What made you switch out pickups in the first place?

[Archer250]

Boredom lol

 

[JamesPaul]

First, it would have been '83, my new Stratocaster had 3 single coils just like my Bullet S3, and HSH for my Bullet seemed less expensive than another guitar with humbuckers. I wanted a set of Distortions but either the Distortion bridge was scarce at the time or the tech talked me out of it. So it was a Custom/stock/Seymourizer in my Bullet. Then I thought the Semourizer did not have the tonal variety of the Custom, and likely because Randy Rhoads had a Jazz neck, it became Custom/stock/Jazz.

After that, things kind of went off the rails, but as you asked "...in the first place?" I will reign it in and stop here! Well, stop sharing my reasons. I'm not committing to stop swapping pickups.

 

[IMENATOR]

What made you switch out pickups in the first place?

For me it was Helmuth Lemme's book (this was long before the English translation). I followed his schematics to mess with the existing pickups via electronics, but that didn't do it. The book had enough info to realize that different pickups are the way to go. After swapping for the first time I was hooked.

How about you?

I wanted a singing neck tone for soloing with my HSS Strat, now I know the stock ceramic was the problem, then finding the correct bridge for that, the realizing I needed a better amp, then I realized I love different sounds from different guitars, eventually getting a tube amp, now trying to clone it into a ToneX capture. All of that thanks to Dave Murray from Iron Maiden neck tone.

 

[Artie]

For a long time, I had one decent guitar and one little amp. My MIA Peavey Predator, and a Fender Champ. Then, in the late 90's, I discovered this forum. I was hooked. I have around 30 guitars, and a dozen amps now. Heaven only knows how many pups I've been through.

It's been a fun journey.

 

[Coma]

Curiosity. And I was convinced that it would make me sound more metal (I was an eager teen already playing a Les Paul through a Metal Zone, so not sure how much it actually improved anything).

I've since come around to the "if it aint broke, dont fix it" ethos. None of my guitars have the same pickup models in them. I only swap them when they aren't working for me.

 

[jeremy]

so the squier was my first guitar, then i got an rg550, swapped the bridge pup for a fred, then got a fender mij hrr strat and swapped everything for emgs the day i got it. still have those emgs actually. and one want a dirty white sv/sv/81 set?

 

[xxxplorer]

Was a way to make a guitar your own and tinker. Still do it today. Not as much. In the past, I was interested more in all my guitars sounding pretty much the same or close to it. These days I like the differences they all provide, so if a new guitar sounds good as is... I don't touch it. When I have guitars built, I have the pickups I want installed. I will tweak the magnets and pots to dial it in if need.

 

[ehdwuld]

so the squier was my first guitar, then i got an rg550, swapped the bridge pup for a fred, then got a fender mij hrr strat and swapped everything for emgs the day i got it. still have those emgs actually. and one want a dirty white sv/sv/81 set?

I went from a squire strat to an RG as well

Not dramatically different other than the neck shape

Love that thing

 

[Michel347]

Simply to get the tone I was after in a specific guitar.

 

[Mincer]

As a kid, I used to build models of cars and planes. Modding the guitar was a natural evolution. I wanted to learn to solder, too, because I couldn't quite afford to pay someone else to do it.

 

[NotDemanic]

I've just always liked tinkering with things.

 

[Juanhanglo]

My excuse was I had lace sensors and the internet, in its infancy, convinced that lace sensors were garbage.

So I swapped them.

Then swapped them back sometime later.

By that point, I was hooked. All it took was a taste. Lol.

I mainly pick up a dimarzio or two at their black friday sales these days. Its been 2 or 3 years since my last go round. It took me almost a year to install them.
Its obviously not a priority these days. I'd rather play than work. I leave the swaps to string swaps.

 

[esandes]

-EVH, with his partscasters, influenced me to tailor my guitars.

-I knew changing the pickups could make an inexpensive guitar sound significantly better and it did. That was at a time when my parents bought me inexpensive guitars.

 

[Binnerscot]

When I started playing, the tones were unobtainium for broke kids. Metallica was cranking Mark IICs, and there weren't many high gain amp in general. Higher output pickups helped and most stock pickups were pretty lackluster

 

[solspirit]

A kid I went to school with in NJ, Bill Merrit was buying bodies, necks, pickups & hardware making partscasters, way back in the early 80's.

Mincer probably Knows him.

He introduced me to SD & DiMarzio pickups. It stuck with me for years until, I finally tried it myself 20 years later. Lol

 

[Mincer]

A kid I went to school with in NJ, Bill Merrit was buying bodies, necks, pickups & hardware making partscasters, way back in the early 80's.

Mincer probably Knows him.

He introduced me to SD & DiMarzio pickups. It stuck with me for years until, I finally tried it myself 20 years later. Lol

Actually, I don't, but I left when I was 18. What area was he in?

 

[solspirit]

Tom's River to Long Branch, back in the day. He's been a teacher at the Garden State Music Center for the last 20 years or more.

 

[Mincer]

Oh gotcha. I was in Monmoth county, not too far away. My local music stores were Musician's Workshop (where Zakk taught before Ozzy) and Freehold Music Center.