How To Choose Guitar Pickups
If you want to learn how to solder, check out our class here (and get two months of skillshare for free) https://skl.sh/2TRnbxe
https://www.patreon.com/Dylantalkstone Check out our pickups at Dylantalkstone.com
Choosing guitar pickups is tough. There is a lot of bad info on the internet Hopefully, this video can help you
Find us on the internets at
facebook.com/dylantalkstone
instagram.com/dylantalkstone
twitter.com/dylantalkstone
Here is a list of the main gear we use to shoot videos at dylantalkstone.com as well as links
Lighting
Ring Light
http://amzn.to/2yECHmq
Light box set
http://amzn.to/2jajMt5
Cameras
Sony Action Cam
http://amzn.to/2zXfuzI
Canon T5i on many videos
http://amzn.to/2iaYwTg
Tripods
Monopod
http://amzn.to/2BE9WHu
Tripod
http://amzn.to/2zVrhOP (we have like 3 of these)
Audio
Zoom H5 recorder
http://amzn.to/2AlDKdH
For the Live show…
Focisrite 2i2
http://amzn.to/2jDJG87
Behringer Mixer
http://amzn.to/2jGmXbr
Software for camera switching and titles
Betterlivestream.com
#Choose #Guitar #Pickups
Originally posted by UCUMBIYslSt3wQgJwWrDP5dQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qu5yQQeAlE
Love your info. I'm sold
As far as tone goes, it is not DC but AC resistance (reactance) that is the determining factor. Electrical circuits have both inductive (XL) and Capacitive (Xc) reactance which counteract each other. One attenuates the higher frequencies while the other attenuates the lower. When XC = XL, you are at the resonant frequency which is the “sweet spot” giving optimal performance across the intended frequency spectrum. Things sound “muddy” when desirable frequencies are attenuated or the undesirable frequencies are excessively loud or harsh. I’m sure Dylan could “geek out” on all this far better than I could as there are many factors that play into this with the way a pickup is made (Inductance, magnetics, inter electrode capacitance, etc.). It also seems that most of the “magic” happens by accident and then you have all the technicians trying to figure everything out in order to recreate the supposed “holy grail” sound. Fact of the matter is that Slash will sound like Slash and Clapton will sound like Clapton regardless of whatever guitar they happen to be playing but if everyone got wise to this, all of the “guitar gear peddlers” would go out of business!
Hard Pass on the nikel back tone ????
Hi Dylan
Early 1950's Gibson and Fender designed the pickups to get the most beautiful musical response.
Guitars were used in Jazz Country and Pop music . And a pretty tone was desireable.
In the 1960's distorted overdriven guitar was getting popular and players wanted hotter p'ups.
The problem is that hotter pickups lose the pretty to get more gain.
I play Jazz. I use 57 Classics on my Gibson and Original Vintage Telecaster pickups.
These 1950 output pickups sound wonderful clean for Jazz/ Country/Blues.
Years ago I received a Yamaha SE812. The pickups on it sounded fine when new strings were on. After a day or two it sound dull. New pickups eradicated this issue.
So for me now it old strings factor in to a pickups assessment
Absolutely brilliant !!!!
THE best explanation I've ever heard! Thank you so much.
So, what do i put 8n my ephiphone DOT then???
I like your content and how you explain things such as facts about how everything work in a guitar. …I have to say sorry ahead of time because this is gonna be a long one like most comments I post.. LOL And …here we go…. I chose the pick ups for my guitar build for the supposed power and sound I expected from what I had chosen.. along with the wiring scheme i designed to get the most from my designs and doing it all by myself and learning as I went along in the build.. I ended up with a better sound than I expected.. the Pick ups were pretty hot measuring at an average of 18.5 K ohms with pretty strong magnets . as these were quad rail/coil humbuckers for $16 on Amazon. as with all the parts i got there they were of better quality than you might expect, they had a magnet between each of the rail/blade poles that makes 3 magnets each pick ups.. so very stronf magnetic feilsa and al the wire winds in the coils. so the way they are made makes for fairly powerful output from them… add to this the way I wired the controls each has a 500kaudio taper P/P volume and a500k regular style audio taper pot but for the bridge pot which is a P/P type to activate the bridge and neck P/ups together anytime. so ciol split or not makes no difference despite how its switched in the circuit .. everything plays nicely with everything else in this circuit design but it took a lot of work soldering all those connections as I wanted them to work… looking at the wiring in the control cavity you might thing 'What a mess.. but it all works after a few tweaks and false starts I figured out the details and got it right finally. what fun that adventure was ans the result was better than I had any reason I had any reason to expect. but then that's how it usually goes with my plans for a project go for it and see what hapens. Even with the extreme design I came up with for this guitar build/mod project.. My mind comes up with these possibly crazy Ideas that in the end work almost too well for how it came together… Just lucky? or do I have real design genius.. I don't know nut it works for me either way… I built bicycles from scrap parts and got ghood riding and cool looking bikes with discarded parts, paint cans and as few new parts as I could manage but for inner tubes and tires as needed… other custom parts I wanted took barted of labour with those s[pecialty makers for chrome. and a special miniature size springer front fork to fit a 20" bicycle frame that I had kicked out fot it to look like a real chopper with the sissy bar on the rear, a 'King/Queen' seat with the battery for the working light system under the rear/Queen part of the seat. it took a whole summer to finish that little custom bike build. I didn't expect it to win at the 'world of Wheels show that year for it's category.. but came in second so I got a trophy for it.. don't know where that went.. but I still have the good memory of that build and how good it came out and yes the lights all worked headlight turn signals front and rear and brake light all worked just like a real motorcycle… I sold it real quik for a good price.. at least 10 times what I had into it.. .. that seems to be the case in most of my builds… just frugal on parts and do as much myself as I can get a good result.. I don't like spending more than I have to on things is all… growing up not exactly poor but with a low budget in mind.. why pay more for the same I can make on the cheap… I like working with my hane weather it's on a car I need to fix or upgrade. or anything else the catches my fancy at the time.. I can't afford collecting cars right now but guitars are cool and I like that I can sink my teeth into a good project guitar for a little money and get a good result with my owm 2 hands and some basic tools and some good special skills learned along the way too.. I had to buy a few special tools like the soldering station and a few other tools from Harbor freight.. as well as all I got from Amazon and other places… seems I have a gift or something…I don't know….I just try to make it as good as I can for the least money I can get away with.. seems to work well…
The problem is you have people that listen to the terminology, use them when they're shopping but have no idea what the terms actually mean lol. If they use a certain word then they should be asked if they know what it means.
What I'd look for if I changed my two humbuckers..
I play a Jackson SLSMG soloist with those passive EMG which are ok for that they are, but the 3 different positions differences are on the subtle side, which is my biggest pet peeve of that otherwise fantastic guitar.
I like when the tone difference between the 3 positions are as in your face as it gets.
Give me a edgy hard rock bridge, a funky middle and a jazzy neck. As long as there are no major volume drop off at a given selection, I'm happy.
We'll talk about specs later….
An other thing that I'l look for, that's irrational, but I fully assume it : aesthetics. I like the two pick ups to look obviously different.
Is "plunky" a thing? I want my Tele neck pickup to be plunky.
Why not measure henries? Would that give you a more accurate reflection of a pickup’s output?
Alnico 2 at the mech and alnico 5 at bridge for balance?
I think i prefer dynamics, hotter i think i can get from a pedal. It seems hotter trades dynamics. But i dont realy know
Thanks for the invitation to suggest videos. My first question would be how do you define the borderline between low and high output pickups and how do I determine where on that spectrum I want my pickups to be.
I'm looking for new pickups because mine are cheap stock pickups. I don't really know what is good so I see what my favorite guitarist use. I'm not "chasing" their sound, more like just getting their opinion. Seymour Duncan SH-4 or SH-6? ????
I know this video is a few years old now, but I am new to this channel, and just came across it. I just wanted to say, the info you are giving out is great! I play classic country, and some rockabilly. Sometimes some Frank Sinatra kind of stuff. What would be the best pickups for someone like me? I like a little slapback echo, delay, reverb, but generally clean tones, with good clarity.
