What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

J

jmcorey

New member
Yes, most of us have tried Duncan and/or Dimarzio pickups. While different from each other, both companies have some great products, which have really improved our ability as guitar players to come up with tones that suit us as individual players.

But I am curious to know about other manufacturers of replacement pick ups. How many other great examples, such as Motor city pickups, WCR, bare knuckle, among others?

For any of you who have tried some of these other brands, please post which ones you have liked, and why.

Let me also just say how grateful I am, right here, about the openness of the Seymour Duncan company to allow other company's products to be discussed
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

I have a T. V. Jones Classic Plus B that I use in the neck of my Telecaster. It gives the guitar a very cool vibe. I can blast out crunchy Malcolm Young type rhythms on the thing. I had it as a bridge pickup in another guitar and it was "meh" in the neck of the Tele it sings. Clean it also gives me a great blues tone. In my new HH Strat I put in my first set of Fralins. I could go on and on about how happy I am with them or you could check out this review.

http://www.tmrzoo.com/2014/64070/review-lindy-fralin-pickups-pure-driven-snow-yet-hot-enough-melt
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Ever since I played my first Schaller Golden 50 I have been hooked. I have them in a number of guitars. I also like the Bill Lawrence L-500-R. It has a PAF meets BL type vibe to it. Also, the pickups from Dean Guitars DMT line are also excellent.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

I like Fender Fat 50's and CS 69's.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Everything Lawrence I've ever tried, I love. All of his humbuckers are big and powerful but regardless of the model, they all have a single coil clarity that you can't find in any other hum. I'd like to try some of his singles but I don't have a guitar for them, currently.

Rio Grande. I had a BBQ/Texas set back in the day and they were fantastic. The BBQ is hot but not necessarily 'modern' hot, just a big middy rock pickup. I still have one of those in a V. The Texas was similar to the 59 but not quite as bright.

RD Pickups. For vintagey stuff, those Irishmen can wind what you need. One of them has a new company but I can't remember the name.

BG Pickups. Never tried his winds but he's repaired both a vintage Super D and a Super 70 for me and they sound just like they should.

Jon Hill. He wound me a couple medium output buckers with pretty gnarly coil mismatches. Bright and LOUD.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

I really like the Gibson 61 Zebra pickups in my SGJ, they've got power but are pretty dynamic, which makes that SG have a unique and great tone, especially compared to my other 24 fret guitars
Love EMGs usually. Power, clarity under extreme gain, and dead silent when not playing.
This Peavey USA bridge humbucker I got in a trade. Amazing clarity and shreadability.
... And I may get flack for this one, but the Ibanez Powersound pickups are just killer for me. I like how smooth they sound with the two rows of slugs.
There's more I liked but this is good enough for now.
And I agree about how nice it is of SD to allow us to discuss rival brands.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Fender Custom Shops are pretty nice.
EMGs do their thing.
Rio Grande Stelly was a cool bridge pickup with shades of Telecaster incorporated.

Was not a fan of Lace Sensors or the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage series.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

ReWind
BareKnucklePickups
Wizz
Zhangbucker
Wolfetone
Sheptone
Deacci
D.Allen
Jess Loureiro
The Creamery

All do nice things for where they are put. A few times I have had to mix and match to get the right guitar for certain sets. There are very few that I've had to sell.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

This gets me to wondering, how many competing pickups out there that happen to be identical in their design? More than a few, I'd imagine.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Well, it would be very hard to 100% duplicate a certain type of scatterwind. So if you actually look at it closely I'd guess really not many. Certainly the broad brushstroke of 'PAF clone' or whatever, yes this could cover quite a few pickups.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

JS Moore winds the best neck humbucker I've ever used. Great clarity and warmth and just everything. They're absolutely the nicest neck pickups I've used. I believe I asked him to wind a double screw 9k bridge pickup a few years back that I split up to make two 78/custom work-alikes. I love his stuff but the bridge wasn't my cup of tea. It could be because I insisted on a double screw configuration though. The 78/customs are brilliant however.

I have a tapped paul bunyan from zhangbucker that got a delayed installation because I fubar'd a bigsby installation on my esquire. I have a pickguard from WD that I'm going to use it with in my strat (I imagine it will play quite well with the strabro 90 in there). I'm awaiting delivery on a neck humbucker from him as well.

I tried a rio grande dirty harry tele pickup and I wasn't blown away - the Jerry Donahue was louder and clearer. Not as fat but for the extra articulation and outright loin-frothing good sounds that came out of the Jerry Donahue that's a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make.

I've tried gibson, dimarzio, etc. Never anything from bare knuckle or lollar though I would like to try their stuff. People with better ears than I say the seth lover is on par with any lollar and only marginally less good than the tom holmes humbuckers. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy them, I'm just saying SD hits the sweet spot for price/value for me. Plus as per the famous words of somebody whose name I can't remember, we play gear that's nicer than 90% of the stuff used to make legendary albums. Truly I think we are living in a golden age of quality for guitar.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

AlexR said:
The Creamery

All do nice things for where they are put. A few times I have had to mix and match to get the right guitar for certain sets. There are very few that I've had to sell.
Click to expand...

How are the pickups from the Creamery? I've always been curious. I know he makes each set to order and each one is a little different.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Chocklit_Thunda said:
How are the pickups from the Creamery? I've always been curious. I know he makes each set to order and each one is a little different.
Click to expand...

I've had a Tele bridge pickup....slightly hotter than pure vintage, and originally it was matched to his WRHB clone neck. Both really nice pickups. They will be in separate guitars now as I'll have the matching bridge for the WR wound quite soon - the body and neck are almost ready.

I'm sure I've got another pickup from him somewhere in one of my guitars........but for the life of me I can't remember what it is?? Severe first world probs eh!!
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

I've liked all the EMG pickups I've tried (81, 85, 89, 60, 85X, 60X, 707X). The 81 is my least favourite but it excels in what it does best.

I like Fender CS '54s, apart from the slightly too weak bridge pickup they do about anything I want from single coils in a strat.

I also have a BKP ceramic Warpig. It is a nice pickup, but just a pickup nonetheless, there's no magic pixie dust in it compared to a Duncan pickup, for example, despite what some would lead people to believe.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

WCR
Bare Knuckle
Lollar
EMG
MotorCity
Suhr
Tom Anderson
Kinman
Tyler

Remove MotorCity and Bare Knuckle and you're left with the ones I love.
 
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Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Fender ('69 Custom and whatever's stock in my '52RI Tele), BKP (Alnico Nailbomb, Riff Raff and Irish Tour sets), Gibson ('57 Classics and T-Tops), EMG (81 and 85) and Lindy Fralin (Vintage Hot strat set /w baseplate).
All of them did what they were supposed to do and are quality pickups imo. Some just didn't fit the particular guitar for the intended use and were sold or stashed.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

These days I prefer the small custom winders who can provide exactly what I want for a.reasonable price, instead of trying to make an off the shelf pickup from Dimarzio, Duncan, Gibson, Fender, etc., work.

Rumpelstiltskin 1950 Black Ropes and Retrowind T Tops are far and away the best pickups I have experienced other than original vintage pickups.
 
Re: What non-Duncan and non-Dimarzio brands of pick ups have you tried and really...

Rumplestilkskin ?
Is that really the name of a builder ?

Now I'm curious because that's a cool name for a business.
Any good ?
 
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