Frugal Pickup Fix Needed

[Pearly Gator]

My Ibanez Artstar AS-73 is in need of a pickup swap. It is a sweet playing set neck 335 style guitar that I use for jazz and blues. The stock ceramic humbuckers sound poor for this application. Any ideas for an economical fix?

Thank you,

PG

[kewlpack]

Any ideas for an economical fix?

PG

Ehm... a good old Lucille should do you fine.

'Economical' is relative! :shock: j/k ;)

I bet Rev can give you some good feedback here - he's a genius.
~A~

[reverbbb]

GENIUS!!!!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

You crack me up! I seem to be a genius at getting myself into trouble most of the time. :wink:

Gary:

I'm not sure what to tell you about "fixing" the sound. I would assume that most pups sound OK, and some excel. But tastes in sound is so relative to the listener, it is hard to make a recommendation on how to "improve" the sound.

But here is what I would do. If you have a known sound that you are hoping to find, then find out what pup most often comes close to that sound. I would suspect that even an Epi Humbucker might come close to what you want (although they tend to sound thinner than Gibson HB to my ears). Then look for a set on eBay that came out of a guitar for the sake of an upgrade. Let's say that you were fortunate enough to find a set of 490R/490T for $100. Then sell your HB for $25~50. Then hopefully, your net cost is only $50.

Check out Gibson's chart for sonic output comparison:

Gibson Humbuckers (http://www.gibsonstrings.com/pickups/howmade.shtml)

Or go to the Seymour Duncan site and let their software selector help you with some choices:

Seymour Duncan Selector (http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/SDToneWizard)

Or the Semour Duncan tone chart:

Seymour Duncan Tone Chart (http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/tonechart.shtml)

[Pearly Gator]

Thanks for your replies. The sound I'm looking for is both BB King's Lucille sound and the Alman Brothers Band sound on the intro to "One Way Out. Then, on the Jazz side, Wes Montgomery. So, we're talking Gibson humbuckers with alnico magnets.

I can buy new Gibson 490's for $62 each. In consideration are pickups from Stewart MacDonald. The EMS Select ($24 each) and the Schaller Golden 50's ($38 each) because of the low price. Emphasis on low price. Then again, replacement magnets are $12 each, if they will fit in the Ibanez pickups. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Parts/5/Humbucker_Pickup_Parts.html

What to do, what to do. If the low price options turn out to be poor choices, $124 will look like a bargain.

PG

[Crunchyriff]

PG- I would sidestep the Stew Mac offerings and go with something from RioGrande. Their 'vintage-y' wound p'ups probably are better than the Gibby 490, and probaby less $$ too.

[Pearly Gator]

RioGrande's are less than $67.00?? Link please!

Thanks,

PG

[32203miracle]

You can get DiMarzio's from Elderly Instruments for around $60 - $65.

http://www.elderly.com

I have their Bluesbucker pickup in two of my guitars and really love the sound. I think you would be happy with it. JMHO

You might want to get in touch with Curtis Novak. He can rewind the pups for you $35 each I think and he can give you some good options. He made me a set of vintage pups for my tele and I love them.

www.novaks.org

Hope these two options help.

Everett

[Crunchyriff]

PG- WOW I don't know RG's prices have gone up- the last time I looked (just two years or so ago) they were about 60 bucks apiece....

Retail is @$106 for the Texas or BBQ bucker...online sales at stores should be 60-70 bucks..I'll see what I can find.

[Brad]

Reverrrrrbbbbbb....have you made the plunge yet? I can recommend the Stew MAc Golden Age pups. I've used them in several projects and they are excellent sounding pickups regardless of cost. Check out the new GFS line. Low cost and everyone seems to rave about them. I bought one of their Dream 180s. Humbucker/Filtertron cross. I have not tried it out yet, but it looks to of quality construction. Rondo music also offers some nice sounding alnico ll buckers for cheap. These get rave reviews. Again, I have not tried them, just going by others raves.

[Crunchyriff]

Check out:

www.HighOrderPickups.com

This guy makes GREAT handwound pickups for a VERY reasonable price

@ $50-60 apiece.

He comes highly recommended, and I'm about to spring for some myself.

[Pearly Gator]

Thanks for the link, Crunchyriff. Interesting looking PUPs!

BTW, I went with Golden Age pickups on my Artcore 335 copy. SWEET! I think I'll sell my Gibson guitars now. :cool:

PG

[SAguitar]

Cool. Another happy customer! :cool: