Rank Pickup Brands By Preference

[Chistopher]

Here's my rankings

1. Lace Sensor
2. Seymour Duncan
3. Bill Lawrence
4. Fishman
5. PRS
6. DiMarzio
7. EBMM
8. Fralin
9. Bare Knuckle
10. Fender
11. Gibson
12. EMG

All of these brands are good, but this list more ranks the quality versus price ratio as opposed to purely which pickups sounds nice and which ones don't.

 

[Demanic]

Based on what I own, Duncan and Dimarzio, followed by Lace. Not that I have anything against Bare Knuckle, Suhr, Fralin, Bartolini, GFS or Bill Lawrence.

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[PFDarkside]

All makers will have pickups that are more preferable to others, but the only one that I consistently didn’t like was Lace. That was before the Deathbucker, but all of those colored ones were underwhelming. On the flipside, basically all Duncans I’ve tried I’ve enjoyed in one way or another.

 

[Demanic]

All makers will have pickups that are more preferable to others, but the only one that I consistently didn’t like was Lace. That was before the Deathbucker, but all of those colored ones were underwhelming. On the flipside, basically all Duncans I’ve tried I’ve enjoyed in one way or another.

The Deathbucker alone is enough reason for me to love Lace.

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[Rex_Rocker]

1. Fishman
2. Seymour Duncan
3. Gibson

And that's it, TBH.

I used to love EMG's, but they really don't make them like the used to (I feel so old saying that, LOL).

I've tried a lot of DiMarzios which were *almost* there, but never really ended up bonding with one.

Haven't tried BKP (not really interested). I'd love to try Suhr, though.

Oh, I did try one GFS RedActive pickup which was killer, but that's about the only GFS pickup I've tried.

 

[esandes]

All makers will have pickups that are more preferable to others, but the only one that I consistently didn’t like was Lace. That was before the Deathbucker, but all of those colored ones were underwhelming. On the flipside, basically all Duncans I’ve tried I’ve enjoyed in one way or another.

I had a strat with the colored Lace sensors; red, silver and blue. Plus if Eric Clapton used them I thought they must be good. I threw them out. Not a fan at all.

I also had a Dimarzio PAF Pro for years then it died so I tried SD. The compression of the PAF Pro hid my mistakes well though. But I prefer the "transparent" pickup design now and A2 based humbuckers. I even got a new PAF Pro for nostalgia and it was underwhelming compared to the SD A2P that replaced the first one.

I only play various SD and a set of Gibson burstbuckers now. These two brands share a lot of the same DNA. The burstbuckers are in my LP that I prefer to keep stock.

 

[treyhaislip]

My top 10 list:

1. Gemini (Suprocaster and Goldfoils are hands down the best pickups I've ever used)
2. Bill Lawrence (both Wilde and USA)
3. Fender
4. Gibson
5. Seymour Duncan
6. Dimarzio
7. Fralin
8. Lollar
9. Motor City
10. Revel

I know people love them but I've never really had a good experience with EMGs and Lace...too sterile to my ears (granted, I have not tried every pickup out there.)

 

[freefrog]

I don't feel able to rank pickups brands. I've many Duncan's here but also many other products, modified or not, mounted or on the shelf - not to mention my own transducers.

Some were expensive, some were cheap. Some costed nothing because they were gifted to me. Their financial value or origin is not even a criterium in my mind.

Duncan, Lawrence, DiMarzio, Armstrong, Rowe / DeArmond, Jackson, Fender, Gibson, TV Jones, Burns, Hamer, Kinman and a bunch of other (in)famous boutique PU's that I won't list because it would become to long.... I appreciate most of 'em for what they are, except when they are frankly unuseable (like a P90 sized "Rainbow" hexaphonic pickup meant to have belonged to Steve Howe: I just can't find how to use it, even instead of a GK3 or in my old Variax, since it would need an hexaphonic buffer to work properly and I lack of time or motivation to build such a circuit)...

Subjectively, I'd rather rank pickups according to their era. Nowadays, transducers are more consistent and their production probably much more controlled but when I play a "vintage" pickup, I often hear something embedded in my musical memory and I feel good. I must admit that I've modified many pickups and/or their wiring in order to emulate more faithfully older pickups, with a variable success... After all, it was already the case when I've mounted my first Duncan's four decades ago: my first SSL1's or SH1's were described as reproducing the tone of yesteryears and that's why I liked 'em. Apparently, I've not been able to change my mind in 40 years (except that I'm becoming an old wordy man derailing threads like this one). :-D
It's not to say that I dislike innovative products, BTW. I admire things like the Zexcoil design or the Ilitch noise cancelling coil (which really illustrates how to think "out of the box" IMHO. YMMV).

End of my rambling. Let's enjoy with our guitars: I rank it as one of my first pleasures. ;-)