Moving towards lower output pickups as I get older

[jeremy]

^^ Very nice, those are 24.75 scale, right? Sad that US Hamers are no more.

the older chaps were 24 3/4" this is a later '87 so 25.5 with recessed floyd. great super strat. came with a duncan ah1 in the bridge when i bought it. never shoulda gotten rid of that pup but oh well. i have three hamer usa guitars and they are all fantastic. this chaparral, a daytona, and monaco elite. i dont need any more guitars but i still think about grabbing a hamer usa when i see them pop up

 

[Mincer]

Thing is, after the sound comes out of the guitar, you can always boost it. So it really isn't 'one or the other'.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

^^ As someone who uses a treble booster, totally agree.

the older chaps were 24 3/4" this is a later '87 so 25.5 with recessed floyd. great super strat. came with a duncan ah1 in the bridge when i bought it. never shoulda gotten rid of that pup but oh well. i have three hamer usa guitars and they are all fantastic. this chaparral, a daytona, and monaco elite. i dont need any more guitars but i still think about grabbing a hamer usa when i see them pop up

Ah, didn't know they went to 25.5 later on, good to know. Yes, always hear good things about them, and it's still possible to get a good price on some models these days.

One shop I went to back in the day when I lived in Oz had a real US Standard - burst, maple top, the works. Should've played it, only time I've seen a US Hamer in the wild, but probably would've been denied, being just a 'kid' who, in the eyes of the shop proprietor/s, had no business bashing on nice guitars, ha.

 

[UnderTheFlame83]

Speaking of Hamer guitars, I saw this one for sale locally not long ago. Had broken headstock repair that you could barely tell and had mystery Seymour Duncan pickups. I went to pick it up the next day and someone beat me to it. They wanted $150 for it.

 

[jeremy]

thats an overseas one, still a good guitar for the money and $150 is a steal!

 

[UnderTheFlame83]

thats an overseas one, still a good guitar for the money and $150 is a steal!

Yeah I looked it up after seeing it. Had an ebony fingerboard. Wish I would had picked it up.

 

[alex1fly]

I spent a lot of years swapping out various medium output pickups and was never satisfied. Once I played low output pups through my rig, I was sold and haven't felt the need to swap around because there's much more I can do to shape the tone. Or maybe I'm just approaching things differently. One thing for sure, I play a heck of a lot less metal and high gain riffage than I used to. And I had an active set in a Strat that sounded so good with everything dimed. But that's a trick I just don't need anymore.

 

[ToneFiddler]

i have several of low output and moderate/ high PU.
the high output i keep around for stuff i used to play. it‘s really fun from time to time. my teles got quite hot bridge PUs for singles lately, but with buckers i am missing something while playing when i go hotter than let‘s say the hybrid. especially if you pick softly it sounds kind of muffled and not detailed enough.
also my taste changes, sometimes daily and then real change over years.
i know if i sell too much i will yearn for them.

 

[bigcupholder]

If anything, I'm going the opposite way. One of the first aftermarket pickups I ever bought was a set of Seth Lovers. I recently sold a Dimarzio Evolution because the lows were too loose.

I still enjoy a WLH set in my semi hollow, but that's mainly used for blues rock and jamming with guys that often have strats or other bright guitars.

I like more mids and more compression than low output pickups give me. I can definitely make anything work on my Helix, but it's a lot easier to start with something that sounds good straight into the amp (models) I like.

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[Oldfart_Shredman]

I find myself moving more towards lower output pickups when using drive. Ironically I love high output pickups for their clean sound.

 

[46b]

I don’t really think it’s a direct reflection of age. It’s more of a reflection of understanding in music, composition, mixing, tone and where you fit in the grand scheme of your own life and playing. Music is a sonic experiment that will help you understand life… I’d be worried if you found the be all / end all in your equipment of choice. It means you’ve stopped developing.

 

[alex1fly]

I don’t really think it’s a direct reflection of age. It’s more of a reflection of understanding in music, composition, mixing, tone and where you fit in the grand scheme of your own life and playing. Music is a sonic experiment that will help you understand life… I’d be worried if you found the be all / end all in your equipment of choice. It means you’ve stopped developing.

I love this. Thank you. :arms:

 

[Oldfart_Shredman]

Yeah, what he said! lol

 

[Zheddar]

Hrmmm, well men do naturally lose hearing as they get older and lower output pickups usually have some killer definition. I'm blaming it on hearing loss, which is linked to aging, but I don't have to admit the aging thing... Right?

 

[AdrianSD]

I don’t really think it’s a direct reflection of age. It’s more of a reflection of understanding in music, composition, mixing, tone and where you fit in the grand scheme of your own life and playing. Music is a sonic experiment that will help you understand life… I’d be worried if you found the be all / end all in your equipment of choice. It means you’ve stopped developing.

Words of wisdom right there!

Hrmmm, well men do naturally lose hearing as they get older and lower output pickups usually have some killer definition. I'm blaming it on hearing loss, which is linked to aging, but I don't have to admit the aging thing... Right?

With age I've learned that deeper thinking / wisdom and hearing loss go hand in hand. Not sure whether there's a causal relationship between them, though...

 

[Mincer]

As I got older, all of these schools of playing tend to mix more. Like I never think 'I am using my metal tone, so I am going to play power chords..grrrr' or 'My amp is set to a clean sound, I will get my semi hollow out and play b9 chords all night'. I incorporate all of that stuff into something that sounds like none of it.

 

[Dave Locher]

I am taking a different path with a similar destination: I'm still using pickups like A8 overwound PAFs and Super Distortions, but with a LOT less amp gain. I still just prefer the thicker tone of a higher-output pickup, even when playing clean. But I never cared for really high-gain amps and I'm moving further away as the years go by.

 

[Ascension]

I have always looked at how a pickup responded to touch and a volume roll off. Many high gain pickups don't respond in this way well but some do. A lot also has to do with what amp I'm running but yes over the years have began to like mid output to vintage output pickups more. Still have a few with high gain pickups. However most now have mid gain A 5 magnets with a sweet spot between 10K and 14 K in the bridge now. Have also been playing my Silverado Strat a lot with the Surfer !!'s a lot. Has a lot to do with the amps I'm running plus the type of music I am playing.

 

[Demanic]

When I was gifted an old Affinity Strat last year, I swapped out the stock ceramics with A3's in the neck and bridge along with a vintage wind A5 in the middle. I figured that all of my other guitars had flamethrowers at least in the bridge slots, so I could afford to try something different.

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