Agreed . I thought the Fleor A5 sounded better than the Jazz in the neck for sure. I'm just watching on a laptop but any difference at all could be remedied by a slight turn of the knob on the amp. I'm not a super high gain person but I think Fleor products are a really good option. Even though they are probably made in the exact same factory as all inexpensive parts. Lol.
These pickups beat the sh&$ out of my stock epiphone pickups in my explorer which was $1200NZD I’m really pleased (FLEOR). Makes me wonder if guitar companies use fridge magnets to make pickups when a $20 pickup can make such a nice sound than the latter
Undoubtedly the seymour duncan pickups sound very good but the Fleor pickups are also very good and I believe that for beginners and cheap guitars in general are good options and very good for their price, I have a Fleor pickup and I really liked it
Thanks for posting this. . .4 years ago. haha Fleors have just come on my radar recently and was on the fence given the price. I have an ESP EC-256 that I got recently that I'm now gonna throw a pair of these in. Your video helped me decide to give it a go. ;)
Cheap pickups can sound amazing. For example, I own some First Act humbuckers that came with $75 guitars that sound AMAZING. They are high output, articulate, and sound great with high gain.
Thank you so much for posing this video. I am planning to "upgrade" couple of my cheap guitars with Fleor Alneco. I am sure I wont regret this. I will definitely leave a comment on how it goes.
Nothing against Duncan, DiMarzio or Bareknuckle but they are way overpriced for what you get. Most professional players I've known, contrary to the mythology of pickup companies, do NOT obsess over pickups. If anything, they spend way more time with their amps, speakers and mic placement. Great demo.
I agree that if this was a blind test or just no test at all and you were just using the Fleors nobody would be able to tell a difference. Pickups sound different in different guitars and the two pickups sound identical especially in this situation. If I ever need a pickup again I'll go with Fleors. And all my guitars have very nice pickups in them. All name brand and selected especially for the guitar they went in.
There is a difference in what I could not understand. I think fleor is the best pickup. i bought fleor too but i haven't tried it yet. Thanks for video.
If it sounds good, it IS good! Guitar pickups are a fairly simple technology, so in the late-2010s/early -2020s it's not too surprising that you can get decent pickups on the cheap. I imagine too that at least a few of these China-based brands like Fleor, Guyker, Oripure, or Yibuy (there are so many haha) are OEMs for some of the more established brands. To me, it sounded like that Fleor rail humbucker sounded a bit harsher in the upper-mids compared to the SD, and also had slightly less "punch" in the low end (honestly that might be more of a personal preference thing). I've found from my own experience playing around with cheap pickups, especially ceramic-based humbuckers, it's the elevated harshness that you'll notice the most. For some amps/tones, the impact is marginal, but for others the effect could be more substantial - YMMV. I also found that it was usually a little bit more difficult to shape the tone (via EQ or tone controls), in that I was generally able to get a satisfying metal tone with a good SD pretty quickly, but the cheap pickups required more fiddling to get sounding right. I may just be kinda picky though haha, it's pretty amazing that you can get decent pickups for so cheap these days.
This is very informative, and if your cheap pickups feedback, pull them out, heat some wax, dip them once for about 15 seconds to let the wax flow in, let them drip dry, and if that doesn't solve it, they're trash. If that solves it, then they're good pickups that just weren't potted. in the case of Fleors, I don't recall anybody that has them having feedback issues, and I think they're potted. Plus, their sound is great, especially for 15 dollars (less now, they're 11-12$ on ebay) and the fact that they even compare at all to a set of duncans that's quite a bit more expensive should tell you that they're a good deal, and very good pickups indeed. There's pickups that cost the same as a seymore jazz or sd and are trash in comparison, so keep that in mind... People focus too much on price tags as if that's the only qualifier for quality and good tone. Do they sound good? Do they work well in a live performance? Do they do well in the studio? If the answer is yes, then price is irrelevant, and in actual fact, the higher price starts to look like a bad investment if 15 bucks gets you the tone and functionality you want. The wallet is not always a judge of quality.
This exactly! People get so hung up on the 'name' of the brand that they ignore the price:performance ratio. These sound almost identical to the Duncan's for sub $30 vs the genuine Seymour Duncan's for $160. As a consumer, you must ask yourself. Is that tiny difference in tone worth an extra $130? That $130 can be better spent on a new pedal, new cables, a years worth of strings, put toward that dream amp, etc. Another point some might consider is the inherent design pro's of a hot rail over a poll pickup. (*Disclaimer* I'm a bedroom jammer so have no direct real world experience with this. Only anecdotal stories from other guitarists and things said by other youtubers.) When bending a string; You move the string off center of the poll piece reducing the magnetic output of the note (volume). More noticeable at the neck position. But with a hot rail. The poll runs the entire length of the string's field of motion. Meaning your always in the magnetic 'sweet spot'. It's not really something you would hear in a live venue but in a controlled studio recording setting. It would also explain why some people claim (again, anecdotal) that hot rails make those screaming pinch harmonics and bends easier or more expressive. Just my $0.02. It's an excellent video comparing the three. These are now in the running for my mod project Ibanez.
@@cheezmonta I completely agree. Your amp, cab and pedals have a far greater impact on your tone than pickups. And pickups can get expensive. Save that money towards a new pedal or save it up for your "dream amp". Thanks for commenting.
That’s the thing about reviews. How many of them play in a band with high gain. Vs bedroom level. I’ve had the experience of bringing a guitar on stage that sounded great at home. But it didn’t work live Ike’s. It was some amazon no name specials I bought because of a UA-camr. It just needed a dip in wax and it was ok after that.
@@rokinrandy thanks for commenting. You bring up a good point. I think it's a great idea to test out your guitars at rehearsal before a show. I always do a set up a week or two before a show and bring the guitar to practice at least once. That way, if there's any issues, I experience them in the jam room rather than on the stage.
