Cheap and badass pickups

CTN

CTN

The Drama Dude
Post your picks for cheap awesome pickups you've gotten to try.

By awesome I mean stuff that can stand up to any of the premium brands (SD, DiMarzio etc)



I recently nabbed a set of Wilkinson WHHBA humbuckers for my '62ri strat. It was mostly because I just wanted to make my strat HH and keep it as a backup for some of my other guitars that all happen to have humbuckers of sorts. They only cost about 50 bucks for the set, but i'll be damned if they aren't flat out amazing. Both are A5 buckers, bridge is 15k, and the neck is about 7.7k. Proper nickel silver baseplates, wax potted but not obnoxiously so.

They are both tremendously articulate and the neck pup has a great snappiness to it (which I figure is at least partially due to the innate build of a strat). Reminds me of a JazzN but fuller, livelier, and with more personality in the mids. Not unlike the '59n but better balanced EQ and seems to have a bit more modern output despite the DCR.

The bridge pickup has just the right amount of output to snarl and growl a bit at full tilt, but still cleans up extremely nicely. It's got this really nice tight low end and a really woody lower midrange that barks with a bit of aggression but never gets as obnoxious as for example the Custom 8. Clear and musical highs too. Killer harmonics.

Together they are super versatile and allow me to cover all the territory I can think of (blues, jazz, fusion, rock, funk, classic metal, modern death and black metal, fuzzed out stoner rock, you name it!)

Best cheap pickup set i've ever had the pleasure of playing. Really wasn't expecting them to sound this good.
 
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Re: Cheap and badass pickups

CTN said:
Together they are super versatile and allow me to cover all the territory I can think of (blues, jazz, fusion, rock, funk, classic metal, modern death and black metal, fuzzed out stoner rock, you name it!).
Click to expand...

What would you say they are best at?
 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

i've a GFS Fat Pat bridge in my agathis bodied strat copy that i'm very happy with. the stock humbucker (with a ceramic mag) that came in it was muddy, i dont know whether it was the pickup or the body or both that made it that way. but after i replaced it with the Fat Pat i got the clarity i wanted. so was the pick sensitivity wither wider and cleaner dynamic range, musical highs, balanced mids, organic compression and output. it is also very usable split, and retains great amount lows and mids with some twang of fat toned single coils. The Fat Pat is rated at 14K DCR, however mine is 15k.

some ppl have not been as lucky with them, and I think as with all cheap pickups the quality control and production variances are not highly enforced, resulting in some duds.
 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

I love the blade pickups that Artec makes. They make them for a number of different companies to different specs. I bought a few direct from Hong Kong that was 12K ohms with an Alnico 5 magnet that I have in two different guitars. They make the Lil' Killers for GFS, and I am really digging the 6K ohm one. It sounds like an awesome PAF pickup. The 15K ohm one sounds a lot like a balanced S.D. Custom.

In this guitar I have the Artec (12K ohm, A5) in the neck, GFS (6K, Ceramic) in the middle, and GFS (15K, Ceramic) in the bridge. This guitar may look a bit average, but it just plays so nicely. It is my favorite guitar right now. It is the most versatile guitar I have ever owned. I can do so much with it at the flip of a switch.

 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

I would also say Wilkinsons I had a WVC in th bridge of a guitar and for me it's perfect, Alnico 5 it's based on the Seth Lover designed apparently Trevor Wilkinson sat down with him and talked about how his humbuckers were made. I matched it with a Pearly gates and went together very well

CTN are you sure that your pickups are alnico 5? on the official website it says they're ceramic. But of they sound good well thats good too. I've seemed to get this while looking at websites, that they're not showing the true specs for whatever reason, probably mistakes by the shop.

http://www.jhs.co.uk/wilkinson.html

I'll also mentin Tonerider their quality is spectacular above Wilkinsons and competing with the big names. I've had loads of neck AC2 pickups, but for the likfe of me could not get any bridge ones, thats what stopped me getting any more.
 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

hb108.jpg
hb101b.jpg

If you can get 'em used and they came stock in someones guitar and they just had to change pickups, then SUPER cheap, and very nice pickups. :)
 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

My favorite cheap pickup is a used Duncan Designed HB103 bridge pickup that I got for $25 on FleaBay. Sounds like old school Maiden!
 
Re: Cheap and badass pickups

GFS Bigmouth
Mighty Mite Motherbucker
Kent Armstrong M215
Entwhistel HDN
 
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