The joy of cheap stock pickups

thegummy

DannyP said:

DarnWeight said:

  This is a mid-'90s Japanese Tele 

I have an early 90s Japanese Fender Strat that had pickups with the ceramic bar magnets on the base.

I swapped them for Fralins and the guitar came alive.

When I sold the old ones on eBay as Japanese Fender Strat pickups, the bloke sent them back accusing me of fraud because they were so crap!

That's out of order, you shouldn't have been inconvenienced due to his ignorance.

Did eBay go along with it?

If so, I wonder how far that could go. If someone believed an expensive digital cable would improve the sound of their hifi, could they send it back when it didn't?

Could someone send back a SRV signature Strat cause they believed it would make them play like him?

simonhpieman

thegummy said:

simonhpieman said:

TTBZ said:

I'm getting to the point where I can't be arsed with expensive pickup swaps either. I've tried shit loads in my SG and the 490R/498T are still some of the best I've tried. When I swapped out the Bare Knuckle Mules to put the stock Epiphone ones back into my LP before I sold it, I remember thinking that there wasn't a huge difference - maybe a bit muddier and duller. That wasn't even the Probuckers either which I think are great pickups, I doubt I would mess with a new Epiphone much if I bought one now. At the end of the day it's just magnets, metal and wire, if you get the recipe right I don't see why it has to cost loads.

The only exception being the Bare Knuckle Mississippi Queen which is my favourite neck pickup for my SG - need to try the bridge one as I think I will love it in this guitar.

The Probuckers are great. Like, REALLY great. Shame the particular 335 I had them in felt like junk, cos the probuckers and also the coil-tapped sounds were superb!

I do find people funny sometimes. It might be just because I'm crap at soldering but I've never been into swapping pickups or parts on guitars and always try to make the best of whatever pickups are in there. There's always a sweet spot to be found somewhere. Whereas it feels like the majority of folks be like: "I can't wait til I get my new really expensive guitar so I can change the pickups, change the guard, replace the wiring, buy a £150 replacement bridge, change the tremolo for a pricey boutique alternative and have it refinished in a colour I actually like."

I start to wonder if people shouldn't just look a teensy bit harder for a guitar if they're just going to tear them apart upon arrival.

The guitar market isn't so massively varied that someone's exact perfect guitar will be out there if they look for it long and hard enough. So it completely make sense to buy the closest they can find and make the necessary changes. I think there will be plenty of people aren't bothered by having to solder so won't have any particular reason to avoid modifying it.

Obviously your example is extreme, especially the refinish, I doubt many people will buy with all those mods in mind.

It's just a case of people wanting their guitar exactly how they like it and having the money, time and skills so they don't have to settle for compromise.

Some might be lucky and their perfect guitar might be available stock. Some might even have to go to the extreme in your example if that's the only way to get what they want.

It was a tongue in cheek comment but if you've spent any time at offsetguitars you'll know it's closer to the truth than many might think when it comes to Jaguars and Jazzmasters!

hermannkymn

I recall seeing the logo 'Mighty Mite' on the chrome cover of the stock humbucker on some Cort's well over a decade ago. Still randomly on occasions think back and wonder how on earth those things sound. I think the tacky name has helped it engraved in to my memory.

skullfunkerry

thegummy said:

DannyP said:

DarnWeight said:

  This is a mid-'90s Japanese Tele 

I have an early 90s Japanese Fender Strat that had pickups with the ceramic bar magnets on the base.

I swapped them for Fralins and the guitar came alive.

When I sold the old ones on eBay as Japanese Fender Strat pickups, the bloke sent them back accusing me of fraud because they were so crap!

That's out of order, you shouldn't have been inconvenienced due to his ignorance.

Did eBay go along with it?

If so, I wonder how far that could go. If someone believed an expensive digital cable would improve the sound of their hifi, could they send it back when it didn't?

Could someone send back a SRV signature Strat cause they believed it would make them play like him?

