Your Favorite Pick Up?

[Trelwheen]

What's your favorite pick up? I have a couple but I have Duncan RTM's in 3 guitars and I absolutely love them. Very crunchy and powerful sounding. My faves by far. ( I also dig the hot rails in the neck position and ANDERSON Hn3+) What about you?

I absolutely love DiMarzio's Super distortion HB in my old Ibanez Roadstar.

And the Joe Barden Danny Gattons in my Tele are out of this world.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

Man there are so many to choose from these days, you really need to know what it is you’re looking for, in 78 my buddy Caesar and I went to the local music shop to check on replacement pick ups, what we found (and came highly recommend where dimarzio) I got a super ll he got a super distortion, in cream, and that was all they had, we were quite satisfied with our purchase’s that we would hunt down more! These pups went into hondo ll LP copies

 

[Barfly]

I absolutely love DiMarzio's Super distortion HB

I have only one (I think only one) in one of my 48th Street Custom (ESP custom shop) guitars. It really is outstanding. My friend Richie used to have them in his guitars as well. His sounded great so I was happy to eventually get one.

DiMarzio was also a photographer and invited me and Nick Bowcott to pose for photos at DiMarzio. He put music on and we stood in front of backdrops playing our guitars to it while he snapped away.

It was fun. I was being scouted for a major thrash band and asked him if I could have a photo to mail to their management in Cali. He gave me one that I mailed away. We also got a tour of the factory and he let us each grab a pup to take home. He was a very cool dude. Everyone was very friendly.

 

[Trelwheen]

I have only one (I think only one) in one of my 48th Street Custom (ESP custom shop) guitars. It really is outstanding. Got it around '88. My friend Richie used to have them in his guitars as well. His sounded great so I was happy to eventually get one.

DiMarzio was also a photographer and invited me and Nick Bowcott to pose for photos at DiMarzio. He put music on and we stood in front of backdrops playing our guitars to it while he snapped away.

It was fun. I was being scouted for a major thrash band and asked him if I could have a photo to mail to their management in Cali. He gave me one that I mailed away. We also got a tour of the factory and he let us each grab a pup to take home. He was a very cool dude. Everyone was very friendly.

Great anecdote! Did you end up getting the gig?

 

[Barfly]

Great anecdote! Did you end up getting the gig?

LOL. Thanks Trelwheen.

I didn't pursue it after that initial move. I had the producer of the record pushing hard for me as well as someone in the management team but there were a couple of factors.

1. I loved the band I was in and had faith in it's music. We scored a record deal with RCA but the record was never released.

2. I was very close friends with two of the guys in the band as well as now a good friend of Bowcott. We'd been in a band together before this one... I just loved it and didn't think I could leave it and feel good. I wasn't into that music either. I can do it.. but can I do it for years?

3. I wasn't prepared mentally to move to Cali and leave my wife in NY. I thought it'd be the end of my relationship.. one that has now lasted 34 years!


The band I didn't audition for had a hit record and the guy they got, well, let's say I can't hold his guitar picks for him. A real killer. They did well for themselves.

In hindsight, only reason 3 still makes me glad I didn't try for it. LOL

 

[Trelwheen]

LOL. Thanks Trelwheen.

I didn't pursue it after that initial move. I had the producer of the record pushing hard for me as well as someone in the management team but there were a couple of factors.

1. I loved the band I was in and had faith in it's music. We scored a record deal with RCA but the record was never released.

2. I was very close friends with two of the guys in the band as well as now a good friend of Bowcott. We'd been in a band together before this one... I just loved it and didn't think I could leave it and feel good. I wasn't into that music either. I can do it.. but can I do it for years?

3. I wasn't prepared mentally to move to Cali and leave my wife in NY. I thought it'd be the end of my relationship.. one that has now lasted 34 years!


The band I didn't audition for had a hit record and the guy they got, well, let's say I can't hold his guitar picks for him. A real killer. They did well for themselves.

In hindsight, only reason 3 still makes me glad I didn't try for it. LOL

#3 is the best reason it didn't happen!