Amps, pedals and tone controls play a huge part of the equation as well. Don't buy new pickups for more power- use the gain knob on your amp!
From experience, high output, low noise with a flat EQ curve. That's all you need to know. Across all models, choose the one that looks best on your guitar. Done!
There are pickups that I think were designed to mimic the overall sound. For example Yngwie used some of the lowest output pickups possible, boosts his signal with his overdrive and dimes his bass on the preamp as well as cranking the preamp. I would argue the Dimarzio Chopper is Yngwie without the overdrive pedal and bass boosted at the amp. It sounds not like his pickups but his finished sound.
As for choosing pickups my criteria is:
1. What vowel shape is the voice of the pickup?
2. What output do you require for the genre of music and the velocity on the preamp?
3. Does your pickup need to match the output of others? Ie neck+bridge
4. Do you want to prioritise body, mid range and power of a humbucker or the chime of singles?
5. What is your ideal switching situation? 5 way with lots of session musician options or 1-2 genre specific pickups to play only a single genre via 3 way?
I've been able to put together 6 coils, Hum, rail + rail with a hyperswitch because I want the best of all tones. My bridge and neck are high output which allows split options for positions 2-4 to be quieter and more gentle/chime on the preamp. To help guarantee chime my guitar is all maple and basswood and my pots are 1 Meg and 500k tone. This helps exaggerate strat high frequencies.
"Yeah… hey… I'm looking for a new guitar pickup… for my guitar…"????
I would be interested to learn how you became a pickup manufacturer. It's such a niche occupation. How did you learn how to make them?
You are good a 'click bate' topics but not telling me how to choose guitar pickups. ?Questions? 1. What are the characteristics of the magnets Alnico 2 vs Alnico 5 vs Ceramic vs PAF? What would be best pickup for Classic Rock, Metal, Blues, etc.? Please breakdown the various pickups and how they sound Pearly Gates, Hott Rodded, PAF, add any you want and what are your equivalent pickups?
Some of those great guitar tones are coming from somebody in a studio
can I BÙÝ some pick up
I want some 6.66 pickups
Yes, I want to sound like Slash, Angus, Gilmore., whoever. So we need a database that walks you through what each player uses on each recording, and how to best emulate that at home.
Hi, to start I do not know where to start other than tell you what gear I have and the issues I'm having with what I don't like about the gear I have and if changing or in my case right now choosing what to put in my DIY guitar build so it may be easier in a clean slate sort of way.
Amp- solid state- line 6 Catalyst 100watt/50/0.5w attenuator option with 6 amp models from clean, boutique, chime(vix ac something) , crunch, dynamic(similar to clean with more dynamic) to high gain.
I mostly use the clean and chime amp
Connections to pedals-
4 cable method through line 6 pod go
using the fx loop footswitch set/merged to switch on pod go amp and cabs
Or
Same footswitch on Podgorica for fx loop to switch off pod go amps and cabs and allow me to use the catalyst amp models I mostly use clean and chime, and this choice also allows me to use my jhs 3series compressor into Boss OD-200 pedal and what's cool about this is the catalyst amp has a power amp in/fx loop switch, so it is in this 4 cable method always switched to power amp in, and interestingly enough I believe the amp is designed for this as when I switch the pod go fx loop footswitch toggled either or, say using the pod go amp/cab sits the catalyst amp won't allow any adjustment of settings other than master volume so bypassed except speaker and that section of the amp, so when I toggle the pod go fx loop switch to catalyst mode it only switches off the amp and cab sits, leaves all other fx blocks on the pod go and I'm now allowed to adjust the catalyst amp models, and everything from there on to the speaker. It's pretty cool, and effective as most of the pod go presets suck so I either buy off of line 6 marketplace but still have muddy tone issues yet positively I still have the compressors set up, drives set up etc Ie the "inspired by pink floyd" preset pack is very close is made by fremen a guy who plays in a pink floyd tribute band, successful one at that. The best tones I've aired so far, and I play mostly blues, and rock as much like Gilmour as I can, I love his clean tones and high gain delay type sounds, I don't really step outside of that box much so I'm more invested and inspired by his stuff also john mayer, but that may or may not be helpful,
Both options require pod go to bypass amps and cabs via global settings
This allows the option manually to make the two possible without the amps/cabs coming on all the time.
