The secret with ceramic pickups is to set them very low! Since they are a lot higher output, setting them low brings back a lot of clarity in the tone.
Thank you so much for finally saying what every single guitar player is scared to say!, ceramic pickups are great!, and they make so many great types of ceramic single coil pickups as well as humbucking pickups too. Your video on this matter is articulate, well-spoken, and inspiring!, thank you for also mentioning the Squier Affinity Series pickups that are ceramic and sound amazing and are perfectly fine in every possible way!, I thought I was the only person who actually likes the Affinity Series pickups! It’s comforting to know someone as unique as yourself agrees with my own beliefs regarding pickups!, God Bless You! Take care brotha!
When the makers call the pickup steel instead of ceramic , it is correct. The steel pole pieces replacing the Alnico slugs here and they define the relative magnetic permeability and electric conductivity which determine the character of the pickup (besides the number of turns) . The ceramic magnet on the bottom has no conductivity and has relative permeability 1 ( just like air) . It gives only the gauss value the needed and has nothing to do with the spectral character of the pickups.
i have been playing guitar for 55 years. Not a thing wrong with ceramic pickups, they are great. if you are absolutely determined to spend more money, put your money in the best amp you can afford to buy! A good amp can make a lot of cheaper guitars sing.
I would add that by adjusting the height of the pickups and using thicker or lighter strings, it changes your tone. I bought a cheap telecaster and messed around with everything. I found that setting up your amp correctly (there's cheap amp setting videos) and trying out different pickup adjustments and strings makes a huge difference using ceramic pickups. Just have fun ✌️
Wow! I was just about to say that I got a Squier Affinity Strat for Christmas and it sounds fantastic and then you literally said right when I started typing! It’s a great guitar, fretwork, tremolo, everything. It’s become my main guitar!
On some of my strats I like the guitar with a good ceramic in front and lead and an alnico with similar output in middle. It can be a very affordable upgrade.
Great suggestion i do have one strat i made with special wiring that uses a alnico 5 in the neck from a usa strat and a ceramic bridge pickup from a 90s mexican strat
You seem like a sensible, intelligent and down to earth picker. That's a rare combination. I will check out your other videos. Pleasure making your acquaintance. Best wishes.
Great video. You summed it up. It was marketing that brainwashed us all into thinking ceramics suck IMO. There is such a market for pickup replacement and they need propaganda to push it to make us spend more money. I love the ceramic pickups in my Mexican built Fender Strat. When I first got the guitar, everyone told me I needed to swap them for AlNiCo pickups, but I never did. You have a great point about having to find something wrong with a pickup set before you strip it out and I never could find a real issue with the ceramic pickups in my Strat. They handled higher distortion, gain and treble so well. They can be bright and spanky like a Strat is supposed to sound but also could do the Metal style so well to the point, it made me realize single coils could handle that kind of tone pretty well. My Strat is now around 7 years old and the pickups have gotten brighter and more twangy sounding over time. Cool to give the Squier Affinity Strats a shout out, those are some fine guitars. i like how the ceramic pickups sound in the Squier Bullet Strats. It's a shame Fender replaced the Mexican Standard line with the new "Player" Strats that have weak AlNiCo pickups in it. I've tried some Player Strats and the new AlNiCo pickups just so thin and are missing that mid-range punch that the ceramics had. I have nothing against AlNiCo pickups, but the ones in the Player series are dull sounding. Squier's Classic Vibe Strats have far better AlNiCo pickups than what Fender put in the new Player guitars.
I'm playing with ceramics for the first time. They came in a Sterling SUB Series Silo 3 that I got used for a handful of beans. They're really nice in all sorts of ways - wound kinda hot, but I get a wide breadth of tonal characteristics out of them. They're good loud, quiet, dirty, clean... Just love'm. Thanks for your videos
Brian May from Queen used Burns pickups on his Red Special and they’re bar magnet types! Who can argue with his playing, tone and amazing innovations on all the great albums and hit singles!
@@travisguide4516 The homemade guitar is also chambered and made from some pretty shoddy laminated woods! So wood, pickups and paint finish meant nothing if you’re super talented and determined to make great music!
