Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

Z

zizyphus

New member
Hello everyone

I'm zizyphus, and I'm a gearaholic

I've recently been diagnosed with an atypical form of GAS: I like experimenting with pickups and magnets so much that I need to buy more guitars just to have a vehicle for the pickups to ride in.

I've tinkered with the wiring and pickups in the guitars I have enough that I absolutely love most of them the way they are. BUT! BUT! I just NEED to try the Pearly Gates, for instance. And if I'm going to buy a Pearly, I might as well get a nice used SG to put it in... And what about Bare Knuckle? Maybe they're just overpriced and overhyped, but... how can I know for sure if I don't buy a few sets to tinker with?

Every time I think I'm dong okay, I accidentally click on a targeted Facebook ad, and before I even know it, I fall off the wagon. Help me, friends.... Help me....
 
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Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

ive totally bought guitars just to put pups in em before
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

This is me exactly. I just emailed warmoth to add to my order another hardtail strat with a swimming pool - My ax of choice as a pickup vehicle. Even though they're closed through May and backed up after that! I saw a JBJ in the for sale forum and thought I didn't have anywhere to put it. Then thought, **** it... that's a pickup I NEED. I think it's gonna stay put though after I installed it. I have 1 flawless Fralin pickguard without a home. And I'm looking at this mini humbucker sized p90 that I don't have an idea of where I'd put it... But I'm probably going to end up getting it! Eff! Lol! I friggin love hybridizing and mag swapping too. I make a point to use every single mag that I like. 2,3,uo5,5,6,8,9. HALP!
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I have a Pearly Gates and a Bare Knuckle True Grit humbucker in the mail

Somewhere, there's an SG with my name it. I don't have an SG, so how can my gear journey be complete?!?!

Clint, I haven't gotten in to hybridizing yet, but I get that vibe that it would be DEVASTATING to my finances...
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

wait till you buy a winder, magnets in bulk, and wire in 5lb spools :D
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

ive totally bought guitars just to put pups in em before
Click to expand...

I've totally bought guitars to take the pickups OUT and used elsewhere (or sell).

I purchased a damaged Ibanez GAX 50 for $42 from a local pawnshop and sold the pair of Duncan Invaders for $100.....
The guitar is still in a gigbag waiting to be loved on.
 
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Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I've certainly bought pickups to try out, and then constructed hosts so I can discover new tones.

Of course being a lefty, thats sometimes the only way I can do it - as there are many, many guitars and pickup options that simply don't exist in LH forms.
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

With all the wonderful pickups in the world, how can anyone have just one guitar?
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I've got a zebra JB trem spaced that I would love to put in a Floyd equiped single pickup 1 volume superstrat.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I wish guitar companies would let dealers sell guitars without pickups at a slightly discounted rate. The way cars are now would be like trying to buy a cooler to put your beer in, but every cooler you buy already has beer in it. Yeah it's nice to have a cooler, yeah it's nice to have beer, but I don’t need more right now, I need somewhere to put the stuff I do have.
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

It's possible to have too much beer?

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

If you have too much beer you run out of places to keep it cold.
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I've almost done this, not so much because I wanted to try a bunch of new pickups, but because I've wanted to bring back an old combination. I once had a CRn/VRn/Screamin Demon in an HSS strat... LOVED that combination but got the itch to try some new things. Ended up finding another combination in that guitar that I really liked, but I wanted to bring back that combination. Alas, no spare guitars. Also have a loaded pickguard laying around with a CRn/Crazy8 that needs a body to go on.
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

Me too, a guitar is really just a pickup host. I keep a dozen semi not expensive guitars like LTDs, Yamaha, Ibanez SZ.. just to keep the pickup obsession rolling.
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I can't "help" anyone when it comes to obsessions but I can share two things that I've done to try pickups more easily:

-I've built a Super-Strat with a Kahler trem and a hole through the body. Pickups can be loaded from the back and can be replaced precisely where they were, in a minute.
It's not totally efficient since it just shows how pickups work in THIS guitar (a lightweight Strat with a soft resonance) but at least it allows me to try various prototypes.

-Among the dozens of instruments that we have here @ home, a few have been fitted with permanent alligator clips and various kinds of mini plugs / quick connectors allowing to change the pickups quickly. When done correctly, it doesn't rise too much the overall stray capacitance and the connections are firm enough to make things useable...

FWIW. :-)
 
Re: Buying guitars to feed your pickup obsession

I dodged this particular bullet by becoming very fast at changing pickups.

My collection says I didn't dodge any of the other guitar buying traps...
 
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