Anybody hear about the SIM1 pedal?

lwknives said:
Your statement that swapping one humbucker for another makes a small change is a bit simplified. If you said swapping a humbucker with the same magnets, number of winds, and same construction method resulted in a small change you would be correct but swapping out an 8k paf for a 16k high output humbucker is going to completely change the sound, way more than plastic vs bone nut!
Even with the same number of winds, using a different winding technique can change the capacitance and change the resonant peak of the pickup. Its measurable and audible!
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I think you are somewhat correct about what you're saying. "Completely changes the sound" is something I wouldn't say when talking about similar output humbuckers. At the same time we have people saying that guitar cab microphone position "doesn't really matter" and I know for a fact that 1cm of mic movement is a bigger difference than most pickup changes. This is the sort of debate that's derailed under many YouTube video comment sections and it never ends well. It's probably best to say that the truth lies somewhere between these claims. :)

Before continuing this conversation I would recommend everyone to search YouTube for pickup comparisons. Here's a pretty good one, this is different guitars with different pickups. It's a good video where you can jump between different guitars with the links on top of the video. I mean that's 5 humbuckers with completely different designs and sure the difference is there but cmon... the driven sound comparison isn't even the metal level of distortion which would make the difference even smaller.



My point was just to put things to perspective. I just think that guitar players have been overly marketed for decades that you can make your crappy guitar sound good by putting some "high end" pickups in it. I bet everyone heard this at the guitars store when they bought their first cheap guitar. Guess who makes money by selling pickups? The store that just sold you a crappy guitar.... just saying that's how business works.

I've rarely witnessed this to be true. I love the PRS stock pickups and most of my guitars have them so I put a set of those in a dual humbucker cheapo Fender Tele. It was a terrible sounding instrument with way too much low end. None of that crystal clear but fat tone that all my PRS guitars have. Also I put Bare Knuckle Juggernauts into a cheapo 8-string Jackson. It was a terribly muffly sounding guitar.

I believe there's a big fallacy that happens when people switch pickups that is... people usually put on new strings in the process. I get equally excited with a fresh set of strings. But hey... it's just my opinion and everyone's titled to theirs. :) Here's another video comparing Seymour Duncan pickups with very different designs in a metal context. I can hear differences in the active pickups vs passive and obviously that Dimebucker stands out but once again I wouldn't say that's a night and day difference. Wouldn't you just adjust the amp EQ accordingly to compensate for this kind of differences?

 
I agree with most of what you are saying, especially the marketing nonsense! Im not saying that boutique pickups are better than cheap copies either. Pickups are pretty simple from a manufacturing standpoint, the differences between a hand wound boutique and a mass produced pickup with the same spec are going to be pretty subtle if present at all.
The difference between a low wind 8k humbucker and a hot 16k humbucker, on the other hand, is immediately noticeable. You can do a little bit with amp EQ but the shape of the frequency response of a pickup is not going to be emulated by amp EQ, you can cut or add highs but its not going to be changing the resonant peak like swapping pickups does.
Im not saying that you need to go out and get the most expensive pickups you can afford but you need to have a pickup that is applicable to the tone you want.
 
I have the SIM1 XT-1, and it works astonishingly well with the AxeFX III, FOH through PA. Completely different class than the Line 6 Variax.

If the AF3 can perform this function this well, please tell me how - would love it. Are you suggesting Tone Match?

I happen to be working in Germany/Austria during a great EU pricing promotion by SIM1. Through a guitar amp in Germany, I thought “not bad but not great”. Then I heard it through my Fractal and the sound system and my jaw dropped. Same or better “on tape”, in studio through the UA gear.
 
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