I recently got a hardtail Squier Bullet Strat and I'm keeping the pickups in there. Not only that I'm sticking with the electronics too because the tone controls on this guitar are actually useable and if I change all the pots I may not prefer the result. These pickups look similar to the MIM Strat pickups. They have 2 thin bar magnets underneath either side of the row of pole pieces. To me they have almost a P90 quality to their tone, except not as fat or high output. I like them enough I just went onto Ebay and got another set of Bullet Strat pickups for peanuts that somebody took out of their week-old guitar!
cool that you can appreciate what you have I'm sure the pickups are fine. I had a 83 squire bullet hard tail and changing the pots to vintage pots didn't change anything being full size pots to begin with
I love the sound of the Fujigen factory Fender Japan fiber bobbin ceramic single coils from the early 80s. The Belcat ceramic single coils that come in the new Silvertone SS15 are very nice too, especially if you upgrade the caps and pots. Ceramics can sound incredibly good.
Im a ceramic Fan, specially the low gauze hotrail versions. They are ballsy on the bass and chimey on the mid n high - very bubbly on the neck, thick on the bridge and it sings. Alnico sounds like youre using brand new strings all the time - jagged and square sounding.
Do you find that the double-magnet (MIM Fender) are a better build quality? Do they wax pot ceramic pickups in general? Would it help to wax pot & shield them? Interesting discussion - thanks for the video!
The interesting thing about the made in mexico pickups is that there are a couple of versions. the main version is ok with the two bars that come on standards a strat traditional had a different bobbin (black) that looked to be made of cheaper plastic also the strat traditional measured somewhere in the 4k range while the regular will measure the normal 5.9k that a real American strat will measure. Ive heard people say the ceramic pickups better with distortion. The weak 4.5 k or lower version is not good the tuners on a strat traditional are crap too and the bridge on a strat traditional is pot metal and mine was completely bent to pieces and had a normal mim bridge put on it.
I’ve been researching ceramic vs alnico and it kind of clicked in my head. I wonder if we don’t have bands anymore because of the hardware. The alnico alone doesn’t have the output ceramic has. Eddy Van Halen used 2 alnicos which would give him enough output over one. Everyone wants to use Strats and Telecasters with the alnico pickups when they really should be using Squiers with ceramic or Epiphones with Probuckers. Just because Jimi or SRV used them, doesn’t mean everyone should, those two are the exception to the rule. I’m just speaking live club/bar bands with a guitar and amp. 10 years ago I played drums in a band with my brother. It was shocking the sound he got out of his Squier Strat. People would comment on the sound we had, and I think it was the ceramic pickup cutting through the bass, drums, and crowd chatter. The only time other players sounded better was when they had a Gibson Les Paul (nobody really played Epiphones).
The other bands with real Strats would sound ok but they would get lost in the bass and rhythm mix. Those pickups struggle to cut. They sound great when you’re in your home alone, but not when you need that bite in a bar.
I like the warmer ceramic sound (Albert Hammond jr used them in an MIM) but my ceramic pickups are cheap ones that came with a squier. Should I buy more expensive ceramic ones or will these ones sound the same enough.
I bought a Strat Classic vibe 60's and I think it has alnico V, I was always used to ceramics, so I didn't like the alnico, I found it very sharp, very weak and a little artificial, could you tell me if alnicos are like that or my pickups are with defects?
i found the same thing to be true of alnico pickups i actually spent quite a bit of money on custom shop 54 pickups only to be disappointed underwhelmed and yes they were weak some others told me vintage pickups are kinda boring and to go with slightly overwound pickups I’ve measured alot of strat pickups and they are usually 5.9 on all 3 concluding that yea the magnets are the difference not usually the windings anyway i have a video on measuring the resistance without removing the pickups but i think they will all be 5.9 if you are already used to ceramics and you can tame them you kinda have something i personally like better. Then again leave stock pickups in it or it makes it less valuable.
This is a great video, I really hate that sound of the new Mexico Player Strat with alnico V pickups, I hope to get an old Mexico Standard Strat with ceramic pickups for lively sound. Thank you!
I get what you mean. In the bass realm almost everyone would go for Alnico's and thet swear by it. I've bought about 8 basses, all with Alnico and man I was never happy with my tone/sound. I'm more of a trebly/himids bass player, I hate dull bass tone. I needed to force a lot of highmids and treble to be able to hear myself but still the sound would come too harsh and piercing. After many years (12 years) I bought this cheap Jackson JS2 in new condition. Man the sound of this bass was amazing. I was really starting to think my sound was doomed, I had ampeg amplifiers/speakers, darkglass, modulers, the whole package to deliver a metal crushing bass tone but still couldn't have the sound I wanted but maaaan the Jackson delivered. I looked to see what made the bass sound so perfect for me. Was it the wood? (It has poplar body, one of the cheapest and "worst" woods) so no, it wasn't the wood. So I looked into the pickups and to my surprise they were Ceramic and passive pickups. It had to be that. Agresive yet sweet without piercing and I didn't even needed to eq the bass, it sounded amazing from the bass itself. So I really recommend ceramic passive good quality pickups.
