Unforgiving Pickups

Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Any pickup if you cut the gain back. I remember a Gibson ad for their acoustics, just a shot of an acoustic on a stand with the huge crowd in the background. The caption: "No distortion to cover your a$$".

Dial out the beehive and you'll find out just what an abject piece of crap your picking technique is.
 
Re: Unforgiving Pickups

zhangliqun said:
any pickup if you cut the gain back. I remember a gibson ad for their acoustics, just a shot of an acoustic on a stand with the huge crowd in the background. The caption: "no distortion to cover your a$$".

Dial out the beehive and you'll find out just what an abject piece of crap your picking technique is.
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+ 2
 
Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Sometimes I find the opposite. Playing high gain distortion and making it sound clean is an incredible skill and takes years of practice. Sometimes it can sound like a bee hive and that's because they get sympathetic feedback, strings ringing, pick noise, bumping adjacent strings etc.. Some people think that's a product of high gain, and think it's hiding their playing!!! When you lower the gain, I find it's easier to get away with that stuff, you can even sort've strum or play loose on everything ala SRV and it won't sound sloppy. But you can't play like that on a high gain sound or it will sound like a bee hive.

It's not always the distortion covering a player's slop. A lot of it is more about EQ, like if the tone is buried or muffled to the point nothing's clear. But as far as nice clear pickups, that allow you to hear everything, the Peavey Wolfgang pickups are ultra clear and tight. I love that from any pickup.
 
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Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Heavy said:
Sometimes I find the opposite. Playing high gain distortion and making it sound clean is an incredible skill and takes years of practice. Sometimes it can sound like a bee hive and that's because they get sympathetic feedback, strings ringing, pick noise, bumping adjacent strings etc.. Some people think that's a product of high gain, and think it's hiding their playing!!! When you lower the gain, I find it's easier to get away with that stuff, you can even sort've strum or play loose on everything ala SRV and it won't sound sloppy. But you can't play like that on a high gain sound or it will sound like a bee hive.

It's not always the distortion covering a player's slop. A lot of it is more about EQ, like if the tone is buried or muffled to the point nothing's clear. But as far as nice clear pickups, that allow you to hear everything, the Peavey Wolfgang pickups are ultra clear and tight. I love that from any pickup.
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Great post.

I also don't see it as a universal clean/gain issue either. Look at Santana. Does he ever play without massive gain? Try to emulate his emotion and taste. Then sit down with your guitar and weep 'cause it sure is tough...
 
Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Heavy said:
Sometimes I find the opposite. Playing high gain distortion and making it sound clean is an incredible skill and takes years of practice. Sometimes it can sound like a bee hive and that's because they get sympathetic feedback, strings ringing, pick noise, bumping adjacent strings etc.
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The beehive sound isn't about sympathetic feedback or ringing strings or other extraneous noise. It's about gain so thick that it's all clipped overtones and no fundamental to lay down the law. It's true that playing with high gain has its challenges too, but high gain will always by its nature compress the dynamics making a weak hit with the pick (or weak hammer-on or pull-off) sound just as loud as a strong one, which will lead to sloppy picking and pull-off/hammer-on technique if you never at least occasionally check yourself through a squeaky clean Fender or similar amp.

I'm not being some old geezer saying "you kids are all wrong" to play with high gain, it all depends on the context, as does everything in life. Some stuff just sounds wrong without high gain. I'm just saying that if you can't play without it without sounding like a garage band hacker, it's time to buckle down and start shedding on that picking technique.
 
Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Howdy,

The two most unforgiving brige P/Us:
1. Joe Barden Tele ( by a mile!)
2. DiMarzio Tang King (trebly)

Eggman

PS: I only play clean (Twin) or slightly overdriven through a mic'd '68 Vibro Champ; no preamp buzz or pedals for me. YMMV.
 
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Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Heavy said:
Sometimes I find the opposite. Playing high gain distortion and making it sound clean is an incredible skill and takes years of practice. Sometimes it can sound like a bee hive and that's because they get sympathetic feedback, strings ringing, pick noise, bumping adjacent strings etc.. Some people think that's a product of high gain, and think it's hiding their playing!!! When you lower the gain, I find it's easier to get away with that stuff, you can even sort've strum or play loose on everything ala SRV and it won't sound sloppy. But you can't play like that on a high gain sound or it will sound like a bee hive.

It's not always the distortion covering a player's slop. A lot of it is more about EQ, like if the tone is buried or muffled to the point nothing's clear. But as far as nice clear pickups, that allow you to hear everything, the Peavey Wolfgang pickups are ultra clear and tight. I love that from any pickup.
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I've found the exact same thing, it's easier for me to play clean. Maybe it's because I use fingers for picking and not a pick? Distortion is really hard to tame anyway.
 
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Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Hey everyone,

I was curious to know your thoughts on what pickups are the most unforgiving in the bridge position. I'm considering some pickup swaps and I would like a pickup that isn't going to hide my mistakes or sloppy playing. I want to hear my mistakes so I can correct them. Thanks!
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yah... thats why I made this new kind of pickup... I made it so I could hear my mistaks..
when you play a metal song sometimes when you play it again you sometimes hit the wrong note... but it still sounds the same. then you just use that crapy note insted of that note you started off with.. I hate that... I wanted to hear my mistake and not play ruged just slaping everything.. thats why I made my pickup so it would fit my needs

look at this video and tell me were I hit the wrong note... you can clearly tel.l and it sounded like crap... this pickup I made its kind of hard to play because you cant mesup at all or if you do everyone can tell and it helps you get better... I think ill sell my pickup to help people learn to play right on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyw49tHEbM

hears my thread: its funny read all of it..
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=148564
 
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Re: Unforgiving Pickups

Michael Morales said:
yah... thats why I made this new kind of pickup... I made it so I could hear my mistaks..
when you play a metal song sometimes when you play it again you sometimes hit the wrong note... but it still sounds the same. then you just use that crapy note insted of that note you started off with.. I hate that... I wanted to hear my mistake and not play ruged just slaping everything.. thats why I made my pickup so it would fit my needs

look at this video and tell me were I hit the wrong note... you can clearly tel.l and it sounded like crap... this pickup I made its kind of hard to play because you cant mesup at all or if you do everyone can tell and it helps you get better... I think ill sell my pickup to help people learn to play right on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyw49tHEbM

hears my thread: its funny read all of it..
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=148564
Click to expand...

you can play any pickup with low gain or clean and you'll hear your mistakes...it's playing with high gain that tends to hide your mistakes.
 
Re: Unforgiving Pickups

yah thats the point you can play both ways an still hear the mistakes... you dont have to get rid of the sound you want just to get what you want.
 
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