What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

SD Custom Shop. I got a set of '78s
WCR Goodwood/Crossroads.

It's all relative. If you're playing a $600 guitar, dropping $240 on a set of pickups is a big investment. On a $3000 guitar, it's a much smaller fraction of your total investment.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

200 bucks for 60's P90 covers? I think I have a couple dozen of those around here someplace...it is nuts what the cork sniffers will pay for mounting rings, knobs, etc. for even a Norlin POS. Some people collect Hummel dolls and Star Trek dreck, others collect guitars.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

No one ever mentions Fralins. Rios?

I am VERY CURIOUS about BARE KNUCKLES, esp since Steve Stevens uses them now. So what's up with these Wolfetones?

I have an old T TOP. Maybe I should put it back in. Problem is, it was quite bright, NOT 4 conductor, and I preferred the 57 classic and A2PRO (BLASHPHEMY!) clean.

BTW I love the Gibson 57 classic. I might pay a lot for covered APH1s OR to get an EVH model. I like the APH so much that the EVH has me curious.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Zerberus said:
BTW, if I had the cash I´d buy a few original PAFs... so I can make others pay out the nose in a few years :laugh2:
Click to expand...

& if i had the cash I'd buy a few & keep them all, cuz they're the perfect pick-up.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Joe Barden Tele and Strat pickups...those go for about $250 or more each these days and they are worth every penny. Although I hope Joe gets up and running again someday and the price comes down. I don't think it indicates being "spoiled" for a professional musician to pay that kind of money to get a great tone...professional violinists pay much, much more to get a great tone. I think some rock musicians are spoiled cheapskates when they won't pay what something is worth.;)
 
Last edited:
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

As far as Duncans go, the Antiquity humbuckers are certainly worth $120! So are the '78 humbuckers from the Duncan Custom Shop. The alnico 2 Duncan Custom Shop Tapped Tele lead pickup is a fabulous pickup...I didn't pay $120 for mine, but it's worth it. There's many pickups that are worth $120 each. Lindy Fralin 7.5K neck humbuckers are worth it...
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I look at expensive pickups as being half the price they sell for......because I always sell off spare pickups that aren't in guitars to buy better ones to PUT in my guitars. It buffers most of the cost, and I get exactly what I want.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Prior to being able to make my own, I would pay $120 if it sounded twice as good as the best $60 pickup I ever heard.

Or maybe now if it sounded that good and was an unusual design that I couldn't make (like a stack, etc).
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Custom-design SD Custom-shop "Super-Distortion" 7-string w/blades wound @ like 26k, yeah, I'm all for brutality.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

JeffB said:
psssttt....they din' have any BK pups back then ;)

This is exactly what I'm talking about..."idealized" sound.


Those guys back then used Gibson and DiMarzios.

Not that it isn't an awesome pup, cos it is...But I suspect if you played John Sykles old LPC or Adrian and Daves guits, or Fast Eddie Clarks Paula and Strat and compared them to a VHII, you'd be quite surprised....
Click to expand...
i'm not arguing that.. but with those guitars i'd need a moded jmp BLASTING hehe
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Just did for the Brobucker...actually, my wife did (what a great woman).

I've played a lot of different pickups, many that I've owned and many friends have/had. When it comes to getting a great PAF tone, and I mean GREAT, aside from the '57 Classics, the Brobucker is it. It has that tone and allows me to cover many grounds with it from Free to Van Halen to AC/DC to Judas Priest and many other songs we play and styles.

Is it worth it? You better damn well believe it is. Would I get another CS pickup? Damn straight I would.

