I couldn’t possibly, I am not affected by the Swimmer’s Body Illusion. I use what sounds good to me, not what someone tells me to use.
I don’t really know most of those people. But it’s still irrelevant.
Not until you try Lollar or Bare Knuckle. I mean without preconceived notions or being determined to not like them out of spite.
Look, I'll try to explain once more, since you clearly seem to be barking up the wrong tree here.
I'm not saying I got a bad case of 'I wanna play what rockstar x or y plays', as I'm actually not too fond of signature stuff.
My point with regards to the Lollar pickups is 3-fold:
1) I play a certain type of music mainly, where you hardly ever see Lollars or Fralins recommended, but plenty of Duncans, DiMarzios, EMG's (I did a stint with actives, it wasn't for me) and nowadays BKP.
I play 70's/80's rock and metal mostly, not shoegaze, indierock or derivative dime-a-dozen blues or modern *shudder* country.
2) It's not about Swimmer's Body Illusion. I use what sounds good to me and I don't play what others tell me either.
My point is, I would think that plenty A-list (rock) guitar players are tone-chasers; they're always looking for that few % more.
Riddle me this, why do they 'settle' for a 4-5 *steps* lower, 'inferior' DiMarzio then?
It's not like Mr. Vai and Mr. Smith lack funds to try some shit or even have a guitar tech to do all the grunt work for them, eh?
Ergo, they can't be (all) that bad.
3) Because pickup swapping is a lot of trial and error, even if you did your homework, it's less costly if you buy used. If it turns out it wasn't for you, sell it for roughly the same amount.
Aside from the significantly higher new-prices, because of their niche-quality, Lollars/Fralins and the like are not really often offered used.
("That's because they're so good, no one wants to sell 'em, blablabla".... Yawn.)
So, price and lack of recommendation for my musical styles combined, I'm not taking those chances. Unlike a large TGP-demographic, I'm not a lawyer, surgeon or financial guru who craves PRS, Klons and Dumbles.
So, no, I'm not obliged to you to try anything. And it's not that I think they're crap or anything, I never said that.
What I do take issue with, is you hawking these like the best thing since sliced bread in a topic, where the OP is clearly looking for something completely else.
Our buddy
@napalmdeath is looking for a tighter ToneZone, without Evo-levels brightness, and your solution would be a Lollar?!
Get real, read the room, read the music style prevalent on THIS forum and THEN come back to us.
Also, your comment "I dismissed DiMarzio because of 6 types that I tried."
Lemme tell ya this, if my only experience with Seymour Duncan pickups was:
SH-11 Custom Custom, A2Pro, Hot Rails, Full Shred, Jazz and Humbucker From Hell, I could've dismissed them as a company just as easily.
"Too spongy and weak, too dark and smooth, too wooly and loud, too screechy, too scooped & clinical and too single coily bright". And 4 of those 6 are my actual experiences!
But I have a lot more experience with them and found a few gems; the afore mentioned Cream colored Les Paul Custom, that actually at some point went from a JB/59n set (considered a classic pairing, right? Not for me) to a GFS Crunchy PAF and Vintage '59 PAF (a lot cheaper, but gave me something that those first Duncans couldn't....) now houses a Custom/59 Hybrid bridge and a Pearly Gates neck. Awesome match. Before the PGn, there was a Dimarzio 36th Anniv PAF neck in there, which is just as good, just a tad different and I wanted this guitar to become full-Duncan. Same for my ESP Horizon NT-II; went from stock JB/59n to Custom5 bridge and Screamin' Demon neck. Apparently my ear (and quality of homework) for that swap was so good, it also made the other guitar player of my band switch out the Sentient and Pegasus of his brand new E-II Horizon to the Custom5 and Screamin' Demon. Just sayin'.
So, as I mentioned before, we're not going to see eye-to-eye on this.
Bye now.