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
The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a
whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct
term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a
rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a
fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term
by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the
term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
Comments
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.
Trading feedback here
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.
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.
My trading feedback: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/210335/yorkie
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
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
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!).
The point of demos is to sell pickups, not describe them.
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.
Ultimately, unless you have the same rig and playing touch as the demonstrator, these video presentations are of limited help.
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!
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator