So what's the deal with pick ups?

LegatoMan

Member
Hey you tone experts out there!

What's the consensus on pick ups? Is it worth buying really expensive ones? Do they really sound that different?

In 10 years of playing guitar, I had always focused on what *type* of guitar I play, the thickness of the strings, the pick technique, vibrato, amps, effects, etc. But I never changed the pickups in any of my guitars; always kind of took them for granted I guess.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm having a lot of trouble dialing in a patch, where you can play distorted chords, but where each note still rings out clearly. (Think Periphery-style stuff) I've been through every single amp on the Axe Fx, with or without a Drive pedal, I've tweaked the Drive, Master Volume, Damp, Depth, etc. and there still is this annoying muddiness when I play chords. And it recently occured to me that I had never really found a satisfactory setting that fixes this.

Since I don't doubt the Axe Fx's capabilities, I'm beginning to wonder if the PICK-UPS could make that big difference.

Does anyone have experience with this? What can I expect from newer, expensive pickups?
 
There is no consensus. Not even a general consensus.

It comes down to what you want out of your guitar. Some pickups sound and feel drastically different while others are almost identical. It's absolutely possible different ones will solve your issue. What do you currently use?
 
I've never kept stock pickups in a single guitar I've owned, even more expensive ones, and I can hear a big difference. Where you'll notice biggest difference is on cheaper guitars with cheaper electronics.
 
Ok, cool.

The thing is: I cannot seem to dial in a patch on the Axe Fx that gives me distorted chords while letting each note ring out clearly, Periphery Style. My question is... will better pickups fix this problem?

Or put it this way... is it worth going down this road, and spending a good deal of money? Or am I looking in the wrong place?
 
pickups do make a difference, but at a certain point it's not about price, really. they're just... different.

yes the cheapest stuff doesn't sound good, of course.

can you find a youtube video or sound clip that shows an example of what you're trying to accomplish?
 
what type of pickups are on your guitar? Humbuckers or single coils?
a good starting point is to go to some manufacturer of pickups website and listen to the soundclips they post with their models
Seymour Duncan has a wide range of pickups and is used by many high level players
you can select what type of music you play and they will guide you to a model that fits your selection
after that its all up to you.....
 
They are humbuckers, I believe. They were the standard ones in my Epiphone Les Paul; they have a golden color and are shaped like soap bars. There are no words on them, so I have no idea what model they are or who makes them.
 
the guitar is that youtube clip has active pickups ( LZ4-N humbucker)....EMG comes to mind first.....but Seymour Duncan has active pickups too, Di Marzio......
 
Not my thing at all-but if that's the sound you want the AXe can definitely do that-sounds more screechy to me than distortion but that could be the camera mic also. Sounds more like EQ than distortion, but that's coming from a non-metal guy. But I am sure guys that play that type of music can help more.

I also (as Shem above staes) changed the pickups on all my guitrars also.
 
A pickup change might help.

But for a cheaper (free) alternative, you might want to put some time into exploring the use of drive, filter, and/or PEQ/GEQ blocks in front of the amp to shape the sound coming from the guitar before it goes into the amp block. In particular, work on the low and low mid frequencies, as the lower frequencies distorting can muddy things up with a high gain sound. But you might want to try a bit of boosting or cutting all over the place. Maybe a bit of a bump up in the higher mids for example might help too.

Even if you want to try new pickups anyway, playing around with this kind of thing might give you an idea of what you want to look for. Without a general idea of what you want, the options available to you are enormous, and just asking blindly on the internet for suggestions on "the best" pickups will give you a similarly enormous range of answers. If you can at least narrow it down to certain tonal qualities, you could cut your search down a fair bit.

That said, I've always managed to find what I want in Dimarzio stuff, and the couple of guitars I had that came with SDs both sounded great too. I might try some of the "boutique" pickups one day, but probably just more out of curiosity really. Or maybe if it's someone that's come up with something particularly unique or clever (like someone in the Lounge was talking recently about someone, don't remember who, who's making some kind of wonderous noise-free pickups).
 
