Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Its all in the fingers, or is it?

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Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by jeremyb »

Terrible clickbait title but the proof is in the pudding...

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by NippleWrestler »

One of my favourite high gain tones these days is my 1985 tele with low output Alnico 2 humbuckers in there. It's more to do with the amp innit.

I'd watch that video but Glenn's style of presentation is like nails on a blackboard to me.

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by crowbgood1 »

Everything in the signal chain from fingers, pick and strings, through to the speakers. High gain and Telle has been a thing for decades. All the early Led Zeppelin albums are a good example.
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by jeremyb »

crowbgood1 wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:26 am Everything in the signal chain from fingers, pick and strings, through to the speakers. High gain and Telle has been a thing for decades. All the early Led Zeppelin albums are a good example.
Thats not what he's talking about though, its modern metal which is another level of gain entirely :-)
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by Danger Mouse »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:13 am I'd watch that video but Glenn's style of presentation is like nails on a blackboard to me.
Don't bother, it's total click bait and even though he's done his best to hide the differences with each pickup with an awful, overly saturated tone no-one would actually record with, I can still clearly hear that they don't all sound the same.

My take from it is I need some Fishman Fluences.
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by NippleWrestler »

Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:36 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:13 am I'd watch that video but Glenn's style of presentation is like nails on a blackboard to me.
Don't bother, it's total click bait and even though he's done his best to hide the differences with each pickup with an awful, overly saturated tone no-one would actually record with, I can still clearly hear that they don't all sound the same.

My take from it is I need some Fishman Fluences.
I had some Fluences in the tele actually. They're garbage. I couldn't get them out quickly enough. The cocked wah, overly compressed 80s sound isn't something I enjoy and honestly there's pickups that do the same thing for about 1/10 the cost.

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by NippleWrestler »

crowbgood1 wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:26 am Everything in the signal chain from fingers, pick and strings, through to the speakers. High gain and Telle has been a thing for decades. All the early Led Zeppelin albums are a good example.
This is the first time I've ever seen LZ called high gain.

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by Danger Mouse »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:38 am
Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:36 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:13 am I'd watch that video but Glenn's style of presentation is like nails on a blackboard to me.
Don't bother, it's total click bait and even though he's done his best to hide the differences with each pickup with an awful, overly saturated tone no-one would actually record with, I can still clearly hear that they don't all sound the same.

My take from it is I need some Fishman Fluences.
I had some Fluences in the tele actually. They're garbage. I couldn't get them out quickly enough. The cocked wah, overly compressed 80s sound isn't something I enjoy and honestly there's pickups that do the same thing for about 1/10 the cost.
I also really like EMG 81/85s, which get a tonne of hate these days, so I suspect I would have liked your Tele with them in.
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by NippleWrestler »

Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:41 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:38 am
Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:36 am

Don't bother, it's total click bait and even though he's done his best to hide the differences with each pickup with an awful, overly saturated tone no-one would actually record with, I can still clearly hear that they don't all sound the same.

My take from it is I need some Fishman Fluences.
I had some Fluences in the tele actually. They're garbage. I couldn't get them out quickly enough. The cocked wah, overly compressed 80s sound isn't something I enjoy and honestly there's pickups that do the same thing for about 1/10 the cost.
I also really like EMG 81/85s, which get a tonne of hate these days, so I suspect I would have liked your Tele with them in.
They're quite different. I have another guitar with EMG 81/60 in there. They're bright and tight, legendary for a reason, the Fishmans (the open core models) were just bleh. As subjective as it is I'm totally not a fan.

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by Danger Mouse »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:43 am
Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:41 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:38 am

I had some Fluences in the tele actually. They're garbage. I couldn't get them out quickly enough. The cocked wah, overly compressed 80s sound isn't something I enjoy and honestly there's pickups that do the same thing for about 1/10 the cost.
I also really like EMG 81/85s, which get a tonne of hate these days, so I suspect I would have liked your Tele with them in.
They're quite different. I have another guitar with EMG 81/60 in there. They're bright and tight, legendary for a reason, the Fishmans (the open core models) were just bleh. As subjective as it is I'm totally not a fan.

Fair enough, I am wasting far too much money on coffee making nonsense to really consider Fishmans anyway. When you described them it did make me immediately think "oooh Exhorder The Law tone!!!" though. Such a ridiculous guitar tone.

The older I get, the more disappointed in myself I become.

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by NippleWrestler »

That's zero mids :) The Open Cores sound like they have a hump at around 1.5k or so.

You can hear it here, where admittedly it sounds much better in context, but it's that sort of chung chung chung sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoOqlhC-l4

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by Danger Mouse »

NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:57 am That's zero mids :) The Open Cores sound like they have a hump at around 1.5k or so.

You can hear it here, where admittedly it sounds much better in context, but it's that sort of chung chung chung sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoOqlhC-l4
I got pretty close to that Exhorder tone with a 5150 block letter and a cocked wah, but I'm a metalhead of the 80's and early 90's so I have no idea what mids are :lol:

Apart from the fact you made me listen to Trivium, I really like that guitar tone and by the sounds for the reasons you don't. I also note that this discussion is effectively disproving Glenn's video.
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by jeremyb »

Cutting edge high gain toan:

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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by jeremyb »

Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 10:06 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:57 am That's zero mids :) The Open Cores sound like they have a hump at around 1.5k or so.

You can hear it here, where admittedly it sounds much better in context, but it's that sort of chung chung chung sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoOqlhC-l4
I got pretty close to that Exhorder tone with a 5150 block letter and a cocked wah, but I'm a metalhead of the 80's and early 90's so I have no idea what mids are :lol:

Apart from the fact you made me listen to Trivium, I really like that guitar tone and by the sounds for the reasons you don't. I also note that this discussion is effectively disproving Glenn's video.
Next you'll be telling us that dimebag had great toan!
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Re: Do pickups matter for high gain tone?

Post by Danger Mouse »

jeremyb wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 10:19 am
Danger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 10:06 am
NippleWrestler wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:57 am That's zero mids :) The Open Cores sound like they have a hump at around 1.5k or so.

You can hear it here, where admittedly it sounds much better in context, but it's that sort of chung chung chung sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMoOqlhC-l4
I got pretty close to that Exhorder tone with a 5150 block letter and a cocked wah, but I'm a metalhead of the 80's and early 90's so I have no idea what mids are :lol:

Apart from the fact you made me listen to Trivium, I really like that guitar tone and by the sounds for the reasons you don't. I also note that this discussion is effectively disproving Glenn's video.
Next you'll be telling us that dimebag had great toan!
Oh I think he had awesome tone. Not because it's the best tone ever, but it has a pick attack and "chunk" to it that didn't exist back in the CFH and VDoP days with the typical amps used for metal then. The 5150 had yet to set the new benchmark for modern high gain at that point.
The older I get, the more disappointed in myself I become.

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