Hey Mike, good video! Yeah the Fleor pickups I think are a good bargain for people who don't have good stock pickups in their guitar and want to experiment with swapping pickups for the first time, in that regard they are an "upgrade" of sorts. You could definitely hear that the Duncans had a bit more character and definition to them in the mids, and a little less harsh in the highs. Good job with the comparison test, take care dude!
Larry? Thanks for watching and commenting! Yes, I agree with what you said. These are great pickups for the price. Perfect for experimentation of all sorts.
I just bought a pair of the High Output double coils for that very reason. i have a set of the Seymor Duncan hot rodded to go into an Epiphone SG Special, but its been so long since i've soldered i figured this would be a great trial run. I'll be building a 2V 2T SG kit soon so will prolly use the Fleor to replace the pups that come with it and try a push pull setup. or the other way around lol.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I was told about these pickups from a buddy of mine. He plays lead for band I toured with called VINTERSEA. Just got the fleor hot rail in today and can't wait to check them out. If you make another video could you possibly do an installation one? Sometimes the fleor's don't come with instructions so that would help out greatly.
great comparison , the difference is barely noticeable for me listening that with good headphones. The price of duncan pups are 110-120$ each in europe these days , that makes me want to consider the Fleors.
That's a lot of money for plastic, copper wires and magnets! I also recommend Dragonfire pickups. I own a set of Screamers and Crusaders. Great sounding pickups at half the price of Duncans. Also, and you're not supposed to say this, but the Duncan Designed HB103 is actually a great pickup. I did a shoot out of the HB103 against the JB and Duncan Distortion and the HB103 was kind of my favorite. Had more high end definition than the JB, but not quite as much as the Distortion. It was in the sweet spot.
Very well done, Mike, thanks! Just bought an $80 P bass that's really incredible for that price... Swapped the so-so stock pickups with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds but ordered Fleor ceramic PUs just out of curiosity. Not quite impossible that I resell the Quarter Pounds on ebay shortly and buy lighter machine heads instead, to correct the slight neck dive -- that you never find on expensive guitars, as you're well aware... ;) . My total investment would be around $150. Not too bad for a bass that you really dig... Oh ! I forgot the strings... +$49... :)
Tone is in the guitar cables (jk) I honestly couldn’t tell the difference which either means UA-cam compression ruins any comparison or the Fleors are really just that good.
Thanks for the review. Very well done. I have yet to see, & hear a video that these pickups don't sound amazing in, yet, I can't get ANY, decent sounds out of mine. Sadly, the First Act, stock pickups sounded better than the fleors. Maybe I just got a bum set.
Duncan Distortion and Jazz for metal.. I would prefer the Nazgul and Sentient kit for metal. The Sentient in the neck combined with the Nazgul in the bridge is in my opinion one of the best combinations that Seymour Duncan has. I also love combining a Dimarzio Super Distortion with some kind of PAF humbucker in the Neck. Wow, these Fleor pickups did not differ much at all compared to the Duncans you get a lot of pickups for the money. Weird how they can sound so similar for that cheap, It just goes to show that pickups are not that important, amp/plugins, effects and if the neck on the guitar is good is more important. You can get great guitar pickups for 10-20 dollars lol :)
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I've used Fleor's alnico5 and ceramic already. Ceramic little better (have more mid range and low hum noise). I think for price Fleors are great pups and their problems are low Mid-frequency which is necessary in metal. If you use it you need from amp (or from EQ) boosting mids.
Great comparison. I'll have to look into the FLEOR pups. About a year or so ago, I ordered a set of Kmise Zebras, and installed them into a Firefly FFLP. They sounded perfectly horrific. They were super tinny, had hardly any mids or bass, and were ultra twangy. I pulled them back out and quite literally threw them away. That guitar now has the Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom (B) / SH-1n '59 (N) combo, and sounds great. I have another FFLP that I want to experiment with, so I'll surely try out the FLEORs. Thanks!
I bought a set of Kmise Invader clones from Amazon, I think. I was selling a guitar that had Duncan's and I wanted to keep them, hence the cheap pickups. I remember thinking they sounded fine, but this was before I started doing videos.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I didn't change the cheap pots and input jack out until I installed the SD's. Once the SD's went in, I put in CTS 500k (.047 drop caps) pots, and a pure tone full contact jack. That was probably a big part of the problem. The SD's sound great in the high and low ranges, but leave somewhat to be desired in the mids. (I play metal/djent.) I want to experiment with the other guitar as this one has been fully built/set up from the ground up and I don't want to alter it.
@@ragingskeptic9753 yeah, that could be it. I'm sure the QC at Kmise is not the same as Seymour Duncan! That's one of the cons of cheap pickups. Inconsistent.
I used fleor pickups on all my guitars and they are briter so if you wanted them more warner the you can use more bass on your tone nob so for the low price I'll stick to the feour for the price
the biggest difference is the low end, Distortions are alittle fatter in the low end, the fleor is alittle cut in the bass and slightly, just very slightly harsher in the highs. I cant tell the mids though
Right on! I agree with you on the high end. I'd have to listen again to the low end, but overall they're pretty similar sounding, and if I tweaked my amp a little I'm sure I could get them to sound indistinguishable.
Great comparison video dude. I got a set of fleor high output ones but I don't know what I'm doing wrong they are very quiet like they have very low output. Perhaps my wiring was wrong. What wiring diagram did you use and most importantly are the wire colors of Fleor the same as SD?
Thanks for the compliment and great question. I wired mine with black as the hot, green and silver were soldered together and grounded and red and white were soldered and taped. I believe it's the same as SD. Could also be one of your pots are bad, or the input jack has a bad solder joint or your cable could be shot. Good luck!
