Claims of power and quality sound

[H M Murdock]

TB I decided I would contact several vendors, including one guy directly who designs pickups, and ask specific advice on this upgrade.

I told them the sound and the ability I want from this guitar and it's going to be interesting to see what responses I get and the advice given. They all talk about how they work with people to give them what they want, we'll see how true that really is.

I won't badmouth anyone or do the name and shame thing however if one (or more) comes up trumps then I will happily give positive feedback for them which is only fair.

It's a nightmare researching this kind of thing but as well as giving me some knowledge in the long run if it helps others here then it's all worth it

[H M Murdock]

My luthier has just confirmed that each vendor is supplied with their own spec. (He's been away on holiday)

He's advised me on which to avoid and has said he will fit whatever I get with any pots supplied plus a new set of 10's for £25 all in. I don't know how this guy is so cheap and yet so good

[TB-AV]

I still don't understand why you don't get a good set of pickups that give you a good sounding guitar with wide spectrum dynamic output.... then add an EQ, compression, and Clean boost.

If you choose your tone controls carefully you will have the EQ on the quitar, so that's a done deal.

Then all you need is compression and a clean boost.

This will always sound better...
Great pickup... great comp... great clean boost.

than this...
Ok, one trick pony pickup.

Are you trying to save money and build a frankenguitar on a budget? In that case, I get it ... but otherwise you are chasing the wrong thing..... especially if you don't have a great amp.... which that alone would be a huge aspect... but I understand that would set you back a couple thousand as opposed to a couple hundred.

[H M Murdock]

TB you kind of get my idea there, I want this guitar to fulfill a specific role. I have 5 guitars of various types and each does it's job well in it's own way but I want one which can deliver more bone-crushing sound than my BC Rich Beast at high gain and yet keep the clean tone of the Les Paul when it's needed, basicly it has to go from clean to insane instantly. My black LP can do it but it just lacks that final punch at the most extreme levels hence the need for hotter pickups but said pickups need to be the best of both worlds.

Alan Entwistle, who as most of us know designs pickups, contacted me today and said his High Definition Neodymium pickups would do the job. He was given the exact design brief and he said for this specific role neodymium magnets in 16k bridge and 9k neck set up would work well. The 16 and 9 seem pretty much ball park figures but from what I can gather from research those magnets give an extremely powerful flux field to give that extra punch when needed but keep the sound quality too.

So coming from a guy with 30 years of design experience I'm going to give these a try. He also suggested briefly a couple of other mods which won't be expensive at all and may increase performance a little more if I wanted it. I'm impressed that he took the time to look into my own personal spec for a guitar and help me out. Some may say there are better quality pickups out there but as a designer he took on board the brief and went out of his way to match pickups to what I want. He could easily have recommended more expensive models but he didn't, I guess that speaks volumes.

I've learned a valuable lesson here folks, ignore power figures etc, it's the all round package that matters along with so many factors surrounding magnet types, how many magnets, coil winds, etc, that most of us are buying blind without expert advice.

Yes it's a pain having to do the research like this but not only does it get us our goal (or at least closer to it) but we also gain knowledge along the way. This has been a very interesting journey so far and when I get around to having said pickups fitted and everything sorted the end result is hopefully going to raise a few eyebrows