I knew it! More sharp and dry and high pitch sound. I decide to combine it with sapele wood so I expect nicely balanced high pitch ear bleeding sound based on proper bass middle layer. This info is told only but few.
Hello, what do you think about the ceramic pickups of the 2009 Squier Bullet (branded SEM) ? i love the sound, but i want to sell the guitar... i have better guitars now. i would like have a set of pickups with a sound as good as the sem Bullet pickups. Thank you !
I think the bullet might sound good because of its thick neck the pickups were designed to work with that particular guitar sometimes putting them in something else won’t be the same tone
Many of the Dimarzio main bridge pickups are Ceramic pickups. But I'd say half of their overall catalog is 50/50. The rails are ceramics, the stacked hum cancelling strat pickups are all alnico. Go to the Eddie Van Halen and Satriani stuff it's alnico along with a lot of their PAF range with are mid to low output pickups. But the high out-put modern pickups are not just ceramic magnets, but tripple ceramic to mimic the active sound. BareKnuckle I would say are another big reason for liking Ceramic pickups as they allow you to choose your magnet.
I'm about to buy a used bullet strat and thinking of changing the pus. I have an epiphone lp which has very bad muddy pus that I don't like at all. But there are many reasons why a pu may sound bad. It's their height position the pots and the wires. I read somewhere that epiphone used very thick wires, and that's why the pus cant transmit the higher frequencies. I'll maybe change only the pots, and see what I will get. Squier's 500k pots are generally high for single coils. Do you think that changing the pots is a good idea?
OffsetMind I generally do it to all my strats although people sometimes say to just clean the pots with electric cleaner I usually go with 250k audio taper pots for strats and 500k linear taper pots for les pauls just to stay traditional it depends on what year bullet you get vintage bullet pickups are great not to be changed bands like deth cab for cutie use the stock squire bullet pickups and made them popular they are nicely balanced more than a made in Mex ceramic pickup. never tried a newer bullet but people like the thick neck profile on newer bullets.
some say to change your capacitor to take out the highs if your guitar is too bright .47 is stock capacitor for a strat I just leave it there. haven't got any difference changing it around higher or lower so I stay stock.
I'm getting a 2007 hss model. Do you know if it's any good? The neck profile is thinner than the newer, because I don't really like thick necks. Thanks!
I am swapping out my 2018 squier bullet tele with some MIM fender pickups and caps. I am not looking for a big difference but to get a bit a clearler signal and more room to push the sound. I didn’t want to overshoot with crazy pickups, hope I notice at least a little improvement.
All the best for you it's always fun to roll the dice and come out with a great sound I have also used Mexican strat pickups in a squire and loved the results
If you look at the backside of the pickup typically there is a bar of ceramic magnet alnico will be small slugs the size of the holes in the pickup bobbin
Mr. Travis this is one very educational video and i would like to add , that most of guitars equipped with those ceramic pups are cheap and not well adjusted or with bad fretwork ... and that will make sound wrongly any pickups equipped guitar....
It depends on the year of production some squier bullet pickups will be worth more or less money depending on the year but essentially there are only minor differences usually they measure 5.9k
So why does a cheap ceramic sound thin and fizzy? Too many windings and a small magent? I My ceramics in my Ibanez s521 sound pretty good. It measures 7.5 dc resistance, and I think has a lower power magnet. But it is definitely bright. I have to take out a lot of the highs with my 10 band eq. When I do that, it sounds great.
Steve vai uses them with big magnets and lots of wire won't sound thin then most of the cheap guitars will only wind as much as it takes and nothing more not bad some like that weak pickup thing but I think vintage underwound pickups sound thin too. Most of the pickups sound similar in my experience and most of their readings on the resistance rating are usually around 5.7-5.9 but occasionally on a very cheap guitar I find ones as low as 4.3 (mim strat traditional 98')
All of this is true about Neodymium, too. I'd say Neo even MORE so. All the body and bass of Ceramic with the clarity of Alnico, especially when you underwind compared to normal.