I have no experience with their bass pickups. Based on their guitar pickups, I'd imagine they're pretty good. And for the price, you might as well try and see!
The link to the bridge goes to FLEOR High Output Pickup Dual Hot Rail Humbucker Pickups Ceramic Electric Guitar Pickup Humbucker, Black. Is the pickup black and silver?
The Fleor compare better to the X2N. They do have more output, or more crunch to them. More hair if you will. Other thing of note, yes, they would be an upgrade of standard pickups on low end guitars. Think ESP M-17(or 117, I forget). Those pickups were muddy mush. I do have the DiMarzio distortion pickup in the bridge of my RG6003, yes, it is clearer, but, I am seriously considering the Dragonfire Crusaders. I am looking more for a pickup set like that, or like the Nazguls.
I guess rail to rail would make more sense. I was thinking high output-ceramic to high output-ceramic. I do love the X2N. Maybe I should compare the two. Thanks for the suggestion.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 Maybe it was your signal chain, or just the way it sounds, but I could hear the similarities with Chuck Schuldiner's on the Symbolic album. It wouldn't have been a stretch to hear ya break out into Crystal Mountain at all.
hi! awesome video! well done!! im about to install 2 fleor humbackers and a single (all alnico 5) for my 1st cheap ibanez knockoff. its my first time modding so, if its not too much to ask, to tell me the wirring cable collors (are the same as seymour Duncan for example) so that i dont screw up! thanks in advance and take care!!
Hey bud, thanks for the compliments! You made a smart move, buy some cheap pickups and learn how to wire! Very smart. I have mine wired like this: black=hot, green and silver=ground, red and white=soldered and taped together. I have never done any coil-tapping. Hope that helps!
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 wow!! thank you so much for the quick response!!! much appreciated!! ill do coil tapping/splitting (i dont know XD), with 2 push pull pots (aka tone & volume). your info helped SO much. the wire colors are the same as seymour dunkan's! i'll do it tomorrow!!! and again thank you so much for your help!!!
It's wire wrapped around magnets. It's not rocket science. So one company, say Seymour Duncan for example, has mastered the art of operating a CNC winding machine while others are left scratching their heads?
The Duncans are generally fuller and more balanced. The real question is how they both handle being driven at high volume. Thats where 'expensive' pickups usually stand out.
Interesting. I've heard someone say the opposite, that at high volumes the differences become more negligible. Not my opinion, just something I heard. Thanks for commenting.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I can certainly accept that it my be my imagination. My perception is that higher end pickups tend to have more integrity and maintain their sound profile better, where lower end pickups tend to develop more bite in the highs and mids, at higher volume. It would be interesting for someone to test this.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I just worked over a friend's mid 80s Olympic strat, as a bday gift and swapped his 8k generic humbucker and single, with this Fleor bucker and a Musiclily 'hotrail' single. He was thoroughly blown away.
Yes I put one in a GRX70QA and it sounded very good and beat the shit out of the stock pups. You have to know that you use Seymour Duncan wiring guides as they are color coded exactly the same as Duncan's are.
Have installed fleor zebra humbucker pups with split coil. It sound amazing for both Neck and Bridge in clean or distortion, great articulation n clarity, tend to modern/highend tone. Next project, Maybe i need to install cover pups to get a bit vintage sound and increase low-mid freq. For split i only like the neck split, my suggestion buy a new strat for a better single coil sound dont ever trust any split coil LOL 😂
I'm not totally sure, but browsing around on Amazon, I found a few 7-8 k neck humbuckers. There's other brands too, which are probably the same as the Fleor's.
@@brCharlieNagy I bought a strat set and p90 pickup of this brand, I liked the material quality and sound so much that now I bought humbucker set. I also recommend oripure's pickups. This is even better than fleor.
Neck pickup sounded not so good compared to Jazz , a little to high in volume which made it sound sloppy kinda , I put them in my neck positions and Trembucker JB 4s , think I will invest in the good pickups after hearing that , thanks
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 wow! You see, I love single coils exactly because of those beautiful cleans, and everything now has enough gain to compensate for their low output. Really impressed
@@CamiloPefaur my pleasure to help. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you if the wiring was series or parallel, I honestly don't know. I just wire them up according to the diagram.
In my opinion ,after 30 years playing guitar, when between your pick up and the speaker there are 100 things deforming and denaturing your sound : effects, distortions etc. there is almost no difference between $ 20 and $ 100 pick up with the same alnico and output ,unless you have the ultrasonic hearing of a dog. IMO the demos should be with an amplifier in clean channel to hear moore differences . With distorsion you hear a little bit darker a little bit bright etc anything else. I have brand pick ups , fleor and others, some times I preffer no brand picks and Sometimes brand pick ups. Fleor sound good. Sorry for my english. I appreciate your effort
Thanks for commenting. I agree, with a Tubescreamer plus a distorted head, you're not going to hear much difference. But that's kind of the point for those of us who play metal. In a clean channel with no pedals you would hear more difference. You are right.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 That's good news. One other question, I have a guitar arriving it's a cheap import randy rhoads js32t so do you think the Fleors will be a good upgrade from the stock pickups? btw thanks been watching your other vids as well
@@Dustin_John I don't think that will be necessary. My experience with Jackson stock pickups has been good. Especially with their newer pickups, which I find have better output and clarity than in the past. But, you never know until you have it in your hands. The Fleor's are incredibly cheap, so even if you buy them and don't notice a difference, then you won't be out a lot of money. Thanks for the support!
I have no experience with the Wilkinson pickups. Have you seen any UA-cam videos? I do recall a Darell Braun video in which he compared the Fleor Alnico 5 to the JB and there wasn't a huge difference. If you're playing metal with a high gain amp and an overdrive pedal, then pickups matter less than a lot of people think they do. Just my experience.
