headlessdeadguy
Well-known member
I have a Dean Soltero with an Iron Man in the bridge and a Darkburst in the neck. Pretty particular to height adjustments but once I found the sweet spot. They sound amazing.
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braintheory
Well-known member
It sounds like your luck with vintage pickups has been similar with your luck in 5150’s reliability lol (never owned one myself, just have played tons of them). I have now well over 100 vintage pickups I’ve collected these last 3 years. Whenever I get a new pickup I always do my homework of comparing them to others in the same guitar (I use whichever one I like most as the benchmark) and sure there has been some variation, but nothing huge yet IME, besides 2 or 3 that sounded much better for whatever reason, but no duds yet. It’s been for me similar to the way vintage speakers of the same model can vary when I’ve AB’ed them. I’ve tried close to 20 PAF’s now (6 of which I compared in the exact same guitar, 3 of those I own now) and they all sounded very similar to me. To be fair they all were from the same guy (a good friend of mine that runs a store) and he really knows his stuff, so maybe he just got that many good ones, idk. I can believe the variety part a bit more with PAF’s even though I haven’t experienced it myselfIt's definitely true in my experience
I've played some really terrible vintage pickups - including an original 1959 PAF that sounded like complete shit, and multiple mighty mites and
Granted, yes the other two PAFs that i've played were amazing, and half of the dearmonds/bill lawrence have been good as well, but "inconsistency" isn't just a meme or marketing speak, it's the literal definition of "only half of them were amazing"
There are vintage pickups that I just plain don’t like, but that’s with all the examples I’ve tried of them and some pickups that weren’t functioning properly, so I returned them. With those Bill Lawrence’s and Mighty Mites I wonder if the ones you didn’t like were at all different versions/specs/years/eras (important details IME even if it sounds small). There are definitely versions of those I don’t like, but as long as you’re comparing exactly the same version I found them to be some of the most consistent vintage pickups IME, especially the ‘70’s L100, my overall favorite BL model. I bought 4 NOS versions of those and to me they all sound identical and I feel I’m fairly discerning lol
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braintheory
Well-known member
I agree the Darkburst was easily my favorite of their models for lower output and Iron Man for high output. They ended up being the 2 models I settled on and only the Darkburst neck like you. Everything in your experience is 110% the same I had. I just simply felt when I compared my favorite vintage pickups comparable to the Iron Man and Darkburst respectivel, for me they were in another league to the point that somehow they no longer had for me as much of that fun, dynamic thing or much character in comparison and they’re not more expensive either. As much as I used to love to death the Iron Man, my vintage Mighty Mite 1400’s, Schallers, Dirty Fingers and some Bill Lawrence’s made it sound really dry and a bit bland in comparison. Hard to believe but what I experienced in multiple guitars I compared the pickups in
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firejack
Well-known member
Mate I have to try one of these pickups you keep referencing. For me the Wagner's are that good that I can't believe I'd like anything else more than them. There is one other pickup by an Australian winder that has been comparable, but it was a little more hit-&-miss than the Wagners. Especially the Iron Man bridge. That pickup has always impressed me, no matter what guitar it's in.
Are the current Mighty Mite 1400's in the same league as the vintage ones? Don't know if I want to go barrelling down the rabbit hole of vintage pickup hunting.
