New guitar humbucking pickups

davebarlowguitar

Does anybody have any experiance (good and bad) with some of the lesser known sellers of Humbuckers, say like IronGear or Entwistle?

flying_pie

Iron Gear are good pickups and they're are no issues buying them.

I think you know that though. I've just noticed your username - it was your video that convinced me to get a Rolling Mill overwound for one of my guitars. 

drwiddly

I've used a few Irongear pickups and generally been very pleased with them. The bands I play in are fairly heavy but more hard rock than metal, so I gravitate towards higher output pickups. Having said that, I'm not a huge fan of most ceramic magnet pickups and much prefer AlNiCo. I've found the Hot Slag to be an excellent rock pickup with an AlNiCo 5 magnet. 

I've also tried the Jailhouse Rail I & II and the Smoke Stack II. The JR I was a bit shouty in one guitar but in a different one sounded great. The JR II was a bit meh in the bridge but worked well in the middle position. The Smoke Stacks are very good in both hum cancelling and split modes. The bridge unit was a bit underpowered for my needs but they're great in the middle and neck positions.

Having said all that, whilst Irongear are excellent value for money, they're not as good as similar models from Oil City. I've compared them directly and there's another level of complexity to the OC's.

Hope that's of some help.

gary_mac

I've installed Entwistle pickups on customer's guitars and been very impressed, more importantly though, the customers have been impressed.

baldy

This year I have installed Vanson "59" Alnico V PAF buckers into an LP copy & Entwhistle HVX bridge & HV 58+ neck buckers (along with an Entwhistle single coil) into an HSH Yamaha Superstrat & have been very impressed with both sets of humbuckers.