Opinions on Arcane pickups

[braintheory]

I’ve been curious about Arcane pickups for a while and was wondering if anyone here can compare them to something like the Wolfetone or Motor City pickups? So far my favorite sets of humbuckers that I’ve tried have been the Wolfetone Marshallheads and Motor City Detroiters

 

[braintheory]

Best pickups ever made. I have them in almost everything.

Have you compared them at all to Motor City? Which humbucker models by them would you recommend for metal/hard rock? My favorite humbuckers so far are the Motor City Detroiters and Wolfetone Marshallheads, both of which are around 9k DC, so not that high output

 

[braintheory]

Wow sounds like I gotta try these out then. The Motor City's I've tried have already been quite tight and accurate. I'll ask Dave how the Phil X and Lynch compare? I'm also curious about the Bulldozer model

 

[Deleted member 17525]

Got 'em in my Trussart and they sound great.
Extremely warm sounding instrument.

 

[alan67]

So these are available? I heard that they stopped supplying their dealers....

 

[the4thlast1]

I tried contacting Arcane recently a few times to place an order, no response. I recieved a Arcane Lynch pickup in a trade a while back and think it's a good sounding pickup. I would have liked to try another model or tweaked version of that.

Anyway kinda off topic but since I couldn't get a hold of them I spent the money on trying the new Bare Knuckle Impulse pickup which I like a lot. So I guess things worked out lol

 

[mxr2000]

I get my own custom model
Made by Rob from Arcane.
But you could get pretty close with the Lynch pickups, or the hotter Phil X pickup.
We are all using the Alnico 8 magnets.

Mine are about 15k in the bridge.

I had some 2nd degree black belts and they were amazing but the Arcanes are just much more to my ears, the magnet and his skill as a winder are something really special.

Check out almost any of my YouTube vids, they are all Arcane loaded guitars.

I do like the 2nd degree black belts , but they are not as accurate and tight as the Arcanes.

He does make more vintage sounding pickups though if you want.
He has also gotten a lot better about getting pickups out fast, he was moving and he got backed up for a minute but he is on a roll now.

He does a lot of OEM stuff, he does all the pickups for Arcane, he makes Bogner Pickups, he does the Echopark guitars, a lot of really fantastic guitars are getting his pickups.

I do like Motor City too, and I can't say anything bad about them.

which humbucker model from Arcane is closer to a MCP 2nd degree black belt?

 

[BigBellyRocker]

I just got my Charvel guitar with an Arcane George Lynch pickup back from my luthier yesterday and so far I'm loving the pickup. I know you can still order the George Lynch model pickup from Mr. Scary guitar. His wife send me the pickup directly. This pickup has an A8 magnet with a DCR of 13.1K. This pickup has a lot of clarity and tight response. I also have a tungsten big block install on my Floyd Rose so I don't know if the combination of the Arcane pickup and the tungsten block provided the results mentioned above. I have installed a tungsten block on my other guitar and it does brighten up the tone and make the notes more snappier. I will likely try an Arcane Brownbucker next. I heard a few demos of this pickup and it does sound like the early EVH brown sound.

 

[BigBellyRocker]

I just got my Charvel guitar with an Arcane George Lynch pickup back from my luthier yesterday and so far I'm loving the pickup. I know you can still order the George Lynch model pickup from Mr. Scary guitar. His wife send me the pickup directly. This pickup has an A8 magnet with a DCR of 13.1K. This pickup has a lot of clarity and tight response. I also have a tungsten big block install on my Floyd Rose so I don't know if the combination of the Arcane pickup and the tungsten block provided the results mentioned above. I have installed a tungsten block on my other guitar and it does brighten up the tone and make the notes more snappier. I will likely try an Arcane Brownbucker next. I heard a few demos of this pickup and it does sound like the early EVH brown sound.

You should ask Rob at Arcane about the EVH pickup. Like the one that actually went in EVH's guitar, guess what...it was Alnico 8

We all know that the EVH tone came from his fingers and brain but for discussion sake I have never heard of an EVH type of pickup using an Alnico 8 magnet. The only info that I was able to find of the early EVH type of pickup are low output that uses an Alnico 2 magnet. Below are info of the EVH Frankenstein and SD Custom 78 pickup that I found on the internet.

Seymour Duncan '78 Model
Magnet: Fully Charged Alnico 2
Wire: Plain Enamel
DCR: ~ 9.0K

EVH Frankenstein
Magnet: Degaussed Alnico 2
Wire: Poly
DCR: ~ 14K

 

[alan67]

So these are available? I heard that they stopped supplying their dealers....

yea. they are. just send him an email : info@arcane-inc.com

Seems the4thlast1 tried that.....makes me wary

 

[Chubtone]

So these are available? I heard that they stopped supplying their dealers....

yea. they are. just send him an email : info@arcane-inc.com

Maybe he will respond to the email I sent him in November 2014 when I tried to place a 24 piece order or respond to one of the 4 or 5 follow-up emails I sent before finally giving up.