It’s all about frequency response and tone. Ceramic doesn’t degauss when next to a magnet like Alnico does, they all don’t lose as much magnetism over time, traditional people think this loss is exotic in old alnico magnets, call it character, dopes.
ceramic are the best ,my favorite ic the dimarzio super distortion ,They sound so good clean and the best overdrive ,I have them in a super strat and less paul and explorer .I dont even think about any other,My gibsons are in a cigar box guitar I built and 2 of them are in my parts box,Why do you think all rock players from1973 to 2000 replaced those weak p a f of gibsons?
The pups ending up having lots of myths like ceramic vs alnico, wich is imho a matter of taste and totally subjetive and in most cases to help brands to make more money, just like the tonewood discussion. Nice video and thanks for sharing your experiences!
Not to complain, but you're looking at your screen instead of the camera-it's a bit unnerving lol I do have a question for you, my guitar kit came with humbuckers with a single ceramic bar in between them instead of separate bars for each. Does that make the humbuckers weaker? These pickups sure sound great-clear bass and aggressive mids/highs.
I got a few with the bar across the back i like them the bar surpposedly makes for a fatter sound because of a wider magnetic field so as i understand less perfectly balanced but nice and warm. If you wanted more control over it i have some called fidelitrons from a 90s semi hollowbody gretch guitar and the theory on those is a magnet surrounded by a coil winding on every string making it more precise and also they can be adjusted individually
@@travisguide4516 Hey thanks man! Makes prefect sense too. Yes, making the magnetic field wider would even the tone out I suppose. Still, it's crisp and very distinct notes even when all strings are played, which is great. Thanks again.
People are just ignorant & closed minded to so many guitar myths & even other things. They hear with they eyes. 99% of people don't understand tech especially with pickups. Just cause you played for 50 years doesn't make you tech savvy.
Ceramic magnets are cheaper to make, thus the propaganda and wife's tales. Every guy doing a sound comparison here on youtube has almost (ALMOST) every tone more attractive to me being the ceramic.
The aura around ceramic pickups is dumb... I would take the ceramic pickups in the fender standard strat over that of the alnico pickups in the player strat any day of the week.
I have 57 classic plus pickups in my all maple hollow body tele. They sound great but they are pricey. But you know i just want to be better then anyone else. And i am a lot smarter then i look. I mean a whole lot!
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here's the deal, Ceramics magnets are cheaper, so ALL the cheap sucky pickups are ceramics but NOT ALL Ceramic pickups are cheap and sucky.
Word up on that homie
The secret with ceramic pickups is to set them very low! Since they are a lot higher output, setting them low brings back a lot of clarity in the tone.
Great comment thanks
Very true. Can get some great tone out of them.
This has been my experience as well. They're good for getting heavier focused distorted tones
Thank you so much for finally saying what every single guitar player is scared to say!, ceramic pickups are great!, and they make so many great types of ceramic single coil pickups as well as humbucking pickups too. Your video on this matter is articulate, well-spoken, and inspiring!, thank you for also mentioning the Squier Affinity Series pickups that are ceramic and sound amazing and are perfectly fine in every possible way!, I thought I was the only person who actually likes the Affinity Series pickups! It’s comforting to know someone as unique as yourself agrees with my own beliefs regarding pickups!, God Bless You! Take care brotha!
thanks for your comment very nice comment always appreciate good folks like you
When the makers call the pickup steel instead of ceramic , it is correct. The steel pole pieces replacing the Alnico slugs here and they define the relative magnetic permeability and electric conductivity which determine the character of the pickup (besides the number of turns) . The ceramic magnet on the bottom has no conductivity and has relative permeability 1 ( just like air) . It gives only the gauss value the needed and has nothing to do with the spectral character of the pickups.
I have had some older vintage ceramic pickups that I absolutely loved. You're correct, telecaster Squier fell short. Thanks!
i have been playing guitar for 55 years. Not a thing wrong with ceramic pickups, they are great. if you are absolutely determined to spend more money, put your money in the best amp you can afford to buy! A good amp can make a lot of cheaper guitars sing.
Word up!
True.😊
To me a great amp only emphasizes the flaws of a bad guitar. ;)
I would add that by adjusting the height of the pickups and using thicker or lighter strings, it changes your tone. I bought a cheap telecaster and messed around with everything. I found that setting up your amp correctly (there's cheap amp setting videos) and trying out different pickup adjustments and strings makes a huge difference using ceramic pickups. Just have fun ✌️
thanks for chillin homie!
Wow! I was just about to say that I got a Squier Affinity Strat for Christmas and it sounds fantastic and then you literally said right when I started typing! It’s a great guitar, fretwork, tremolo, everything. It’s become my main guitar!
awesome! I’m glad you found the treasure right in front of us!