Pfff, that's just crazy talk. Everyone knows that in the world of hifi, absolutely anything you decide can improve the sound. Talking of which, I have a selection of hifi spares available including cable straighteners, bend stabilisers, volume knob dampeners and geared headphones

thegummy

skullfunkerry said:

thegummy said:

DannyP said:

DarnWeight said:

  This is a mid-'90s Japanese Tele 

I have an early 90s Japanese Fender Strat that had pickups with the ceramic bar magnets on the base.

I swapped them for Fralins and the guitar came alive.

When I sold the old ones on eBay as Japanese Fender Strat pickups, the bloke sent them back accusing me of fraud because they were so crap!

That's out of order, you shouldn't have been inconvenienced due to his ignorance.

Did eBay go along with it?

If so, I wonder how far that could go. If someone believed an expensive digital cable would improve the sound of their hifi, could they send it back when it didn't?

Could someone send back a SRV signature Strat cause they believed it would make them play like him?

Pfff, that's just crazy talk. Everyone knows that in the world of hifi, absolutely anything you decide can improve the sound. Talking of which, I have a selection of hifi spares available including cable straighteners, bend stabilisers, volume knob dampeners and geared headphones

What's even crazier is that people will spend 20 grand on speakers when, for half that, they could hire a feng shui consultant to neutralise the chi in the listening room and have a much bigger effect on the sound.

rossi

Two cheap guitars spring to mind that have very sweet pickups at least for what I play was an SX strat which had a really good set of alnico pickups standard .no ceramic bars on teh bottom .very sweet .Why did I sell them .The other is My Keiper 109 hollow body mini jazzer which has a really nice sound set of humbuckers .Squier Joe Trohmann  tele is good as is the Bullet Mustang .

guitargeek62

@YellowLedBetterMan and @rossi - I’ve got an untouched pair of those that I just pulled out of my new Bullet ‘stang last week if either of you want a spare pair? 

I didn’t think there was anything particularly bad about them either, but have dropped a set of P90s into it as that’s closer to the sound I wanted for it.

YellowLedBetterMan

guitargeek62 said:

@YellowLedBetterMan and @rossi - I’ve got an untouched pair of those that I just pulled out of my new Bullet ‘stang last week if either of you want a spare pair? 

I didn’t think there was anything particularly bad about them either, but have dropped a set of P90s into it as that’s closer to the sound I wanted for it.

 I'll have to pass mate, but thanks for the offer.

Strangefan

It's all relative anyways, what someone says sounds good someone else will disagree,  I made my own pickups and theirs no magic to it. use good qualityflat works magnets and copper and after a few attempts you will get a good sounding pickup,

I'm so sick of the mojo, soul bullshit, guitarists fight over its all utter tosh, tone comes from your playing, I have heard better music come out of an 800 quid Ltd than a 2.5k fender custom shop, again it's all personal 

Sarge

The Hagstrom ultra swede has excellent stock pickups, as did the Epi knighthawk.
Westone in the 80s had a fair few good humbuckers as stock but their single coils were awful, often on the same guitar, go figure. 

Jetsam1

rossi said:

Two cheap guitars spring to mind that have very sweet pickups at least for what I play was an SX strat which had a really good set of alnico pickups standard .no ceramic bars on teh bottom .very sweet .Why did I sell them .The other is My Keiper 109 hollow body mini jazzer which has a really nice sound set of humbuckers .Squier Joe Trohmann  tele is good as is the Bullet Mustang .

I have seen a few SX guitars around and about. They actually look quite ok for the money being asked.

thegummy

Jetsam1 said:

rossi said:

Two cheap guitars spring to mind that have very sweet pickups at least for what I play was an SX strat which had a really good set of alnico pickups standard .no ceramic bars on teh bottom .very sweet .Why did I sell them .The other is My Keiper 109 hollow body mini jazzer which has a really nice sound set of humbuckers .Squier Joe Trohmann  tele is good as is the Bullet Mustang .

I have seen a few SX guitars around and about. They actually look quite ok for the money being asked.

The bassist in Khruangbin - one of my favourite bands out at the moment - has always played an SX bass exclusively.

Don't know what the reason is, whether it's a deliberate hipster thing (they are pretty hipster) or if she just doesn't want to spend money when she already has a bass that works for her.