In praise of Iron Gear pickups

Grumpyrocker

I'm not one of those people who looks at a new guitar and decides to change the pickups before I've heard them. On the whole I'm pretty happy with stock pickups. But in the past went through a tinkering phase of changing pickups on various guitars. So my Epiphone Les Paul (which I foolishly sold), old PRS SE Custom 22, and Vintage V6 all have changed pickups. But I've not bothered to do this kind of thing to any guitar I've bought since around 2010. Can't be bothered tinkering.

However I've had an LTD EC-256 Eclipse in purple burst for a couple of years and I've always thought the aesthetics were a bit off. The shiny chrome pickup covers don't suite it. So at first thought of removing the covers. Then I thought - why not change the pickups?

I wasn't unhappy with the stock pickups. Okay - the coil split/tap (I suspect tap) lacked character - it just sounded like a lower output. But on the whole there was nothing wrong with the sound of the guitar.

So what to change to? Well I've several guitars with PAF and lowish output rock pickups - a Les Paul, an Ibanez S521, a PRS SE Singlecut. So why don't I go for something with some bonkers oomph? I do have an old set of the (discontinued) Iron Gear Volt active pickups but I couldn't be bothered rewiring the whole Eclipse. I've used Iron Gear's excellent Hot Slag and Rolling Mill on several guitars, it's a great combo with the Hot Slag at the bridge.

But very first Iron Gear pickup back in the mists of time was a Steamhammer I put on my old Epiphone superstrat. So I've taken a punt on a pair of Steamhammers. And wow, what a difference they make. The biggest revelation is the neck pickup, until now I've not thought of putting something that hot in a neck position on an LP (ish) style guitar. But on the Eclipse it has so much character. Amazing given how high output it is that it has so much nuance and warmth in the tone. 

And both pickups are proper coil splits. I've properly tested them and both are just single coils with the split knob pulled. In the neck it sounds amazing, proper powerful but has that hollowness and twang. In the neck the single coil sounds like a terrible ice-pick in the ear, which one might expect, but thankfully rolling the tone control down tames it and makes it sound great.

So all in all I'm really happy. For just under £62 for the pair of pickups I've totally changed the character of my EC-256. Was happy before, but now I've got a guitar that sounds very different from my others. It's given me a bit of the tinkering bug back. So now I'm thinking I might make some other changes to this guitar next pay day. I'm thinking of changing the hardware to either gold or black nickel, including some locking tuners. 

Anyway. Iron Gear are bloody great pickups.

merciful-evans

Nice to hear such a positive report. I've taken note!

Stevepage

I really like the overwound Rolling Mill I put in my Jackson Soloist. It replaced the stock Bill Lawrence and its all the better for it. Great price at £32 as well.

OilCityPickups

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

TTBZ

Stevepage said:

I really like the overwound Rolling Mill I put in my Jackson Soloist. It replaced the stock Bill Lawrence and its all the better for it. Great price at £32 as well.

I really liked the Rolling Mill I had as well. I think I probably could have done with the overwound one though. The main thing I remember is how clear and defined it sounded compared to the pickup it replaced. I suspect I'll end up with another one some time, maybe try the blues engine neck.

Lestratcaster

I'm hearing good reviews about this brand, and a few say they've replaced the more well-known ones such as Seymour Duncan/Di Marzio pickups with these and its improved the tone!

drwiddly

I've replaced several Seymour Duncan pickups with Irongear and in every case, I've preferred the rep!acements. They're fantastic value and they hold their own with any mass market pickups that I've tried.

skullfunkerry

I've had several Irongear pickups; most recent was a pair of Metal Machines in a Charvel to replace stock SDs, they vastly improved it. Have used Hot Slags before in a Sparrow Les Paul clone, and a couple of single coils in a Tele. They were all great-sounding pickups & the prices are unbelievable 

skullfunkerry

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

Praise indeed!

baldy

I prefer the sound of the Hot Slag/Rolling Mill combo to my SD 59/JB combo.
For £60 for the pair you can"t go wrong with these pups if it is a hot rodded PAF sound you are after.
I have also put Steam Hammers in a Washburn replacing the SD"s that were there & also prefer them.
There are several very good & very reasonably priced pup makes out there that will at least hold their own with the big name brands.

abw1989

The Tesla Sharks are my personal favourites, I have them in two of my Les Pauls.

OilCityPickups

skullfunkerry said:

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

Praise indeed!

With the pound against the dollar at the moment The US mass market pickups are less value than ever. To put it in perspective a single Duncan JB costs as much as a pair of Iron Gear pickups ... both are made in a large factory, both have many components in common ... Duncan bobbins for example appear to be identical to ones that originate in Beijing. China produces pretty much all the alnico magnets in the world ... so the magnets will almost certainly come from the same source ... so what are you paying for?

digitalscream

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

I think the appropriate question is...is that a comment on Irongear's quality, or Duncan/DiMarzio's?

gringopig

.

chrishill901

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

I've got to agree with this, they're definitely on a par with SDs... What he doesn't say however is how much better Oil City Pickups are than all of the above. I got a middle and neck Stonetone a few months back to go with my Arcane Inc bridge pickup which is really premium and they are easily as good. Really great pickups.

skullfunkerry

chrishill901 said:

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

I've got to agree with this, they're definitely on a par with SDs... What he doesn't say however is how much better Oil City Pickups are than all of the above. I got a middle and neck Stonetone a few months back to go with my Arcane Inc bridge pickup which is really premium and they are easily as good. Really great pickups.

Having recently realised that I don't *have* to have EMGs for tuning to drop C, I think my next pickups will be from Ash as well...

OilCityPickups

digitalscream said:

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

I think the appropriate question is...is that a comment on Irongear's quality, or Duncan/DiMarzio's?

Duncans are my most frequently repaired/rewound modern pickups. You may draw what inference you like from that :-)

drwiddly

Whilst I rate Irongear very highly, Oil City are on a different level.

gringopig

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OilCityPickups

drwiddly said:

Whilst I rate Irongear very highly, Oil City are on a different level.

Very kind of you to say that ... but you'd kind of expect a product that is entirely designed made by one person, produced in limited quantities for a higher price to be a little better. Better is a subjective word though, and bung the output of any pickup through drive and effects and any differences are very difficult to hear. What you pay for with pickups from small makers is the personal fitting of that pickup to your own specifications, and some techniques that don't suit mass production. If I copied an Iron Gear pickup spec exactly my pickup would sound the same ... I don't have magic fingers.

thomasw88

chrishill901 said:

OilCityPickups said:

I maintain that their quality is right with Duncan (not custom shop) and DiMarzio ... and pickups are my full time job. 

I've got to agree with this, they're definitely on a par with SDs... What he doesn't say however is how much better Oil City Pickups are than all of the above. I got a middle and neck Stonetone a few months back to go with my Arcane Inc bridge pickup which is really premium and they are easily as good. Really great pickups.

I disagree.  I like Oil City, Bare Knuckle and Bulldog particularly from the boutique range.  I've been round most of the other big makers as well
They aren't 'better' than the irongear/Tonerider pickups I also currently use, just different. 
 I remember taking out a set of BK Brown sugars from one guitar and replacing them with some Tonerider Hot Classics and in THAT guitar the tonerider's sounded much better to me as they're slightly hotter. However they were less than half the price.

 What you can ask for is a slightly different wind/magnet etc from these guys, but whether its worth paying double the price is highly subjective

I've never been able to tell what brand of pickups let alone which model a player uses.