren't all that bad for a not as driven sound, but I bought the guitar for really heavy stuff, so I swapped in a Mayhem set. Looking for a different neck pup, though. The Distortion neck is good, but I'm looking for something a bit less output with a fatter, more fluid sound.

                        The bridge pup on the Strat was almost unusable. It was waaaay to trebly and harsh. I don't know what was up with it. Swapped in a Cool Rails bridge and haven't looked back. The middle and neck pups are pretty good, though, so I kept them as is. I might swap the neck for a single coil sized humbucker later, but I'm satisfied with it for now.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Worst pups you ever used

                          Pickups on a peavey predator with half the bar magnet underneath the pole pieces missing.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Worst pups you ever used

                            Ibanez down tunz... came stock in my ibanez rgd... muddiest priced of junk I have played

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: Worst pups you ever used

                              PRS HFS bridge 'bucker: very shrill to my ears. And it doesn't mater what guitar they are in either.
                              Gibson 57's: I find them muddy and lifeless; again, this is after trying them numerous times.

                              With both of these pickups, they would immediately get ripped out of a new guitar.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: Worst pups you ever used

                                Some '90s noname Cort factory p-ups were deadly terrible but the winner of dirt is many iron fence era instrument pickups from the East Block. Where to start... Junk materials, muffled sound, squeeling, utter crap. When the fence opened and some new Duncans and DiMarzios landed here I thought I died and went to heaven.
                                Wackor
                                Ørdøg
                                NecroPolo
                                Diabolus in Musica
                                SIDrip Alliance
                                Book of Shadows
                                RKH

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X