This is not to say that I have to have pickups over $120 in my guitars to get a great tone because I don't. Before I got the Brobucker, the Custom Custom was the most expensive one in my guitars, and that one runs less than $100. Heck, I just snagged a used Air Zone for $40 to go in my Strat.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I wouldn`t pay that for any pickup, although I have in the past and that`s why I won`t do it again. I like SD`s, and not the Antiquity models, and that`s all. Most of my guitars have 59`s in the neck and a CC in the bridge or a JB. But that`s just what I like, many other players I respect and have great tone use Holmes, Fralin, etc., but I just like these Duncans. When something works I stick with it. Kinda like that movie when the guy dropped the change and was looking up the girls skirts, he said the same thing. :)
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I just wanted to take a moment to admit I am a spoiled cheapskate
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

as u would guess from the other thread- I would gladly pay 120 each for a set of Barden S delux pups-
m
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I have a pair of '59's...They're brilliant! I wouldn't go with ANY other brand after trying Seymour Duncan, it has that exact tone i'm looking for. I'm going to try a Duncan Custom and a Duncan Distortion in my new guitar....I can't wait!! Seymour Duncan in my opinion, are the God of pickups. Oh, i forgot to mention..they're worth the money!
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

Since covered Duncans and Dimarzios cost about $150 here, I won't hesitate to get a Bare Knuckle for $190 from the local dealer instead. There is so much attention and detail in the production of a scatterwound, distressed-cover etc. pickup that $40 is not a big price difference in my opinion. Sounds snobbish but I've learned that I cannot afford to buy cheap.

EDIT: Hmm, it does sound snobbish... I meant that although there are lots of great pickups, a 'bootique' pup has something 'special' to it. For some people it's the look and the fact that you have a handcrafted 'artwork' in your guitar, for others it's purely the tonal benefits (like a little bit flatter response and some extra definition scatterwinding provides). For me, it's the mixture of the two factors. :)
 
Last edited:
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I wouldn't pay that for any standard bucker, and maybe I'm tin-eared, but I've never heard one that sounds better than a standard Duncan to justify the cost premium. I mean, if you want "vintage at all costs" r something, OK. Weird, IMO, but OK. If you want your "ultimate tone", and you have a very definite idea about what that is, OK.

But my opinion of what's "best" changes with the wind, so I'd be buying hundreds of bucks worth of custom pups a year. So I've settled on "close enough" so I can get down to some actual writing & playing... ;-)

Having said that, I'd pay that for a custom bridge bucker. One coil is a "stack plus" version of an A5 twangbucker that's also tapped for lower output when wired in combination with the middle pickup or the second coil. Bridge bucker, noiseless bridge tele, and B+M strat combo. Worth $120, IMO.
 
Re: What pickup would you pay over $120 each or MORE for?

I'm an 80/20 kinda guy (OK, maybe 90/10). I figure close enough is close enough. If I can get 90% of what I want to hear with say, a lightly-used 59 for $60, then I'm not going to spend $120 to get... what, 95%?

This goes counter to much of what we do & discuss here on the SD Forum, but Tom Morello had some words of wisdom in a December 2005 Guitar Player interview:

What would you say to a guitarist who feels like his tone is stuck in a rut?
Well, I’ll tell you what I did when I encountered that problem—I gave up. For years, I tried to find this perfect tone I had in my head. Then, one day, I spent a few hours fiddling with my gear, and I decided that I didn’t particularly love the tone, but it wasn’t going to get any better. So I marked those settings and said, “Now I’m done. This is my sound.” And those settings are the same ones that I used in today’s rehearsal—as well as on every record and every show I’ve ever played. When I stopped worrying so much about tone, and started worrying about music, the problem went away.

Ouch.

(See the whole article here.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Secret Agent for HSH middle pickup?
Replies
6
Views
1K
Artie
Artie
T
TONE QUEST: Did you get MORE or LESS picky over time?
2 3 4
Replies
74
Views
2K
solspirit
solspirit
M
Interested in an affordable Strat neck with SS frets? (NOT a for sale thread)
Replies
10
Views
595
Mincer
Mincer
G
Which guitar you own is your favorite
3 4 5
Replies
92
Views
3K
BTMN
BTMN
playas
Musicman jigsaw opinions wanted
Replies
4
Views
284
playas
playas
Back
Top