Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

[papersoul]

I am starting to lean toward the idea that only bad or very low quality pickups need replacement such as budget guitars, imports, etc.

I say thins because we did a bit of an experiment lately. I had a series of 3 gigs at a club where my buddy did sound. He is usually getting on me about always obsessing about pickups. He always uses stock pickups and sounds great while I search endlessly for that perfect match.

Anyway, he told me I always sound great out front and never notice a difference when I change pickups. I used the stock Gibson Burstbucker Pros, Duncan C-5 and Rio Grande BBQ and he did sound on all of these gigs. A friend did a quick recording from each show and with the right EQ of my amp and the right adjustments at the board.....he was right....I couldn't tell the difference! Anyone else find this?

I wish I could now get a hold of these tapes but they were over written because we were just listening for differences and this wasn't a full blown recording for the band. He kind of made me see the light that the total picture, guitar, cable, pick, strings, amp, pickups, cabinet, speakers, mike placement, etc will have a large effect but one small piece will be barely noticeable in the end. ??????

 

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

You should only replace anything if its broken or sounds contrary to what you hear in your head.


my 2 cents

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

When you're playing live in a club, the differences don't matter as much because each venue you play in is so different from the others that the acoustics (not to mention the sound man/house system) change the tone of the guitar more than changing pickups does. And even if you're in the same place every night, playing live is just a different animal. It's more raw and in your face.

When you go to record in the studio, that's when the subtle differences in pickups suddenly become not-so-subtle.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

In a club, just getting in the ballpark is all you need. Obviously a crappy import pickup, Duncan '59 and Dimarzio Super DIstortion WILL sound different. But I'd go so far as to say any decent PAF class pickup will sound good and almost the same. Recording is when it gets a little more important, when the different in A2 and A5 is audible, and you are trying to capture those little idiosyncrasies that can make a recording stand out.

Also, I always thought I'd be replacing pickups from stock no matter what until I heard the Tele Texas Specials. They sound exactly like I want my guitar to sound.

 

[Istanbul]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I think some of the guitars need replaced pups because of the customers wishes. I can like stratocaster body and shape, but i could demand to play Heavy or Fusion with that guitar. In that case noone can make believing that i would be able to take my tones with digital processors or amp simulators or whatever else.. A single coil is a single coil at the end.

If we talk about an american Gibson, it changes for me.. I wouldn`t change a Les Paul`s pickup but i have changed my Gibson Explorer`s pickup with Duncan Custom bridge and Pearly Gates neck. Because 500T bridge of Gibson cannot give my palm mutings as in the way Custom gives.. and Neck pickup changed also automatically

its all choices.. i ve always thought "why that Telecaster guitars have a such a weak pup combinations?" I like its shape but i prefer a Single sized Humbucker with that shape.its up to you..

 

[papersoul]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

Thanks guys! I don't do a lot of recording and hope to soon so I'll keep all of this in mind! I mostly jam and play gigs right now. I was in the process of puting the Rio Grande BBQ/Texas set in all my guitars because they seem pretty transparent and let the guitar speak but I hear that about a lot of pickups. Maybe I should stay stock for now till I start more recoriding.

I always lean toward thick pickups so I came back to the Rio grandes, but I guess there goes the transparency theory! LOL.

I think a lot of guys use stuff like Monster cable and EMGs for transparency or a true, clean signal but many feel that as sterile as well. I guess we all use what works for us. Funny, I have a friend who gigs and records with EMGs in all his LPs and his tone is amazing and all his guitars sound different.

I tend to like warmth no matter what and look for that.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I think that there are a couple of considerations besides "quality".

I replaced a set of Rios with Duncan EVHs because the Rios' character was just not what I was looking for. Similarly, I'll eventually get around to replacing my PRS HFS/VB pickups for the same reason. Good pickups but not my bag and it's to hard to get the sound I'm looking for with them.

This is probably more an issue for folks who play out but I don't want to have to tweak my amp's settings every time I switch guitars. That's a big reason why I passed on Parker guitars: I'd have to dial in the amp whenever I plugged it in and that's just not acceptable to me. I like having a palette of sounds from my stable of guitars but I still want things to be plug & play to the greatest extent possible.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I only have 3 thoughts when it comes to changing pickups.

1. Does it Work, electrically speaking?
2. does the guitar sound the way I want it to with this pickup in it.

If the answer to either is no, I´ll change.. if the answer to both is yes, then the pickup stays, regardless of what it is, until the answer to one is no

 

[papersoul]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I think that there are a couple of considerations besides "quality".

I replaced a set of Rios with Duncan EVHs because the Rios' character was just not what I was looking for. Similarly, I'll eventually get around to replacing my PRS HFS/VB pickups for the same reason. Good pickups but not my bag and it's to hard to get the sound I'm looking for with them.

This is probably more an issue for folks who play out but I don't want to have to tweak my amp's settings every time I switch guitars. That's a big reason why I passed on Parker guitars: I'd have to dial in the amp whenever I plugged it in and that's just not acceptable to me. I like having a palette of sounds from my stable of guitars but I still want things to be plug & play to the greatest extent possible.

