The LEAST Versatile Pickup

[Artie]

EMG 81. There is no application for which I don't prefer something else.

Ditto. But that's just me.

The pickup I took out of a First Act guitar.

I may have done the opposite: keep the pup, toss the guitar.

Lipstick tube pickups. They only do one thing and you had better like it or be willing to replace it.

I love mine. Especially the singles in a Strat. It's one of my few guitars that's bone stock. I run them into a BBE Acoustimax, with proper EQ and gain set, then a little of the Sonic Maximizer for depth. I know that's a lot of processing to make them work, but we do that with many pups.

 

[idsnowdog]

I love mine. Especially the singles in a Strat. It's one of my few guitars that's bone stock. I run them into a BBE Acoustimax, with proper EQ and gain set, then a little of the Sonic Maximizer for depth. I know that's a lot of processing to make them work, but we do that with many pups.

I have toyed with the idea of buying a GFS Tele bridge lipstick tube and building an onboard preamp for it like the Alembic Stratoblaster. I would modify it to include power filtering and a low pass cap on the input to filter out frequencies about 12khz. I would probably change the JFET to a J201 because it has more bass presence. The capacitor off the source could also be changed to 15uF to expand the frequency range of the boost.

 

[Artie]

Cool circuit. I love perusing the Beavis site.

 

[Juanhanglo]

This was my answer. Not only are they not versatile, they sound like ass.

Agreed, amd why i ended up going with harmonic design vintage plus steel poles in mine.

Added bonus is that the middle position becomes way more useable too. You get a tele withv3 very useable sounds.

 

[zionstrat]

The JB has a 'sound' for sure, but as a 4 conductor pickup, it is more versatile than any one with just hot and ground.

Yep this is it.. The JB may not work for you or in specific guitars because of the upper mid-range hump..

But other than that, it's one of the most versatile pups out there. Fantastic strat quack split in second position.. Great parallel to self..

Easily goes from light crunch too full-blown metal. If it could do absolute clean, it would be my most recommended pup.

 

[GuitarStv]

Weird that there are so many low output pickups listed here. I find they usually sound great when played heavy (tend to like fuzz more than distortion though) and great clean. The very high output ones are much less versatile to me . . . usually too dark and compressed. You can get some of the dynamics back by lowering the pickup way down from the strings, but those highs are hard to get back. While I haven't found a pickup that is completely unusable for something, but have found that plenty of the highest output ones really just like to be played loud and hard.

 

[Securb]

I would say that any passive piezo is not only the least versatile but also the most useless.

 

[Mincer]

I would say that any passive piezo is not only the least versatile but also the most useless.

Yeah, passive ones, either on electric or acoustic, are pretty terrible for anything.

 

[GuitarStv]

Yeah, passive ones, either on electric or acoustic, are pretty terrible for anything.

They have a place if you want your guitar to sound like a castrated duck.

 

[Hank-]

Fast Track 2 in series mode

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[Rex_Rocker]

Weird that there are so many low output pickups listed here. I find they usually sound great when played heavy (tend to like fuzz more than distortion though) and great clean. The very high output ones are much less versatile to me . . . usually too dark and compressed. You can get some of the dynamics back by lowering the pickup way down from the strings, but those highs are hard to get back. While I haven't found a pickup that is completely unusable for something, but have found that plenty of the highest output ones really just like to be played loud and hard.

While I do agree that PAF-y type pickups tend to be more versatile, I feel like they're sometimes harder to get to work for the heavier genres because that more open high-end can sometimes become fizz under high-gain if not treated correctly. Plenty of players use them and make them work, but they do have a specific tone that may not be every high-gain player's cup of tea.

Also, yeah, I agree that higher output pickups do tend like to be played loud and hard, but that doesn't necessarily mean not versatile. Both, say, Black Metal and Pop Punk are played loud and hard, but the tones that people go for in those genres are night and day. My point is there's still a wide scope of "loud and hard", even is a pickup only does "loud and hard".

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

X2N, Invader, and anything marked with a Jackson logo.

And I like the first 2

 

[Rex_Rocker]

X2N, Invader, and anything marked with a Jackson logo.

And I like the first 2

If you tried the Jackson J90C, you'd probably dig it. It's along the lines of a Duncan Distortion.

 

[Mincer]

Actually, higher output pickups can be split or used in parallel, and those are 3 usable sounds.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

If you tried the Jackson J90C, you'd probably dig it. It's along the lines of a Duncan Distortion.

I have not. Haven't even heard of that one.

 

[Artie]

Honorable mention to the Nazgul. It's a great sound if you like dirt all the time. But most of the time, I like to clean it up. I couldn't get the Nazgul to do that.

It's the shortest amount of time I've ever owned a Duncan.

 

[beaubrummels]

Actually, higher output pickups can be split or used in parallel, and those are 3 usable sounds.

Well, I did that with a Distortion once and all I got was 3 volume levels of Distortion sound.

 

[Mincer]

Well, I did that with a Distortion once and all I got was 3 volume levels of Distortion sound.

True, but that is at least 3 different volume levels. I think for a 'least versatile' trophy, you wouldn't even get that. So it limits it to single coils.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Honorable mention to the Nazgul. It's a great sound if you like dirt all the time. But most of the time, I like to clean it up. I couldn't get the Nazgul to do that.

It's the shortest amount of time I've ever owned a Duncan.

I've heard lots of people say the same thing about the Nazgul, and I do agree that it's more or less a one-trick pony (metal). But I can still get decently usable cleans out of it by rolling off the tone. They're not sparkling or pristine but they'll do.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

When I had the Nazgul, I never really tried to play pretty clean passages, crunchy tones, or soulful blues solos on it, admittedly.

Having said that, I don't really see why it would be less versatile than the Black Winter which people claim is great at many things other than Metal. I find that, while they're certainly not the same, they have many things in common. If anything, I'd say the Nazgul is a tad less compressed and focused, which is kinda what makes the Black Winter great doing aggressive Metal, IMO.

JMO, of course.