What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup brands?

[GuitarStv]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

Where do Duncan Designed fit in? Aren’t they supposed to have similar components with overseas production?

I'm very happy with the Duncan Designed J-Bass pickups in my Squire VM. So, thumbs up from me on the only ones I've tried.

 

[Demanic]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

Duncan Designed are good. But if you compare them side by side in the same instrument with Duncan's, there is a noticeable difference.

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[Gtrjunior]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

A buddy has a set of Duncan Designed in his Schecter. I was not expecting them to sound as good as they do.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

Duncan Designed are good quality pickups. Not USA level, but certainly top o' the heap as far as low-cost import/stock pickups go. Part of that comes from the level of quality control SD demands (and pays for), even from their budget line. An HB-102 is not as dynamic and brilliant as a proper JB. But it's 90% there at a fraction of the cost and made from very good quality components.

Almost all overseas pickup manufacturers have a range of quality available...pay more, get more. Usually there's a standard production catalog for budget-seekers and that's where you get a lot of the rebrands like Dragonfire, TNT, GuitarHeads, etc.

But, resellers and manufacturers can often spec whatever they want if they're willing to pay a little more. That's where you end up with GFS, Tonerider, Tesla, etc. Some mfrs, using Artec as an example, also offer in-house premium brands like "Giovanni" and their "Milestone" stuff, which is on-par with SD stuff for the most part.

There has been a HUGE jump in the quality of import pickups over the past decade or so. It's a great time to be alive...good sound is inexpensive!

EDIT: But my money is still on the USA brands as far as innovation and artist support goes

 

[Chad]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

Duncan Designed are good quality pickups. Not USA level, but certainly top o' the heap as far as low-cost import/stock pickups go. Part of that comes from the level of quality control SD demands (and pays for), even from their budget line. An HB-102 is not as dynamic and brilliant as a proper JB. But it's 90% there at a fraction of the cost and made from very good quality components.

Almost all overseas pickup manufacturers have a range of quality available...pay more, get more. Usually there's a standard production catalog for budget-seekers and that's where you get a lot of the rebrands like Dragonfire, TNT, GuitarHeads, etc.

But, resellers and manufacturers can often spec whatever they want if they're willing to pay a little more. That's where you end up with GFS, Tonerider, Tesla, etc. Some mfrs, using Artec as an example, also offer in-house premium brands like "Giovanni" and their "Milestone" stuff, which is on-par with SD stuff for the most part.

There has been a HUGE jump in the quality of import pickups over the past decade or so. It's a great time to be alive...good sound is inexpensive!

EDIT: But my money is still on the USA brands as far as innovation and artist support goes

Good to know. I have an HB101n in the neck of a Charvel Tele and left it there. It does a great job. I've got a Schecter Corsair that came with an HB101b & HB101n. The HB101b sounds good. The HB101n was just too dark in that guitar (it's a 335 style), so I swapped it. But that's probably just a guitar/pickup mismatch more than any quality issue. They do indeed seem like well-made pickups.

 

[Xavier]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

Duncan Designed are good. But if you compare them side by side in the same instrument with Duncan's, there is a noticeable difference.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

This.

I have made a direct comparison of an HB103 against a DD, and an HB101 against a 59. The Duncan Designed versions sound good, however I would say they are 80% of the US made counterparts. Yes, the difference is noticeable.

However, I have checked some quality korean pickups like Tesla, and I like them just as good as USA Duncans. I really like their Opus 4 bridge model. It's like a Custom 5 but with all the mids that the Custom is missing. Works extremely well with my Marshall JVM410. The Tesla has a lot of mids (in the right frequencies)

I do love Duncans, however I think there are comparable pickups out there, with a lower price, for the simple reason of labour cost .. they use quality materials as well.

 

[Ace Flibble]

Re: What really is the difference in prices and quality across pickups and pickup bra

You're mostly paying for three things: R&D, quality control, and branding.

Cheap pickups are designed quickly and made quickly. The very cheapest pickups often are not tested before they're sent out and sometimes are only vaguely in the ballpark of the specification they are meant to be.
The most expensive pickups are usually designed after a small team has gone back-and-forth over the design for months or even years. They're usually made more slowly, in smaller numbers and, most critically, only shipped after they have been thoroughly tested to meet both mechanical standards and the specification they are advertised as having.

Then you've got branding as your wildcard. Some cheap pickups get sold at higher prices simply because they have a particular manufacturer attached to them. G&B pickups, for example, resell for more when they have the PRS SE branding; there's strong evidence they may be the company behind GuitarFetish, Irongear, and Tonerider pickups, too, and those three all sell for more than the basic G&B branded pickups do. The pickups in Classic Vibe 50s Strats are, by all accounts, the same as some Duncan Designed pickups, but the DD branding means those command a slightly higher resale price and are advertised in new guitars as more of a selling point.
Similarly, lots of expensive pickups become more expensive thanks to their branding. Bare Knuckle don't have any magic pixie dust to put in a pickup, nor is their quality control any more thorough than Seymour Duncan's or DiMarzio's. Bill Lawrence's name comes with a premium that isn't in any way justified by the physical product.

You definitely do not always get what you pay for, and I have no doubt there are a lot of people who over-pay for something they could have gotten an absolutely identical but much cheaper version of elsewhere. Similarly I don't doubt that there are some really cheap pickups out there that their manufacturers should be charging more for. (This was what lead to the downfall of Swineshead pickups. They made a great product but sold it so cheaply they weren't really making much profit, and by the time they felt they could charge more it was already too late and they went under.)


Something I'd really like to see people remember is that the original P.A.F. humbuckers—you know, those ones which now sell for as much as a whole new guitar does and every pickup manufacturer tries to replicate—were originally created with no care or particular design. Gibson were just throwing them together as fast as possible using whatever parts they had on their desk that day. There weren't specific neck and bridge models. They had mismatched coils and were 'scatterwound' not because those were premium features and clever design, but because they didn't want to buy in the machinery to wind the coils more consistently. They used A2, A3, and A4 magnets not because those were what they had carefully studied and decided sounded best, but because they were buying magnets in bulk from whoever could supply them and didn't care which particular material they were sent that week.
And people now argue about how to best replicate those pickups. People pay huge premiums for boutique companies to carefully repeat the haphazard, sloppy construction of the originals. People pay hundreds of pounds for original pickups and sometimes even thousands for a set in clean condition.

Same with Fender guitars. Alder and ash weren't premium woods chosen for tone; they were what was growing nearby and cheap to cut down. Leo Fender didn't design bolt-on necks and top-loading pickguard arrangements because he thought they sounded, felt, or looked best. It was just what enabled his factory to pump the guitars out quicker and cheaper. Yet look at how much people will pay for a replica of a vintage Tele, let alone a real one.

... So, yeah. Musicians will turn their nose at new sloppily-made gear but sell a kidney to buy a old sloppily-made gear. The aspects of a product which we now think means it has to be priced low are the very things we revere. With pickups you're paying for design, quality control, and brand name, which are all things the most holy of examples never had. :18: