Cheap pickups that should suck but dont.

S

Sam SG

Active member
So I found this intetesting. I have a partscaster its HSS and the single coils are Squier Alnico pickups from a 2004 standard series.
Now I owned these pickups 20yrs ago and now reown them lol. Sometime ago I pushed all the poles level to the cover.
Anyway dare I say as for middle and neck pickups I think they are the best strat pups Ive owned.
Ive had Fender CS 69 set CS fat 50s 57/62 Amr Std stock pups Dimarzio Blue velvet. 70s grey bobbin fenders. Dimarzio Areas HS3 FS1 and a Duncan SSL1
This is the 1st tine I have ever actually enjoyed the #4 switch position.
Did I inject magic by pushing the poles flat or sonething?
 

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Sam SG said:
Did I inject magic by pushing the poles flat or sonething?
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If these were more expensive pickups, I'd said that you've probably created a few shorts in the coils by ripping on 'em internally... but cheap pickups are often wound around plastic bobbins - putting the wire at a greater distance of the rod magnets, with an effect on the Q factor of the pickups... maybe that's what you appreciate, beside the flat poles. :-)

And sure, cheap pickups don't always suck, BTW. Enjoy!
 
Yea I know not to mess with the poles on vintage style strat pups, as the wire is wrapped around them.
Prolly not on these tho. But when I did it years ago it was more an I didnt care expierament. But I think I had a happy accident.
I know at rehearsal my co guitarist who owns about 25 strats including a 65'. I had him try it and he agreed said oh yea thats a keeper.
I also for whatever reason replaced the pickup leads with blk and red 22ga back then(15yrs or so)
 
There is no need to push all pole pieces in with vintage curved fretboard. This causes the d and a string to get drowned in the mix and get an uneven response. In most cases its enough to play with a lower height on the g string.
 
Most cheap pickups aren't bad in my opinion. It's just that if you pay extra you can guarantee that you are getting the exact sound and feel you want.

My MIM Strat had Squier Affinity single coils in it for a while, because I liked them better than the EMG SA set that was in it
 
Some folks on here said the Epiphone Probuckers suck
But I disagree

I have a variety of opinions on humbuckers

Single coils are different

I can hear difference in Lace Sensor and rail types from your standard single

And there may be some difference between polepiece magnets and the "stuck on bottom" magnets

But between the SOB style
I cant tell if it's ceramic or alnico or little neodymium disc's stuck on bottom

They sound so much alike and just a twist of the tone knob gives me a usable tone

This may be why my strats just don't get much love anymore
 
If anyone is looking for a cheap pickup that sound really good I have this First Act pickup brass base plate that sound like and built like a old Mighty Mite 70 s Super Slug humbucker it’s in the Trading section if anyone is interested.
 
I've got a lot of guitars with "cheap" pups in them that sound amazing.

My favorite guitar is one I made about 15 years ago with GFS Dream 180 pups (comparatively cheap). Everyone without exception that has played it loves the sound. I was offered $10,000 for it but refused to sell because it is the perfect storm of everything that makes a guitar play and sound great...I've never been able to duplicate that in any guitar I've made or bought since.
 
pittbull said:
If anyone is looking for a cheap pickup that sound really good I have this First Act pickup brass base plate that sound like and built like a old Mighty Mite 70 s Super Slug humbucker it’s in the Trading section if anyone is interested.
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I have to take a recommendation from someone "with one to sell" with a grain of salt

Just saying 😌
 
I actually have a pair of those double slug First Act pups.
I inherited the guitar. It was given to my father apart in a box. We put it together just as " another guitar to have" for him.
Those pups actually arent half bad. Dunno if Id put um in a build. But good enough to not rip out and pay money to replace in a $150 guitar.
Speaking of that guitar we made the control and switch back covers out of the cowprint back of a notepad. It has 4x gibson deluxe tuners and 2x kluson style and a homemade jack plate.
 

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I have a pair of first act humbuckers that have a single piece of plastic covering both coils with an oval embossed on it. I got rid of them without even trying them because they were too ugly even for me
 
Chistopher said:
I have a pair of first act humbuckers that have a single piece of plastic covering both coils with an oval embossed on it. I got rid of them without even trying them because they were too ugly even for me
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I remember those. Those *are* pretty ugly actually.
 
I had a guitar with a couple of very cheap wilkinson ceramic P90s, they were unbeatable in that guitar, modified a thousand times, always coming back to the Wilkinsons, gave it for a gift to a friend of mine son, always regret it :)
 
On cheap humbuckers (including Epiphone), a reminder : they are better nowadays than a few decades ago but their covers are still of "variable" quality.

No problems with the mini-humbuckers in my Epi Wilshire. Standard mini-hum specs - except different baseplates and heavy wax-potting but DCR, inductance and measured resonant peaks are vintage correct at least for the neck pickup (the bridge one being a stronger version obviously wound with 43AWG). They are good enough to stay in this guitar - which is an Epiphone only guitar model and not a Gibson copy, requiring bad pickups to keep the desire to buy real Gibson's... ;-)

Now I've dealt with incredibly bad covers on full size humbuckers mounted in Epi LP, Ibanez Gibson copies and other Asian clones... The tone was simply drowned in dulling eddy currents. Once these covers pulled off and the coils "dewaxed", these pickups were actually decent.
 
freefrog said:
On cheap humbuckers (including Epiphone), a reminder : they are better nowadays than a few decades ago but their covers are still of "variable" quality.

No problems with the mini-humbuckers in my Epi Wilshire. Standard mini-hum specs - except different baseplates and heavy wax-potting but DCR, inductance and measured resonant peaks are vintage correct at least for the neck pickup (the bridge one being a stronger version obviously wound with 43AWG). They are good enough to stay in this guitar - which is an Epiphone only guitar model and not a Gibson copy, requiring bad pickups to keep the desire to buy real Gibson's... ;-)

Now I've dealt with incredibly bad covers on full size humbuckers mounted in Epi LP, Ibanez Gibson copies and other Asian clones... The tone was simply drowned in dulling eddy currents. Once these covers pulled off and the coils "dewaxed", these pickups were actually decent.
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For covers, yes, i can't agree more. Most of them have very thick chrome covers made of brass.

There several companies that makes really affordable and cool pickups: Artec, Donlis, Fleor, Tonerider etc.
 
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