On some of my strats I like the guitar with a good ceramic in front and lead and an alnico with similar output in middle.
It can be a very affordable upgrade.
Great suggestion i do have one strat i made with special wiring that uses a alnico 5 in the neck from a usa strat and a ceramic bridge pickup from a 90s mexican strat
You seem like a sensible, intelligent and down to earth picker. That's a rare combination. I will check out your other videos. Pleasure making your acquaintance. Best wishes.
Great video. You summed it up. It was marketing that brainwashed us all into thinking ceramics suck IMO. There is such a market for pickup replacement and they need propaganda to push it to make us spend more money. I love the ceramic pickups in my Mexican built Fender Strat. When I first got the guitar, everyone told me I needed to swap them for AlNiCo pickups, but I never did. You have a great point about having to find something wrong with a pickup set before you strip it out and I never could find a real issue with the ceramic pickups in my Strat. They handled higher distortion, gain and treble so well. They can be bright and spanky like a Strat is supposed to sound but also could do the Metal style so well to the point, it made me realize single coils could handle that kind of tone pretty well. My Strat is now around 7 years old and the pickups have gotten brighter and more twangy sounding over time.
Cool to give the Squier Affinity Strats a shout out, those are some fine guitars. i like how the ceramic pickups sound in the Squier Bullet Strats. It's a shame Fender replaced the Mexican Standard line with the new "Player" Strats that have weak AlNiCo pickups in it. I've tried some Player Strats and the new AlNiCo pickups just so thin and are missing that mid-range punch that the ceramics had. I have nothing against AlNiCo pickups, but the ones in the Player series are dull sounding. Squier's Classic Vibe Strats have far better AlNiCo pickups than what Fender put in the new Player guitars.
excellent comment loved reading it
I'm playing with ceramics for the first time. They came in a Sterling SUB Series Silo 3 that I got used for a handful of beans. They're really nice in all sorts of ways - wound kinda hot, but I get a wide breadth of tonal characteristics out of them. They're good loud, quiet, dirty, clean...
Just love'm.
Thanks for your videos
Thanks bud I appreciate it
I bought a Squier bullet with one of the major reasons being that the ceramic pickups kicks ass
Sweet man keep on rocking in the free world
Brian May from Queen used Burns pickups on his Red Special and they’re bar magnet types! Who can argue with his playing, tone and amazing innovations on all the great albums and hit singles!
Wow didn't know that he is awesome!
@@travisguide4516 The homemade guitar is also chambered and made from some pretty shoddy laminated woods! So wood, pickups and paint finish meant nothing if you’re super talented and determined to make great music!
I remember hearing that he made that thing I think he has a signature vox amp for his tone probably more important than the guitar
I recently got a hardtail Squier Bullet Strat and I'm keeping the pickups in there. Not only that I'm sticking with the electronics too because the tone controls on this guitar are actually useable and if I change all the pots I may not prefer the result. These pickups look similar to the MIM Strat pickups. They have 2 thin bar magnets underneath either side of the row of pole pieces.
To me they have almost a P90 quality to their tone, except not as fat or high output.
I like them enough I just went onto Ebay and got another set of Bullet Strat pickups for peanuts that somebody took out of their week-old guitar!
cool that you can appreciate what you have I'm sure the pickups are fine. I had a 83 squire bullet hard tail and changing the pots to vintage pots didn't change anything being full size pots to begin with
I love the sound of the Fujigen factory Fender Japan fiber bobbin ceramic single coils from the early 80s. The Belcat ceramic single coils that come in the new Silvertone SS15 are very nice too, especially if you upgrade the caps and pots. Ceramics can sound incredibly good.
Excellent comment deep good info
Im a ceramic Fan, specially the low gauze hotrail versions. They are ballsy on the bass and chimey on the mid n high - very bubbly on the neck, thick on the bridge and it sings. Alnico sounds like youre using brand new strings all the time - jagged and square sounding.
Excellent opinion thank you for input
I've switched to refrigerator magnets on my pickup. It's a Ford F150 and I now have about 700 magnets on it.
700 magnapower!
great video... i have a squier affinity tele good pickups... thanks for your video.
Thanks very much
@@travisguide4516 you are welcome, a learn a lot... if people were more sincer. Thanks man.
Do you find that the double-magnet (MIM Fender) are a better build quality? Do they wax pot ceramic pickups in general? Would it help to wax pot & shield them? Interesting discussion - thanks for the video!
