£1k for Fender Pickups?

Haych

I have a set of Abby pickups and they do sound really good. Do they sound good because Abby wound them? Nope! Do they sound better than everything else? No, they just sound different. 

That’s the same with almost every pickup I’ve ever played. I’m not sure I’ve ever played a horrible sounding pickup, some have lit me up more than others but none have sounded truly awful. 

I’ve also had pickups which don’t deserve the mojo; Monty’s PAFs being one of them. They were OK, nothing special though and certainly not deserving of the hype, same with Gibson 57s and PRS 85/15s or whatever, ok but just that, ok - they didn’t sound horrible but, to me (and that’s the important bit), they didn’t sound worthy of all the hype they’d acquired. 

Conversely, I have a very cheap guitar (Original Sunn Mustang) with stock pickups, to me they sound really good. 

So like I said in an earlier comment, what’s good and what isn’t is subjective. The guitar world seems to thrive on reputational mojo though and to many Abby wound pickups will be the holy grail just because. 

ICBM

Haych said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a horrible sounding pickup, some have lit me up more than others but none have sounded truly awful.

I'm guessing you've never tried a Duncan Vintage Rails then .

ten77guitar

Haych said:

I have a set of Abby pickups and they do sound really good. Do they sound good because Abby wound them? Nope! Do they sound better than everything else? No, they just sound different. 

I agree with this - too many people equate different with “better”. 

I think it’s a psychological thing. If one set of pickups has been hyped up as the “best” and say someone does a comparison video between them and another set you’re already primed to perceive any differences in the sound as the first set being “better”.

It’s just another form of confirmation bias. That’s why in a blind listening tests the results would be virtually random.

NelsonP

rossi said:

Snake oil .They must be very easy to forge .

No way. You'd be able to spot fakes as soon as you heard them. They simply wouldn't have 'that sound'.

  

Haych

ICBM said:

Haych said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a horrible sounding pickup, some have lit me up more than others but none have sounded truly awful.

I'm guessing you've never tried a Duncan Vintage Rails then .

As it happens, no, never had the pleasure. I take it they’re not pleasant?

I think the worst sounding pickups I played were the Gibson 57s. They weren’t “bad” but had an unpleasant metallic overtone that I couldn’t dial out. 

I replaced them with Monty’s PAFs and was left feeling a bit “meh” by them. By contrast David Allen P51s and Wolfetone Dr Vintage (both very different to one another) sounded fabulous. 

Sorry, I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent.  

thegummy

ten77guitar said:

Haych said:

I have a set of Abby pickups and they do sound really good. Do they sound good because Abby wound them? Nope! Do they sound better than everything else? No, they just sound different. 

I agree with this - too many people equate different with “better”. 

I think it’s a psychological thing. If one set of pickups has been hyped up as the “best” and say someone does a comparison video between them and another set you’re already primed to perceive any differences in the sound as the first set being “better”.

It’s just another form of confirmation bias. That’s why in a blind listening tests the results would be virtually random.

That is such an interesting point about comparisons in general.

Even if there's no suggestion of one sample being better, the first sample we hear will be taken as a baseline and the second one we hear will be compared to that. E.g. if it's brighter it will be perceived as bright whereas if the same two examples were played in reverse order, the second one would be perceived as warm or dark.

I'd bet that it has a massive effect on our perception since our brains are really not very good at accurate perception; so many things can have so much influence on us.

Another thing is that this fact that our brains are poor at accurate perception isn't obvious at all to us - what would appear to be obvious is that if we hear something it's because it's there. Most people haven't read in to the science behind it (or even thought there would be any science behind it) so understandably assume there's no problem with their perception.

The psychology of perception just happens to be an amateur interest of mine that I do read about so it's kind of funny that I also spend a lot of time on guitar (and other audio) forums where so much of the content can only be said by people who aren't aware of the flaws of human perception.

Gassage

I really don't get the Abby love. I find them harsh and biting and actively dislike them

I have a set of Fullerton reds crying out for a home that knock Abby's for 6.

Doug @coda sold me the guitar and I seem to recall Ryan in the shop saying they're marmite and some find them too glassy and harsh.

