What do you want to see from a pickup demo?

meltedbuzzbox

Evening all,

I have a question. What are you all looking for in a demo of a set of pickups?

Clean and dirty tones?

Chord work and riff work with some arpeggios.

Are you listening for articualtion?

Reproduction of famous tones with said pickups?

Drop B tuning and brutal gainz?

I am curious to hear what you have to say

Thanks

maharg101

Juicy P90 tones

It really depends on the type of pickup being demoed. I'm not going to looking for da brutalz from an Alnico 3 single coil.

paulmapp8306

Personally, I think demoing a single set of pickups is kind of pointless.  So much depends on amp, its settings, the guitar etc that there is nothing to go on.  There is no reference to put the PUs against.   

What you need is Comparisons.   3 sets or more ideally, but 2 at the very least - loaded into the same guitar, so you can hear the relative differences.    

It also helps if there is a control set - something thats common a lot of people will know the sound of - then compare the other sets to that.

Yorkie

I’m with Paul. Get one or two sets of extremely popular pickups and compare the new pickups to them. Clean, crunch, high gain, all in close succession.

Something no one ever tries in these demos is to try different heights… you always have to trust the reviewer has somehow found the sweet spot. 

Wazmeister

As an aside, just great to see you back

CavemanGrogg

Tone unaffected by any ''flavour'' other than the pickups being A/B'd and demoed, it's hard to explain what is meant by ''flavour'', but it's things like tube amps - especially tube amps with brands being famous for how they sound like the Marshall sound and Messa sound and Vox sound and so forth, effects pedals, mics - yes they have an effect on tone, how the amp is mic'd up, and post editing work.

In a perfect world, my ideal pickup demo, would be done through a clean solid state amp with no effects pedals, or the amp being mic'd beyond the mic that the person demoing the pickups is talking through.  It would also be nice for proper A/B comparisons, which I acknowledge will not be easy to do, but it is possible, for example, with humbuckers, use a common guitar that a lot of people will either own or have access to, a real Gibson Les Paul Studio is perfect for this in my opinion - the humbuckers in a Les Paul Studio are used in multiple Gibson models, so with all this in mind.  The perfect demo for me, at least for humbuckers, would be using a very common twin humbucker guitar with very very common humbuckers - hence me saying the Gibson Les Paul Studio is perfect for A/B testing humbuckers, either DI'd or through an un mic'd very clean solid state amp - just use a good ''room mic'' for everything, then do a proper A/B, first giving a demo of the stock pickups, then without changing anything, bar obviously changing strings and the pickups - so no changing of settings or on the amp the guitar or anywhere else, then preform the same demo with the 3rd party pickups.  And when it comes to editing the video, it can be edited so that it appears to the untrained that you've swapped out pickups several times, this a what C major sounds through stock and here's C major through the 3rd party pickups, obviously you've not played one scale, removed and binned strings, pulled the pickups, put in the after market pickups, and then popped on a fresh strings just to play the same scale again once,  before reverting back to showing people what the stock pickups sound like again.

As much as music is an art, it is also a science, and to do proper comparisons, proper scientific methods of testing must be used, no ''tiny adjustment'' here and there because you think/know you can get the guitar/pickup/yourself to sound better - think of Mike in the States his videos are what I would call ''naked'' unflavoured by the amp effects or processing it's the difference between the pickups you're showing not what the pickups can sound like with this in the signal chain through this brand/style of tube amp.  I should add, I don't think it is a good idea to do it, especially financially - if it was pickup manufacturers would do these sort of things as it is they don't they use for all intensive purposes sound demos that are essentially useless, even if you get the pickups, guitar, strings...... for free, that the process of making these videos will be extremely time intensive as well as labour intensive, assuming this is what you are doing full time, as in you treat it like a full time job, you would be extremely hard pressed to do more than 1 to 2 videos a week

stickyfiddle

Welcome back!

Personally.... I want to hear pickups through well-understood tonal reference points. That to me means Deluxe Reverb, AC30 and JTM. And sound wise I want to hear that edge of breakup point where the feel of the pickup really comes out

But almost more importantly I want to hear the same parts played with multiple different pickups into the same amp by the same player, so you can at least get an idea of how they compare. Then follow that up with whatever the reviewer feels shows off the pickups at their best; but this in isolation without the other stuff is next to pointless imo 

willo

A/B against a popular reference pickup; clean and dirty; chords and lead lines. 

Musicwolf

I would like to see as many variables taken out of the equation as possible and I would like to hear the two pickups as close together as possible.  By that I mean I don't want to hear Set A running through all of the different pick up selections, then a gap, then Set B.  I want the reviewer to pick, strum, whatever, through a particular piece with Set A bridge p/u, repeat the same process with Set B and then edit the video together as one piece flicking between Set A and Set B.  Repeat for neck pickup, both pickups etc.  If the sets have different output then I would expect the viewer to adjust the amp gain to get the closest match (and show the settings).

The problem is that there will be far less difference between the sets which won't do much for either 'likes' or pickup sales.

