Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

[PLVTONIVS FILIVS]

What do you think about that?

I think expensive pups will not improve enough to worth the change, but not sure: I have a beautiful and comfortable LTD F-50 collecting dust because sounds almost dead. It also is noisy and microphonic. I have been thinking of selling it but I just cannot do this. I learned with it, so means too much for me. It will never have good clean and lead tones, but maybe an Invader will allow to play powerful riffery?

Just look to my avatar to understand why I want to keep this guitar rocking. She's my girlfriend with it...

 

[formula73]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I'd advise against an Invader, but that's just me. I've always found them to be muddy. Anyway, it CAN work, depending on the guitar. I've got a junk Worn Brown SG that sounds amazing and cost less than 1/2 of a cool-looking Washburn that might as well be made of lead. If it resonates and sustains, it's worth it. If not, it's worth keeping to give to your kid to learn on.

This is also just my opinion.

 

[Rainmaker]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I've only got one experience to share, and that's a WCR Goodwood in my Yamaha Pacifica... the Pacifica is a cheap guitar, but it's mighty resonant - the result is magic.

As for putting expensive pickups into tonally dead guitars... I dunno. A lot of people have experiences of trying really hard to get a dead guitar to 'come alive'

I'm persuaded to believe that pickups will be able to help magnify and emphasise certain elements of an acoustically solid guitar, but unable to turn a dead sounding guitar into one that gives you the tone of your dreams.

 

[rashayritto]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

if ya want heavy riffery then you cant go wrong with some actives

dropped an SD livewire metal in my cheap as eff bc rich warlock starter guitar and now it sounds possessed! mind you the guitar already sounded really good for what it was

 

[PLVTONIVS FILIVS]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

If it resonates and sustains, it's worth it.

I'm persuaded to believe that pickups will be able to help magnify and emphasise certain elements of an acoustically solid guitar, but unable to turn a dead sounding guitar into one that gives you the tone of your dreams.

Well it resonates, though no sustain. Really it is not so dead. My new guitar is too alive :headbang:

if ya want heavy riffery then you cant go wrong with some actives

dropped an SD livewire metal in my cheap as eff bc rich warlock starter guitar and now it sounds possessed! mind you the guitar already sounded really good for what it was

Glad it worked to you, but I have never liked active tones and active pickups are very expensive. It would not work for me...

 

[rashayritto]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

Glad it worked to you, but I have never liked active tones and active pickups are very expensive. It would not work for me...

well you asked about expensive pups...

 

[Artie]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

There's "cheap", and then there's inexpensive. I believe my MIA Peavey Patriots to be every bit as good as your average MIA Fender Start, and yet they routinely sell on the bay for 2 bills or less. (Usually less.) They've all been Duncanized. My Squier Tele has an Antiquity in the bridge, Stag Mag in the neck. Killer sounding Tele. All my guitars are "cheap". All are Duncanized. All have "come alive". Or . . . lets just say they're fun.

And, my dirt-cheap, fake Epiphone, chip-wood bodied SG - with an Invader - is the guitar I've been playing the most, lately. I think my wife's getting tired of hearing "Iron Man" and "Smoke on the Water".

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

Wood is wood. I have quite a few inexpensive 80's made in Japan Fender Squier Strats and Teles with Antiquitys and other top of the line pickups and I'll put those guitars up against any electric guitar in any price range. Lew

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

There is a saying that "You can't polish a turd". With that in mind, you have to ask yourself about the guitar you have.

If a guitar is crap, and doesnt play good and doesnt resonate, the most expensive pups in the world wont help it.

If that guitar feels good, plays good, has a resonant feel and tone. If it accoustically sounds alive, but when you plug it in, the stock pickup sounds muddy or squeals or has no character, then yes, a pickup upgrade will do wonders.

I have several "cheap"guitars that really had mojo, but the stock pups were aweful. With new pups, they sound fantastic!

 

[iron_iguana]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I got a Fender Starcaster for free (the new costco kind). When I plugged it in, all you could hear was buzz. Besides that, the guitar and neck were in great shape and it stayed in tune. I posted a thread on this website asking for good pickups for cheap guitars. The hot rails/cool rails/cool rails combo was suggested so I put those in and the guitar sounds great. I've even gotten compliments on it from "real" strat owners.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

My current stable comprises a MIM Tele and a Korean/Mexican "mutt" Schecter PT. They have five Duncan pickups between them.

I think provided the guitar is good to begin with, then upgrading to better pickups is the way to get really good tone on a budget.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I think expensive pups will not improve enough to worth the change, but not sure:

On mid-priced imports, you are completely wrong. Asian PU's are muddy; putting in a set of American-made PU's opens up the sound & makes it sound like a completely different guitar. When I can buy a set of SD's or DiMarzio's for less than $200, plus another $100 for the hardware, I gotta question why some American guitars sell for several thousand dollars. If you believe that you're buying a slab of wood that's really worth a grand or two, God bless you.

There are American guitar-makers, Gibson comes to mind, who often use magnets in their PU's that can produce questinable tones (which is why so many Gibson owners replace their PU's). I use a combination of magnets, pots, and caps to fit each PU to the wood's natural tone, to get my ideal sounds. Manufacturers don't do this kind of detail work. Even with wood from the same tree, the density, grain, and mineral content varies, but they put in the same PU's & electronics regardless of whether the wood is warm or bright. For a huge cash outlay, you're not always getting a great-sounding guitar.

I only use American PU's & will put the tones of my Epi LP's, SG's, & 335's up against any current production Gibsons of the same models. Spend more for the name on the headstock if that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, but don't think you're going to automatically sound better than the rest of us. You could be in for a big surprise.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

What do you think about that?

I've done it (upgraded pickups in cheap guitars). And actually I got good results. But I still ended up selling them for other reasons.

I had a Washburn A10-V in the 80's. It didn't have the problem your LTD has. It sounded great. The craftsmanship, as far as luthiery, was fine. It had a very comfy neck with a V contour that I really liked. Fretwork was fine.
But the trem was a piece of junk. Didn;'t stay in tune, clanked when you used it, the metal was so soft that the edges dulled from being pushed against the posts constantly.

Also contributing to the tuning probles was the fact it had one of those 80's steeply angled headstocks, and no locking nut.

I did several mods - felt tape behind the trem to help stop the clanking, an LSR roller nut and Sperzel tuners to help the tuning, but finally gave up and traded it on a custom ESP that I still have and love. It was hard trading it away, but I never regretted it after I did it.

But back to pickups, the factory Washburn pickups were hot and sounded OK but were microphonic. I put in a PRS HFS bridge and a Seymourizer II neck. It sounded really good. But I couldn't live with the tuning problems and cheap hardware.

So these days I'm a made in USA/Japan snob.

 

[PLVTONIVS FILIVS]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

On mid-priced imports, you are completely wrong. Asian PU's are muddy

I was talking about cheaps ones, not mid-priced. I replaced the pickups from my last midpriced guitar 10 days after buying it. Of course it worths.

 

[RW James]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I've done it several times with good results. If I find a cheap guitar that feels good and has good action but suffers from bad pickups - to me that's a no-brainer. I'll change out the pickups, the electronics, the bridge/saddles, the tuners - basically everything but the body and neck.

I also have one middle/high end guitar that is perfect the way it is. I enjoy playing that guitar. But when I pick up one of the ones that I modded, there is a certain thrill of playing something that I had a hand in building. I will be modding many more cheap guitars in the future.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

I've done it several times with good results. If I find a cheap guitar that feels good and has good action but suffers from bad pickups - to me that's a no-brainer.

Right on. Watch out for cheap hardware, like the stuff on one or two guitars I owne in my young days in the 80's. But if the construction and materials are basically good and a set of pickups will really make the guitar, go for it.

I've read reviews that say the MIM Fenders are such instruments. The craftsmanship (or craftsmachineship, whichever gets the job done) is supposed to be very good, the materials are supposed to be good, but guitar magazines have recommended swapping the pickups. Easy enough to do, and then you'll have a really great guitar.

 

[hanumanlangur]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

You don't need to cover up the tonal qualities of your guitar with a big ceramic monster. If it resonates and plays well, there's no reason why it can't have great tone.

I have a Memphis Strat copy (old 80's thing) with a single '59 TB in the bridge. Because I tweaked the pickup for hours (pickup height, polepiece height, and magnet degaussing), the tone is big, clear, balanced, and very warm. Much better than '59 or PG+ bridges I've played in other guitars, including in pricier ones like Hamers.

So sometimes cheap junk can sound better than expensive junk.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

You should also consider putting in a better bridge and make sure the tuners are solid. Done all these in combination with good pickups you can make many dead pieces of wood come alive.

 

[CJRocker]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

You should also consider putting in a better bridge and make sure the tuners are solid. Done all these in combination with good pickups you can make many dead pieces of wood come alive.

Agreed! I just recently finished installing a Floyd Rose on my Squier Strat, scalloping the neck, and with the EMGs I had left over form another project in it, it has really come alive. It does however help if a guitar is a good player; normally I can pick one up and tell i f I think I can get it to that point.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Expensive pickups in cheap guitars?

Depends.

1) If you're SURE this guitar has excellent body and neck woods, then the rest can be upgraded around it. The one thing you really can't "upgrade" in my opinion, without changing the guitar, is the body and neck. The rest is upgradable if the wood has good tone. Sure, you can upgrade the neck and body, but in the end it's no longer a Squier Strat, or whatever it was.

2) If the wood sucks, pickups can sometimes mask this, but ultimately the guitar is not going to be what you need/want. I will say that agathis and really cheap basswood (i.e. from a dead part of the tree) is going to sound like krap. I've had an agathis guitar and yes, you can put pickups in it and it sounds much better, but ultimately better wood species will sound better than that, from the get-go.

Either way, however, resale is probably going to suck. Why would they want a cheap guitar with upgraded pickups when they can buy a brand new or even used guitar that isn't cheap and comes with the same combo of Duncans?

I had an LTD EC-100QM. Agathis. Felt good, but otherwise tonally sucked. The Hot Rodded Combo helped dramatically, but ultimately it still sounded worse than good guitars with the same combo or similar. I grew out of it, and sold it. I think I got $225 when the guitar was $300 initially (and the thing had an Earvana nut, upgraded tune-o-matic tailpiece, two push/pulls, and the Hot Rodded Combo). Figures: for a new guitar with '59/JB combo (ESP) that's mahogany body they can pay $600 new, $400 used. There are some used Lite Ash Stratocasters, Showmaster HH and SSS, and Schecter C-1 Classics that sell for around $400-ish on ebay.

I will say that Korean made guitars are a good bang for the buck, however. The Lite Ash Strat/Tele and Showmasters are made supposedly in Korea in the Cort guitar plant, for Fender. I'd look into a Korean made instrument. South Korea is a good country, if you can't afford made-in-the-USA.