Pup changes - bass and guitar - what worked best 4U?

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:13 am

I was talking to a great friend in Auckland yesterday (gidday, Dave) who fitted Bill Lawrence pups to his jazz bass and is rapt with the outcome.

I have BL noiseless pups in my Strat, although that is the way it was when it arrived from the states.

I'm a definite fan of his work. The pups have more sustain and NO BUZZ and seem 'warmer' to me than stock Fender single coils (although Bill does design pups for Fender).

If you haven't heard of Bill, here's a link:
http://www.billlawrence.com/

In the mid '70s I changed my P bass pups from Fender to DiMarzio and last year I found my original pups and threw them back on. I was amazed by how nice they sounded - making me wonder why I changed them in the first place. They'll stay on there. If I ever end up playing bass again I'll throw the Dimarzios into a cheap P copy and chuck my spare Fender maple P neck on it.

I've used SD's and others, but the BL pups seem to me to be my new standard, by which I judge other aftermarket pups.

What aftermarket pups have you fitted and how do you perceive the differences?

ash · Post by **ash** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:50 am

When looking for Bill Lawrence pickups, there are a few things to be aware of. Firstly, Bill Lawrence has designed pickups for several companies including Kent Armstrong, the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker, and most importantly the TWO companies trading under the Bill Lawrence name.

The second point is that only ONE of these companies is Bill Lawrence himself. The other is a couple who bought out his original company and its designs. I don't remember which is which, or if one brand is better than another, but I do know they are slightly different in performance.

Google will be helpful in determining which to go for.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:57 am

Yes, there is some legal action aurrounding this. IIRC it involved buckers for Gibbys?

Anyone can order straight from his website and I'd recommend that.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Thu May 05, 2005 12:02 pm

Pertaining to my first post in this thread - I've just bought a brand new $200 P bass copy - which will be played with - Di Marzio pup, Fender neck, maybe different pot, series/llel switch, brass pickguard, straplocks etc. There's nothing to buy, as I have all the bits lying round at home.

It'll shut me up for a while - then I can flog all the unneeded parts off cheaply at TM and clear some more space (white pickguard, orig pups, neck, tuners).

Post by Bg » Thu May 05, 2005 1:00 pm

I've got 54 Fender Custom Shop pups in my Strat and I can't recommend them enough for that vintage vibe - including lots of hum (no RWRP). They sound great to my jaded ears, much better than the ceramic magnet pups that were in there...

I haven't seen the need to mod my basses yet, I get the tone I want from whats there and my POD which I use to shape the bland Tranny amp I've got

Tsuken · Post by **Tsuken** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:58 pm

DiMarzio super distortion humbucker in the bridge of my plywood Samick strat, and a Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the middle. Unsurprisingly these were much better than the standard Samick pups

I've since put the Super Distortion into my Yamaha RGX, with excellent results - for overdriven sounds at any rate; the clean sounds have gone off a bit

The Hot Rails is now in Jenna (my stickered strat thing), and it's really nice. Though it's single coil spaced, it doesn't sound like a single coil, which for me is good in the bridge position (I always found singles a bit too bright). Lots of power - enough to sound good despite the crappy "wood" of the body

But the best replacement has been the DiMarzio Breed (humbucker) replacing the standard Ibanez Powersound in my S470. I actually liked the sound of the standard pickup, but felt it just lacked a little. I chose the Breed because it's the closest thing DiMarzio do to Andy Timmons' custom wound bridge pickup. It has added so much more character to the sound. There's a kind of "chewy" feeling to it; rather than just a bland oooooooo, theres a kind of bite, chewwwwooooooo sort of thing going on

and the harmonics are much stronger.

I'm definitely a DiMarzio fan.

Tehhaxorr · Post by **Tehhaxorr** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:20 pm

I miss my old Dimarzio :'(

I had to sell my pickup to raise funds for my B.C Rich, witch came with such crap pickups i had to end up spending a chunk and a half to replace the pup wiht an EMG.

ash · Post by **ash** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:11 pm

Today I put a set of Ibanez V7/V8 pickups into an Ashton ASA2000 archtop Jazz style guitar. On the surface its a really odd combination because the V7/V8 pair is usually associated with high gain rock guitars like the RG series, but in reality they are fairly mild vintage voiced pickups...