So how do you get your guitar's plug n play so you don't have to adjust settings? To me the only way would be to use the same pickups in all guitars so the feel is similar, the output is similar and so on....from there the big differences will be the guitars themselves.

I have different settings on my amps for all my guitars because the natural tone of the guitar imparts a large difference but I try to maintain some consistency with the pickups. Maybe this is weird.

I use a digital rig so a lot of this is out the window I guess since I can have different patches for each guitar.

 

[Artie]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

When you go to record in the studio, that's when the subtle differences in pickups suddenly become not-so-subtle.

Yup. I agree. Since my playing situation is exclusively "home-studio", I can hear some pretty subtle differences in pickups.

To complicate the issue more, I'm still enjoying the process of discovering SD pups. The three Cool Rails in my Strat were almost perfect, and yet, I sold or traded all three in the last week or so. There's still a few things I want to try. I'm fairly certain that when all the smoke clears, (from my soldering iron), I'll end up with at least one Strat with 3 CR's.

Artie

 

[aleclee]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

So how do you get your guitar's plug n play so you don't have to adjust settings? To me the only way would be to use the same pickups in all guitars so the feel is similar, the output is similar and so on....from there the big differences will be the guitars themselves.

Good question.

I guess I just find pickups that work with a common voicing. I have guitars with hot humbuckers, medium-vintage humbuckers, and single coils. My PRS CE with HFS/VB pickups sounds a fair bit different from my Driskill with EVHs which sounds very different from my Squier Strat with its stock single coils. Even so, they all work with my Two Rock and with my Rivera without having to touch a single knob.

It's not like I'm trying to make everything sound the same, I'm definitely looking for a palette. I think it's that the pickups need to compliment the way I prefer to set up my amps. The Rios I had didn't play nice with the rest of the "platform" so they had to go.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I'm really pumped about my current LP/Tele/Amp setup, (without changing the settings) when you plug in the LP you know its a LP and sounds good, when you plug in the Tele you know it's a tele and it sounds good. The point of different styles of guitars is different sounds, why buy 4 different guitars to all sound the same?

 

[papersoul]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I'm really pumped about my current LP/Tele/Amp setup, (without changing the settings) when you plug in the LP you know its a LP and sounds good, when you plug in the Tele you know it's a tele and it sounds good. The point of different styles of guitars is different sounds, why buy 4 different guitars to all sound the same?

Exactly, but I usually have the same pickups in my guitars because I like a certain feel and response and transparency.....but in the end each guitar still sounds very different due to construction.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

In my opinion, if the guitar doesn't have the sound you're looking for right out of the box/off the stand, either change the pickups or find a new guitar. It's important to hear what you want to hear and if that can be achieved by changing pickups then so be it. Of course we know there are other factors influencing tone but I would say that's a big one.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

....... It's important to hear what you want to hear and if that can be achieved by changing pickups then so be it. Of course we know there are other factors influencing tone but I would say that's a big one.

+1

I never did change the pups in my Paulas or my Firebird...everyone else says Gibson pups "suck"..I just don't find that to be the case when they are in a good piece of wood. I changed out the pups in many of my older guitars back in the day cos I wasn't hearing what I want.. but my tonal tastes have changed..and in my recent Gibsons, the pups gave me great tones. Depending on which amp setup I end up keeping (either the XTL/Atomic or Rivera/Plexitone), I may or may not switch the 59s out of my Hamer...they sound damn near perfect in the POD XTL/Atomic, not so good through the Rivera (waiting on the Plexitone to make my final decision)...

bottom line: if I'm not happy with the tone...then I dont enjoy playing, nor am I inspired to play better....

 

[Pecan]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I was thinking about this just the other day. A PRS guitar for example may not come with duncans but most of the time when I play them I think they are great, because the company thay makes the guitar doesn't put cheap pinkups in them because they aren't cheap. some exspensive guitars do have "bad" pickups, but a lot don't need to change to SD

 

[Byakhee00]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I've always been of the philosophy of "if it sounds good, leave it be" however on every occasion i ask myself "what would this sound like with X Semour Duncan pickup" swap them out for duncans, and they stay in because they sound better... i think my philosophy is flawed somewhere.

 

[gripweed]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I think we as guitar players should demand guitars that have good sounding pickups in the first place, rather than accepting what comes in the guitar just because we can swap them out.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

I think we as guitar players should demand guitars that have good sounding pickups in the first place, rather than accepting what comes in the guitar just because we can swap them out.

Good sounding according to whom? Some folks can't stand pickups I love and vice versa. I find it hard to believe that even cheapo guitar builders would not select pickups that are among the best sounding in that price range.

 

[kallsop]

Re: Do you guys think replacing good pickups is worth it?

Went to a Tommy Castro gig in a small club the other night and the light dimmers were making his Strat hum like crazy.

He could have used some of those new 'buckers

Other than that, he of course sounded terrific.