My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

[CTN]

All my guitars are right now in the best tonal condition they've ever been.

I can find absolutely no faults or criticisms about any of them. They all sound exactly how I want them to sound and I'm VERY pleased with those sounds.

Which leaves me with a couple of questions:

1) Should I bother buying any more pickups, just to experiment with?
2) If I do buy another pickup, wtf am I supposed to do with it? I'm really hesitant to change out the pickups in any of my guitars because they all sound so good, I have no real incentive aside from morbid curiosity.

Up until about last week or so, I was thinking about ditching the Custom Custom in my hardtail strat and getting a sorta medium output pickup like a Screamin demon or a '59/C hybrid. But then I changed out the A2 magnet to a RCA3, and I couldn't be happier. It solved the tonal issues I was having, and it dropped the output a bit so that it responds a bit closer to what I wanted.

So now I have no need to try anything else. There are still so many pickups I haven't got any experience with though:
Screamin Demon
PG set
A2 Pros
Seths
'59/C
WLH
Black Winter
Any of the actives
Alt 8
Dimebucker
Parallel Axis anything
Stag Mag
P-rails
...nevermind all the custom shop models.

If I'm happy with my tone then is there even any point to getting anything else?

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I hit your spot about 5 years ago. I was happy with everything that I have. In reality was a great relief to not feel that something was missing. Now I mess with stuff just for the giggles but dont get worked up about it. You can always try to second guess it but if your happy everything is gravy cause if something new doesnt work you just go back to what you know is good.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I say call it good, tweaking is a disease.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

What this means is that your taste in music is about to change .... leading to .... guess what ?

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Country & Western?

 

[CTN]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

What this means is that your taste in music is about to change .... leading to .... guess what ?

uh....elephant mating calls?

Country & Western?

I will kill you. Then I will resuscitate you, so you can watch me steal your new Tokai and play some horrible sounding ultra-dissonant death metal on it, then I will kill you again.

 

[CTN]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I hit your spot about 5 years ago. I was happy with everything that I have. In reality was a great relief to not feel that something was missing. Now I mess with stuff just for the giggles but dont get worked up about it. You can always try to second guess it but if your happy everything is gravy cause if something new doesnt work you just go back to what you know is good.

But see that's the thing, I don't want to put anything else in, even though I do want to know what all these other pickups sound/feel like. And at this point, acquiring another guitar to use as testbed for pickups just seems like a colossal waste of money.

I say call it good, tweaking is a disease.

Indeed it is. I know that disease all too well.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I do want to know what all these other pickups sound/feel like. And at this point, acquiring another guitar to use as testbed for pickups just seems like a colossal waste of money.

That's what I've been doing with my $75 Eclipse for the last few years.

 

[youngthrasher9]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I will kill you. Then I will resuscitate you, so you can watch me steal your new Tokai and play some horrible sounding ultra-dissonant death metal on it, then I will kill you again.

Sig'd.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

But see that's the thing, I don't want to put anything else in, even though I do want to know what all these other pickups sound/feel like. And at this point, acquiring another guitar to use as testbed for pickups just seems like a colossal waste of money.

I gotcha and i largely feel the same way. But once in awhile for giggles Ill pick something up just to mess with usually something I know I can flip so I dont feel bad about the money.

Its a nice place to be in though to not "need" to chase it.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Many good points here. Tweaking IS a disease.. Im terribly afflicted and have been working very hard to self cure. (doing very well I might add) If I had spent the time playing that Ive spent pup swapping and all, Id be alot better along. But, I do have a couple of valid excuses there, but...
Anyhow, If all is well, play em and leave em be. If you continue looking or trying, you'll second guess yourself. If and only if, you KNOW something may work better for you, dont be closed to the change, but dont go lookin for trouble.. haha
I continually second guess, but I know have everything dialed in but one, and Im thrilled about that. Cant wait to get the last one dialed in!
Congrats!

 

[Inder_Cine_Mann]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Is your quest of testing new amps and pedals over?

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Must be nice...

I've got more guitars that don't work than do...

 

[ExplorersRock]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Read my EVH quote. If you're happy with your tone...

I think you know what must be done.:no:

Or you know, buy a cheapy that doesn't cost much but serves as a guinea pig and continue having fun! I like option 2!:bigok:

 

[Diminished Triad]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Read my EVH quote. If you're happy with your tone...

I think you know what must be done.:no:

Or you know, buy a cheapy that doesn't cost much but serves as a guinea pig and continue having fun! I like option 2!:bigok:

Agree..........and buy the Liberator if you don't already have so you can change in and out even easier. If/when you select your preferred guinea pig, what will it be? Strat model......Les Paul......other? If the pickups sound good in a guitar costing $500 or less.....they'll sound great in most others I bet. Next step for great rock players is usually jazz. : private:

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I just want the Black Winter set.

 

[CTN]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

Is your quest of testing new amps and pedals over?

I just bought a new amp a couple of weeks ago. As for pedals, I'm not really a big pedal guy. I have a small pedalboard that does what I need it to very well, but I'm not really "into" pedals.

Read my EVH quote. If you're happy with your tone...

I think you know what must be done.:no:

Or you know, buy a cheapy that doesn't cost much but serves as a guinea pig and continue having fun! I like option 2!:bigok:

I dunno man...that quote is pretty dumb. Unless he's talking about the fact that you might not ever be happy with yer tone again, and therefore, you gotta end your life at its tone pinnacle.

I just couldn't be arsed to get another guitar. Especially not a cheapy, because I'd be annoyed by its shortcomings and I'd want to upgrade it, modify it and tweak it etc. What a pain in the arse.

Agree..........and buy the Liberator if you don't already have so you can change in and out even easier. If/when you select your preferred guinea pig, what will it be? Strat model......Les Paul......other? If the pickups sound good in a guitar costing $500 or less.....they'll sound great in most others I bet. Next step for great rock players is usually jazz. : private:

It's pretty damn easy to just solder in/out pickups, don't need a liberator. I'm not even committed to getting a testbed guitar though. Jazz is on my list of things to learn, but I can get some sweeeeeeet jazzy tones from my SG, so even then, I likely won't need to buy another guitar/pickups for a long time.

 

[Inder_Cine_Mann]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

It sounds like you have answered your own question. If thas the case, trick out your friends' guitars! Help them finish their quest. I have some future posts that im writing that are not for my guitars but for others. Its really the whole thing about never stopping to learn?

Cheers

 

[Diminished Triad]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

It sounds like you have answered your own question. If thas the case, trick out your friends' guitars! Help them finish their quest. I have some future posts that im writing that are not for my guitars but for others. Its really the whole thing about never stopping to learn?

Cheers

Great advice...and pass on as much of your experience and knowledge to younger musicians as you can!

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: My quest for tone is over. Or is it?

I say call it good, tweaking is a disease.

Twerking too.