Moving towards lower output pickups as I get older

[orpheo]

When I was younger, early 20ies, I wanted OUTPUT. POWER!!!!! And I still do enjoy the occasional PATB2 every now and then to be honest! Alnico2 was the devil's due, alnico3 was so weak it didn't exist to me, alnico4 was bland, alnico5 too weak so A8 was my main switch.

Now? 15 years later...

PAF's and their direct derivatives, alnico2 is my main magnet all across the board, alnico5 is out, alnico 8 is nowhere in sight. My favorite set? Duncan Pearly Gates/Seth lover in bridge and neck, with an alnico 3 in bridge and alnico 4 in neck (neck set up lower to balance output).

Am I the only one who is slowly regressing to lower output pickups? I still hate strat singlecoils with a passion. Tele's and lipsticks, on the other hand? Sign me up!



Who has seen such a progression in their choices? I just get more out of 'less'. In fact, my favorite LP is nothing spectacular. No fancy top, no inlay or binding but the pickups and woods just make for 1 amazing guitar. Drop C#? E standard? Let's go. It does it all. One guitar to do it all? It can be done.

 

[JamesPaul]

Another dynamic is the amplifier technology has changed over that time. In the '80s, I think I needed higher output pickups to get the tones I wanted. Today's amps have enough gain available that I can get those same tones with a '59 or an Antiquity.

​Still, I am playing my lower output pickups a little more than in the past. So for me, it's probably some of both me aging and the amps having more gain.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Seems to be a thing, as well as people starting out with humbuckers and going to single coils. I get the feeling that getting a high output pu these days is more about the kind of dynamic response and compression it has, rather than necessarily overdriving an amp because it doesn't have enough gain. I have one hot bucker in a guitar, and it's fun, but I feel like 'tone home' is elsewhere.

Most of my favourite tones come from players who use low(er) output pups, and play at searing volume with little if anything between the amp and the guitar, so their guitars are are quite dynamically sensitive, and they work them in such a way that you hear what their fingers are doing. I think the low(er) output pups play a role in this, and these people got huge sounds.

So, from the beginning, I've been semi-consciously moving towards that. When I started learning more about how a pu works and what you can do to alter the sound, I hacked up the ceramic buckers I had at my disposal - making air mods to lower the output and so on - on the journey. When I got what is my main guitar, I eventually took out the ceramic pups it came with and put in SSL2s and a 59/C in it, for 'a vintage with a bit of push' spectrum. More recently, I air modded a PAF Pro, partly out of curiosity, partly perhaps out of this ongoing compulsion towards a lower output pu .

I think part of it is that, as we develop as players, we're able to get more out of our instruments through, and things like high gain and hot pups may subtract from that.

Ever tried a Tri-Sonic, Orpheo? It's kinda between a strat/tele pu and a P90 - lekker!

 

[gsammo79]

When I was a guitar newby I assumed "hotter" pickups were the answer. A 16k JB was automatically better than a 8.2k '59 because it was louder and distorted faster. I didnt think about how much of the gain duties my amp handles alone, and started appreciating the character of pickups more than their output level.

I still like hot pickups but I've definitely changed my opinion on stuff like PGs, '59s, & Seths

 

[orpheo]

I have tried the Trisonic! I like them; they are grittier than a strat but not as phat or thiccccc as a p90. Still, not a humbucker.

I agree about the 'feel' of a pickup but that seth/pearly A2 or A3 hybrid has a liquid, fluid feel I truly enjoy. And sure, a JB has its place in my rig. Gosh, a JB/Jazz set in a Tele is devine. I could live on that forever. But a PAF... yeah. I live there now. And I hate myself for it.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

If I want really aggressive and heavy riffing, I’ll take a higher output pickup any day. Some people can rock PAFs for that stuff and it sounds great, but not for me.

That said, I do spend a lot of time with single coils, even for the heavy stuff.

 

[Jeff5]

I have seen this trend in many folks as well as going lower gain on amps too. Not me though. While I can appreciate lower output buckers, and lower gain settings on amps, as I have gotten older, I still prefer high gain and high output pick ups.

 

[playas]

I think for me it's just been a natural progression as I've gotten to know what I like.

...both for singles and humbuckers, apparently I like low output pickups.
Not that I dislike higher output pups, it's just not where I seem to be headed.

 

[UnderTheFlame83]

Back when I first started playing it was on strat. I always felt something was lacking in the bridge position on any stratocaster I played. But I didn't have the money for pickups or a new guitar in those days, so I made the best out of that guitar for a long time. And it worked for any style of music I played.

It wasn't until about 10 years later when I finally got a JB. And everything changed. I have tried pretty much all other high output pickups since then. I went through a long period of playing nothing but EMGs because it worked well in a band I was in. These days, I don't ever see myself going back to actives. As for going to lower output pickups with age, nothing has really changed with me. I still use the JBs, Distortion, Nazgul, Black Winter, and X2N. I do like lower output pickups, too, and have a few in my guitars. Even have a regular old strat that I sometimes go back to. I like having all the options we have today with pickups.

