All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

kill your scene said:
I don't want to open a can of worms, but EMGs just don't suit me at all. I don't really like active guitar pickups for the simple reason that they don't seem to have the "organic" "natural" tone of passives. They sound a bit too overprocessed and sterile. They have a very cold, cutting, metallic tone that you either love or you don't. They do a great job of tightening up your bottom end and giving your power chords definition
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have you given the 18-volt mod a try? When I get mine installed I'm putting the mod on after a little experimenting... hopefully if I don't like them that'll fix 'em up.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

stock mim strat pickups, infact i hate any "true single coil"type pickup thats ceramic they just sound like trash.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Single Coils and the 59n under dist.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Powersounds have a pretty crappy clean tone, but I kinda liked the dirty tone. Call me crazy. Just those mids-out-the-yang-crunch got me somehow.

I hated the muddy-assed Epiphone stock pups. Utter sh!t. And though I love most of SD's pups, the one I just never really got along with was the APH-1B. The Alnico 2 Pro bridge just didn't impress me much.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Dimarzio X2N! Sounds like CRAP! I must've had it in my guitar for 1 day... that's all I could stand. Yes- it's THAT bad!
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Every pup has its own tone, so its finding what you like, not what you dont !
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

kill your scene said:
Actually, I'm not familiar with that mod at all. But I'm open-minded. What's the deal?
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Wire a second battery jack in series with the first one and install a battery. I´m gonna try it on my Rhoads when I´m done with the refin. Supposedly brings more headroom, liveliness and openness to the sound, which would be exactly what I´m "missing" ;)

If you need more info, www.emgpickups.com, or PM me ;)

And BTW, I DO see a value to these threads. Many of us have posted clips, and I´m quite sure that a lot of the people that "lurk" looking for info listen to them. If for Examplle someone that likes my tone and style would likely get a Duncan Custom anyway. But he´d now KNOW that the Carvin M22 series isn´t a viable option ;)

And foe example if almost everyone doesn´t like the Powersounds, then they´ll also know that that could be a good place to start modding if they already have a good amp :cool:

So these threads do what the whole forum is meant to, just in a different way :22:
 
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Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Fusion1 said:
I think the Ibanez Powersound pickup should be in the top 10 for worst of all time.
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Cast ditto for me.

I'm not sure about the EMG thing. Some really great players make good use of them, but when I have tried them they sound more like my electronic keyboard sample of a guitar than the real thing. Give me a good passive pickup anyday. (This opinion subject to change if I can ever get a set of those suckers to sound "real" for once. They certainly have their advantages.)
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Wow a lot of votes for powersound, ive never heard um, what exactly is it that is wrong with them?
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

To all you have proposed: I say Luxury! When I was young I had a Hagstrom III, and the stock single coils in it had a really ugly sound, harsh, thin, flat and dead. Even if I played really loud, the tone was so un-focused that no one could hear what I was playing.

When younger people hear this, they don´t believe it´s true.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

I've heard a lot of crappy pups, but the crappiest reasonably priced aftermarket pick up would defenitely be the DiMarzio Tone Zone. It's muddy, the treble amounts are so far cut back, leads are hardly noticable. That's actually one of the first pick ups I could not hear the note I was palm muting. In fact, it didn't even sound like palm muting any more. Put this thing in a mahogany body and get ready for your first round of mud wrestling :)
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

I had some Dimarzio Strat pickups that were dreadful...they measured around 6K and looked like vintage Strat pickups. Dead sounding pickups tho...no highs.

Those Strat pickups that come with 80's MIJ Squire Strats are awful...they usually have a ceramic magnet or two glued to the bottem. Replace those awful pickups and the 80's MIJ Squire usually becomes a great guitar.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Lewguitar said:
I had some Dimarzio Strat pickups that were dreadful...they measured around 6K and looked like vintage Strat pickups. Dead sounding pickups tho...no highs.
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I know what you mean. To be specific, I hate the dimarzio HS series. Yngwie can have them all. I think he is the only one that gets them to sound good.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Squier pickups or ibanez pickups. But on a sidenote, theEMGs are ****ing killer! long live the 81 and screw the people that can't handle the fooking fury.
 
Re: All-time LEAST favorite pickup

Well I'll stock MIM Strat pups are pretty bad but all time aftermarket loser for me is the DiMarzio X2N.
 
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