I always wonder how companies like Seymour Duncan can differentiate their pickups from some Chinese company with access to the same wire and magnets? I know SD has to be scared to death that guitarists will figure out there is no real difference. I keep buying SD pickups because they are easy to sell and get much of your money back so I'm hoping they stay expensive and popular. I actually think that anyone that says that they don't like the cheap pickups because they think they hear a difference are hearing things that aren't there. In a blind sound test they wouldn't know which was the SD pickup and which was the Amazon pickup.
You should trick people in a video and say you're comparing Fleor with SD but instead just play samples of one or the other and see if people figure it out. They'll say "well, the Duncan sounded better than the Fleor, it was more creamy and not buttery in the mids but more fluffy in the lows". Hahahaha!
What I notice with some of the cheaper pickups out there is there not wax potted they tend to feedback I have these rail pickups and have in some of my Jackson guitars the stock Jackson pickups under high gain they feedback you gotta run a noisegate pedal like the boss ns2 or the decimator
Someone else did a video where he changed the pickups out of white Ibanez guitar and replaced them with Dragonfire hexbuckers and he had the same problem with feedback
@@jasonjones2769 It's like mandatory in metal music to have a noise gate or noise supressor... trust me man I can't stand when I see a band and their amp is fucking humming. And for reference I have about 200 shows under my belt
On a blind test and in a mix nobody can really tell a difference. Whoever says otherwise, I don't beleive him. Now, there is something what puzzels me. If the 15$ Fleor sounds identical like more than 100$ SD who normal will buy a SD?
Yeah, that's the biggest secret of the guitar industry= It's the amp that makes the difference soundwise. The othr factors; fret-treatment, finish, string height are all player specific stuff.
Distorted, I couldn't really tell. But clean, I actually preferred the Fleor a little.
Agreed . I thought the Fleor A5 sounded better than the Jazz in the neck for sure. I'm just watching on a laptop but any difference at all could be remedied by a slight turn of the knob on the amp. I'm not a super high gain person but I think Fleor products are a really good option. Even though they are probably made in the exact same factory as all inexpensive parts. Lol.
The Fleors are really good for the price
Agreed!
Woah nice seeing you here Dylan!
Sd distortion win...but fleor pickup
Price good..!
Yeah a good change for cheap guitars
Hardly noticed the difference. Once you´re in a concert, after the second song you won´t notice the difference. I´ll save 50$ and still sound well.
I have used and still use Fleor pickups in some of my guitars. I wouldn't shy away from suggesting these solid alternatives to "name-brand".
I have Duncans and Fleors as well and I'm done spending $180-$200 on Duncans. Fleor actually are an excellent value.
Completely agree!
*Don't go on, Duncan's people must be vomiting bile hahahahaha.*
These pickups beat the sh&$ out of my stock epiphone pickups in my explorer which was $1200NZD I’m really pleased (FLEOR). Makes me wonder if guitar companies use fridge magnets to make pickups when a $20 pickup can make such a nice sound than the latter
Undoubtedly the seymour duncan pickups sound very good but the Fleor pickups are also very good and I believe that for beginners and cheap guitars in general are good options and very good for their price, I have a Fleor pickup and I really liked it
I prefer the Fleor over the Jazz. And SD Distortion is pretty much the same in a mix context, so yeah, cheaper wins
if you just played the audio and didn't say you were A/B testing, nobody would even know you were using different pickups. They sound almost identical
Thanks for posting this. . .4 years ago. haha
Fleors have just come on my radar recently and was on the fence given the price. I have an ESP EC-256 that I got recently that I'm now gonna throw a pair of these in. Your video helped me decide to give it a go. ;)
Good choice. Let us know how it goes!
Low price and high quality, bought 3 sets and not disappointed.
Cheap pickups can sound amazing. For example, I own some First Act humbuckers that came with $75 guitars that sound AMAZING. They are high output, articulate, and sound great with high gain.
Thank you so much for posing this video. I am planning to "upgrade" couple of my cheap guitars with Fleor Alneco. I am sure I wont regret this. I will definitely leave a comment on how it goes.
Please do. Good luck!
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 i hope he is fine. A year has passed
@@drumzhumanizer5719 ha! Yeah...
Nothing against Duncan, DiMarzio or Bareknuckle but they are way overpriced for what you get. Most professional players I've known, contrary to the mythology of pickup companies, do NOT obsess over pickups. If anything, they spend way more time with their amps, speakers and mic placement. Great demo.
Just got a Single and a Humbucker from them, they're incredible good
That's awesome!
I agree that if this was a blind test or just no test at all and you were just using the Fleors nobody would be able to tell a difference. Pickups sound different in different guitars and the two pickups sound identical especially in this situation. If I ever need a pickup again I'll go with Fleors. And all my guitars have very nice pickups in them. All name brand and selected especially for the guitar they went in.
Damn, clean I like the cheap pickups better.
Pricewise, I was willing to try them. Now I'm sold
There is a difference in what I could not understand. I think fleor is the best pickup.
i bought fleor too but i haven't tried it yet.
Thanks for video.
Thanks for commenting!
If it sounds good, it IS good! Guitar pickups are a fairly simple technology, so in the late-2010s/early -2020s it's not too surprising that you can get decent pickups on the cheap. I imagine too that at least a few of these China-based brands like Fleor, Guyker, Oripure, or Yibuy (there are so many haha) are OEMs for some of the more established brands.
To me, it sounded like that Fleor rail humbucker sounded a bit harsher in the upper-mids compared to the SD, and also had slightly less "punch" in the low end (honestly that might be more of a personal preference thing). I've found from my own experience playing around with cheap pickups, especially ceramic-based humbuckers, it's the elevated harshness that you'll notice the most. For some amps/tones, the impact is marginal, but for others the effect could be more substantial - YMMV. I also found that it was usually a little bit more difficult to shape the tone (via EQ or tone controls), in that I was generally able to get a satisfying metal tone with a good SD pretty quickly, but the cheap pickups required more fiddling to get sounding right. I may just be kinda picky though haha, it's pretty amazing that you can get decent pickups for so cheap these days.
