Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

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Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

zionstrat said:
MikeS said:
This is a classic example of paying for a novelty item. QUOTE]

Don't want to rehash much that was on the other recent thread, but calling bardens a novelty is way, way off track- Don't mean any disrespect Mike, but it was in looking for barden replacements that I came over to SD (at least this last pass) and quite honestly, there is nothgin that SD, Dmzo, or others have to offer that's really in the ball park ( I have a little killer on oder, but potetinal problem with the rout size)-

Dont get me wrong I like SD and dmzo (cruiser and cool rails are the closest I can find to Barden S right now) and of course they have their own advantages, but bardens are a rather differnt sound and it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what is going on with them-

I also could never pay this amount for these pups, so it's not the price I am talking about- But what Lew started with is right on, I would expect it would be worth SDs time to investigate the size of the barden market and I bet it's rather large for a boutique pup- I think this would actually do a lot to round out the rails line and could start at the high end of the scale to amortize costs, and cut back over time to fill the space-

BTW as a barden nut, this definately is an 80/20 issue- I can get most of my sound out of other pups and retired my bardens to the studio to keep them safe- Other barden nuts are like me, we dont tend to care practically anything about name, how it's made etc, as most have tried evertyhing out there including the $24 lil killer.

It's just a significatly different tone that happens to work for us and there's no replacements out there right now, so it's supply and demand as opposed to novelty-

So are the Lil Killers any good?
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

It's on order and will be going up against a cool rails for the middle position on my new project, so I'll let you know relatively soon-

But one factor that impacts me- they sent me a note today to tell me that it's not the exact size of a barden (ie cool rails)- This may be a problem as it's a top rout project and I'm not re-routing at this point
 
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Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

OK...I may be wrong, but a friend of mine did put Barden's on his Tele a few years ago and I played that guitar quite a few times.

I really, really thought they where bad sounding pickups.:eek13:
They really ruined that Tele.
The price they are going for nowadays is pure hype. IMHO.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

zionstrat said:
Don't want to rehash much that was on the other recent thread, but calling bardens a novelty is way, way off track- Don't mean any disrespect Mike...

None taken. I was referring mainly to the fact that the price is so insane because the item is no longer in production and there is no other pickup like it, making it a novelty of sorts. It in no way is a negative criticism of the pickup, as I understand Bardens are as boutique as you can get with a pickup.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

soulman-
actually I'm not surprised as most either like or dont like bardens- not a lot of middle of the road- I describe them as very articulate, even when they break up, ive heard others call them thick, which I can understand but thats not what sells me-I guess we all hear things differently and the good news is we've got a lot of choices out there!
Mike-thanks!
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Regarding the Barden Tele pickups: the Bill Kirchen Tele that I played at NAMM was one of the best sounding electric guitars I've ever played...and it had Bardens.

As for Danny Gatton, he's one of my favorite players and I've never heard him sound hi-fi or anemic. He's the guy the Bardens were designed for.

Barden Tele pickups do not sound anemic or hi-fi, although I have used the term hi-fi to describe them. That's not an accurate description because hi-fi typically means sterile or lacking in balls or lacking in a throaty tone.


Revealing and articulate is perhaps a better description...they are very throaty and ballsy but, like most Tele pickups, also very revealing and if you're playing is sloppy you'll hear every detail of that sloppy playing.

That's a Tele for you though...I think Fender's in general are very revealing and that a Tele is even more revealing of sloppy playing than a Strat. They're hard to play and you have to have clean chops to sound good on one and you also have to have enough playing time under your belt that you know how to shape the tone with your hands.

When I was younger (19 or so) I hated Teles, and all I wanted to play was a Gibson Les Paul or ES-335 with humbuckers because that fat warm tone would hide a certain lack of technique.

Then I saw Roy Buchanan and was so blown away that I sought out an old Tele and found a '51. Cost me about $175 in those days.

Anyways, I just got my set of Bardens in the mail and I'll be putting them in either my '54 Tele or my Tele Custom.

I'll do a review of them in my own guitar in a week or so after I get used to them and have had a chance to tweak them.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Lewguitar said:
Regarding the Barden Tele pickups: the Bill Kirchen Tele that I played at NAMM was one of the best sounding electric guitars I've ever played...and it had Bardens.

As for Danny Gatton, he's one of my favorite players and I've never heard him sound hi-fi or anemic. He's the guy the Bardens were designed for.

