Guitar Myths: Boutique pick-ups vs. Cheap pick-ups

Can $50 pickups in an Epiphone have any hope of competing with $2180 Bare Knuckles in a Gibson. I try and find out.
Guitars: 2004 Epiphone Les Paul
2008 Gibson Shred X Explorer with Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat (Neck), NailBomb (Bridge)

Utkarsh Mohan is a Singapore based guitarist and author of "The God of Sex & Gold and Rock'n'Roll"

[snooze]

I found a huge difference when played clean. The BK had way more clarity and overall nicer but as soon as you introduce heavy distortion to the mix i find the quality of the pick ups tend to be less a factor.

[drbonkerssoundlabllc]

It's amazing how close the differences really are in certain applications. I am sure if you had a comparison of two exact model guitars of the same age with the only difference between them was the pickups, then the differences might be even closer across all applications. BTW your tone through the Helix sounds great, no matter which guitar you are using.

[kcrich]

My opinion on why the biggest difference is in the metal tones. Metal isn't as popular or been around as long as music using cleaner tones therefore most pickups are designed with cleaner tones in mind. The challenge with modern metal tones is players want crushing distortion yet not have a muddy sound and have single note clarity. Add in the need for rapid-fire palm muted pick attack which aren't required of most musical styles. These tones are almost diametrically opposed to each other. Add in the factor of lower tunings and the challenge becomes even more formidable. Pickups such as Bare Knuckles are designed by people who are metal players and understand the nuances of what metal players are looking for as opposed to someone putting a standard pickup into a guitar that who knows what the purchaser will be

[realguitarshredder]

I had one of the first bare knuckles nailbomb when they came out back in england. and I see what you mean. I had the confusion thinking was I worth it. lol

[bluewater]

I wonder what impact, if any, the skill level of the guitarist would have on the difference between expensive and inexpensive pickups...

[skeevybastid]

Tone is not vastly different when comparing to your epiphone and gibson explorer but to my ears enough for me to choose bare knuckles eventough their expansive.

[McFlyGuitarsandStuff]

Just think of it this way. It's really just wire wrapped around some pole pieces on a bobbin. These people are charging an incredible amount of money. I'm not saying they're pickups sound bad but really magic Mojo that's what they're really selling. It's called marketing.

[Johnny-WaIker]

The explorer has more clarity tone with nice sustains while the gibson was too dry and kinda muddy. When it comes to guitar pickups, there are tons of variety out there with different tonality etc, your ears and playing skill level have the biggest role on finding what's the right tone for you weather it's cheap or expensive. But if i were you, pick the best affordable ones you like the most.

[rifflibrary]

Are you using ceramic or alnico Nailbomb?

[dragtrn]

Just use a compressor and bit of eq on ur epiphone... It will sound like the bareknuckle or maybe even better.. shape the tone dont rely on the pickup itself... if ur guitars pickups are low output turn on the gain on ur amp a bit more... Its good for ur pocket too...

[agdtec]

I work an guitars, not as a main source of income but as a second job, I have an Epiphone Les Paul which I modded to be like the Gibson LP "Push Tone". I use it to have customers test out pickups. I have an extensive collection of Seymore Duncan and Dimarzio pickups I have some other company pickups as well. Most pickups have some differences but many have more of what you desire in tone than others. Without knowing the brand and model pickups in the Epiphone, it could be there are modeled to get s similar tone as the BareKnuckle. Try Alico 2 Alico 5 and ceramic magnets the will be a difference in tone. Swapping out pickups takes a bit of trialand error but start with the tone of players you most like and see what they use.

[rebeccabailey]

Im not a metal player, but there is a great deal of difference between very cheap pickups and decent quality pickups, but handwound boutique pickups arent any better than decent machine wound pickups.

[josedealva]

through that gear it sounds exactly the same, its all in your mind, a pair of $5 chinese pickups will sound good with adequate post processing, the rules are there, gain, compression, eq, havent you learnt anything ppl?