LOL!
This is very informative, and if your cheap pickups feedback, pull them out, heat some wax, dip them once for about 15 seconds to let the wax flow in, let them drip dry, and if that doesn't solve it, they're trash. If that solves it, then they're good pickups that just weren't potted. in the case of Fleors, I don't recall anybody that has them having feedback issues, and I think they're potted. Plus, their sound is great, especially for 15 dollars (less now, they're 11-12$ on ebay) and the fact that they even compare at all to a set of duncans that's quite a bit more expensive should tell you that they're a good deal, and very good pickups indeed. There's pickups that cost the same as a seymore jazz or sd and are trash in comparison, so keep that in mind... People focus too much on price tags as if that's the only qualifier for quality and good tone. Do they sound good? Do they work well in a live performance? Do they do well in the studio? If the answer is yes, then price is irrelevant, and in actual fact, the higher price starts to look like a bad investment if 15 bucks gets you the tone and functionality you want. The wallet is not always a judge of quality.
That's a very practical point of view. Thanks for commenting.
This exactly!
People get so hung up on the 'name' of the brand that they ignore the price:performance ratio.
These sound almost identical to the Duncan's for sub $30 vs the genuine Seymour Duncan's for $160.
As a consumer, you must ask yourself. Is that tiny difference in tone worth an extra $130?
That $130 can be better spent on a new pedal, new cables, a years worth of strings, put toward that dream amp, etc.
Another point some might consider is the inherent design pro's of a hot rail over a poll pickup.
(*Disclaimer* I'm a bedroom jammer so have no direct real world experience with this. Only anecdotal stories from other guitarists and things said by other youtubers.)
When bending a string; You move the string off center of the poll piece reducing the magnetic output of the note (volume). More noticeable at the neck position. But with a hot rail. The poll runs the entire length of the string's field of motion. Meaning your always in the magnetic 'sweet spot'.
It's not really something you would hear in a live venue but in a controlled studio recording setting. It would also explain why some people claim (again, anecdotal) that hot rails make those screaming pinch harmonics and bends easier or more expressive.
Just my $0.02. It's an excellent video comparing the three. These are now in the running for my mod project Ibanez.
@@cheezmonta I completely agree. Your amp, cab and pedals have a far greater impact on your tone than pickups. And pickups can get expensive. Save that money towards a new pedal or save it up for your "dream amp". Thanks for commenting.
That’s the thing about reviews. How many of them play in a band with high gain. Vs bedroom level. I’ve had the experience of bringing a guitar on stage that sounded great at home. But it didn’t work live Ike’s. It was some amazon no name specials I bought because of a UA-camr. It just needed a dip in wax and it was ok after that.
@@rokinrandy thanks for commenting. You bring up a good point. I think it's a great idea to test out your guitars at rehearsal before a show. I always do a set up a week or two before a show and bring the guitar to practice at least once. That way, if there's any issues, I experience them in the jam room rather than on the stage.
Great video, dude
Im looking for a humbucker for my strato and this was really helpful thank you!
My pleasure. Glad I could help. Thanks for commenting.
I think Im gonna get one of these guys to put into the bridge of my Chinese Strat, Thanks for the video!!
Great idea!
Hey Mike, good video! Yeah the Fleor pickups I think are a good bargain for people who don't have good stock pickups in their guitar and want to experiment with swapping pickups for the first time, in that regard they are an "upgrade" of sorts. You could definitely hear that the Duncans had a bit more character and definition to them in the mids, and a little less harsh in the highs. Good job with the comparison test, take care dude!
Larry? Thanks for watching and commenting! Yes, I agree with what you said. These are great pickups for the price. Perfect for experimentation of all sorts.
I just bought a pair of the High Output double coils for that very reason. i have a set of the Seymor Duncan hot rodded to go into an Epiphone SG Special, but its been so long since i've soldered i figured this would be a great trial run.
I'll be building a 2V 2T SG kit soon so will prolly use the Fleor to replace the pups that come with it and try a push pull setup. or the other way around lol.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I was told about these pickups from a buddy of mine. He plays lead for band I toured with called VINTERSEA. Just got the fleor hot rail in today and can't wait to check them out. If you make another video could you possibly do an installation one? Sometimes the fleor's don't come with instructions so that would help out greatly.
@@zephyr_924 thanks for the suggestion. I'm not totally sure, but I think I wired them using the Seymour Duncan scheme.
Damn... I'm going to have to take a look at these!
Very well made! The fleor sound great!
Thanks brother! I thought so too!
great comparison , the difference is barely noticeable for me listening that with good headphones. The price of duncan pups are 110-120$ each in europe these days , that makes me want to consider the Fleors.
That's a lot of money for plastic, copper wires and magnets! I also recommend Dragonfire pickups. I own a set of Screamers and Crusaders. Great sounding pickups at half the price of Duncans. Also, and you're not supposed to say this, but the Duncan Designed HB103 is actually a great pickup. I did a shoot out of the HB103 against the JB and Duncan Distortion and the HB103 was kind of my favorite. Had more high end definition than the JB, but not quite as much as the Distortion. It was in the sweet spot.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 thanks for tip Mike , i 'll have a look to the drogonfire pickups and to your HB103 video, have a nice day.
@@Daclaem thanks! Best of luck!
I'm using Fleors in 2/3 of my guitars. I really like the double rail humbucker's punch
Those sounded great, especially for the price.
Very well done, Mike, thanks!
