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on a random aside, i think that side of europe is going to become very important over the next decade or two. the smaller & smarter 'little players' freed up with the post wall balkanisation of the east are now coming of age & (from all reports i hear) buzzing with potential.
literally the most brilliant person i know under 30 has made her home in sofia, bulgaria, after doing a huge europe wide tour in her mid-20s. she could have gone anywhere (well qualified) & chose there.
she desribes sofia as 'everything she thought life would be like in the uk when she was in her teens, but totally failed to deliver once she actually got into it (shitty jobs, unaffordable housing, general class-locked & inward-looking attitude of place).
the only downside she ever reports is that she's a veggie & they are a bit meaty.
so if you are young & not settled here yet, maybe put that side of europe on your to-do list.
ps. not wanting to get into a full-on big brexit sh*t-slinging contest, just saying that if you are young & struggling here, it's there. maybe check it out.
maybe that leaves makers at the mercy of whichever magazine or established outlet want to review them ('wants to review' too often coming with strings, in form of discounts, etc). unfair as little makers can't compete with big makers in offering discounts for review space.
but hopefully responsible broadminded mag/outles will balance out their 'sponsored reviews' with unsponsored ones, and these might get a look in.
i agree re the look and specs. cool vintage workshop vibe to them. & pricing seems amazing if spec & performance add up.
I found the modern Gibson pickups to be too powerful.. i.e tons of grunt for driving the amp hard but not in the least subtle.
The picks-ups took about just over a week to arrive in a very simple brown padded envelope. Nothing fancy at all in terms of presentation, just as basic as it comes, each pup within the envelope in its own padded envelope and and a third envelope containing the cover screws and springs. So initially I was a touch underwhelmed.. especially compared to the presentation of the OX4 pickups I purchased recently for my Tokai LS160. The pups however looked very well constructed and I could see the maple spacers installed as per the original Gibson specs so things looked promising.
Thanks to me breaking my shoulder, installation was put on hold for about a month.. but once my right arm was working at some sort of basic level I could no longer put off installing the pickups.
Installation was a breeze, my only criticism if any, being that the cable lengths are down to the wire for fitting in a Firebird, there is no extra should you be looking to install in a customised guitar. The cable is of the traditional screened cloth push-back insulation type, so no need to strip the end and no fear of the insulation melting when soldering.
The DCR of the pickups is much lower than the Gibson original: 7K for the bridge and 6.2K for the neck.
So what do they sound like?
Stunning... just incredible. The bridge pickup is sharp and aggressive without being too bright and the neck pup is incredibly warm and articulate. The middle position is just sublime with both pickups working together beautifully. I am so feckin impressed I cannot tell you. Even my wife, who is immune to my guitar antics walked in whilst I was playing today and commented on how 'full and smooth' the Firebird sounded. She's never done that before!
IMHO these are fabulous pickups at an amazing price. I don't want to distract from our legion of great UK pickups makers, but if you are after full vintage spec pups at a great price, with no frills, then I can recommend these QPickups without reservation.
http://www.edispickups.com/ - I have a set of his vintage spec strat pickups on the way, similar prices to the Q pickups chap.
I came to the conclusion a while back that there are a plethora of great pickup makers and these days we're spoiled for choice
Dammit.
Did they give a reason? Just wondering if it's due to the Covid situation at the moment.
Thanks for that info.. looks like I'm gonna have to put my pick-up order on hold