Are the Artec HBA115 or VH-Rock any good?

[Rex_Rocker]

Kinda want matching zebra neck pickups to match my zebra bridge pickups. I, of course, want something nice. But I'm also not sure I use my neck pickups enough to justify spending high-end pickup prices on two guitars. I just want to make sure if these are actually good or they're just a waste of money. What are you guys' thoughts on these particular Artec pickups? Are they at least comparable Duncan '59's or will I be unsatisfied?

Thanks!

 

[jeremy]

never tried em, sorry

 

[Chistopher]

If you don't use your neck humbucker a lot, I don't think the solution is to buy a cheaper one.

Why not try something different enough from the usual that it will force you to use your creativity?

If you want to stick within a budget, GFS has some whacky humbucker sized pickups for cheap that won't kill you financially if you don't like them.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I tried a few Artec pups years ago. They were all passable albiet kinda generic sounding. Fleor pups on Amazon are pretty great for next to nothing. I'd rate them above the Artec's. Otherwise "Oripure" ($40-50 a pup) are absolutely on par w/ Duncan's for not much more money than the Fleor's..

But yah, Fleor's will get the job done..

 

[Masta' C]

Keep in mind the cream colors may not match well, if that matters to you

 

[marcello252]

Tonerider pickups are cheap , reliable and sound above average, very close if not equal to some SD, I'm talking by personal experience, they sell zebra and double cream too

 

[RanchManSandy]

Tonerider pickups are cheap , reliable and sound above average, very close if not equal to some SD, I'm talking by personal experience, they sell zebra and double cream too

Double cream?? Are they getting away with it by just flying under the radar? Seems risky.

 

[playas]

I'm almost certain that only applies in the US, ...and it's not an American company.

Duncan could perfectly well sell double cream pickups overseas... although I guess they'd rather err on the side of caution and avoid tarnishing their brand name.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Tonerider pickups are cheap , reliable and sound above average, very close if not equal to some SD, I'm talking by personal experience, they sell zebra and double cream too

I really wanted a Tonerider Classic II or IV for the neck, but I can only find them for sale on eBay or Amazon, and with shipping to Canada, they end up not being all that cheaper than Seymour Duncan, sadly.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I tried a few Artec pups years ago. They were all passable albiet kinda generic sounding. Fleor pups on Amazon are pretty great for next to nothing. I'd rate them above the Artec's. Otherwise "Oripure" ($40-50 a pup) are absolutely on par w/ Duncan's for not much more money than the Fleor's..

But yah, Fleor's will get the job done..

I have been looking into those Fleors too. The neck one doesn't sound too bad in that clip.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I bought a couple of sets of them 4-5 years ago on ebay. I think it was from Musiclilly for like $20 a set.

The seller had a warning up on the page to watch out for 'fake' ones and to only buy from reliable/reputed sources :lmao:

Something you might want to keep in mind if you do decide to go the Fleor route.. :bigthumb:

 

[marcello252]

Double cream?? Are they getting away with it by just flying under the radar? Seems risky.

I read somewhere that Dimarzio trademark applies in U.S. only but I'm not a lawyer, I'm not sure about it, anyway there are several european brands selling double cream pickups

 

[marcello252]

Fleor pups on Amazon are pretty great for next to nothing. I'd rate them above the Artec's

I tried once an Alnico P90 set, pretty unamazing indeed

 

[jeremy]

I read somewhere that Dimarzio trademark applies in U.S. only but I'm not a lawyer, I'm not sure about it, anyway there are several european brands selling double cream pickups

this is true, its usa markets

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I tried once an Alnico P90 set, pretty unamazing indeed

The Artecs?

 

[marcello252]

The Artecs?

The Fleors

 

[RanchManSandy]

I'm almost certain that only applies in the US, ...and it's not an American company.

Duncan could perfectly well sell double cream pickups overseas... although I guess they'd rather err on the side of caution and avoid tarnishing their brand name.

hm, Tonerider has a US address in their website and even say their US orders ship direct from the US. I understand they started as a UK company and still headquarters there, but I would have assumed incorporating within and shipping from within the US would put them under trademark laws here. I mean, otherwise a Chinese company could just set up distribution within the US and get away with the Gibson copies, no?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I got the HBA115. I wanted the Fleor, but the shipping on those would've taken longer, LOL, so I didn't want to wait.

I had some issues with the polarity of the pickup. The polarity is flipped compared to Duncans, Gibsons, Suhrs, DiMarzios, etc. But once I sorted it out, I got it working.

It's pretty OK! I don't feel like I hugely downgraded teh 490R it replaced. It kinda sounds like what you'd expect an 8K-ish A5 pickup to sound like. Kind of along the lines of the '59 or the Jazz. It's pretty alright. It's not particularly noisy of microphonic either. Kinda like how people speak highly of the Epiphone Probuckers, I suppose. Not gonna say this is OMG AWESOME, but I feel it's nice that the look of my pickups now match better, and it doesn't look as thrown together, and it's nice to have a decent usable neck pickup sound for the rare occasions where I flip that pickup switch.

I suppose the only downside is I expected the pickup to be hotter. At 8.4K and powered by A5, I thought it would be hotter than the 7.5K A2 490R. It kind of isn't. It's roughly the same. But it's alright. It balances fine if I crank it up (the same way I had the 490R).

So I think the experiment was succesful. I kinda feel curious about trying the matching bridge pickup. It's 16K-ish A5. But I'm no hurry to swap my Suhr SSH+'s out either.

 

[freefrog]

I suppose the only downside is I expected the pickup to be hotter. At 8.4K and powered by A5, I thought it would be hotter than the 7.5K A2 490R. It kind of isn't. It's roughly the same.

Thinner wire giving more DCR with less turns / less inductance? But the first thing coming to my mind is how strongly charged were the Gibson magnets with which I've dealt in recent pickups. Some Burstbuckers Pro that I've tested / measured in a LP delivered 33% more output voltage than equivalent Duncan's because of that...

And to come back on topic: Artec and Duncan designed are in the same league to me. With such products, swapping parts of the magnetic circuit can improve the sound noticeably IME.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Thinner wire giving more DCR with less turns / less inductance? But the first thing coming to my mind is how strongly charged were the Gibson magnets with which I've dealt in recent pickups. Some Burstbuckers Pro that I've tested / measured in a LP delivered 33% more output voltage than equivalent Duncan's because of that...

And to come back on topic: Artec and Duncan designed are in the same league to me. With such products, swapping parts of the magnetic circuit can improve the sound noticeably IME.

They mention on their site it's 42 gauge. So I assumed the wire gauge is the same.

Which parts would you suggest swaping out to improve it? Magnet and polepieces?