Just bought an $80 P bass that's really incredible for that price... Swapped the so-so stock pickups with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds but ordered Fleor ceramic PUs just out of curiosity. Not quite impossible that I resell the Quarter Pounds on ebay shortly and buy lighter machine heads instead, to correct the slight neck dive -- that you never find on expensive guitars, as you're well aware... ;) . My total investment would be around $150. Not too bad for a bass that you really dig... Oh ! I forgot the strings... +$49... :)
Thank you! I'm a fan of "budget" or "generic" pickups. In my experience, and for the music I play, I find that they don't make much difference.
Super impressive sounds.
Tone is in the guitar cables (jk)
I honestly couldn’t tell the difference which either means UA-cam compression ruins any comparison or the Fleors are really just that good.
Did you experience microphonic issues with the Fleors ? This is often where cheap pickups fail. Thanks.
Great question! No, no microphonic issues (and I've had them before, with Dragonfire pickups).
Thanks for the review. Very well done. I have yet to see, & hear a video that these pickups don't sound amazing in, yet, I can't get ANY, decent sounds out of mine. Sadly, the First Act, stock pickups sounded better than the fleors. Maybe I just got a bum set.
Thanks for the compliments. That's a strange situation with your pickups. Is it possible there is a wiring mistake?
Thanks Mike...
Great video , just bought Fleor alnico v P90's for my epiphone lespaul, cheers.
Do you like them? I was looking at doing the same.
Duncan Distortion and Jazz for metal.. I would prefer the Nazgul and Sentient kit for metal. The Sentient in the neck combined with the Nazgul in the bridge is in my opinion one of the best combinations that Seymour Duncan has.
I also love combining a Dimarzio Super Distortion with some kind of PAF humbucker in the Neck.
Wow, these Fleor pickups did not differ much at all compared to the Duncans you get a lot of pickups for the money. Weird how they can sound so similar for that cheap, It just goes to show that pickups are not that important, amp/plugins, effects and if the neck on the guitar is good is more important. You can get great guitar pickups for 10-20 dollars lol :)
Nazgul sounds kinda thin compared to black winters
Mate, what do you think, Which Fleor's bridge is better for metal, Ceramic vs dual hot rail ?
Great question. From what I remember, the rail pickup was better for metal.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I've used Fleor's alnico5 and ceramic already. Ceramic little better (have more mid range and low hum noise). I think for price Fleors are great pups and their problems are low Mid-frequency which is necessary in metal. If you use it you need from amp (or from EQ) boosting mids.
Great comparison. I'll have to look into the FLEOR pups. About a year or so ago, I ordered a set of Kmise Zebras, and installed them into a Firefly FFLP. They sounded perfectly horrific. They were super tinny, had hardly any mids or bass, and were ultra twangy. I pulled them back out and quite literally threw them away. That guitar now has the Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom (B) / SH-1n '59 (N) combo, and sounds great. I have another FFLP that I want to experiment with, so I'll surely try out the FLEORs. Thanks!
I bought a set of Kmise Invader clones from Amazon, I think. I was selling a guitar that had Duncan's and I wanted to keep them, hence the cheap pickups. I remember thinking they sounded fine, but this was before I started doing videos.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 I didn't change the cheap pots and input jack out until I installed the SD's. Once the SD's went in, I put in CTS 500k (.047 drop caps) pots, and a pure tone full contact jack. That was probably a big part of the problem. The SD's sound great in the high and low ranges, but leave somewhat to be desired in the mids. (I play metal/djent.) I want to experiment with the other guitar as this one has been fully built/set up from the ground up and I don't want to alter it.
@@ragingskeptic9753 yeah, that could be it. I'm sure the QC at Kmise is not the same as Seymour Duncan! That's one of the cons of cheap pickups. Inconsistent.
Thanks for the video, do you think the rails Fleor are better than the normal ones?
Maybe. I'd have to do a real comparison to say definitively. But, those rail pickups sound pretty good next to the Duncan's.
Wow, I could barely hear a difference really listening hard, I'm glad I bought these.
Buy yourself some beer and pizza with the savings!
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 Exactly!!!! HAAHHHAHHAAH!
Order placed! Thank you sir for your review.
Awesome! Thanks for commenting!
Fleors are great but they sound too bright, as you say at the end. But I think they should sound warmer with the covers on...
I was actually surprised. I mean for $15 that's a decent up grade over most stock. Pickups
I agree. Very surprising indeed.
I used fleor pickups on all my guitars and they are briter so if you wanted them more warner the you can use more bass on your tone nob so for the low price I'll stick to the feour for the price
Smart!
I can't tell which is which lol
I think both sounds very similar
They sound the same it's a good comparison thanks
the biggest difference is the low end, Distortions are alittle fatter in the low end, the fleor is alittle cut in the bass and slightly, just very slightly harsher in the highs. I cant tell the mids though
Right on! I agree with you on the high end. I'd have to listen again to the low end, but overall they're pretty similar sounding, and if I tweaked my amp a little I'm sure I could get them to sound indistinguishable.
I wonder how would that sound with a metal humbucker cover
Great comparison video dude. I got a set of fleor high output ones but I don't know what I'm doing wrong they are very quiet like they have very low output. Perhaps my wiring was wrong. What wiring diagram did you use and most importantly are the wire colors of Fleor the same as SD?
Thanks for the compliment and great question. I wired mine with black as the hot, green and silver were soldered together and grounded and red and white were soldered and taped. I believe it's the same as SD. Could also be one of your pots are bad, or the input jack has a bad solder joint or your cable could be shot. Good luck!
It's amazing, what about Fleor quality for my Fender Jazz bass? I would like to buy and mount them, thank you
I have no experience with their bass pickups. Based on their guitar pickups, I'd imagine they're pretty good. And for the price, you might as well try and see!