I really dug the Brownbucker for an EVH brown sound vibe but it turns out I like the Duncan '59/Custom Hybrid pickup for that sound even more.

 

[mdc1mdc11]

great pickups. Have a LuxxBucker in my Luxxtone Strat and a brownbucker in my EVH self-built. Extremely clear pickups, in a different league.

Between these in and my WCR's Darkburst I wonder if I could do any better?

 

[Deleted member 17525]

I emailed him a couple years ago, never heard from him.

 

[alan67]

Seems to be a common theme going on....

 

[charvelstrat81]

I just got my Charvel guitar with an Arcane George Lynch pickup back from my luthier yesterday and so far I'm loving the pickup. I know you can still order the George Lynch model pickup from Mr. Scary guitar. His wife send me the pickup directly. This pickup has an A8 magnet with a DCR of 13.1K. This pickup has a lot of clarity and tight response. I also have a tungsten big block install on my Floyd Rose so I don't know if the combination of the Arcane pickup and the tungsten block provided the results mentioned above. I have installed a tungsten block on my other guitar and it does brighten up the tone and make the notes more snappier. I will likely try an Arcane Brownbucker next. I heard a few demos of this pickup and it does sound like the early EVH brown sound.

You should ask Rob at Arcane about the EVH pickup. Like the one that actually went in EVH's guitar, guess what...it was Alnico 8

We all know that the EVH tone came from his fingers and brain but for discussion sake I have never heard of an EVH type of pickup using an Alnico 8 magnet. The only info that I was able to find of the early EVH type of pickup are low output that uses an Alnico 2 magnet. Below are info of the EVH Frankenstein and SD Custom 78 pickup that I found on the internet.

Seymour Duncan '78 Model
Magnet: Fully Charged Alnico 2
Wire: Plain Enamel
DCR: ~ 9.0K

EVH Frankenstein
Magnet: Degaussed Alnico 2
Wire: Poly
DCR: ~ 14K

eddie had A8's in the super 70's that were in his ibanez destroyer.
I have a duncan 59 custom shop with the A8 and it is very VH sounding.
A8 is the perfect magnet if you like both ceramic and alnico 5 and want BOTH in one magnet.
As for ARCANE his pu's are nothing short of OUTSTANDING!!!

 

[psychodave]

Seems to be a common theme going on....

Looks like. How do you pass on an order of 24? I guess the business isn't needed.

I was interested in these, but after reading this thread, not so much...

 

[charvelstrat81]

I like the Duncan '59/Custom Hybrid pickup for that sound even more.

I will have to re-visit that one! I built one way back before they were in production
and it was really VH sounding. like the A5 in mine for its percussive attsack and clarity but most go A2.

 

[Bronco]

I like the Duncan '59/Custom Hybrid pickup for that sound even more.

I will have to re-visit that one! I built one way back before they were in production
and it was really VH sounding. like the A5 in mine for its percussive attsack and clarity but most go A2.

I've yet to try the Custom hybrid, but the Arcane Brownbucker A2 is VHII and Fair Warning in spades; totally recommend it if that's what you're after.

 

[Chubtone]

I find pickups with A2 magnets to be a little loose and spongy in the lows which is perfect with some amps but when you are cranking an EL34 amp with it's inherent slightly loose and spongy character, the A2 is too much of a good thing. With 6L6 or 6550's etc the A2 is probably perfect.

The thing I like about the '59/Custom Hybrid is that it has just that little bit more drive that I was always looking for with low 8k PAF style output or the Brownbucker and Duncan '78 with the high 8k range output. I was always looking for that 5%-10% more. When I finally put a '59/Custom Hybrid in and plugged into a cranked Super Lead, I immediately thought "Hmmm, maybe Eddie's Marshall WAS stock".

 

[mdc1mdc11]

I find pickups with A2 magnets to be a little loose and spongy in the lows which is perfect with some amps but when you are cranking an EL34 amp with it's inherent slightly loose and spongy character, the A2 is too much of a good thing. With 6L6 or 6550's etc the A2 is probably perfect.

The thing I like about the '59/Custom Hybrid is that it has just that little bit more drive that I was always looking for with low 8k PAF style output or the Brownbucker and Duncan '78 with the high 8k range output. I was always looking for that 5%-10% more. When I finally put a '59/Custom Hybrid in and plugged into a cranked Super Lead, I immediately thought "Hmmm, maybe Eddie's Marshall WAS stock".

I just remembered I bought my Arcane Brownbucker from you several years back....and you cannot source them? ugh..thats bad.