The look of pickups

A few of my favorite non-traditional looks, and one kind of rare, but traditional look...

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I also like the look of all the dual-rail offerings. The Silverbird, the Nokie Edwards signature, El Diablo (second version), the Slug, etc.

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Looks of pickups are important. I like a more traditional look myself.
Saying that Duncan confuses the heck out of me by doing things like the non traditional look on the Sentient neck. I find them to be by far my all time favorite and the most versatile Duncan neck pickup. However they look odd with a normal humbucker are marketed as a metal pickup and only come in the Black matt with black polls unless you go to the custom shop. They already have a up charge so even a floor custom puts them into a boutique price range. Would love to see more affordable and readily available appearance options on Duncan pickups. Also things like the Saturday Night Special available as a Trembucker bridge again like it was pre pandemic. I bought 2 sets of the SNS with Trembucker bridges but the trembucker option is now NLA.
 
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I love the black matte pickups. I also like the dual rails as well as the round pickups above. For years, many pickups looked the same, and we are finally getting some cool variations. My favorite Duncans are black powder coat.
 
I love the black matte pickups. I also like the dual rails as well as the round pickups above. For years, many pickups looked the same, and we are finally getting some cool variations. My favorite Duncans are black powder coat.

The problem is the lack of affordable choices in appearance with Duncan. Almost every Duncan Pickup I own came from one particular ebay dealer who ordered a LOT of floor custom stuff in things like color and also say Custom 8's ect. He has dropped Duncan now and gone straight Dimarzio over this. I know this from our personal conversions and also bought several Duncans when they did the final close out. Wont name the dealer here so you guys figure out who. Just stopped doing business with Duncan over it. Hate that as 90% of the Duncans over the years I have bought came from them. Now can't get things like a Zebra SNS set with a Trembucker Bridge or a normal looking Sentient Zebra neck without going directly to the Custom Shop and paying that upcharge.
 
Duncan has always been kind of wonky with those options. I was really into the neon colored pickups, and wanted to ape the look of the black/green Ibanez Universe. I'd wager that the majority of people into neon pickups probably have Floyds, and Duncan only offered those colors in standard spaced pickups. That always seemed completely ass-backwards to me, and not offering them at all would make more sense.

I had a set black covered set with no poles in my black PRS, which looked totally sick with the cream bezels, like there was nothing in them. Plain old matte-black plastic EMGs are my overall favorite look, though. I've never put them in a guitar and disliked the appearance.
 
The problem is the lack of affordable choices in appearance with Duncan. Almost every Duncan Pickup I own came from one particular ebay dealer who ordered a LOT of floor custom stuff in things like color and also say Custom 8's ect. He has dropped Duncan now and gone straight Dimarzio over this. I know this from our personal conversions and also bought several Duncans when they did the final close out. Wont name the dealer here so you guys figure out who. Just stopped doing business with Duncan over it. Hate that as 90% of the Duncans over the years I have bought came from them. Now can't get things like a Zebra SNS set with a Trembucker Bridge or a normal looking Sentient Zebra neck without going directly to the Custom Shop and paying that upcharge.

You can get them for any authorized dealer without going to the Custom Shop.
 
A few of my favorite non-traditional looks, and one kind of rare, but traditional look...

product-chisel-bridge-black.png


DB7CHROME_1024x1024@2x.jpg



WESTERN_1024x1024@2x.jpg


I also like the look of all the dual-rail offerings. The Silverbird, the Nokie Edwards signature, El Diablo (second version), the Slug, etc.

fetch

Not only do Alumitones look cool, they sound very cool too.
 
So I'm going to be the weirdo on this thread.. I could care less what a pickup looks like, to me form follows function. So all I care about is good sound and usability.

Now I have to admit that the form follows function thing grows on me. I love strats to death and have almost no use for a Jaguar. That's just me, not saying Jags aren't good...

So I'm going to gravitate towards a strat looking pickup and away from something that looks jaguarish because I'm after a strat sound. Strangely enough, I loved the demo for the new fender strat Cunefe But I didn't like the look because it is in a metal case that reminds me of a Jaguar. But that's likely to change relatively quickly cuz I'm definitely getting a set :-)

Same thing with Minnie's, Firebirds all the cool pickups on display here (especially the Rail Hammer, the first in Beau Brummels photos ).

And now thst I think about it, the Reverend Rail Hammer maybe my case in point. I wasn't originally attracted to it... It's got way oversized slugs and the other half are rails so I imagine it confuses a lot of people. From my perspective, the look had no associated meaning.

But after getting one of my own and installing them for others, it's clear that it's a ridiculously good pickup and a lot has to do with the look. Those big pole pieces soften the highs and the rails tighten the bass. I think they'd probably sell a whole bunch more of them if they throw a cover over top and just let people listen to them.

So, for me it's a great example of falling in love with something because of what it does, not how it looks.

I don't want to come off as negative and definitely want you guys to enjoy the thread and the visual artistry that I lack ...but I did want to provide at least one pass as the devil's advocate for what it's worth.
 
Screenshot_20230510-094924_Chrome.jpg Screenshot_20230510-094807_Chrome.jpg Either a black, white or red guitar. With these pickups depending on color. I like the white and red one best I think I'm not sure. Pretty generic I guess but it would be cool to me. I kinda suck so I'm not ever getting my own pickup unless I pay for it lol.
 
I love the look of active EMG or Fishman pickups. I think they kinda make a statement like, "Hey, I'm a metal guitar," almost like playing a pointy guitar, but not quite.

I also like the looks of black uncovered bobbins. When I first saw the looks of a Black Winter in person I was like WOAH. Then I tried them, and I am all about them. But the looks are certainly part of the charm.

I also really like the look or blade pickups like the X2N or the Dimebucker. Sadly, I don't like the sound of either.

The look of a nickel-covered humbucker in a vintage-y Les Paul is also to-die-for.

I love the look of hex adjustable poles too. Very modern.



What I certainly don't like is the look of black satin bobbins. Not because of the look in isolation, but because guitars' plastics are rarely ever satin. So they almost never match.

Also don't like the Slash look where the two cream bobbins are facing the same direction. Mainly because when I see it, I think of Slash.

I also don't like when the logo in the pickups is like too out there. Like those Wilkinson pickups. Or the Roswells. Or Guitarheads. Or the way they used to have a HUGE logo on the Lundgren covered pickups. Duncan is bordeline acceptable to me. The one in the Black Winter looks badass, but if it were black like on the Blackend Black Winter, that'd be perfect. But on the "regular" Duncans, I wished they made the logo smaller or more discrete like the Invader of the Nazgul/Pegasus/Sentient.

JMO.
 
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