Hi, dziękuję Mike, bardzo przydatny test. 👍
I guess then my question would be are they an upgrade to like the Harley Benton stock pick UPS that they have in some of their Standard line guitar?
Definitely
The link to the bridge goes to FLEOR High Output Pickup Dual Hot Rail Humbucker Pickups Ceramic Electric Guitar Pickup Humbucker, Black. Is the pickup black and silver?
Yes, that's it!
The Fleor compare better to the X2N. They do have more output, or more crunch to them. More hair if you will. Other thing of note, yes, they would be an upgrade of standard pickups on low end guitars. Think ESP M-17(or 117, I forget). Those pickups were muddy mush. I do have the DiMarzio distortion pickup in the bridge of my RG6003, yes, it is clearer, but, I am seriously considering the Dragonfire Crusaders. I am looking more for a pickup set like that, or like the Nazguls.
I guess rail to rail would make more sense. I was thinking high output-ceramic to high output-ceramic.
I do love the X2N. Maybe I should compare the two. Thanks for the suggestion.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 Maybe it was your signal chain, or just the way it sounds, but I could hear the similarities with Chuck Schuldiner's on the Symbolic album. It wouldn't have been a stretch to hear ya break out into Crystal Mountain at all.
@@tobins6800 thanks brother! I think you just put me in the mood for Death. Going to have to put on Human some time today!
hi! awesome video! well done!! im about to install 2 fleor humbackers and a single (all alnico 5) for my 1st cheap ibanez knockoff. its my first time modding so, if its not too much to ask, to tell me the wirring cable collors (are the same as seymour Duncan for example) so that i dont screw up! thanks in advance and take care!!
Hey bud, thanks for the compliments! You made a smart move, buy some cheap pickups and learn how to wire! Very smart. I have mine wired like this: black=hot, green and silver=ground, red and white=soldered and taped together. I have never done any coil-tapping. Hope that helps!
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 wow!! thank you so much for the quick response!!! much appreciated!! ill do coil tapping/splitting (i dont know XD), with 2 push pull pots (aka tone & volume). your info helped SO much. the wire colors are the same as seymour dunkan's! i'll do it tomorrow!!! and again thank you so much for your help!!!
@@iligyf no problem. Good luck!
Im planning to buy a purple colored floer humbucker but no luck😁
installing FLEOR now, I hope the color coding for the wires are the same as Seymour Duncan
I don't remember. I think the wiring is the same???
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 just finished installing them yesterday - they are like SD 🙂
@@derrick9702 cool. Thanks for confirming!
@@derrick9702 yes yes mate. it is absolutely same like Seymour. today i instaled too
@@GiorgiLobzhanayep, and they sound great too, enjoy 😎
It's wire wrapped around magnets. It's not rocket science. So one company, say Seymour Duncan for example, has mastered the art of operating a CNC winding machine while others are left scratching their heads?
...any pickup for this music...!
The Duncans are generally fuller and more balanced. The real question is how they both handle being driven at high volume. Thats where 'expensive' pickups usually stand out.
Interesting. I've heard someone say the opposite, that at high volumes the differences become more negligible. Not my opinion, just something I heard. Thanks for commenting.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076
I can certainly accept that it my be my imagination. My perception is that higher end pickups tend to have more integrity and maintain their sound profile better, where lower end pickups tend to develop more bite in the highs and mids, at higher volume. It would be interesting for someone to test this.
@@springbloom5940 that would make an interesting test. All that being said, I still have my Duncan's!
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076
I just worked over a friend's mid 80s Olympic strat, as a bday gift and swapped his 8k generic humbucker and single, with this Fleor bucker and a Musiclily 'hotrail' single. He was thoroughly blown away.
@@springbloom5940 that's awesome!
how about seymour duncan blackouts vs. bare knuckle aftermaths
That's a good suggestion. I've had no experience with Bare Knuckle pickups. On the expensive side though. Definitely not $15!
They sound very similar. Did you measure the fleor on a multimeter? Also, are the fleor consistent or did you get lucky?
Great questions. I didn't measure it on a multimeter. They have been pretty consistent. I think I bought two or three more sets of Fleor pickups.
I just ordered one to put in a bridge on a yamaha pacifica that had a bad pickup before I sell it.
These pickups are perfect for that!
Two questions-
1) Are they wax potted?
2) Is the upgrade worth it for entry level Ibanez?
Great Video btw.
Yes. Yew
Yes I put one in a GRX70QA and it sounded very good and beat the shit out of the stock pups. You have to know that you use Seymour Duncan wiring guides as they are color coded exactly the same as Duncan's are.
I listened carefully with my DT770 Pros on high volume and still couldn't hear any difference, maybe the Fleor has a tiny bit more treble
Have installed fleor zebra humbucker pups with split coil. It sound amazing for both Neck and Bridge in clean or distortion, great articulation n clarity, tend to modern/highend tone. Next project, Maybe i need to install cover pups to get a bit vintage sound and increase low-mid freq. For split i only like the neck split, my suggestion buy a new strat for a better single coil sound dont ever trust any split coil LOL 😂
Couldn't tell the difference when distorted.
Do you know if Fleor have a Seymour Duncan 59 replica?
I'm not totally sure, but browsing around on Amazon, I found a few 7-8 k neck humbuckers. There's other brands too, which are probably the same as the Fleor's.
the FLEOR was wax potted ? Noisy or not ? Alnico or Ceramic ?
wax potted and alnico 5
@@muzaffermahoni6828 thank you Sir
@@brCharlieNagy I bought a strat set and p90 pickup of this brand, I liked the material quality and sound so much that now I bought humbucker set. I also recommend oripure's pickups. This is even better than fleor.