Barden Tele pickups do not sound anemic or hi-fi, although I have used the term hi-fi to describe them. That's not an accurate description because hi-fi typically means sterile or lacking in balls or lacking in a throaty tone.


Revealing and articulate is perhaps a better description...they are very throaty and ballsy but, like most Tele pickups, also very revealing and if you're playing is sloppy you'll hear every detail of that sloppy playing.

That's a Tele for you though...I think Fender's in general are very revealing and that a Tele is even more revealing of sloppy playing than a Strat. They're hard to play and you have to have clean chops to sound good on one and you also have to have enough playing time under your belt that you know how to shape the tone with your hands.

When I was younger (19 or so) I hated Teles, and all I wanted to play was a Gibson Les Paul or ES-335 with humbuckers because that fat warm tone would hide a certain lack of technique.

Then I saw Roy Buchanan and was so blown away that I sought out an old Tele and found a '51. Cost me about $175 in those days.

Anyways, I just got my set of Bardens in the mail and I'll be putting them in either my '54 Tele or my Tele Custom.

I'll do a review of them in my own guitar in a week or so after I get used to them and have had a chance to tweak them.

Do you mind answering the question "How much?" It's cool if you don't ;)
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

gripweed said:
Do you mind answering the question "How much?" It's cool if you don't ;)

I paid $575. for my set. That's alot...but from what I've seen, cheap for a set of Bardens.

I also picked up some of Joe's Tele bridge set-ups. ($95) It has the three compensated brass saddles and the rest of the bridge is made from a little heavier gauge steel than normal and has two extra screw holes so you can screw it down nice and tight.

I'll be keeping those in stock, but I won't be installing that on my '54 Tele...don't want any extra screw holes in that guitar.

I'll use it on my MIJ Tele Custom.


Lew
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Lewguitar said:
I also picked up some of Joe's Tele bridge set-ups. ($95) It has the three compensated brass saddles and the rest of the bridge is made from a little heavier gauge steel than normal and has two extra screw holes so you can screw it down nice and tight.

I'll be keeping those in stock, but I won't be installing that on my '54 Tele...don't want any extra screw holes in that guitar.

I'll use it on my MIJ Tele Custom.


Lew

IMHO, those are the best Tele bridges hands down.....

What a beautiful piece of equipment.
JBT-VB1.jpg
 
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Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Butch Snyder said:
IMHO, those are the best Tele bridges hands down.....

What a beautiful piece of equipment.
JBT-VB1.jpg

Yep...that's the one! :)
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Lew-
Congrats on the Bardens- I'm going to the other end of the spectrum and hope to report soon- I've ordered a little killer and will try to modify to to fit in my current project by moving the leads and chopping off a bit of the baseplate, but that's not very scary with a $24pup-

Of course I'm jealous that you've got the real thing:)
m
 
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Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

I have a set of GFS pups in my Kramer. I have the Lil' HOT Puncher in the bridge and the Modern Vintage in the neck. Now I've never heard Bardens, so I can't compare. I bought the Puncher because I wasn't able to afford a HotRails at the time. I was elated when they release the Tele Sized Neck rails pups because nobody else has one. I really like the tone. They are dark enough to have grunt and are bright enough to be clear.

I have a clip if someone will host it for me.

Here's a pic:

Body-GFSPair.jpg


Trevor
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

FYI, as you may know, the recent Gatton teles are being equipped with new Fender dual rail pickups, that were designed by Bill Lawrence. Fender is manufacturing from this design. A guy over on TDP, who is pretty close to Bill Lawrence, has recently posted that these new Gatton pickups will eventually be offered for sale as aftermarket items. No idea how they sound, or when the pups will be available, but just food for thought.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Butch Snyder said:
IMHO, those are the best Tele bridges hands down.....

What a beautiful piece of equipment.
JBT-VB1.jpg
I have to agree, and thank Butch for turning me on to those.

although the slotted screws are a b!tch! you have to mess with the saddle screws so they won't poke your hand too

there are some other nice bridges out there I haven't tried - the Wilkinson, which looks so well made, and can adjust the angle of the saddle, the JT like Bill Kirchen uses, and the Glendales.

my first impression of my Callaham bridge after about a week is that it sounds a little tinny compared to the Barden


this is one area where I think Lew could excel in helping tele tweakers -- finding the ultimate parts at several price points. The Barden bridge is a good place to start.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

One thing that I find it interesting that nobody has "harped" about....

