Cheapo pickups... I gave in.

[moltenmetalburn]

http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_029.htm

http://www.tonerider.com/

http://www.guitarfetish.com/




I have an american strat that was my first guitar. For the last five years or so it has been sitting totally stripped.

I wanted to get the guitar back in playable shape so i ordered some acrylic pick guards and hard are but didn't want to spend a ton on pickups, it will just be a practice guitar .

Enter the cheap Korean and Chinese pickups.

Korean: artec ( eBay) and gfs ( artec)

Chinese: iron gear and tone rider


There are many good reviews of the artec( gfs) but Couldn't find anything that said they were hand or scatter wound so i opted for the tone riders .

It seems the toner riders are made in china by an Englishman. The pickups are scatter wound by hand and use American magnets.

I decided that $78 for a full set was worth the risk for the practice axe.

I'll let you guys know what happens.

Anyone have any experience with the generators?


In the end i wound up ordering a tone rider generator set.

 

[racerevlon]

Dunno--I had a GFS telecaster pickup once and it sounded great...

 

[Mudder]

Scatterwound like saying a car company offers top notch muffler bearings. Voodoo.

 

[university81]

i have a set of irongears in an ibanez sz1220 ,

a P90 in a humbucker for the neck and a PAF Rolling Mill (non overwound) for the bridge, the bridge pickup is excellent in my opinion, nice rounded warm smooth tone that fits very well with the guitar

The p90 in the neck is decent, but I think it would really benefit from 250k pots for the neck to round it out some more, but compared to my other p90 guitar it's decent enough,

it's great value for money I think, and they're quite knowledgeable if you ask questions, the graphs on the irongear page + soundclips give a good idea of what to expect

The only problem with cheap pickups is that they're generally so cheap you'll be inclined to try em, but if you don't like them they'll be destined for the drawer, unlike the resell possibilities of more expensive named pickups (i say more expensive as price doesn't always reflect quality..), but i find more satisfaction through getting good tones out of cheap gear simply because the higher expectations aren't there

 

[racerevlon]

I love the P90 sound in the neck. I have an Epi LP that has an Anderson in the bridge and a Dimarzio Bluesbucker in the neck--sounds SO good...

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Can a p90 in the neck do metal type leads? How would it sound for clean also, I have never played one.

 

[CaseyCor]

I use some GFS pickups. Love them!

 

[headlessdeadguy]

I use some GFS pickups. Love them!

 

[killertone]

Can a p90 in the neck do metal type leads? How would it sound for clean also, I have never played one.

IMO, no. P90s are killer, but not really for hi gain. They shine in medium gain applications. I love P90s, I have a couple guitars out on tour that use them and they sound kickass through the '63 Bassman with the RC Booster on.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Can a p90 in the neck do metal type leads? How would it sound for clean also, I have never played one.

IMO, no. P90s are killer, but not really for hi gain. They shine in medium gain applications. I love P90s, I have a couple guitars out on tour that use them and they sound kickass through the '63 Bassman with the RC Booster on.

Thanks!