Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

jonathane40

jonathane40

New member
Hi, i have looked online about the Taylor pickups for electric guitars, specifically, the High Definition (HD), and haven’t found much information. All i know is that the neck pickup is 4K and bridge 5K.

So i turn to all the experts and tone connoisseurs in this forum for help.

Does anyone know which Duncans are the closest to the HD? What about the magnet types, do the Taylor HD has Alinco 2?

So far, the Taylor Solidbody with two 250K alpha pots and HD pickups sounds brighter than my PRS SC250 with four 500K CTS pots and Pearly Gates. The guitars do sound very different unplugged though so with such a variety in components, i am having a hard time pinpointing the difference in tone between the two pickups.

thanks
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

Most humbuckers are 7K+ and the only one I can think of that's less than 7K is the Dimarzio Humbucker From Hell.
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

Yes, i have never seen humbuckers with such a low resistance. I will see if i can snap a pic from the back plate of the humbuckers where it has the stickers displaying the resistance.
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

Sounds a lot like a FilterTron. TVJones TV Classic and Super'Tron are 4.8K bridge and 4K or 3.9K neck.

Could also be a standard build wired in parallel.
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

There is not much to correlate. One of their engineers was talking to me when they debuted them at a NAMM show, and shared with me their concept for these. They use neodymium magnets in a configuration that focuses the field, not unlike the way an Invader or Gibson Dirty Fingers uses 3 ceramic magnets.

Under hard picking the neo has a loud attack with an early envelope that goes relatively unnoticed under overdrive but is evident clean. It's like the magnetic field is very rigid and takes a lot to be truly disturbed. They're nothing like what Tom Anderson has been doing with neo for the past 20 years. And none of our pickups have that character, except maybe the Stag Mag if you put it too close to the strings. We probably have some pickups that have a similar eq curve, but I'd have to spend more time with the Taylors to really nail that down.

The DC resistance is not particularly related to output because of the strong magnetic field.
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

I think this begs the question... When is SD gonna release a high gain Neo pickup? :D
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

the taylors sound very good! I had a Solidbody classic with the 2 mini buckers and it was a fantastic guitar.. I bought the alternate pickguard with the HD bucker and 2 singles. Also very good pups, but I like the regular minihums for sweet singing tone. I had to sell the guitar to pay for another I over extended myself on and hate myself for it.. The Taylor solid body guitar could have been number 1. I really hate that I sold it..
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

frankfalbo said:
There is not much to correlate. One of their engineers was talking to me when they debuted them at a NAMM show, and shared with me their concept for these. They use neodymium magnets in a configuration that focuses the field, not unlike the way an Invader or Gibson Dirty Fingers uses 3 ceramic magnets.

Under hard picking the neo has a loud attack with an early envelope that goes relatively unnoticed under overdrive but is evident clean. It's like the magnetic field is very rigid and takes a lot to be truly disturbed. They're nothing like what Tom Anderson has been doing with neo for the past 20 years. And none of our pickups have that character, except maybe the Stag Mag if you put it too close to the strings. We probably have some pickups that have a similar eq curve, but I'd have to spend more time with the Taylors to really nail that down.

The DC resistance is not particularly related to output because of the strong magnetic field.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. I've considered putting an A8 in my '59b to get something along the lines of what you described. A crisp wind and a strong magnetic field.

Have you guys considered any neo pickups?
 
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Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

frankfalbo,

thanks for your detailed response. I am not very familiar with neodymium magnets so will look more into that.

The Taylor HD do sound quite vintage and warm. At the same time, they can get bright even with 250K pots. Maybe that is due to the tone knob on the Taylor’s which is is described in their site in the following manner: "The first two-thirds of the knob rotation acts like a traditional tone control. The last third, especially when all the way at the end, starts peaking the mids, yielding a killer nasal tone that resembles playing through a semi-cocked Wah-wah pedal.”

I am still not sure what to think about the tone pot. I will try it a bit more and see if i should keep it or replace it with a regular pot, even maybe a 500K.

The reason i ask, is because i was thinking on putting a set of pearly gates on this guitar, but so far the taylor HD’s sound very good. So i was wondering how the pearly gates would compare to this in this guitar. I am afraid that the best way will be to eventually give it a try.

thanks for all your responses!
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

Seems like they designed the pickups with not only a general tone in mind, but with their tone circuit in mind as well. This is typical of proprietary gear. You may never be able to take advantage of what Taylor intended the pickups to sound without the custom tone control. Although, the use of the tone control with other pickups might be interesting too!
 
Re: Taylor High Definition pickups similar to which Duncans?

IanBallard, i was thinking the same! Since i played it, i was wondering how pearly gates would sound with their tone pots. But my fear is that being 250k, it might be too dark sounding.

I also contacted taylor and they gave me all the information on their Molex connectors and where to purchase them in order to be able to try any non Taylor pickups. And i think i read somewhere that Taylor even uses the same wiring color as Seymour does.
 
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