[rowlandstraylight]

There's a big difference between vintage voiced pickups and more modern voicings, I've owned cheap and expensive pickups right across the scale. I think most important is having a pickup that's right for the music you play. A vintage style paf is great for cleans and a bit of crunch, but is a hindrance for tight staccato djenty riffs. Similarly a pickup aimed at djenty players is unlikely to sound right for something really bluesy. And the pickup needs to be right for the guitar too, a DiMarzio Tone Zone kicks ass in a bright basswood and maple superstrat with a big metal trem, but sounds very muddy in an all mahogany guitar with a fixed string-through bridge.

Some of the voicing changes between pickups are to do with the quality of materials. A lot of cheap pickups use pole pieces made out of the cheap soft iron (often derided as monkey metal or cheese, particularly when heads mince or bolts snap easily) which tends to sound softer and flubbier as it's more easily magnetised and retains magnetic charge for longer acting as a low pass filter. A quick way to a tighter voicing is to use high tensile steel bolts and set screws, which aren't as magnetic as soft iron so filter out less of the highs. This approach is obvious on the SD invader (big button headed screws), DiMarzio SuperDistortion (both coils M5 set screws) and DiMarzio Evolution (both coils M3 hex socket cap screws)

Higher end pickup manufacturers can and do use pole pieces and fillister screws made out of carefully selected steel, and might go as far as machining elaborate shapes - DiMarzio's 'Air' series uses a stepped slug to introduce a small air gap between magnet and pole pieces in order to emulate a weaker magnet more consistently.

Then you need to consider winding techniques, pattern wound is very cheap for large operations and produces a very tightly packed coil. Handwound pickups produce a less densely packed coil which has a lower capacitance so the same number of winds will sound brighter and louder. Programmatically machine scatterwound pickups are cheaper than handwinding in large volume and achieve a result very similar to a good handwinder.

High end pickup manufacturers can afford a lot of research into specially voiced pickups. It's fairly easy to emulate a vintage fender or Gibson pickup, the specs are well known. New voicings cost money.

I've had a few pickups from cheaper 'name brand' aftermarket suppliers and whilst the high output is nice some of them feel a bit lifeless with more effort being put into a cosmetic copy rather than duplicating the sound.

Pinch harmonics are where I really notice the difference between pickups, good ones have the harmonics leap out, cheap ones are usually not so good.

The harshest part is the difference between a guitar played solo and played with a full band or a layered recording. There are some very full sounding inexpensive pickups out there and they sound great solo, but get lost in the mix, conversely the thin and icepicky Dimarzio Evolution cuts through a buisy mix and doesn't need massive levels to be audible. This is really good for putting subtle harmony parts in behind a singer or over a thick rhythm guitar.

[meadish]

The difference, as you say, is not that great. Certainly not worth the money for most people. That said, I do find the Bare Knuckles being more defined. And this is also the reason why the finger picking sounds better in places on the Epiphone - 'sweet' is partially a function of not too much definition.

[agras]

You are true. Materials to make a pickup are cheap. No matter who made pickups. For BKP you pay mostly for the work - not materials. Those are good pickups but in reality those aren't much different in tone when compared to e.g. Duncans. In band mix nobody will hear the difference in nyances. Check btw polish Merlin pickups.

[lordhumungous]

The BK's had more top end sparkle, which I like.

[keithrowe]

I'm not a fan of boutique pickups, but through my headphones, the cheap ones really did sound dead, lifeless, muddy. The BN's were much more crisp. Maybe that's as simple as having more top end, I don't know. And I don't know if it's worth paying that much more.

[underpressureman]

I think you made a mistake in the description, you said $2180 bareknucles?

[bobsullivan]

I would like to see a acoustics engineer apply a known input to these pickups and run the outputs through a ociloscope for waveform analysis.
Remove the subjectivity from the analysis and compare the results.