I've often went back to just using the catalyst amp by itself it's got a pretty good clean amp model I use thus the most, and use that for a foundation for compression and drive pedals and have taken out the delay pedal that was right after the boss od-200 because the delays on the catalyst where they are in relation to the pedals sounds better to me.
I have issues with muddy tones in some of the fremen inspired by pink floyd preset pack, it has full set list presets for 30/40 pink floyd songs, 80 overal presets Inc the snapshots, plus 6 impulse responses to choose from which are binded to the presets they're intended for,
I contacted the fremen guy about the muddy tones his answer was the catalyst isn't a true FRFR speaker/amp
But I can still get fresh crisp tones with the gear and settings I use mostly.
My guitars are an old Fender mim STARcaster strat ripped out the guts put in sss config with 5 way switch and additional toggle to make 7 way- Gilmour black strat mod, pos 1 toggle on uses bridge and neck- no tone control tho
Pos 2 toggle on all 3 pickups
Lately I've been using pos 4 and 5 /and/or.
I also have a 75th anniversary fender telecaster mim I use that for a broad range of tones from clean to fuzz, bluesbreaker, centaur on boss od-200 or pod go, I like to experiment.
3rd and final guitar
My new build, still needs pickups and paint- clean slate I'm going for the HSS configuration hoping I will cover more bases and i see this is an opportunity to build something different,
From what I have already can be enough but I hope to overcome the muddy tones on the pod go if it is possible without changing the eq or global eq so much it'll wreck the rest of the presets I like.
I also go direct from catalyst xlr out to scarlett 2i2 3rd gen Audio Interface to cakewalk, the tones on the troublesome muddy presets are slightly better, but when testing the difference by using the pod go's headphone jack there is still a lot of difference in the overall range of frequencies this is just my guess. It sounds way more like stereo because obviously it is but in mono monitoring mode on the audio interface its still muddy and thar is bypassing the catalyst amp physical speaker and cabinet.
So maybe there's a way to still punch through the mud without sounding like a bunch of hrnets in a tin can, I know it's not a tube/valve amp, but I'll satisfied with what the catalyst can do already but am confused why even direct to daw recording from either catalyst xlr with attenuator to off and no amp speaker sound only xlr, or main out mono and stereo to ch1 and 2 to audio interface or amp out to audio interface still has less desired effect.
Could a certain type of humbucker allow more of the desired frequencies to get through or be more prominent idk the terminology, ive looked at eq graphs, saw that most are 2 dimensional and that decay being the 3rd dimension especially in the lower frequencies in milliseconds the low end may be taking longer to decay and this somehow somewhere in the whole chain could be the issue it could also be my studio monitors classed as near field- brand/model Alesis m1 Active mks'
Saying that.. its (after a lot if time of trying the same preset through all of the output choices I have, it's still muddy and bumping up the treble or cutting the lows doesn't add it only makes things worse
I'm looking for a solution, if humbuckers in an HSS strat type body, with two single coils wound in a certain way, pickup height to suit the pickups maybe, I'm willing to experiment on this new build, parts aren't that expensive I can easily get more pickguards and pots caps at various values, setups and try them out but pickups cost more it'll take more time. Which I am will to commit.
Isn't everyone in one way or another en pursuit of the desirable tones? Everyone loves music, I'm just more into the how and why without forgetting to enjoy and have fun along the way!
Kind regards, Mike (farker) Farquhar
Or Lord farquard – yeahbits me fro the livestream q&a from Scotland!
I still love you guys. Maybe deep down you know this'll make up for the taking the piss outta my name lol
I'm live and let live. Just getting your attention.
If you somehow invent a brand new pickup that will not only solve mine but many solid state amp user's similar problems, I'd be OK with it being named "The Shrek-bucker"
What would you suggest for a p90 in a humbucker casing?:))
???? Being an amp guy, gotta say “The tone’s in the cone”. Good advice and good explanation’s again-thanks!