allmektig
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Post by allmektig on Jan 28, 2013 21:27:30 GMT -5
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Post by newey on Jan 28, 2013 21:56:25 GMT -5
Yes. Look at the size of the individual coils. What do you want, egg in yer beer?   5K might be down in the "vintage" range for SCs, or close to it. But this is a rails pickup. It serves two primary purposes: Be hum-cancelling, and be the size of a Strat SC. As far as having any experience with it, I don't know about this particular pickup or its manufacture. Some of the Artec pickups are very good (as sold by GuitarFetish as "GFS" in the USA), and we've had recent discussions on the goodness of the Entwhistle Chinese-made pickups. But there are many different brands and types, so I don't know that anyone can give you a specific recommendation without more info. If, by "experience with this type of pickup", you mean "dual rails" pickups in general as compared to other types, well, there's a lot of different "dual rail" designs. I used a GFS "cool rails" in the bridge of a Tele I built, and in general I like it. Rail pickups aren't single coils, and won't sound like single coils. Nor are they as "meaty" and "smooth" (off into subjective-land we go . . .) as a PAF-style HB would be. They are their own beast entirely, and if you approach them as such, you may like what you hear. But, if you go into the rails with the mind set of "Oh, they should sound like this or like that" you'll be sorely disappointed. I would say, in my experience, the rails I've played had a bit more "grit" to their sound than a regular HB (using a PAF as comparison). They are of course quiet, as compared with SCs. But they lack the "chime" of a SC, and have a more "metal-ish" tone to them. But, for what it was/is, I liked the GFS rails. I play mostly slide on that guitar (I should say that I attempt to play slide on it), and with a bit of gain dialed in on the amp, the pickup nails that "dirty blues" sound. |
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allmektig
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Post by allmektig on Jan 28, 2013 22:25:40 GMT -5
But it will still have a higher output than the stock pickups in my late 80s/early 90s japanese squier strat I guess...
I'll order one soonish and see what it sounds like.
I might post sound clips of it when I get it.
If I like it, I might order two more, just so I can go truly nutz with a HHH setup...
I'm still "looking for my tone".
Currently, I mostly play with my neck and mid pickup in series with the tone turned down a bit, on a guitar tuned in drop b, with some very heavy strings, and there is gain. Loads of it...
I guess what I meant by "these kinds of pickups" was how cheap chinese pickups performed compared to brand name pickups.
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Post by newey on Jan 28, 2013 22:40:56 GMT -5
Let's just say that there's a lot of variation. There are good ones, I don't automatically reject anything just because it's Chinese-sourced.
On the other hand, I have a bunch that will probably not ever be used again . . .
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allmektig
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Post by allmektig on Jan 28, 2013 22:59:41 GMT -5
On the other hand, I have a bunch that will probably not ever be used again . . .If I'm ever in Ohio, I'll trade you a beer for them. |
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Post by newey on Jan 28, 2013 23:16:56 GMT -5
If I'm ever in Norway, I'll bring them and give them to you for free!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2013 8:29:21 GMT -5
Hello, i had the artec rails bought from the UK (northwestguitars.co.uk) and they were really cool. Not as silent as the dimarzio fast track1/2, but still good, sensitive and loud. There was some hum/buzz around tho. All in all a good pup, but not for prime use. I gave it to my nephew to install it in his pacifica yahama neck position. I would not buy it again tho, for some 20-30 bucks more you can buy a "Bill Lawrence" rail which is orders of magnitude superior.
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Post by cynical1 on Feb 7, 2013 13:30:50 GMT -5
...for some 20-30 bucks more you can buy a "Bill Lawrence" rail which is orders of magnitude superior. Amen. Granted, OEM pickups are usually garbage, but why opt for another take on cheap if you're going to all the trouble to replace them... eBay is a goldmine for good pickups at a very good price...let the other guy take the initial depreciation... HTC1 |
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Post by Teleblooz on Feb 10, 2013 22:02:23 GMT -5
That looks just like the Dragonfire Hot Rails pups I've used in my #1 Tele (and the Strat I'm in the process of building). I was pretty pleased with it overall. I have to say I liked it better than the Seymour Duncan Lil 59 I tried once before - not nearly as harsh sounding. And for under 20 bucks I count it a good value.
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jvin248
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Post by jvin248 on Apr 19, 2013 8:54:54 GMT -5
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The last couple of months I've been ordering various china pickups off ebay (not the models on this thread yet). I've been staying in the under $10 range per pickup, or pairs for $12-$15 including shipping (many are sold "Buy It Now" with free shipping).