One of the reasons Barden´s were well recieved was that they weren´t one of the large players in the Aftermarke t PU game.

Now, how many times has a boutique product been "made a production product" or bought out by another company who would often produce iit with no change to the originals (Same people, same machines, same materials...)... yet even though nothing has changed but the name, they´re suddenly "Crap".... doesn´t matter if it´s true or not, as long as you can discredit someone who had the idea you wish you´d have had....

Similar thing with the Dimebucker... how many people are constantly talking opu their ass about how dime "Used XXL-500s to the end and the SD is a cheap POS Copy", simply because they dont know the real deal and therefore assume "Large company = Evil".....Or how about the way people are BSing that pre-Fender Jacksons are better, even though there´s no difference in personnel (Except that they brought Mike Shannon BACK), the machines are the same, and the JCF is seeing nowhere near as many QC issues as they we were 5 years ago... Yeah, they suck so bad that they don´t have major issues for the most part any more :smack:

In other words, there´s also a VERY good chance, should a "Seymour Barden" ever become reality, that players will piss all over it without even trying, and it will bomb solely becasue it´s not obscure anymore... ;)
 
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Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Pinto- Cool set up- Have you ever considered a spin-a-split (maybe a cocentric pot) to get the 'in between' sounds- I bet youo'd like em- sorry no hostign space, but appreciate the input-

Zerb- I hate to face the fact that you're right, but you just might be- On the other hand I like to think that Barden and SD folks are above that kind of fluff, but then again pet rocks were a big hit at one time weren't they:)
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

Zerberus said:
One thing that I find it interesting that nobody has "harped" about....

One of the reasons Barden´s were well recieved was that they weren´t one of the large players in the Aftermarke t PU game.

Now, how many times has a boutique product been "made a production product" or bought out by another company who would often produce iit with no change to the originals (Same people, same machines, same materials...)... yet even though nothing has changed but the name, they´re suddenly "Crap".... doesn´t matter if it´s true or not, as long as you can discredit someone who had the idea you wish you´d have had....

Similar thing with the Dimebucker... how many people are constantly talking opu their ass about how dime "Used XXL-500s to the end and the SD is a cheap POS Copy", simply because they dont know the real deal and therefore assume "Large company = Evil".....Or how about the way people are BSing that pre-Fender Jacksons are better, even though there´s no difference in personnel (Except that they brought Mike Shannon BACK), the machines are the same, and the JCF is seeing nowhere near as many QC issues as they we were 5 years ago... Yeah, they suck so bad that they don´t have major issues for the most part any more :smack:

In other words, there´s also a VERY good chance, should a "Seymour Barden" ever become reality, that players will piss all over it without even trying, and it will bomb solely becasue it´s not obscure anymore... ;)

Well said! There is a real snobbery among some musicians, especially when it comes to equipment. Too many musician are more concerned with status as opposed to tone.
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

gripweed said:
Well said! There is a real snobbery among some musicians, especially when it comes to equipment. Too many musician are more concerned with status as opposed to tone.

That's true to some degree among kids and inexperienced or untalented musicians. But there's plenty of guys who know the difference. In the case of the Bardens, they are the real deal: my favorite Tele pickups that I have ever owned. But I would love to compare them to the Bill Lawrence pickups!

There is alot of hype around pickups. I have a set of Tom Holmes humbuckers for example and I love them. But they are not worth $500 a set and there are Duncans I like just as much.

But there's nothing I have tried that satisfies me the way the Bardens do, and
IMO, they are worth every penny just because they are so good and there's no other way to get that tone except to bite the bullet and pay what they're going for.

Lew
 
Re: Do you believe what these two pickups are selling for???

I don't want to sound like a complete echo of Lew, but again, I cannot stress how incredible bardens are, and how this has nothing to do with looking cool- My barden powered Zionstrat was my main guitar for almost 10 years which meant my prs, lp and more viual guitars stayed at home- The Zion was simply more versital-

I litterally can't count the number of times that I've had audience members ask how I got such a sound out of a 'copy' guitar- All they knew were fender and gibson-

I get more 'cool' complements out of my SD/Dmzo nitefly now that I keep the bardens at home, but only a few recognise that it's not quite the same level guitar- perfect for live but I could replace it if it doesn't come home in one piece.

cheers
 
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