How Important Are Pickups to a Guitar's Sound?
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- If you ever wondered how much pickups effect the sound of a guitar vs. how much the wood of the guitar matters, I will try to answer that question here. We will take a look at three different sets of pickups in three very similar Kiesel Aries guitars. Between the Kiesel Lithium pickups, the Lace pickups and the Fishman Fluence, Tosin Abasi pickups you will be able to hear the difference in tone.
Don't be fooled by overstated claims about the electric guitar tone woods. Learn how guitar pickups rule the guitar tone.
Gear used in video:
Kiesel Aries 6
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You mention that if you had some cheap, crummy pickups the difference would be startling. I've been comparing a set of $29 FLEOR brand ceramic humbuckers from Amazon vs. a set of $550 Bare Knuckle Juggernauts (those are CDN prices, haha) and the differences are still incredibly subtle. That said, I agree that the pickups have more consequence than the woods of the guitar, but for the overall sound from a guitar, amp/cab/speaker/mic (or sim/IR) seems to be about 95% of it and the pickups the 5% (at most).
For me when I went through a few different pickup sets on one guitar, the difference was drastic. I went from Seymour hot rails, to some DiMarzio pickups, to finally settling on Lace alumitone on this one guitar. None of the more bad the differences were very noticable.
You’re one of a few comments I’ve seen recently, honestly I think you’re right. I played a $7000 Tom Anderson and I currently have a Jackson HT7 with seymour Duncan’s and I literally did not notice a difference in tone or clarity……and that was on the stores rather expensive mesa tube amp. (I play using STL tones on Andy James pack through my PC on some Mackie audio speakers or just my IEMs).
The pickup is the microphone that the guitar sings into
Well said.
I switched an old ibanez prestige Pickups with dimarzio evos and it was amazing.
I think everything about the guitar matters. Obviously, of course, the wood matters, the scale length, the strings, everything makes a difference, but not nearly as much of a difference as the pick up obviously.
with an acoustic, would definitely matters more, because the body is sort of an air pump, for the sound to echo in.
On electric, it still makes a difference, but really not a huge difference at all, it’s mainly just pick ups.
And, of course, scale, length, and intonation and quality and everything.
I agree!
Wish I could take lesson from you. You do a great job of explaining everything, wether it’s technique, theory, software, hardware, etc.
Excellent channel
Thanks Ryan. Where do you live?
Oh also check out my 10k giveaway video of you haven't (it's from 2 posts ago) because I am giving away a live chat lesson on there.
@@MusicWithMarky New Jersey
Oh wow okay. We might not be too far away for you to have a lesson. Check my About tab on here for my email address and hit me up in email. Let's find out if it's close enough.
Need a vid with cheap pickups alongside for full comparison exposition. Those guitars look expensive.
Mmm true. I'll have to work on that.
@@MusicWithMarky Nice one. Appreciate the response. Good vid. You're a likeable guy.
I like the white pickups most of all. And that is cool because i am planning my own kiesel build.
Most excellent!
What are you thinking of going with for the build? An Aries? What top?
@@MusicWithMarky I am currently between two companies and one luthier. My kiesel build would be the neck through aries in hot pink or tropical blue in satin finish. No tops for me. Mahogany body and maple purpleheart neck. Black hardware. simple tried and true.
Nice!!
@@MusicWithMarky there is also the possibility for a skerv. I adore these guitars.
I listened to the audio without watching the video and I couldn't tell much of a difference (besides the cleans with the single coils) between pickups. The only thing I noticed was a change in gain/output. The guitar's signal goes through so many filters (pedals, amp, cabinet, speaker, mic) that a difference in EQ is very minor. I think as long as the pickup isn't super cheap to the point where it's noisy, something like an EQ pedal would be a lot more useful to changing the toan
For me, I can hear a large difference between certain brands of pickups, but there is definitely a kind of median with a whole scad of brands., An EQ is about as tone shaping as it gets as well, I agree.
I wish more people talked about how much more important pickups are.
I agree!
@@MusicWithMarky and I also wish people talked less about "tone of the wood" bullshit" :D
Wood is only the sustain provider, technically.
I don’t think you can really compare active and passive pickups. Actives have some form of preamp tone shaping + different guitars might have differences in the capacitors or other wiring components (even if they are the same model) which could contribute
That is exactly the point however. You're illustrating that the pickups matter a ton. If you take the same guitar and replace passive pickups with active ones, that as much more of an effect than changing the wood.
i also think the pickup output makes a difference
So I have a warmoth build that I put in Fralin Pure PAFs. When I play many of my guitars through favorite Kemper, Tonex, etc profiles... this guitar is much more dull and I want to fix that. The guitar has a roasted Maple neck and SS frets which would suggest a brighter tone, but it's the opposite. Trying to research so I don't need to try many things. I have some SD Antiquities in an SG and they are so bright and snappy.. I'm wondering if that's the way to go? Thanks
Yeah a pickup change can make an the difference. I don't have experience with the Fralins to say for sure that's it, but it's certainly the most likely case.
Try rolling down the tone and volume knob slightly
@@travis8895 For an already dull sound? Don't think so.
Yeah I think that would be starting with too bright. I def think you want to look into other pickups that are on the brighter side. I've become a big fan of bare knuckle pickups myself.
@@MusicWithMarky Yea I want to try a pair of Stormy Mondays next. Installed recently Sunbear PAFs and OX4 Hot Duanes in a couple new guitars.. and they are amazing.
Are you using f spaced pickups? I’m trying to replace the pickups on my Kiesel that also have the hipshot floating trem.
I would have to check with Kiesel on that. It doesn't specify on my order.
Nice video! I think you are right about the fact that pickup is really important. I would say it's the voice of the guitar. The better it is, the better it transpose the sound quality of the guitar. I think tone wood is important, but a bad pickup won't make your guitar sound good even if you have expensive exotic woods. To me it's a issues with kiesel. The fluence are so above their lithiums.
Most people find the lithium pickups to be brittle and bright. I discovered they sound awesome if you just dial the tone back about 50% via the tone knob. Then you have all that treble head room if you're playing through a muddy amp.
That said, I have to say that Bare Knuckle pickups have quickly become my favorite. I used to think they only made good metal pickups but now I have a guitar with a set of war pigs in it as well and they sound awesome for classic rock and old school type sounds.
I disagree the guitar already has a sound like your voice a different microphone doesn't make you sound like giving me broth or like Sammy or like Louis Armstrong you sound the same it's either going to be brighter or mellow louder or soft and that's just what the pickups do to the electric guitar
i think the amp makes a big difference
sounds all the same to me
Pickups are the sound of a solid body electric
Exactly.
Honestly i think most of the sound comes from the amp
Yes, and also context is very important. I think the type of music you play dictates how important your pickup choice is. If you play clean more than anything, in which the pickup will make more of a difference, then yeah invest in high end pickups. But, if you play more overdriven and distorted parts, the subtle differences a pickup can make start to get lost in the noise. What's going to make a much bigger impact is your amps, cabs, mics and their positions and the room you're in. Especially with high gain, overdriven guitars. Since the saturation of the overdriven signal basically buries any differences your pickups make, the amp and mic placement are key in dialing in the sound you want.
So the pickups don't matter so much.
I think I saying the opposite of that. The pickups contribute to an electric guitar tone much more than the wood or anything else.