"Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

Bodeanicus said:
They're both the same assembly line guitar made of the same cheapest, easily obtained hardwoods Leo Fender could obtain. There is no magic, no voodoo. It's a utilitarian design made for working musicians. There is no justification for a $3,000 mark up because a luthier hand filed the frets and signed the back of the headstock. But it's sure impressive hanging on the wall of the man cave. Do you guys frame the receipt?
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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

GilmourD said:
You don't know?

HC management ran it into the ground by "upgrading" the forum with completely inappropriate forum software packages three times. It was so unworkable that everybody left.

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No, I was a bit like hydro, in the fact that I got sent there for searches for a while. After I got onto here, strat talk and MLP I essentially didn't visit HC as the folks in the new forums just seemed more knowledgeable on the whole
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

AlexR said:
No, I was a bit like hydro, in the fact that I got sent there for searches for a while. After I got onto here, strat talk and MLP I essentially didn't visit HC as the folks in the new forums just seemed more knowledgeable on the whole
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I'll admit that I never really ventured outside of the Electric Guitar subforum much. HCEG, as an entity by itself, wasn't actually very different from this place. The rest of the forum could be a bit scary.
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

GilmourD said:
I'll admit that I never really ventured outside of the Electric Guitar subforum much. HCEG, as an entity by itself, wasn't actually very different from this place. The rest of the forum could be a bit scary.
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Hahahah I used to love the HCAF... I was well entrenched in that place pre moderation days....
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

SnakeAces said:
We're not talking about a brand new Hemi here. The only "break-in" that happens in gear that I know of are speakers, tubes and wood. Especially on acoustics for the wood but there is a good chance the wood of an electric gets broken in a bit too according to how you play. I certainly have one chambered black korina LP from Warmoth that has gained a warmer bottom end over the years as one example.

Pickups? No. Sure, the magnet changes over many, many, many years very slightly... that's about it. I have an old Alnico II Pro neck humbucker. There could be many reasons why it sounds smoother and slightly different than a brand new one but it is not so far off that you couldn't recognize that it is an A2P.
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+1 to acoustics, with the small exception of Cedar which doesn't seem to "age" in that the tone is consistent from year 1 thru year whatever.

For pickups, I have heard a ton about it and how they get better with age but I don't have any experience with pickups getting better over time. Here are two articles (1) & (2) by Bill Lawrence on Magnets and Aging that I thought were some good reads.
 
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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

Edgecrusher said:
Hahahah I used to love the HCAF... I was well entrenched in that place pre moderation days....
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Oh, there was always moderation... Just some subforums were better moderated than others. We had The Eristic, MaziBee, and Frets99 in HCEG. Now they've all basically disappeared, sadly... Frets was the king of getting nice guitars for almost no money and Mazi always had gorgeous pics of his guitars.

But, yeah, we HCEGers would have called BS on just about all the articles by the guy linked to in the OP. Snake oil didn't sit well with us.
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

If there's a particular number of times I can hit myself in the head with a hammer so that a Mexican Fender sounds and plays identical to me as a Masterbuilt 1-off, I wish somebody would tell me so I don't overshoot it.
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

sosomething said:
If there's a particular number of times I can hit myself in the head with a hammer so that a Mexican Fender sounds and plays identical to me as a Masterbuilt 1-off, I wish somebody would tell me so I don't overshoot it.
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37






In a row.

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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

sosomething said:
Ball peen or claw?
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Hockey stick.

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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

This didn't come with a note attached that said to wait for a month for your pickup to get ripe before you can use it.. Can you imagine the backlog MJ would have if she just had to sit there and watch a bunch of little pickups incubating for a month before they were ready to ship? :laughing:FullSizeRender (13).jpg
A couple days to acclimate.. Sure.. An entire month.. Insane...
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

What's that p'up exactly? It reads like a Custom 5. I can't make out what MJ wrote, though. Rick's HB?

So..?
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

It's a Humbucker she made as close to regular humbucker size that retro fits directly into the existing route and screw holes of the Rickenbacker, it also did not require any modification of either top or bottom pickgaurd. It's wound with an Alnico V instead of those composite magnets that Rickenbacker uses for it's own humbuckers.. Basically. it's a custom sized '59/Custom and wound to 13.9K as all the Rick humbuckers are in that range. It makes my Rickenbacker 330 sound well into Gibson territory, along with the Mastery bridge when overdriven.FullSizeRender (29).jpgFullSizeRender (25).jpg
 
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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

I'm at work now, so I would have to look tonight for the youtube video in which Dave Mustaine states that sweat pours in and "season" pickups over time and change their tone.


I remember being like "Ummmmmmmmmm...." Especially since he uses active electronics :D
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

Lucy Diamond said:
I'm at work now, so I would have to look tonight for the youtube video in which Dave Mustaine states that sweat pours in and "season" pickups over time and change their tone.


I remember being like "Ummmmmmmmmm...." Especially since he uses active electronics :D
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He used to use uncovered Jazz/JB sets, didn't he? Still bunk, I say, but just clarifying.

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Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

Archer250 said:
Leo Fender is dead. The company Fender was in the 50s and 80s has changed in various ways. As one of the biggest musical instrument companies in the world, FMIC has the means and the money to access varied-quality woods, to outsource hardware from quality factories, and to buy machines and tools to build guitars of various quality.

There's so much bull**** in your post you could fertilize an entire field.
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The truth hurts, sometimes. It helps us grow, and to face reality. Denial is an ugly thing.
 
Re: "Pickup Break-in" Any truth here??

firebirdguy72 said:
I guess that means an 80's vette and a brand new C7 stingray are the same to... both are made on assembly lines, both were made by Chevy in the same plant in Kentucky, both have 4 wheels, both are covettes...

the difference is the attention to detail, the refined techniques, the finish work, the quality of the electronics, the choice selection of woods... and the fact that they are crafted by the finest luthiers fender has to offer...If you don't think a masterbuilt strat is worth the money than feel free to think that way. Many people agree that they are over priced. But to say a MIM and a masterbuilt strat are the same is complete nonsense...
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The car analogy is irrelevant. A Master Built and MIM are virtually the same guitar, the same 60 year old design. Is the alder in a MB soaked in unicorn tears? Are the tuners and bridge made by dwarves, forged of mithril? Are the pickups wound of unobtanium by Nikola Tesla's automatons? Is the neck carved from a root of Yggdrasil? No? Then explain to me why a MB Stratocaster so "magical?" It's a bolt on electric guitar, not a hand carved, one of a kind "work of art."
 
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