weirdest / strangest pickups ever?

[nathan a]

So I recieved my UPS tracking number, and my warmoth order arrives in one week !!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, I have an old-ish decent quality knockaround guitar -- basically a frankenstein monster, with a bridge from one, neck from another, body from yet another, etc etc. No original parts.

It's been sitting around gathering dust because I never bothered to put the neck back on it, since I never got around to buying pickups for it. H-S-H setup.

Basically, I want to try out the weirdest pickups you guys know of. Anything strange sounding, bizzare, whatever. I'm also thinking about just wiring a standard pup set in interesting combinations. Parallel, phase stuff, etc.

I considered turning this into a monster synth guitar, but that would just be too expensive.

So I'm just looking for weird or unusual pickup sounds -- suggestions?

 

[DiMitriR33]

http://www.q-tuner.com/gl7.shtml
check these out. i stumbled on the link a few months back. i wonder how they sound?

 

[nathan a]

http://www.q-tuner.com/gl7.shtml
check these out. i stumbled on the link a few months back. i wonder how they sound?

Hm... Those sound fascinating. They claim they just sound like amazing pickups, but considering the design is COMPLETELY different, they must sound different as well. They're pretty expensive, but I'll definitely consider them. Thanks a lot!

I can't decide if i think they look ugly as sin, or just really badass.

 

[Kostas]

http://www.q-tuner.com/gl7.shtml
check these out. i stumbled on the link a few months back. i wonder how they sound?

Hm... Those sound fascinating. They claim they just sound like amazing pickups, but considering the design is COMPLETELY different, they must sound different as well. They're pretty expensive, but I'll definitely consider them. Thanks a lot!

I can't decide if i think they look ugly as sin, or just really badass.

I didn't like the demos, but if I was to buy them, transparent would be my choice!

 

[jackthehack]

Well, I can't decide if they're "ugky either, but they do come in black/white as well as the transparent; might look sharp if you had a body color scheme that worked with the reddish exposed wire on the transparent ones....

 

[lucB18e]

Well, I can't decide if they're "ugky either, but they do come in black/white as well as the transparent; might look sharp if you had a body color scheme that worked with the reddish exposed wire on the transparent ones....

I think transparent is the way to go with q-tuner. it's sad not to expose the red wires.
I've a Hi-Z HB + S + S set order for my warmoth (orange body with gold 'paintwithpearls'
something like the orange chewy at the end of this link
http://paintwithpearl.com/pearlstore.htm
if I manage to paint this correctly....
:laughing11:

wiring? very simple as q-tuners have only 2 wires.
a 3 gibson style selector (bridge - (middle neck)
a small switch to choose the middle conf : in series with the neck, off or in //.
I might have the best of gibson and fender sounds,

 

[Alfang]

I have an opinion on those pickups,  Ugly.  But my mind can be changed if they sound like no other pickup. And I mean they better sound Good.

John

 

[nathan a]

So, somehow I didn't realize there were sound clips on the website. I seriously dislike the distorted clip, but the clean clip was very interesting, almost like a magnetic acoustic pickup. I'm not sure if they're worth the money for me though.

 

[Alfang]

I was unable to get a sample sounds of those Q-tuner pickups.  But one thing occured to me a moment ago as I was looking at their website.

They have clear, red and black. It appears to be a pickup which has been basically encased in acrylic plastic,  or something similar.

I bet you could paint them and shine em up real nice. To me that would be a big plus for those pickups

John

 

[nathan a]

I bet you could paint them and shine em up real nice.

Those of us with less than perfect technique would hardly benefit. My naked-lady painted pups would get all scratched.

 

[RLW]

Mighty Mite did something similar in the late 70's, clear plastic bobbins. I have a set in my ancient Tele Deluxe.

 

[DiMitriR33]

i got the audio to work on my computer today.
i hope these p/u's don't realy sound like that distorted clip. that was god awful. too many fx. not sure what the guitar player was shootin for but it was bad. the clean clip had interesting thing going on but the playing needed work.

 

[Alfang]

Dimitri, I finnaly got those clips to play as well, and I had the same thoughts, I didn't think the pups sounded that good, and the clips were too busy with sounds going everywhere. the guitarist or producer or whatever, was trying to impress us with a bunch o bullsh**.

If they wanna impress me, a simple chord and an arpegio , 1 clean, 1 dirty, will do just fine, straight forward and to the point.

I wouldn't buy a pickup from them based soley on their sound clip, what an embarassment.

 

[CD]

That sound clip was a little out there, but I'm not sure I'd blame it on the pickup itself, because there are so many effects going on it seems.

 

[Alfang]

CD  That's my point, there was too many sound effects and stuff going in random directions, it was really hard to get an idea of the true sound of the pickup.
I didn't think the guitarist was that good either, sounded like he was showing off a new trick that he wasn't yet good at. (and probably never will be)

So the guys in charge at that company or whatever are either A) making noise they think we wanna hear
                                                                                        B) Trying to cover up how bad they really sound

But as I sat here squinting my eyes, listening intently, what I perceived as the "sound" of the pickup wasn't that good.

The long and short of it for me......I might as well blame the pickup, because it's the product in the sound bite, that they are trying to sell us. 
And the sound bite sucks.

Maybe someone here will buy one and let us all know

 

[allium_sativum]

For oddest looking pickup that fits a standerd mount.  The Lace Alumitone.  From what I have read it does not sound special, but it does not have polls, or normal coils. 


http://agi-lace.com/electric_pickups/alumitone/alumitone_specs.php

 

[jackthehack]

I was intrigued by the look of the Alumitones, but saw a guy playing a set in an alder Strat and they sounded pretty "muddy", but didn't hang around enough to figure out if his stage setup was as much to blame as the pickups (nontube Marshall half stack and a pile of effects). Anybody on the board ever actually paly a set of these?

My Lace Arena set came today; can't wait to drop them in the next order coming in, will report back with sound clip once I do...

 

[WarmothRules]

I think the q-tunes sound awesome. Very "glassy". Clean they sound a bit like a plugged in highend nylon string acoustic. I wish they had a clip of the distorted track with just rythem playing.  :headbang1:

 

[allium_sativum]

I was intrigued by the look of the Alumitones, but saw a guy playing a set in an alder Strat and they sounded pretty "muddy", but didn't hang around enough to figure out if his stage setup was as much to blame as the pickups (nontube Marshall half stack and a pile of effects). Anybody on the board ever actually play a set of these?

My Lace Arena set came today; can't wait to drop them in the next order coming in, will report back with sound clip once I do...

From what I can tell the Alumitones have very little character them selves.  They pick up the sound of the Guitar far more.  So in a Les Paul they will sound dark, in a Parker Fly they will be very bright.  I have heard very good things about them, except they really don't seem to have their own sound and they are not high output.  In the end they are very odd pickups.

 

[nathan a]

From what I can tell the Alumitones have very little character them selves.  They pick up the sound of the Guitar far more.  So in a Les Paul they will sound dark, in a Parker Fly they will be very bright.  I have heard very good things about them, except they really don't seem to have their own sound and they are not high output.  In the end they are very odd pickups.

Hmmm that wouldn't work out too well, the guitar in question is basswood with approximately 10,000,000 coats of spraypaint.