Neck pickup sounded not so good compared to Jazz , a little to high in volume which made it sound sloppy kinda , I put them in my neck positions and Trembucker JB 4s , think I will invest in the good pickups after hearing that , thanks
Thanks man.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Just a question. The clean sound, is it coil tapped, series or parallel wired?
Great question. Definitely not coil-tapped. Just hot and ground wired. Red and white soldered and taped off.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 wow! You see, I love single coils exactly because of those beautiful cleans, and everything now has enough gain to compensate for their low output. Really impressed
@@CamiloPefaur my pleasure to help. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you if the wiring was series or parallel, I honestly don't know. I just wire them up according to the diagram.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 You did actually tell me that it was wired in series. Thanks a lot!
In my opinion ,after 30 years playing guitar, when between your pick up and the speaker there are 100 things deforming and denaturing your sound : effects, distortions etc. there is almost no difference between $ 20 and $ 100 pick up with the same alnico and output ,unless you have the ultrasonic hearing of a dog. IMO the demos should be with an amplifier in clean channel to hear moore differences . With distorsion you hear a little bit darker a little bit bright etc anything else. I have brand pick ups , fleor and others, some times I preffer no brand picks and Sometimes brand pick ups. Fleor sound good. Sorry for my english. I appreciate your effort
Thanks for commenting. I agree, with a Tubescreamer plus a distorted head, you're not going to hear much difference. But that's kind of the point for those of us who play metal. In a clean channel with no pedals you would hear more difference. You are right.
do you like the floreer better or as much as the dragon fire screamers or the dragon fire crusaders.
Good question! I like the Dragonfire pickups better.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 thanks for getting back to me
@@mritorto1 of course! Here to help!
These the 14-15 or 7-8k? Jw? Thanks
I heard that the Fleor pickups are microphonic is this true?
Not in my experience.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 That's good news. One other question, I have a guitar arriving it's a cheap import randy rhoads js32t so do you think the Fleors will be a good upgrade from the stock pickups? btw thanks been watching your other vids as well
@@Dustin_John I don't think that will be necessary. My experience with Jackson stock pickups has been good. Especially with their newer pickups, which I find have better output and clarity than in the past. But, you never know until you have it in your hands. The Fleor's are incredibly cheap, so even if you buy them and don't notice a difference, then you won't be out a lot of money. Thanks for the support!
I am wondering if I should purchase the Fleor alnico 5 or should I buy the Wilkinson alnico 5. Both are the same price?
I have no experience with the Wilkinson pickups. Have you seen any UA-cam videos? I do recall a Darell Braun video in which he compared the Fleor Alnico 5 to the JB and there wasn't a huge difference. If you're playing metal with a high gain amp and an overdrive pedal, then pickups matter less than a lot of people think they do. Just my experience.
@@mikefrombloodofthewolf7076 thanks much. I am a clean player
Are the fleor pickups well shielded?
Great question. I didn't hear any noise.
for my personal taste fleor a bit better, but differences are so subltle and only in clean mode. distortion on and they sound exatly the same.
I always wonder how companies like Seymour Duncan can differentiate their pickups from some Chinese company with access to the same wire and magnets? I know SD has to be scared to death that guitarists will figure out there is no real difference. I keep buying SD pickups because they are easy to sell and get much of your money back so I'm hoping they stay expensive and popular. I actually think that anyone that says that they don't like the cheap pickups because they think they hear a difference are hearing things that aren't there. In a blind sound test they wouldn't know which was the SD pickup and which was the Amazon pickup.
On the distortion the Seymours sound tighter and more defined and Fleors sound a little flubby and buzzy.
Not much difference for me.
Sounds pretty good to me
Yo, sick demo dude! What tuning did you use for the demo?
Thanks! E flat.
I Seriously can't hear the Difference... Uggg...
Crazy in some riffs the floors are better and some the Duncan's are better
Cool I got some black rails !!!!!!!!!
Awesome! I hope you like them!
Fleor neck is a bit more output and thus has a little more mid's.
Did u sell it?
Yeah, awhile ago...
You should trick people in a video and say you're comparing Fleor with SD but instead just play samples of one or the other and see if people figure it out. They'll say "well, the Duncan sounded better than the Fleor, it was more creamy and not buttery in the mids but more fluffy in the lows". Hahahaha!
What I notice with some of the cheaper pickups out there is there not wax potted they tend to feedback I have these rail pickups and have in some of my Jackson guitars the stock Jackson pickups under high gain they feedback you gotta run a noisegate pedal like the boss ns2 or the decimator
That's a legit concern. I haven't had that issue with these.
Someone else did a video where he changed the pickups out of white Ibanez guitar and replaced them with Dragonfire hexbuckers and he had the same problem with feedback
@@jasonjones2769 yes, I saw the video you're talking about. I don't have the feedback issues.
@@jasonjones2769 It's like mandatory in metal music to have a noise gate or noise supressor... trust me man I can't stand when I see a band and their amp is fucking humming. And for reference I have about 200 shows under my belt
Which set do you feel you performed better with?
On a blind test and in a mix nobody can really tell a difference. Whoever says otherwise, I don't beleive him. Now, there is something what puzzels me. If the 15$ Fleor sounds identical like more than 100$ SD who normal will buy a SD?
I just bought fleor pickups based on this video, not yet assembled. This is my ears or what? fleor sounds better than SD
That's great! The Fleors were good sounding. Lots of output. From what I remember, more focus on the high end of EQ.
Duncan, best.
Man the duncs are better but there's hardly anything in it. Ill be buying fleors when i decide to resurrect my LP clone!
*insert shrug emoji* I have to say it sounds like your fingers and amp dominate the tone more than the two pickup brands.
For sure the amp has a lot to do with it.
Keep the Fleors
Duncan the best
Yeah, that's the biggest secret of the guitar industry= It's the amp that makes the difference soundwise. The othr factors; fret-treatment, finish, string height are all player specific stuff.