The interesting thing about the made in mexico pickups is that there are a couple of versions. the main version is ok with the two bars that come on standards a strat traditional had a different bobbin (black) that looked to be made of cheaper plastic also the strat traditional measured somewhere in the 4k range while the regular will measure the normal 5.9k that a real American strat will measure. Ive heard people say the ceramic pickups better with distortion. The weak 4.5 k or lower version is not good the tuners on a strat traditional are crap too and the bridge on a strat traditional is pot metal and mine was completely bent to pieces and had a normal mim bridge put on it.
I’ve been researching ceramic vs alnico and it kind of clicked in my head. I wonder if we don’t have bands anymore because of the hardware. The alnico alone doesn’t have the output ceramic has. Eddy Van Halen used 2 alnicos which would give him enough output over one.
Everyone wants to use Strats and Telecasters with the alnico pickups when they really should be using Squiers with ceramic or Epiphones with Probuckers. Just because Jimi or SRV used them, doesn’t mean everyone should, those two are the exception to the rule.
I’m just speaking live club/bar bands with a guitar and amp.
10 years ago I played drums in a band with my brother. It was shocking the sound he got out of his Squier Strat. People would comment on the sound we had, and I think it was the ceramic pickup cutting through the bass, drums, and crowd chatter. The only time other players sounded better was when they had a Gibson Les Paul (nobody really played Epiphones).
The other bands with real Strats would sound ok but they would get lost in the bass and rhythm mix. Those pickups struggle to cut. They sound great when you’re in your home alone, but not when you need that bite in a bar.
Excellent comment totally appreciated
I like the warmer ceramic sound (Albert Hammond jr used them in an MIM) but my ceramic pickups are cheap ones that came with a squier. Should I buy more expensive ceramic ones or will these ones sound the same enough.
Mine usually read 5.9 when I check any ceramic pickup and that is the same for usa standard probably won't change much
I bought a Strat Classic vibe 60's and I think it has alnico V, I was always used to ceramics, so I didn't like the alnico, I found it very sharp, very weak and a little artificial, could you tell me if alnicos are like that or my pickups are with defects?
i found the same thing to be true of alnico pickups i actually spent quite a bit of money on custom shop 54 pickups only to be disappointed underwhelmed and yes they were weak some others told me vintage pickups are kinda boring and to go with slightly overwound pickups I’ve measured alot of strat pickups and they are usually 5.9 on all 3 concluding that yea the magnets are the difference not usually the windings anyway i have a video on measuring the resistance without removing the pickups but i think they will all be 5.9 if you are already used to ceramics and you can tame them you kinda have something i personally like better. Then again leave stock pickups in it or it makes it less valuable.
This is a great video, I really hate that sound of the new Mexico Player Strat with alnico V pickups, I hope to get an old Mexico Standard Strat with ceramic pickups for lively sound. Thank you!
I get what you mean. In the bass realm almost everyone would go for Alnico's and thet swear by it. I've bought about 8 basses, all with Alnico and man I was never happy with my tone/sound. I'm more of a trebly/himids bass player, I hate dull bass tone. I needed to force a lot of highmids and treble to be able to hear myself but still the sound would come too harsh and piercing. After many years (12 years) I bought this cheap Jackson JS2 in new condition. Man the sound of this bass was amazing. I was really starting to think my sound was doomed, I had ampeg amplifiers/speakers, darkglass, modulers, the whole package to deliver a metal crushing bass tone but still couldn't have the sound I wanted but maaaan the Jackson delivered. I looked to see what made the bass sound so perfect for me. Was it the wood? (It has poplar body, one of the cheapest and "worst" woods) so no, it wasn't the wood. So I looked into the pickups and to my surprise they were Ceramic and passive pickups. It had to be that. Agresive yet sweet without piercing and I didn't even needed to eq the bass, it sounded amazing from the bass itself. So I really recommend ceramic passive good quality pickups.
What a awesome and inspirational comment really appreciate this
I played and heard both crappy ceramic and alnico pups and good ones. Dimarzio Super Distortion, EMG and Dimebucker are excellent ceramic pups.
Any opinions on Ibanez Classic Elite Humbuckers...in a semi-hollow guitar.?
This is what my guitar has.
I like humbuckers different sound than single coil very accurate sounding in my experience
I knew it! More sharp and dry and high pitch sound. I decide to combine it with sapele wood so I expect nicely balanced high pitch ear bleeding sound based on proper bass middle layer.