In the Ibanez tradition the bridge pickup has an alnico magnet and the neck pickup has a ceramic magnet. This is also odd at first glance, as most good versatile combinations would be the other way around. Ibanez do it that way to ensure clarity on the neck pickup, which is often prone to muddiness in the distorted situations RGs often find themselves. The payoff is that the neck pickup looses some creaminess and smoothness in clean sounds, but no-one expects much of that from a demon spawn Ibanez RG anyway.

So, back to the transplant. The Ashton comes fitted with a pair of the crappest humbuckers ever devised by men. (And I can say that because I can most certainly produce better myself

)
the sure sign of shithouse humbuckers is the the polepiece screwheads are outside the covers, holding the whole deal together.

Took the old pickups out, (the easy part) and soldered the new ones in. I nearly put a coil tapping miniswitch in with it, but chose not to in the end. Rightly so it seems, as I had wired them in single coil mode at first and they sounded like royal samick. Archtops can be a PIA to wire up as you only have pickup holes and f-holes to work through. I have my ways and cunning medical devices on hand though, so all went well.

Once it was all good, I cranked it up and heard a definite improvement. Once the new owner took to playing it the improvement was even more clear. The tone had lots more life and depth, with slightly more volume, balance and warmth. The neck pickup was the most improved. The bridge could have been bolder and louder.

The coolest thing is that with the gain cranked it sounded really excellent. I think the driven sound is now this guitar's forte. Although that opinion is somewhat tempered by the presence of a new Yamaha AES1500 archtop acoustic guitar, which just makes any other clean sound a little underwhelming!!

All is not lost, however... The Ashton/Ibanez combo cost him less than 10% of the Yamaha's retail price but is alot more than 10% of the quality!

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Sat May 07, 2005 12:50 pm

I substituted ordinary Gibson humbuckers for the epoxy encapsulated ones in my SG custom back in '73, but that was because the 'gold plated' ones that were on the guitar rusted up to heck in about a month from new. So the seller rplaced them under warrantry with the then ordinary Gibson humbuckers (no 'different models' back then available here - you just got humbuckers) which had been plated properly.

Can't say I noticed any difference.

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Sat May 07, 2005 12:54 pm

Oh! forgot to mention that in about '75 I changed the pup on my Kawai 60's bass from whatever came with it to another no name one and a hofner beatle bass one.

The tone went from grotty and sucks to just sucks!

ash · Post by **ash** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:00 am

Rog, how "stratty" does your strat sound with the BL pickups, particularly clean in the in-between positions? You said they are warmer, does that mean the traditional tone is less apparent?

jimi · Post by **jimi** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:50 am

Ash replaced the stock MIJ pickups in my Jazz bass with SD Quarter Pounders when he re-fin'd it, and now its sounding chunky.

I always found the MIJ Fender P-ups to be a bit lifeless and dull sounding, the Quarter Pounders sound alot more solid and have a nice full sound across all the strings.

So after that glowing review, anyone want to make me an offer on a set of MIJ Fender Jazz Pickups before they go on TM?

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Mon May 09, 2005 2:50 pm

Hmm. Just in the throes of getting Ash to sus a new bridge pickup for my SG, the stocker Gibson '57 is great for classic and grunge rock, but for the current direction of my outfit, more emo-garage-rock, the 8.5k output isn't hot enough, so I'm aiming around the 13k point - dirty, but not ludicrous.

Probably go for the Kent Armstrong M-214 Distortion or High Output, good punchy pickups that clean up well enough from what I've read/heard. I'm not quite at EMG81 level just yet, I'd still like to have a clean tone of some decripstion.

Post by Bg » Mon May 09, 2005 2:55 pm

recycledpet wrote:Ash replaced the stock MIJ pickups in my Jazz bass with SD Quarter Pounders when he re-fin'd it, and now its sounding chunky.

I always found the MIJ Fender P-ups to be a bit lifeless and dull sounding, the Quarter Pounders sound alot more solid and have a nice full sound across all the strings.

So after that glowing review, anyone want to make me an offer on a set of MIJ Fender Jazz Pickups before they go on TM?

I'll have a couple of sets of my own to go on at some point