 

[PDC]

‘89 GIT guy here - EMG 81/85 Devotee throughout my years of playing out. A few years ago (before it recently became trendy) some friends and i were commissioned to do an early VH throwback show. I fell straight down the rabbit hole chasing that elusive tone. I ended up converting literally all of my guitars from EMG back to passives and i have never looked back. My favorite shelf pickup right now is the Whole Lotta Humbucker. It is just so damned dynamic and expressive, from near single coil cleans with the volume rolled back to snarly, ripping harmonically rich VH-I tones with a touch of clean boost in front of the amp. I could not be happier.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

I have tried the Trisonic! I like them; they are grittier than a strat but not as phat or thiccccc as a p90. Still, not a humbucker.

I agree about the 'feel' of a pickup but that seth/pearly A2 or A3 hybrid has a liquid, fluid feel I truly enjoy. And sure, a JB has its place in my rig. Gosh, a JB/Jazz set in a Tele is devine. I could live on that forever. But a PAF... yeah. I live there now. And I hate myself for it.

Yes, less of the growly lasciviousness of a P90. Unless you have more than one, and wire them in series like a British bloke with a curly barnet did back in the 60s .

Yeah, the feel is particular. For me, a good example of some of these things is the guitars on AC/DC's 'For Those About To Rock' - the parts where they allow the chords to ring in the choruses, it's like the sound gets bigger and modulates in a way.

Those Korn boys used DiM PAFs in their 7 strings when they started out - probably not a coincidence that they were looking for some clarity, particular feel of these going through their gainy amps.

Nah, don't hate it, PAFs need to be embraced and wrested from boomers playing hackneyed pentatonic licks on their R9s .

 

[beaubrummels]

When I was young and didn't have a lot of money, using cheap garbage amps and cheaper guitars, hot pickups pushed the sound into reasonable territory I was trying to play. Now I've been able to afford 'the right' amps for the job and a wider variety of pickups are quite satisfactory, even preferred, to work with to the 'that' sound. Plue, you just learn better ways to get 'that' sound. For example, a hot pickup that has a bit darker top end with everything dimed is not the same sound as a bright pickup with the tone rolled off. The latter still retains some of the pick and finger touch dynamics and sound even with the darkened tone, while the former isn't reproducing those nuances to begin with.

 

[esandes]

When I was younger, early 20ies, I wanted OUTPUT. POWER!!!!! And I still do enjoy the occasional PATB2 every now and then to be honest! Alnico2 was the devil's due, alnico3 was so weak it didn't exist to me, alnico4 was bland, alnico5 too weak so A8 was my main switch.

Now? 15 years later...

PAF's and their direct derivatives, alnico2 is my main magnet all across the board, alnico5 is out, alnico 8 is nowhere in sight. My favorite set? Duncan Pearly Gates/Seth lover in bridge and neck, with an alnico 3 in bridge and alnico 4 in neck (neck set up lower to balance output).

Am I the only one who is slowly regressing to lower output pickups? I still hate strat singlecoils with a passion. Tele's and lipsticks, on the other hand? Sign me up!



Who has seen such a progression in their choices? I just get more out of 'less'. In fact, my favorite LP is nothing spectacular. No fancy top, no inlay or binding but the pickups and woods just make for 1 amazing guitar. Drop C#? E standard? Let's go. It does it all. One guitar to do it all? It can be done.

For sure. I evolved the same way. A5 humbuckers or nothing, which slowly changed to a love of A2 humbuckers.

I still love A5s when using distortion but I think A2s sound better playing clean or slightly clipped plus the A2s can hold their own with distortion.

 

[Mincer]

I just think I use dynamics a lot more than I used to, and the music I appreciate more have some sort of dynamic component. Shaping the sound with dynamic sensitivity is much much easier with PAF-output pickups.

 

[dave74]

It's really cool that nowadays the main brands are offering so many different winding specs with each magnet type. You can have an alnico2 with sharper attack and more output like the El Diablo, or a ceramic powered model with a very mid-heavy winding like the Nazgul or Black Winter. We have so many options these days!

 

[David Garner]

I’ve actually worked in higher output as I’ve gotten older. I used to play PAF types and low wind singles exclusively. I still prefer them, but my main LP has a JB in the bridge and it is fantastic.

 

[JB6464]

56 and still like it hot with 80's style music for me , JB Ant / 59 combo and Soldano gain .
It all depends on what style of music your playing and what you want to achieve .
Some like low output then trash it up with SS pedal gain , I prefer straight into an amp that has natural tube overdrive and skip the SS gain pedals .

 

[jeremy]

my main guitar for years had an emg sv, sv, 81 setup with pa2 boost and spc mid boost. now i have at least three strats with full sets of vintage output singles, most of my buckers are paf types with a2 magnets. i do still have one active guitar with blackout singles and a hamer chaparral with a hot 17k a5 custom shop bucker and rails pups but its also my only floyd guitar and was painted to match my motorcycle at the time and it couldnt have low output pups. dont have a better pic handy but you get the idea.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

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

 

[ErikH]

I used to use a JB in multiple guitars, a Distortion, and even had a X2N in one years ago. I still love the Super Distortion but that is a different beast. It's hot but has some character to it, IME/IMO. I'll use it here and there, my Dean ML has it in the neck and bridge. I wired the neck in parallel. The hottest I like to go anymore for my standard replacement pickup is the Custom Custom. It works for me for pretty much everything.