I understand why they'd work with more OD'd amps than the ones I use though.

impmann

Haych said:

ICBM said:

Haych said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a horrible sounding pickup, some have lit me up more than others but none have sounded truly awful.

I'm guessing you've never tried a Duncan Vintage Rails then .

As it happens, no, never had the pleasure. I take it they’re not pleasant?

I think the worst sounding pickups I played were the Gibson 57s. They weren’t “bad” but had an unpleasant metallic overtone that I couldn’t dial out. 

I replaced them with Monty’s PAFs and was left feeling a bit “meh” by them. By contrast David Allen P51s and Wolfetone Dr Vintage (both very different to one another) sounded fabulous. 

Sorry, I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent.  

Isn't it interesting, as I replaced the stock pickups in my SG (whatever the overwound ghastliness Gibson fitted to 2004 SG Specials) with Classic 57s. Now is sounds superb - just like a proper 60s SG should sound (but without the dumb price tag).

If we all liked the same things...

OilCityPickups

I've rewound a few broken Abbey pickups, and the winding pattern, tension and turn-count are straightforward to copy. Although I'm not struck overly by the tone of them. The owners couldn't detect any difference to the 'original' ones in the sets.

The interesting thing was (for my own curiosity) I wound an 'extra' pickup the last time I did an Abby Strat rewind ... but on my CNC winder, with a program set to mimic Abbey's scatter winding style. No difference in tone to the hand wound one - nor would I expect there to have been. Of course programming the CNC winder layer by layer took forever ...

Wazmeister

Ive got a set in my Masterbuilt... so double snake oil for me.

They are not harsh at all - quite the opposite to my ears. As Ive said so many times, my MB remains the best Strat Ive played. Im saying this because after years of searching, it had my idea of a Strat sound - not trying to justify my ownership of it...

The Abbeys are simply a connection to a lovely bit of Fender history - not the best pick ups ever made, or life changing or the messiah.

Simply a link to a woman who worked with Leo for years; in a guitar im very lucky to own...

rossi

 I dont think an "old mexican lady "will be better than a young whipper snapper but she is probably quicker ,more reliable, and less enamored with her phone .

Funkfingers

This topic is now officially sooooooooo fascinating that somebody has started another Discussion about it. Unsurprisingly, in the intervening three weeks, the vastly over-priced pre-owned pickups have not sold.

OilCityPickups said:

The interesting thing was (for my own curiosity) I wound an 'extra' pickup the last time I did an Abby Strat rewind ... but on my CNC winder, with a program set to mimic Abby's scatter winding style. No difference in tone to the hand wound one - nor would I expect there to have been. Of course programming the CNC winder layer by layer took forever ... 

Perhaps, you should market your 'extra curiosity' pickup design, sir?  

Seziertisch

OilCityPickups said:

I've rewound a few broken Abbey pickups, and the winding pattern, tension and turn-count are straightforward to copy. Although I'm not struck overly by the tone of them. The owners couldn't detect any difference to the 'original' ones in the sets.

The interesting thing was (for my own curiosity) I wound an 'extra' pickup the last time I did an Abby Strat rewind ... but on my CNC winder, with a program set to mimic Abbey's scatter winding style. No difference in tone to the hand wound one - nor would I expect there to have been. Of course programming the CNC winder layer by layer took forever ...

You should start offering these as an option. There are presumably a few that would be interested in them, regardless of whether or not your own models sound better.

rossi

These are pricey .I bought an embalmed finger bone of Leo's for less .He lost in the crusades before inventing the Telecaster .At least thats what Andertones told me and they are always right .

grappagreen

Two things;

1. Cost/value - no point in getting into the usual debate about this; totally subjective and been done a billion times
2. Better/worse - subjective reality is in people's heads. These pickups are considered better than others to some people; to other people they're not. Let's not try and define what better is as that's subjective as well

I have my views, you all have yours and that's great. We'll never agree but that's great and makes the world an interesting place.

On a tangent I recently lent a guitar out to someone and the feedback is that it's 'the best guitar they've ever heard'. It's not the best guitar I've ever heard so plainly I don't know squat about guitars... or do I?

Si