Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

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StormJH1

New member
I'm curious which pickups people have come across that are just so bad, you'd endorse replacing them with almost anything - even some ceramics or OEM products.

The two that come to mind for me are Epiphone and Ibanez "INF". The Epiphone one is a little unfair, because I've picked up many Epis in guitar stores that sound great. But as a modding project, there's really no circumstance where I could recommend putting Epi pickups into another guitar, even a cheap one. I tried that with a HOTCH/57CH set, and it was a damn mess (fortunately, I flipped it successfully right back on eBay).

I did own an Ibanez RG470, which is the only electric guitar I've ever parted with (and possibly the only one I ever will). I primarily dumped it because I hated dealing with the Floyd Rose system, but I do recall the INF pickups were terrible - particularly the single coil in the H-S-H configuration. They look like Dimarzios, but I've heard several people advise me to stay away from them, and I would agree.

Two pickups that might be brought up on this thread, however, that I would disagree with are Squier single-coils and anything from Duncan Designed. I actually like both of those brands quite a bit. Sure, I've replaced several sets of Squiers for Fender alnicos, but I really don't think the ceramics on most Squiers are bad at all (provided you have the right pots and caps). And the Duncan Designed pickups are some of the best values on eBay - absolutely love the HB-103's on my Jackson.

What are your votes for "worst" stock pickups?
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

INF's are pretty bad, but nothing is worse than the older Epi pickups, nothing.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Epi's stepped up their game with Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros; they're good PU's.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Older members will remember the horrors that appeared on non-American guitars of the Sixties and Seventies. (Burns Flyte, anyone?)
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

The stock ceramic pickups in the Mexican Fender Standard Strat are the ****tiest pickups on the planet. I think they make 'em suck on purpose to make the American Standard sound $1,000 better in comparison...
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

dotsdad said:
The stock ceramic pickups in the Mexican Fender Standard Strat are the ****tiest pickups on the planet. I think they make 'em suck on purpose to make the American Standard sound $1,000 better in comparison...
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When I did the H-S-H mod on my Mexican Standard I left the Mexican in the middle. The pickup sounds so bad it is good. It reminds me of the cheap 60's and 70's pickups. I love using it for punk, blues and classic rock with a bit of gritty fuzz. The Mexican ceramic pickups are the pug dog of the pickup world.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

None. I don't replace anything based on brand name alone, because every guitar is different. I have, in certain guitars, really liked both MIM Strat pickups and Epi humbuckers.I've thought they were bad in other guitars, and "okay" in most.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

StormJH1 said:
Two pickups that might be brought up on this thread, however, that I would disagree with are Squier single-coils and anything from Duncan Designed. I actually like both of those brands quite a bit. Sure, I've replaced several sets of Squiers for Fender alnicos, but I really don't think the ceramics on most Squiers are bad at all (provided you have the right pots and caps). And the Duncan Designed pickups are some of the best values on eBay - absolutely love the HB-103's on my Jackson.
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Squier can't really be treated as one brand here, what with a 30+ year history, with plants in America Japan Mexico Korea Indonesia China and who knows where else putting that name on the headstock in various times, in veeeery different product segments... Squiers range from collectible expensive stuff to $25 crap you can't even cannibalize for screws, much less potentiometers or anything useful. And, just like all the other parts can range from excellent Gotoh MIJ to horrid god-knows-what, so can the pups.

As to Duncan Designeds, I think some of the hatred comes from their occasional installation in otherwise fairly high-spec'd guitars... Stuff like Japanese Jacksons, etc. People buy them for the other specs, and hate the DD's for their average-ish presence in otherwise expensive axes.

Btw, where's the hate for EMG-HZ's??? At least some of them were DOWNRIGHT HORRIBLE. Especially when in series that, for $100-200 more, offered otherwise identical models with American EMG actives or real Seymours, the contrast stood out so much... Of special note are the *absolutely hideous* 7-string EMG-hz's. Sooo so baaaad.

Funkfingers said:
Older members will remember the horrors that appeared on non-American guitars of the Sixties and Seventies. (Burns Flyte, anyone?)
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or Super 70s. Oh, wait... lol.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Washburn Eliminator pickups are the muddiest I've used. Granted, they were equipped in a mohogany body guitar, but there was no reason for it.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Now that I think about it the fake TV Jones pickups that come on some of the lower end Gretsch guitars are absolutely horrible.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Funkfingers said:
Older members will remember the horrors that appeared on non-American guitars of the Sixties and Seventies. (Burns Flyte, anyone?)
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The Japanese guitars of then [ Canora D. U. ] had the most atrocious junk in them, then again they were wholy atrocious junk in every way as guitars, and they came with flatwound strings.
Early Maton pickups were just awfull, probably why they excelled with acoustic guitars.
Haha Burns , Eko ...:D buttons and wheels all over them.
 