This info is told only but few.
Nice enjoy! Thanks for chillin
Hello, what do you think about the ceramic pickups of the 2009 Squier Bullet (branded SEM) ? i love the sound, but i want to sell the guitar... i have better guitars now. i would like have a set of pickups with a sound as good as the sem Bullet pickups. Thank you !
I think the bullet might sound good because of its thick neck the pickups were designed to work with that particular guitar sometimes putting them in something else won’t be the same tone
Many of the Dimarzio main bridge pickups are Ceramic pickups. But I'd say half of their overall catalog is 50/50. The rails are ceramics, the stacked hum cancelling strat pickups are all alnico. Go to the Eddie Van Halen and Satriani stuff it's alnico along with a lot of their PAF range with are mid to low output pickups. But the high out-put modern pickups are not just ceramic magnets, but tripple ceramic to mimic the active sound.
BareKnuckle I would say are another big reason for liking Ceramic pickups as they allow you to choose your magnet.
wonderful comment really appreciated
Generally squier pickups are very weak(low output) and noisy. I'm not sure about the affinity. What do you think about the pus of the bullet strat?
OffsetMind the bullet usually goes into 6k ohms resistance similar to a real strat these measure 5.5 Chinese guitar not a squire though
I'm about to buy a used bullet strat and thinking of changing the pus. I have an epiphone lp which has very bad muddy pus that I don't like at all. But there are many reasons why a pu may sound bad. It's their height position the pots and the wires. I read somewhere that epiphone used very thick wires, and that's why the pus cant transmit the higher frequencies. I'll maybe change only the pots, and see what I will get. Squier's 500k pots are generally high for single coils. Do you think that changing the pots is a good idea?
OffsetMind I generally do it to all my strats although people sometimes say to just clean the pots with electric cleaner I usually go with 250k audio taper pots for strats and 500k linear taper pots for les pauls just to stay traditional it depends on what year bullet you get vintage bullet pickups are great not to be changed bands like deth cab for cutie use the stock squire bullet pickups and made them popular they are nicely balanced more than a made in Mex ceramic pickup. never tried a newer bullet but people like the thick neck profile on newer bullets.
some say to change your capacitor to take out the highs if your guitar is too bright .47 is stock capacitor for a strat I just leave it there. haven't got any difference changing it around higher or lower so I stay stock.
I'm getting a 2007 hss model. Do you know if it's any good? The neck profile is thinner than the newer, because I don't really like thick necks. Thanks!
I am swapping out my 2018 squier bullet tele with some MIM fender pickups and caps. I am not looking for a big difference but to get a bit a clearler signal and more room to push the sound. I didn’t want to overshoot with crazy pickups, hope I notice at least a little improvement.
All the best for you it's always fun to roll the dice and come out with a great sound I have also used Mexican strat pickups in a squire and loved the results
How do you know if your pickup is ceramic?
If you look at the backside of the pickup typically there is a bar of ceramic magnet alnico will be small slugs the size of the holes in the pickup bobbin
I think you should do a side by side sound comparison. Try an Alnico 2 versus your best ceramic. Try different things and share. Lets hear. :)
Not a bad idea I haven’t played guitar in a while went towards bass and keys
Mr. Travis this is one very educational video and i would like to add , that most of guitars equipped with those ceramic pups are cheap and not well adjusted or with bad fretwork ... and that will make sound wrongly any pickups equipped guitar....
Thanks for leaving a positive comment much appreciated
Whats the difference with the bullet and affinity neck pick up? Or are they exactly the same?
It depends on the year of production some squier bullet pickups will be worth more or less money depending on the year but essentially there are only minor differences usually they measure 5.9k
@@travisguide4516 is the sound the same or is one hotter or more metallic than the other between bullet and affinity neck p sound
-I just bought a used Affinity Squier off of Craigslist - '04 Indonesian - so, how about the tonewood on it ?? - good/no good ?? what do you think ??
I had a 01’ that one was alder I think you may have a alder maybe not basswood is also likely and I like that too
@@travisguide4516 -it's a Strat - I don't know if there's a difference in the woods between the Tele & the Strat ??
So why does a cheap ceramic sound thin and fizzy? Too many windings and a small magent? I
My ceramics in my Ibanez s521 sound pretty good. It measures 7.5 dc resistance, and I think has a lower power magnet.
But it is definitely bright. I have to take out a lot of the highs with my 10 band eq. When I do that, it sounds great.