Whitecat

More clean than dirty. Multiple amps. Some basic chords & arpeggios as well as riffing/noodling. 

guitars4you

paulmapp8306 said:

Personally, I think demoing a single set of pickups is kind of pointless.  So much depends on amp, its settings, the guitar etc that there is nothing to go on.  There is no reference to put the PUs against.   

What you need is Comparisons.   3 sets or more ideally, but 2 at the very least - loaded into the same guitar, so you can hear the relative differences.    

It also helps if there is a control set - something thats common a lot of people will know the sound of - then compare the other sets to that.

Good to see you back @meltedbuzzbox - I tend to be with Paul on this

A couple of points - Listening via a Mac I book, or even a Bose monitor, can you detect much difference on such demos' - In person, you can generally pick-up subtle variations, but not so sure on many YouTube demo's

The other point is to demo the p/up in the style it is likely to be used - No use having a hi-gain demo for say a set of Knopfler or H Marvin based pick-ups - Equally to show off a pair BK Chris Robertson Peacemaker pick-ups then little point trying to show off a low gain BB King style of tone 

If you compare 2 similar pick-ups side by side, thru' the same set-up, often it is not about one sounding better than the other, but sounding different and we will all favour one over the other - I do think you here more of the guitar and the relevant pick-up thru' a cleaner/natural sounding set-up - So less digitalised Helix style demo's 

timmypix

One thing that most pickup demos miss is what can't necessarily be conveyed through a recording, There should either be some talk or accompanying text discussing how the pickup feels to the player - ie how it responds to your playing, the initial attack/squishiness/dryness etc. 

I find these are the kinds of things that surprise me when I try a pickup for the first time, even when I've heard lots of demos. However, once I've played a pickup a lot and experienced how it feels, I find I can then hear that in demos when I couldn't previously.

For example, I find Bare Knuckle Mules have a squishy/crunchy element to the initial attack of a note that doesn't come across in a recording but it's one of the first things that distinguishes them when I'm playing. The Cold Sweat bridge is incredibly tight and "dry", to the point of feeling stiff in some scenarios, but again, not something that comes across well in demos.

I wouldn't worry about being too scientific, as ultimately every guitar and setup is different and different pickups will make you want to play different things and in different ways. As long as you discuss that side of things, then I think that's as much as you can do. E.g., this pickup really made me want to dial up the gain and that really helped show off its midrange emphasis, or something like that.

The final thing is I'd say address the guitar that's being used. Some pickups will allow a guitar's natural voice to shine through / some guitars' natural voices will come through no matter what, so that's worth caveating. If I were to demo my BKP Mother's Milks between my two Strats, it would sound as different as if I'd put two different sets in the same Strat. One Strat is just always super snappy and that affects the pickups (in a way I'm not keen on, if I'm honest!).

Sporky

I want them to point at the pickups on the guitar using the 1st and 4th finger of one hand. 

SteveRobinson

Ideally clean tones but then they just wouldn't sound as good as the other guy using distortion and a ton of delay.

The point of demos is to sell pickups, not describe them.

EricTheWeary

I'm not sure I've ever watched a pickup demo. I do watch gear demos but everything sound wise I take with a pinch of aural salt so they are more for form/function. 
Although my first thought is complex A-B testing I suspect that's a pain in the arse to make and pretty dull viewing as well. I think it's probably more 'we made these pickups to sound like xxxxx so here's Bert with his reissue 62 strat sounding like xxxxx, kerrranngg.' Two minutes, over and out. 

Roland

How about a different tack? Demo the effect of raising, lowering, and tilting a standard set of pickups in a standard guitar. You’ll need to show a couple of different playing styles, and a range of amp settings across the clean/edge/overdriven area. This would provide a basis against which other pickups, heights, etc could be compared in future videos. 

If you could find a pair of guitars which sound similar this would help with future comparisons. Then you’d need pairs of different guitar types … Sounds a good excuse for buying more guitars. 

Lewy

I think what I really want from a pickup demo - or any demo - is to see a player I admire raving about something I've already ordered to make me feel good about my almost certainly impulsive and illogical buying decision. 

Johnnyseven

A variation in the style of playing - chords, leads, riffs, dirty and not dirty. Not just endless bloozing and nothing else.

Kurtis

We all know that what the pickups are called is the most important thing so at least a half hour discussion on that. 

Funkfingers

I prefer pickup video demonstrations that follow the Zappa dictum of, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar. I do not need to hear the demonstrator's opinions or life story. A superimposed caption can indicate which pickup(s) can currently be heard.

Ultimately, unless you have the same rig and playing touch as the demonstrator, these video presentations are of limited help. 

fretmeister

Quick clips being A/B.

even 30 seconds of each is too much. Ears need shorter examples for comparison. And the sequence needs to repeat far more than anyone does at the mo. Detecting subtle differences needs a lot of back and forth.

Only 2 at a time! 

Everything has to be identical apart from the pickup. Zero deviation.

There’s some YouTube people who don’t even play the same riff!