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I got started because I have an old 1970 garage-sale LP copy by "Global" that was a complete mess when I got it. Only one of the two chrome-case-with-screws gibson-humbucker-style pickups worked, but that pickup sounded pretty good after I fixed the rest of the thing up. I took the broken pickup apart and found while the case looked like the typical Gibson HB, inside was only a single coil that looked more like a P-90 style but had a U-channel that the screws went into - which I found interesting. Anyway:
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I'm still waiting on a few $1+$2 s/h single coil pickups to mess with, but I noticed these things so far:
The epoxy potted smooth top HBs (no poles showing) were really low signal strength even though in the typical 7-8kohm range.
The hot 15kohm red/black HB didn't sound inspiring in the guitar like the 5-6kohm gibson-style chrome tops I bought and put in there. Not sure how to define "inspiring" other than that good solid "growl" term but still keeping the higher tones like my Fender.
I have two typical open-face black HBs with nearly identical (7-8kohm) coils, but one has a significantly stronger magnet when I found with screwdriver pull-test. I need to do more testing between these but did not see a major sound differences between them but they are nice sounding overall.
The p-90-style soap-bar I have has to be closer to the string to get as strong a signal as the open face HB noted above with approximately the same kohm windings. I expected a stronger signal because of the wider coil winding area plus I always had the idea the soap-bars gave stronger signals from online discussions.
The replacement pre-wired $25 with s/h pick guard for my Fender Bullet Strat (that came from the factory with a bland, weak-sounding HB in it) has a HB that sounds much better (but I liked the original single pickups better than the new one .. so may switch those sometime).
I found "Hotness" isn't the only factor to chase in pickups ! - There is that need for some tone;)
Most of the pickups are wax potted etc and show as much build care, or not, as others I've looked at on-line or in reviews in the $hundreds.
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I have more evaluations to run with the test buck I built (because I got tired of breaking strings on the guitars swapping pickups in and out. Also, retuning between tests I thought defeated some of the A/B comparison accuracy). I'll post more in the forum when I get something useful out of all this. The thing though, if you're thinking of spending hundreds on a pickup, try out some five to ten dollar jobs first and see what you get - you're more than likely to be surprised on the good side. And your risk is low if it doesn't work out.
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Post by newey on Apr 19, 2013 23:38:28 GMT -5
jvin- Hello and Welcome to G-Nutz2!True, unless you go through a number of cheapies before finding something you like, then the budget starts to mount .  With respect to the Squier pickups specifically, we have had past discussions which denigrated the type without the pole piece magnets, the ones that just have a bar magnet underneath the coils. Most people were not fans of those. Me personally, I look at modding a cheap guitar like this: If a guitar sells for $100-$150, it undoubtedly has cheap pickups, probably in the same quality range as those you pay $10 for on the netwebs. If the pups were worth any more than that, they couldn't sell the whole guitar for $100-$150. So, I assume (in the absence of extensive testing which I don't have time to do, and which is unlikely to bear fruit, could I do it) that replacing a set of OEM $10 pickups with a set of $10 aftermarket pickups is an exercise in futility. On the flipside, I am not about to invest in a set of $300 designer pickups for a $100 guitar. So, I shoot for those which represent a slight upgrade over stock OEM Chinese pups, but which don't cost too much. I shoot for the $20-$30 range. These represent an upgrade (in most cases) but don't break the bank for a cheap guitar- one that I probably bought specifically to mod anyway. Wilkinson SCs I find to be a good value, in that price range. The Artec/GuitarFetish ones are good as well, for roughly the same $$$ And while I've never personally played any of them, the Bill Lawrence SC pups get rave reviews (as mentioned previously) and are moderately priced |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2013 0:44:26 GMT -5
I was playing yesterday night with my home brewed malmsteen scalloped partscaster, which i put together for some 240 euro in total. (125 euro loaded body (with presumably cheap pups) from USA + 75 euro scalloped mapple fretboard neck from China + 20 euros for the tuners - wilkinson from UK + 20 euros for various other parts (bolts, neck plates, etc..)). Then i fit a pre-used dimarzio HS-3 in the bridge. Well, the HS-3 have a much wider application of possible uses, plays sweet under heavy distortion, very nice pup, *but* for clean-ish to baroque-full middle distorted sounds (i cannot describe it better), anything between surf guitar, dire straits -> deep purple, and of course yngwie malmsteen, i can say the original cheap neck pup sweeps the floor under the HS-3! This guitar also seems strong, can take any beating, ultra strong neck, i dont know maybe i got lucky with this.
What i am thinking to do, is install a new bridge (GFS) and go for Seymour Duncan livewire II classic actives (the ones with the traditional 6 pole - look) in order to get some hi-fi sounds, while keeping the old pickguard well guarded in the closet, just in case i wanna go back. Or..... maybe its time for yet another frankenstrat ;D ;D
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