 

[El Gringo]

Throbak MXV-SLE-101 Plus humbucker in my Les Paul's

 

[Wooferhead1]

81 LP Standard I swapped out the Tim Shaw pups and played Duncan JB's for a long time then went back to the Shaws - didn't realize what I was missing nice n warm thru the Kt66 tubes and seem to clean up nice by rolling back the guitar volume (2266 VM amp)

 

[AlvisX]

Been a DiMarzio user since high school (The SEVENTIES)
Still have some from then . Always partial to the PAF and Super D
I started using the Red Velvet in the bridge of strats awhile back and the 36 Anni PAF for Humbucking applications
I've been hoarding these dual slug ceramic Made For Japan DiMarzios from the late 70s ,they're great in the neck position , somethin different

Early Gibson P90's from the fifties...
...or some of the better copies thereof.

I have Harmonic Design Z-90's on a Sheraton, wound by Scott Peterson out in Bakersfield and put under mock-tortoise covers. Humbucker size, they fell into the 'bucker routed holes, and sound incredible...

Dedicated p-90 man here.
My favorite is the stock pickup in my '63 Junior .....a whoppin 9.4k with A5 mags . I liked it so well that I sought out something similar for my other guitars . I stumbled on the Duncan sp 90 1b and found what I was looking for . I have it in all my p-90 Les Pauls ,even the 50's ones. They don't make it in a dog ear ,so I just swap the coils to the mount

I found that Gibson p-90s from the early 2000s were pretty consistent ...8.1k and they make a great neck pickup

I hear a lot of people say the p-94 doesn't sound like a p-90 ,but I say ,BOLLOCKS !. I really love that pickup in either position ,once you bust the little useless chrome half cover off of it .

I'm a recent convert to Gibson HB-L.

Opinions on these seem pretty divided, but I love them.

I bought an 83 SG Special in a pawn shop years about 17 yrs ago ,had one in the neck . I really like the sound of it in the neck .I ended up fixing a dead T-Top and putting it in the neck of the SG ,so I've been moving it around in various instruments for many years . Right now it rests in a Hondo The Paul copy that I use for air travel

 

[GuitarIV]

Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom.

I think this is my new favourite. I installed it maybe 3 days ago in my ESP E-2 Eclipse to replace the EMGs it came with and I am absolutely loooving what I'm hearing so far.

Tight lowend, relaxed but present mids and crunchy high mids and highs with great presence and amazing attack. Gone is the honky character I had with the EMG 81 and the Duncan JB. I had to fiddle with my setting but right now I am floored how great it works for rhythm playing, no matter if simple rock, hard rock or metal. I wouldn't have expected this from a ceramic pickup.

I still have to give it a go through my 2203 but I am confident it will sound great. I'll make a dedicated thread once the honeymoon phase is over.

Honorable mentions: Duncan SH-1 59 (both bridge and neck), EMG 81 and 57 and the Bareknuckle Miracle Man (I'll most likely get one again sooner or later)

 

[El Gringo]

Man there are so many to choose from these days, you really need to know what it is you’re looking for, in 78 my buddy Caesar and I went to the local music shop to check on replacement pick ups, what we found (and came highly recommend where dimarzio) I got a super ll he got a super distortion, in cream, and that was all they had, we were quite satisfied with our purchase’s that we would hunt down more! These pups went into hondo ll LP copies

This brings back memories of the late 70's as the Dimarzio Super Distortion was my very first replacement pickup that I put in the bridge position of my Les Paul Custom and it worked well . Way back then as kids we wanted distortion right out of the pickup in addition to the Electro Harmonix Big Muff pedal , because we all wanted to sound like Hendrix (as if right ? ) playing thru our Fender Silverface Twin Reverbs . As kids we did not have a clue other than get a Les Paul or Fender Strat and crank the volume and wait for the cops to come talk to us which happened a lot because of our neighbours and as kids and because of our parents we knew a lot of the cops in our neck of the woods (not that would get us out of trouble because we managed well on our own to constantly get into trouble all the time ) When we would cut school and jam at my parents home we knew who worked the day shift and we would crank the amps , have beers and have our smoke and the one cop that always came to our home was from the Traffic Safety Division and we would open right up for him and let him in and be polite to him as that was how we were raised to have manners and he would come in look around and see the beer bottles and the clouds of smoke and he never said a word about the smoke and we all thought to ourselves that he must not know what it smells like and he would wag his fingers towards us and say he did not want to have to come back to our house again because then we would be in big trouble as he put it and then the jam was over and we would just listen to tunes on the stereo and hang out the rest of the day as the delinquents that we were . Man I miss cops like that today ! Nowadays we have Marshall amps and they are much louder and there are new neighbours that we like to piss off and they have been told by the cops to stop the frivolous calls or they are going to catch charges , so now it is a free hi volume zone in the daytime up until suppertime in the early evening .

