First pickup you ever installed?

[UnderTheFlame83]

Do you remember the first pickup you ever installed?

Mine was the Duncan JB. I was blown away just how much better my guitar sounded afterwards. And thus the addiction to trying different pickups began... :headbang:

 

[jeremy]

it was a jackson rails pup in the neck of my first guitar, a squier 2 strat that i had just sold to a friend of mine. first in one of mine might have been a fred in the bridge of an rg550 i think

 

[Mincer]

I think it was a JB Jr. It was quite an improvement over the ceramic MIM Fender pickup, although thinking back, it was probably too hot for what I wanted.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

The first replacement pickups I got were a Screamin Demon in my Yamaha RG, and a pair of EMG 81s in my Jackson Dinky. My dad did the installs, because I'd never used a soldering iron. I remember it taking forever for him to do them. Not long after, I pulled the Demon to put in my Epiphone Les Paul. I didn't want to spend all day on it, so I decided to do it myself. No clue what I was doing, and when I couldn't figure out what to connect where, I opened another guitar and tried to copy what was going on in it.

Probably tried every combination possible of all the wires going to every possible point in the guitar, and I still got it done quicker than he did

 

[ErikH]

First replacement I ever put it was some cheap humbucker. I put it in my Strat copy the EVH way, with a chisel to make the route bigger. Not long after that I got a Duncan Distortion from a HS friend and installed that. Killer pickup. My soldering was horrible but I learned over time and got better at it.

 

[LazNovak]

I put a Duncan Custom and Full Shred in my 87 Charvel not long after I bought it new. I have that Ronni Le Tekro lesson book and cassette and he said he was using the Custom and I loved his tone so I went for it.

 

[ICTGoober]

I had a cheap Burns Bison bass with a flimsy pickup that had no definite tone beyond a rumbly burp.. Replaced it with a big chrome Gibson humbucker some idiots call the mudbucker. In the bridge position it sounded fat, with a pronounced midrange bump that really cut through. Played with fingers or a pick, those roundwounds had a tone between James Jamerson and Chris Squier that was perfect for the rock and blues band I was playing with at the time. And LOUD, I could finally turn down my Kasino amp and still hear it in the mix, clean and clear. WTH did I sell it a decade later?

 

[SirJackdeFuzz II]

TV Jones TV-HT set into an Ibanez Artcore jazz box.

 

[stevie_bees]

Twangbanger into my G&L Legacy. I've been thinking of dropping another one in again lately, to pair with the Antiquity Surfers.

 

[ItsaBass]

Fender 57/62s.

 

[cokekolev]

It was a GFS lil killer (hot rails clone) in the bridge of a cheap strat copy. The sound difference was amazing. However, since then, I've discovered Duncans (in general) have more clarity and detail.

 

[Securb]

It was way back in the early 80s I would swap pickups in my Kents and other Japanese Sears guitars. My Dad taught me how to use a iron very early.

 

[PDC]

Age - 16
Guitar - Kramer Pacer
Pickup - JB

Problem? I had no idea how to wire the 3-way mini phase switch and got the pickup permanently coil tapped / out of phase. I couldn’t believe how much worse it sounded. $20 later with some help from the local music store, I was rockin’ once again!

 

[Spirit of 76]

Mine was a Carvin stacked single-coil that I had installed in a Fender squire strat.

 

[greekdude]

dimarzio fast track ii, I didn't know what I was doing, its a miracle it worked!

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

2009. An Invader into the Bridge position of a ash-body Fender American HSS Strat. I remember it sounding shrill, but with 20/20 hindsight, maybe the brightness of ash and maple in the guitar wasn't as much to blame for that as the fizzy sounding distortion pedal that i used at that time, an MXR Fullbore Metal.

First attempt at soldering, unwisely starting in the evening of a Sunday night, having to use a living room glass table as a "workbench" because i didn't have a workbench back then. Needless to say I ended up staying up way too late on a worknight, with the new pup not working in all positions (the guitar had an S1 switch) and it requiring a couple more sessions of rework to figure out the problem. And memories of solder not flowing, not being able to solder to the back of a pot cause of the heatsink issues, it taking forever, etc. Haha, I've learned a lot since then. Soldering has been so much easier w a soldering iron w a temperature control, and knowing to clean and retin the tip after every use.

 

[Masta' C]

Screamin' Demon in an early Ibanez RG570. The sound was bright, but the articulation, low-end crunch and ease of harmonics all over the fretboard blew my mind. That's what really got me into Duncans.

 

[Jeff5]

I think a Duncan Full Shred neck to go with the Custom my guitar teacher put in the bridge of my first guitar!

 

[idsnowdog]

It was either an original Gibson Dirty Fingers or a Pearly Gates. My first replacement pickup was an APS2 and then a Dimarzio PAF Pro.

 

[Clint 55]

1st swap my teacher did was a Jazzn in my Epi LP in 2016. I friggin forgot the 1st one I did on my own. It must have been a C5 in my Squier HSS Strat. It took me 2 hours to reign in my shakes and swap 1 pickup haha.