Interesting Pickup Test Request

[weimark]

hello guys,

i was thinking what a very cheap guitar (~150$) would sound with high quality pickups like duncans or dimarzios. unfortunately i don't have the extra money or time to spend. so i was wondering if someone of you could do it. pick a pretty cheap guitar, record some clean and distorted clips and then change the pickups and do it again. c'mon it would be very interesting to see the results. so if anybody could do it that would be pretty awesome!!

 

[weimark]

c'mon guys that's going to be fun!!

 

[Nebulous]

Without sounding like an ass, from experience I can tell you that they exactly sound like:

a very cheap guitar with duncans or dimarzios.

There is no substitute for quality wood and construction.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

The last guy to ask the forum to buy equipment and test it out because they where broke or to cheap to try it themselves was told to "piss off".

Anyway, the big thing with middle level guitars (300-1000 USD) range tend to have good woods, but lack in hardware, replacing things like the bridge, pickups, electronics, and nut tend to make leap and bounds better results. Guitars under 300 will tend to be cheap all around including the wood and no amount of upgrades will fix. Sure upgrading pickups will help a bit, but not dramatic with a sub-par guitar.

 

[weimark]

hmm, why wood actually affect the tone that much? i can't understand it.

yeah i'm not saying it doesn't but i would like to know

 

[::XeS::]

Why in your opinion a guitar can cost 1000€ instead of 100€ if not for better woods/construction? Different woods react different to the vibration generating a different sound..
If the wood doesn't affect the sound we could play plastic guitars, don't you think?

 

[weimark]

Why in your opinion a guitar can cost 1000€ instead of 100€ if not for better woods/construction?

more careful construction, the brand on the headstock and better electronics, tremolo, etc...

but yeah most probably you're right.
although i would like to see what we can do with crap gear.

 

[::XeS::]

The brand yes....a little bit (a lot in some cases) but:
better electronics = 2-3€ more...electronic is 5-6 wires (0.5mm wires), 2-3 pots and pickups...not a lot
Tremolo...it depends...a good fixed bridge + good hardware cost 100€, not 500€...a little bit more for a floyd rose
The rest is better woods and as you said, better construction.

 

[weimark]

hmm anyway it would be interesting if someone could do the test. i would do it but i only have money to eat for the rest of the month god damn it.

 

[JakeAC5253]

In my experience it has made more of a difference where the pickups are placed rather than the tonewoods. Those of you who have pickups mounted directly to pickguards can verify this. Buy two pickguards with the bridge pickup hole drilled in two different distances from the bridge and using the exact same pickup and guitar tone woods you get an entirely different EQ curve. I'm not trying to debunk tone woods or anything, but bridge pickup distance from the bridge is not a spec sheet variable yet it is very tonal, whereas tone woods are a spec sheet variable... and notice that no one can ever agree on what a certain wood sounds like...

I think the guitar design having to do with the active string length and the resonant network there is going to have much more effect on tone than a different wood grain structure or shape in the body portion of the design. The main thing that the body of the guitar does is reduce vibrational damping by acting to make the bridge appear more massive to the vibrating string length and thus better tone and sustain. This is the same thing that brass blocks in floating trem guitars attempt to do.

 

[drawnacrol]

hmm, why wood actually affect the tone that much? i can't understand it.

yeah i'm not saying it doesn't but i would like to know

Wood and construction is what makes up the major tone of a guitar. After playing lots of 2 grand+ guitars I've realized how small a part pickups play in your tone unless your using mid heavy woods or actives. Of course you have to match pickups with woods but in the end a good pickup is only going to amplify the low quality woods in a cheap guitar.

Give this page a read and you'll be surprised at how different each wood sounds.
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BodyWoodOptions.aspx

 

[weimark]

unless your using mid heavy woods or actives.

interesting post my friend!!
actives? what's the difference with actives?

is there another way to make a cheap guitar sound good?

 

[weimark]

btw which is the difference between let's say basswood that a high quality instruments have vs a low quality?

 

[StefTD]

a high quality guitar is drier most of the time because it was stored longer, cheap guitars are usually stored
for a short time and not as dry and expensive guitars use selected wood.

my grandfather for example was a turner, had loads of wood at home, they all sounded different when you
knock on them, the older and drier (dryed under good conditions) the louder they were.
And even 2 pieces of mahagony that were selected by the same guy and dried for the same time can sound
really different.