The reason I'm asking is that I'm having a lot of trouble dialing in a patch, where you can play distorted chords, but where each note still rings out clearly. (Think Periphery-style stuff) I've been through every single amp on the Axe Fx, with or without a Drive pedal, I've tweaked the Drive, Master Volume, Damp, Depth, etc. and there still is this annoying muddiness when I play chords. And it recently occured to me that I had never really found a satisfactory setting that fixes this.

I don't know what Periphery specifically used to record what you're listening to, but Bulb uses Mayones 7 and 8 string guitars and he has also used Bareknuckle Aftermath pickups (among other things). The Aftermaths definitely sound different than most standard (traditional) pups.
 
They are humbuckers, I believe. They were the standard ones in my Epiphone Les Paul; they have a golden color and are shaped like soap bars. There are no words on them, so I have no idea what model they are or who makes them.

My first electric guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul, and the stock pickups were muddy-sounding disasters. A friend of mine put a good equalizer between the guitar and amp, and that helped a lot, but once I changed out the pickups the eq was no longer needed, and the guitar sounded and felt great. Some Epis these days are issued with decent Gibson pickups, but if yours wasn't, you can do yourself a world of good by changing those out. It really is worth it.

There are a lot of tonal differences among pickups, but with most high-quality pickups, you'll just get different sounds, not bad sounds. The stock Epiphones just sound bad.
 
I am no expert but based on my experience, lower output pick ups gives you more clarity. I used to have dimarzio d-activators (high output). They sound good, but when played bigger chords it was not as clear as i wanted it to be with heavy distortion. I changed to dimarzio air norton bridge and paf on neck, and with heavy distortion it sounds really good and clear. recordings sounds better too imo. It depends in your priorities, but a pick up that allows to express yourself in many ways is more desirable.
 
Hey you tone experts out there!

What's the consensus on pick ups? Is it worth buying really expensive ones? Do they really sound that different?

In 10 years of playing guitar, I had always focused on what *type* of guitar I play, the thickness of the strings, the pick technique, vibrato, amps, effects, etc. But I never changed the pickups in any of my guitars; always kind of took them for granted I guess.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm having a lot of trouble dialing in a patch, where you can play distorted chords, but where each note still rings out clearly. (Think Periphery-style stuff) I've been through every single amp on the Axe Fx, with or without a Drive pedal, I've tweaked the Drive, Master Volume, Damp, Depth, etc. and there still is this annoying muddiness when I play chords. And it recently occured to me that I had never really found a satisfactory setting that fixes this.

Since I don't doubt the Axe Fx's capabilities, I'm beginning to wonder if the PICK-UPS could make that big difference.

Does anyone have experience with this? What can I expect from newer, expensive pickups?

It is hard to anwer when we don't know what guitar/pick ups you're using.

Jens
 
Pickups can dramatically alter the sound of a guitar. Another thing to consider is that there isn't always as much gain being used for those sounds as you you might think plus there may be extra EQ and compression being used.
 
Pickups are just about the biggest tonal change you can make on a guitar, but I'm not sure they'll address your problem.

Distortion will always reduce string definition to some extent. But if you're not getting nearly enough string definition, I'd look at lowering gain first. If that doesn't get you what you want, my second look would be at the equipment that sits between the Axe-Fx and your ears.
 
They are humbuckers, I believe. They were the standard ones in my Epiphone Les Paul; they have a golden color and are shaped like soap bars. There are no words on them, so I have no idea what model they are or who makes them.

I don't think you mean soapbar pups which are single coils?

If you have humbuckers (mostly line of 6 screws left or right side of the pup) you can remove the cover which may result in a less muddy tone.

The setup (intonation/Oktavreinheit) of the guitar is also very important. Chords will only sound transparent when really in tune.

Worn strings will also prevent a clear sound.

On some Epis and Samicks I replaced the stock picks with Rockingers (mostly PAFs, IMO very good value for money), which was always big step ahead.
 
Ive an EBMM Axis, with stock dimarzio custom pickups. I cant get that tight and punchy metal rthym sound despite I tried many presets, settings etc.

I was going to change pu's for something like Petrucci signaturr set or some Bareknuckles but I also thought it may be settings again or me using headphones.

Following this thread and a question;

Can anyone give parameters to start for tight riff tone? Just for a beginning point.
 
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