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Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

I have sets of the Infinity 1 & 2s in my 1994 GR-520 Ghostriders and I like them a lot.

For me, I like the tone of the Gibson 496R/500T set that come in the 1960 Classic LP but with modern high gain ampsthat extra output isn't really necessary. I think that most people will want to replace them to really get the best from these guitars.

But for me, even worse is the 490R/498T. As a set they suck. Even mag swaps don't help. Totally unusable.

Bill
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Funkfingers said:
Older members will remember the horrors that appeared on non-American guitars of the Sixties and Seventies. (Burns Flyte, anyone?)
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Kent had the worst pickups I have ever seen. They had single coil pickups in chrome humbucker housings. The microphony was so bad you could talk into them.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

The brand of guitar is pretty meaningless when 90% of the OEM pickups are the same design and come from the same companies. So you will have the same OEM pickups in a value model Ibanez, Squire, Reynolds, Turser, etc.
 
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Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Adieu said:
Squier can't really be treated as one brand here, what with a 30+ year history, with plants in America Japan Mexico Korea Indonesia China and who knows where else putting that name on the headstock in various times, in veeeery different product segments... Squiers range from collectible expensive stuff to $25 crap you can't even cannibalize for screws, much less potentiometers or anything useful. And, just like all the other parts can range from excellent Gotoh MIJ to horrid god-knows-what, so can the pups.

As to Duncan Designeds, I think some of the hatred comes from their occasional installation in otherwise fairly high-spec'd guitars... Stuff like Japanese Jacksons, etc. People buy them for the other specs, and hate the DD's for their average-ish presence in otherwise expensive axes.
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Totally fair point. I recognize that's true for a lot of OEM stuff, but few people know who makes their Squier pickups anyway, so I lumped it together for discussion.

Great point on the DD stuff - and exactly my point. Same goes for the GFS/Dragonfire stuff. When I say "I like GFS pickups", I'm not advocating ripping out the Burstbuckers from your new LP Studio and soldering in GFS pickups. I'm talking about removing pickups from less expensive guitars that are just plain bad.


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Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

I confess that it's been a decade since I've spent any significant amount of time playing random guitars. Consider the possibility that my report is dated.

I have been amazed at how awful the typical Fender and Gibson pickups have been. I played dozens of strats that made me wonder why they bothered to put 3 pickups in a guitar when they all sounded alike.

I've been amazed over the years how often folks by new guitars for significant coinage KNOWING that a pickup swap would be necessary.
 
Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

Just because a pickup is made by Artec, G&B, Daehung (SeiQ, Proline) or one of many other Asian manufacturers, doesn't mean they're the same between guitars. Yes, there's some overlap, perhaps moreso in the truly entry-level, cheap-o, sub-$150 models, but there are literally hundreds of pickup models supplied as "OEM".

By the way, the WORST stock pickups I've played were the "Randall" passives (previously branded as "Egnater" before Washburn was threatened with a lawsuit after a failed licensing deal) that came in my Washburn Idol HM. Muddy, fizzy pieces of cr@p. They must have done some serious studio tweaking for the demo video, because they were so bad in person, I wrote Washburn to complain!
 
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Re: Which (common) brand has the "worst" stock pickups?

StormJH1 said:
When I say "I like GFS pickups", I'm not advocating ripping out the Burstbuckers from your new LP Studio and soldering in GFS pickups. I'm talking about removing pickups from less expensive guitars that are just plain bad.


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Wait, you found something worthwhile in a NEW lp studio??? From Gibson, in 2013?!?

...whoa. Srsly? Last couple years, stuff has been pretty axe-hewn in quality.

LesStrat said:
I confess that it's been a decade since I've spent any significant amount of time playing random guitars. Consider the possibility that my report is dated.

I have been amazed at how awful the typical Fender and Gibson pickups have been. I played dozens of strats that made me wonder why they bothered to put 3 pickups in a guitar when they all sounded alike.

I've been amazed over the years how often folks by new guitars for significant coinage KNOWING that a pickup swap would be necessary.
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Oh yeah... especially on the "value" offerings, not the $5k collector's wall art models. In fact, few times you DO encounter a good pup in a stock guitar, chances are you're going "WHOA, NIIICE". Extremely memorable & favourable impressions from: 70's & 80's Ibanezes (but NOT 90s & newer!), stuff by Matsumoku Japan (old Greco's, etc.), and, strangely? Occasionally, old PEAVEY USA (not spectacular-spectacular, bet very effin useable and round out the impressions of a guitar pretty nicely).
 
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