Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

[prorenzo]

Hi everyone

I bought a pair of Gibson Tony Iommi Humbuckers second hand back in Oct 2016 at $180 and recently dropped them in a Gibson SG.

They measured 8.1k ohms and 8.4k ohms respectively, which is just half the stated value of these pickups (16.5k). True enough, when I fired up my lead solo patch on the fractal ax8, its nearly a clean tone. Output was miserably small. Now I am so bummed and disappointed because I waited since February to get my Gibson SG due to CITES, only for these pickups to fail on me. I got the SG for these pickups and not the other way round.

What other alternative pickups do you guys recommend? Getting a brand new set is way out of my budget and I believe that they are discontinued. Might be looking for something from Bareknuckle, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio etc. I am looking for something as close to the Tony Iommi Humbuckers as possible.

I'm not very knowledgeable on pickups but here is my opinion. Seymour duncan pickups sound a bit compressed sounding, kind of squashes dynamics in my opinion. Mids and treble have a 'sandy' tone to them. Dimarzios on the other hand sound too fat and mid-hyped. Bareknuckle is abit out of my price range and the jump from vintage hot to contemporary pickups is quite huge. I want something voiced in between a vintage hot and a modern tone, and the Tony Iommi's seem to be the only pickup that fits my ideal tone. Any ideas?

 

[gsammo79]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

If the output in the Iommi pickup wasn't quite enough, then you've got plenty of options. An output deficiency is easy to fix, but higher output alternatives will come with their own particular nuances. I'd suggest a JB, Custom if you want to go the *hot* route, or something more moderately expressive such as a Perpetual Burn or a 59/Custom hybrid-- not sure if this helps, but just my .02

 

[AlexR]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

How did you measure the K and wire them up???

I ask mainly as each manufacturer has their own wiring colours......and the K readings and tone you are getting sounds like you have only had 1 coil operational.
Secondly, If you had wired for series the whole thing correctly with the right colours and 1 coil was non operational then you would get no sound at all.
And the fact that both have the same flaw and the same type of flaw more than ever makes me think that something about your method is off.....it is rare to have 1 pickup reading half let alone 2 - even if they are secondhand.

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

It sounds like maybe they are wired split? Got a picture of the wiring?

I would recommend the Seymour Duncan tony iommi pickup aka the Scott Ian el diablo. Maybe the bkp warpigs.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

I believe my Iommi pickup was 15.8k if I remember correctly, so yea I'm in agreement that perhaps you have them wired wrong especially having a pair that are both out like that.
Here's a link to the wire colors:
http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Onlin...ics_and_Wiring/Gibson_Humbucking_Pickups.html

 

[prorenzo]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

I dont know anything about wiring but my guitar tech, who has 10 years of guitar tech experience, says he did check the wiring several times and crossed reference with both gibson and seymour duncan diagrams to ensure it was correct. He is pretty sure the iommi pickups are fried one way or another.

I have been doing my research and listening to sound demos of pickups for the past few days and the one that come closest to what I want is the Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn (Jason Becker Signatures)
It is neither too vintage PAF sounding nor in the modern djent sounding territory. It comes close to the kind of high end bloom and low end chug that I want, with abit of 80s shred tone smoothness to it.

The El Diablo comes a bit close but still too modern and aggressive for what im looking for. There seems to be that empty gap between a vintage output and modern output that pickups dont really cover.

Are there any other alternatives I should consider?

Anyway ive been storing the iommi pickups in a cabinet which is 1 feet away from my computer cpu and studio monitors. Could this have affected the magnets inside the pickups? I would think that 1 feet is far away enough.
Is it possible and practical to re-gauss/re-magnetize the pickups as well?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Alternatives to Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups?

Can you tap on the pickups' poles lightly to make sure both coils are working? If they are, take a few pics of the wiring- something is wrong, and replacing the pickups (I can't believe BOTH are bad) isn't a good idea until you can confirm everything is working properly (it isn't). My bet is the wiring is either splitting the pickups or they are in parallel.