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

This brings back memories of the late 70's as the Dimarzio Super Distortion was my very first replacement pickup that I put in the bridge position of my Les Paul Custom and it worked well . Way back then as kids we wanted distortion right out of the pickup in addition to the Electro Harmonix Big Muff pedal , because we all wanted to sound like Hendrix (as if right ? ) playing thru our Fender Silverface Twin Reverbs . As kids we did not have a clue other than get a Les Paul or Fender Strat and crank the volume and wait for the cops to come talk to us which happened a lot because of our neighbours and as kids and because of our parents we knew a lot of the cops in our neck of the woods (not that would get us out of trouble because we managed well on our own to constantly get into trouble all the time ) When we would cut school and jam at my parents home we knew who worked the day shift and we would crank the amps , have beers and have our smoke and the one cop that always came to our home was from the Traffic Safety Division and we would open right up for him and let him in and be polite to him as that was how we were raised to have manners and he would come in look around and see the beer bottles and the clouds of smoke and he never said a word about the smoke and we all thought to ourselves that he must not know what it smells like and he would wag his fingers towards us and say he did not want to have to come back to our house again because then we would be in big trouble as he put it and then the jam was over and we would just listen to tunes on the stereo and hang out the rest of the day as the delinquents that we were . Man I miss cops like that today ! Nowadays we have Marshall amps and they are much louder and there are new neighbours that we like to piss off and they have been told by the cops to stop the frivolous calls or they are going to catch charges , so now it is a free hi volume zone in the daytime up until suppertime in the early evening .

That is such a cool story, and brings back a lot of my teen years memories, my buddy Sal lived at the corner (inside corner) and no neighbors behind, but a wheat field and during the day while everyone was at work, we would set up in the enclosed patio and do the same, but we were lucky the cops never came! Cheers Mitch

 

[BftGibson]

record alot and need these around,,what ever i am asked to do.. can grab and go and pretty much show up with DSL & gt75 & Vintage in X pattern cab and get it done

61 zebra Alnico in SGJ
490/498 in LP
496/500 in Firebird
T buckers in The Paul
SD 59's in LP
57's in SG
V7-V8 in Japan RG 570

 

[thunderstruck507]

I've got 490R/498T in my SG, cheap zebra PAF neck/498T in my flametop LP, EMGs in the other Les Paul, and my Explorer of Doom has a 490R/ Seymour Duncan Black Winter combo tuned for drop A#.

I really like the 498T especially with the volume rolled off a touch for rhythm then roll to 10 to let em scream. I also really like Gibson 57 Classics, lots of clarity.

Don't care for the Burstbuckers or the Epi variants of them, kinda muddy compared to the 57s and their equivalents.

I had an Angus signature Gibson pickup in an SG once and it was nothing but mud city.

 

[SRD]

Bridge: Dimarzio Super Distortion or Tone Zone, been leaning more Tone Zone lately
Neck: Dimarzio 36th Anni. PAF

 

[Biddlin]

P-90/Dirty Fingers.
Killer combo.
close 2nd:

490/490

 

[67Mopar]

80's era Duncan Distortion. Best all-around HB I've ever owned.

 

[chiliphil1]

View attachment 54532
P-90/Dirty Fingers.
Killer combo.
close 2nd:
View attachment 54534
490/490

What model is that guitar with the dirty fingers? I can't think of what those are called.

 

[Biddlin]

What model is that guitar with the dirty fingers? I can't think of what those are called.

2012(?) Gibson N-225, It is the resident studio guitar at the moment. Super versatile.The DF can be split. Single coil sound is kinda Tele like, actually.

 

[Vinsanitizer]

490R & 498T. Plain straight up rock n roll balls.