Steve vai uses them with big magnets and lots of wire won't sound thin then most of the cheap guitars will only wind as much as it takes and nothing more not bad some like that weak pickup thing but I think vintage underwound pickups sound thin too. Most of the pickups sound similar in my experience and most of their readings on the resistance rating are usually around 5.7-5.9 but occasionally on a very cheap guitar I find ones as low as 4.3 (mim strat traditional 98')
Can you change the bar to a neodymium magnet?
I would try to locate one from a newer deluxe strat that someone switched out and put on ebay
Anyone can do this.
Also a very popular hotrodding mod is - to slap the ceramic bar to the bottom Alnico pickups.
I just ordered the cheapest p90 p/u’s I could find on Amazon, I hope they’ll last long.
they are made of thin wire so they are a bit more fragile hope the beat for you im a huge p90 guy i don’t have anything with p90s right now
All of this is true about Neodymium, too. I'd say Neo even MORE so. All the body and bass of Ceramic with the clarity of Alnico, especially when you underwind compared to normal.
I have tried that material and yea its got it all
Why not both can’t two magnets fit on a pickup!?
don’t overthink it
Do you know any US made guitar pickup brands that make ceramic pickups that you'd recommend?
I haven't tried any other than seymour duncans and yeah I recommend them
It’s all about frequency response and tone. Ceramic doesn’t degauss when next to a magnet like Alnico does, they all don’t lose as much magnetism over time, traditional people think this loss is exotic in old alnico magnets, call it character, dopes.
ceramic are the best ,my favorite ic the dimarzio super distortion ,They sound so good clean and the best overdrive ,I have them in a super strat and less paul and explorer .I dont even think about any other,My gibsons are in a cigar box guitar I built and 2 of them are in my parts box,Why do you think all rock players from1973 to 2000 replaced those weak p a f of gibsons?
Excellent comment homie!
The pups ending up having lots of myths like ceramic vs alnico, wich is imho a matter of taste and totally subjetive and in most cases to help brands to make more money, just like the tonewood discussion. Nice video and thanks for sharing your experiences!
Exactly, it's personal preference. My favorite tend to be Alnico 2, and then ceramic. I tend to dislike most Alnico 5.
@@jefb3705 Yeah, there's ceramics that sound great, the matter is that the right pairing in between the amount of coil and the gauss.
So underrated video, only 8300 view after 5 years. Thx all on point
Thanks man
TRUTH ! ! ! Thanks
Still rockin my ceramics in almost all my guitars and bass guitars thanks for chillin
Not to complain, but you're looking at your screen instead of the camera-it's a bit unnerving lol
I do have a question for you, my guitar kit came with humbuckers with a single ceramic bar in between them instead of separate bars for each. Does that make the humbuckers weaker? These pickups sure sound great-clear bass and aggressive mids/highs.
I got a few with the bar across the back i like them the bar surpposedly makes for a fatter sound because of a wider magnetic field so as i understand less perfectly balanced but nice and warm. If you wanted more control over it i have some called fidelitrons from a 90s semi hollowbody gretch guitar and the theory on those is a magnet surrounded by a coil winding on every string making it more precise and also they can be adjusted individually
@@travisguide4516 Hey thanks man! Makes prefect sense too. Yes, making the magnetic field wider would even the tone out I suppose. Still, it's crisp and very distinct notes even when all strings are played, which is great. Thanks again.
Are the singer from black witchery?
I’m afraid I’m not
Joe plays alnico 5 pickups
Joe he a good guy
People are just ignorant & closed minded to so many guitar myths & even other things. They hear with they eyes. 99% of people don't understand tech especially with pickups. Just cause you played for 50 years doesn't make you tech savvy.
Yeah i hear ya!
Ceramic magnets are cheaper to make, thus the propaganda and wife's tales. Every guy doing a sound comparison here on youtube has almost (ALMOST) every tone more attractive to me being the ceramic.
nice comment appreciate it
The aura around ceramic pickups is dumb... I would take the ceramic pickups in the fender standard strat over that of the alnico pickups in the player strat any day of the week.
Word
Use your ears, adjust the amp. Let it rip.
Good advice
it's hard to listen to anyone wearing a hat like that
Lol
I have 57 classic plus pickups in my all maple hollow body tele. They sound great but they are pricey. But you know i just want to be better then anyone else. And i am a lot smarter then i look. I mean a whole lot!
I had some custom shop 54 pickups in a 70s strat and somehow they were too weak for me