tallcoolone
Well-known member
Yeah I dipped my toe into that and don’t want to go back. It’s wire around a magnet not some mystical voodoo. Also, none of us are looking for the same thing. I’m running Les Pauls into NMV amps turned up to edge of breakup with a clean boost in front playing 70s rock. @braintheory might be using a Mayones 8 string in drop G through a VH4
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braintheory
Well-known member
I haven't tried the current ones, but I've heard good things about them. It's possible that maybe there is something very specific in the Wagner's you like that you won't hear in these, but I don't hear that and sounds like we have similar preferences based on the Wagner's you liked
I don't think there's as much hunting as you might think. A '70's/'80's Mighty Mite 1400, '80's Schaller Blade, Hex Neck, Bill Lawrence L100, L90, 1st version 500L, 510L, and Dirty Fingers are all killer. I have multiples of all of them. If you were in the US or Canada I'd send you some to borrow and see what you think
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braintheory
Well-known member
I only own 6 string guitars and hate the sound of poly finish guitars and IME Mayones's to me sound like furniture with strings attached, but they do look very cool and play very nicely. I like a little bit of everything when it comes styles of music for gear I use. I also have a lot of NMV amps I use with clean boosts (including a Klon), some of which include a 1972 Marshall SuperLead 100 and 1969 Marshall Tremolo 50 (not gonna list all my amps, but it's a big variety)
The guitar I use most is a 1957 Les Paul Jr, but I have wide variety of guitars whether it be made of bodies all out of mahogany, maple, alder, ash, rosewood, spruce, Padauk, red cedar, aluminum, carbon fiber, bolt on, set, neck-thru, even unibody, all sorts of scale lengths. The point is I do my homework and any opinions I give comes from a place of comparing vs other pickups in the same exact guitar (in several guitars usually to be more sure)
I get it, pickups are simple and so it seems on paper like it shouldn't matter much, but use your ears and compare like I do and the results IME speak for themselves. It's a big difference (to me at least). If anything, for your style I would hear more difference in these pickups than in most styles of metal. I think some of this so called "mystical voodoo" comes from how on paper these simple things can't seem to be replicated now to sound as good (what some call really close doesn't cut it for me). Similar to also my favorite vintage speakers, amps, guitars, pedals, etc, for whatever reason IME they all have this more organic sound where it's like something that is more alive vs most newer stuff coming off to me kind of dead and lacking all those little extra details going on around the notes. And I was born way after this stuff came out. I'm not biased to like it, but I just do my side by side comparison and decide what I like. Some say the formvar wire or other components can't be made the same way now. I have no idea. I just go with my ears
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braintheory
Well-known member
Also, with '60's and early '70's DeArmonds (didn't see that before), yes, I actually haven't liked any of their pickups I have (a lot now). There are lots of vintage pickups I don't like, but didn't feel the need to mention them and it's been consistent which ones I haven't liked. They at least still have that raw/organic thing that just isn't in the cards for recent pickupsIt's definitely true in my experience
I've played some really terrible vintage pickups - including an original 1959 PAF that sounded like complete shit, and multiple mighty mites and
Granted, yes the other two PAFs that i've played were amazing, and half of the dearmonds/bill lawrence have been good as well, but "inconsistency" isn't just a meme or marketing speak, it's the literal definition of "only half of them were amazing"
With the vintage pickups I regularly mention IME they've been consistent and smoke my past favorites for recent made pickups. With Bill Lawrence it can be confusing since they made so many different models and versions of the same model name. A bunch I didn't love (maybe he was experimenting with some), but I only got more of the ones I did like and they've all been really good, especially the '70's L100's and a lot of the stacked ceramic singles (somehow way underrated and usually cheap). I have a few '70's prototype pickups of his that are quite cool
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LPMojoGL
Well-known member
I've had a set of Godwoods for a good while. Haven't had any Wolfetones, but would like to.
FWIW, the Godwoods are pretty great.
FWIW, the Godwoods are pretty great.
DanTravis62
Well-known member
The timbre wolf is a really good pickup as long as you don't have a lot of gain, but it is inferior to the Godwood for my personal style
The Wagner stuff is just vastly superior for high gain imo
It's really obvious under close micing especially
Bash_Man
Well-known member
"gets credit card ready".. LOL
DanTravis62
Well-known member
I would say, if you have a heavy right hand, grab an american steele set, or if you have a light touch, get something higher output like an ironman to put in the bridge
they are both fantastic pickups
tallcoolone
Well-known member
Fair enough—I’ll have to keep my eye out for some of those you mentioned. I have plenty of guitars I don’t pick up regularly that could use a little tweak
Bash_Man
Well-known member
I sort of go between heavy right hand and light touch right hand. Depends on the song/music.
I think the American Steele set is more likely what I'd go for.