We have what hack writers would call an “embarrassment of riches” in this era of big brand and small boutique humbuckers.  Reality check – a pickup is a simple thing, with a handful of parts, and can be made on fairly modest machinery.  In some cases, people even make their own pickup winders out of old sewing machines.  Factor in the fact that pickups are made all over the world now, and you’ve got a massive, confusing market, with prices from $9.99 all the way up to $500.

But they don’t all sound the same.  Unlike the tone wood debate, which will rage forevermore, most smart people agree that pickups can make a big difference in your sound.  Brief review – assuming you have a decent sounding instrument to begin with, by far the biggest impact on your sound is your amp.  Pedals factor in, also, if you’re a person who likes your dirt solid state or emulated instead of using tubes.  The guitar is a distant third.  But the pickups might be the most important part of the guitar in terms of contributing to your overall sound.

I’ve been playing electric guitar for over 30 years, on stage and in studios, and I trust my ears.  But all of this is personal.  Your mileage may vary.  With that out of the way, the pickups I actually record with are…

  1. Fender Texas Specials.  These are hot single coil pickups designed by Fender to try to give you that Stevie Ray Vaughn sound.  Do they?  Yeah.  But only if you want to sound like Stevie going nuts, which is one of my fave sounds.  When I think Strat, I think SRV going nuts.  I used this sound on my latest album “The One Thing” on the song “Rained On.”  It’s on a few other songs as well.  It’s one of my fave sounds.
  2. Fender Tex-Mex.  I have a set of these that came with my yellow MIM 48th Street Strat – single coils in the neck and middle, humbucker in the bridge.  I prefer the Texas Specials, but I used the Tex-Mex Strat on almost every song of my 2006 album “Never Completely.”  I’m in the process of rebuilding that yellow Strat, for no other reason than nostalgia – it was my first actual Fender Stratocaster.  I don’t give a rat’s ass that it was made in Mexico – it was made by FENDER.  But the neck is so far gone that I’m probably going to need to replace it.  It came with vintage frets which I hate, and I played it into the wood, and then refretted it, and played it into the wood, etc.  Too many refrets.  Time for a new neck.  Anyway…
  3. Dimarzio Super Distortion.  This is currently in my Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus, which is a sunburst.  I’m pretty sure it’s on a track or two on my latest album, but I’ve never kept very good notes.  Right now I’ve got that Les Paul set up Nashville style, so there are no low notes.  I can’t wait to use it on a track.  The Super Distortion might as well be called the Scorpions/Ace Frehley pickup, because that’s what they used in the 70’s.  It’s a ceramic high output humbucker, higher output than most of the stock Gibson pickups.  These guys wanted more gain.  It’s good at giving you clear tones under heavy gain, and you can hear individual notes in chords very well.  But the overall sound is not to my general liking for most things.  Mostly when I want a humbucker I’ll use a…
  4. Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates.  Long suffering site readers are sick of me ejaculating about how great this pickup is.  It was designed to duplicate the sound of a vintage classic PAF 1959 Les Paul Humbucker.  Specially, it’s the early ZZ Top sound, because it was based on Billy Gibbons’ 1959 Les Paul named Pearly Gates.  I own three of these.  When you find your fave humbucker, you see it can improve any humbucking guitar’s sound and you do the swap thing.  I’m also a Gibson BurstBucker fan.  I dig them, but I don’t as of yet own any.  Almost every guitar solo on my latest album is my PRS SE Custom 24 with a Pearly Gates in the bridge through a 20 watt Peavey tube head.
  5. Fender Texas Specials.  Again, but this time for my Fender MIM Telecaster.  I also replaced the bridge saddles with brass saddles specially adjusted to not have shitty intonation, which made the guitar a lot better, but that’s another story.  These are high output Custom Shop pickups.  I think they sound great.  They’re fat and loud.  To me, a Tele needs all the fat it can get, because it’s a thin sound to begin with.  Great pairing.
  6. Gibson P90.  I don’t know the specifics, but they’re in my 2013 Gibson Les Paul 50’s Tribute.  They’re fantastic.  What else can I say?  That guitar was my primary instrument on my latest album “The One Thing,” which is why it’s on the cover.  Am I pimping my own music too much?  Hell, I’m not even providing links.  If you want to hear the stuff, it’s all on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.  This guitar through my Peavey 20 watt head was the main guitar sound (but not guitar solos) on the album.  It’s old school rock raunchy and I love it.
  7. Gibson Dirty Fingers.  The guitar solo and rhythm work on the song “Rained On” on my latest album is my 2013 Gibson Les Paul 70’s Tribute.  That guitar came stock with Dirty Finger pickups.  They’re ceramic high output pickups similar to the Super Distortion.  I think they sound a little bit better.  But it’s not my sound, so I did yank them.  They’re currently in a Epiphone Les Paul.  And in their place on the Gibson, I put a Pearly Gates in the bridge, and in the neck I put a…
  8. Epiphone ProBucker.  Yeah, I have an Epiphone pickup in my Gibson.  How’s that for dumb?  Why?  Because I almost never use the neck pickup.  And when I do, they all sound like mud to me anyway, so it’s a placeholder.  I don’t like this pickup.  At all.  Eventually I’ll replace it.
  9. GFS Humbucker Alnico II.  I have a pair of these in my Squier Jagmaster.  They sound pretty decent.  For the money, they’re great, because they’re dirt cheap.  I’d call these superior to the Epiphone pickups.  But they tend to be a bit noisy.  These appear on the song “Bad Day” on, you guessed it, my latest album.
  10. G&B Humbuckers.  I have a PRS SE Custom 24 and a PRS S2 Satin Standard 24.  Both came with G&B pickups.  I am not sure, but some of these pickups might have ended up in a recording somewhere.  In both guitars I replaced the bridge pickups with Pearly Gates (as you do.)  Again, I almost never use the neck pickups, so both still have the G&B pickups in the neck.  Much like the Epiphone ProBuckers, I think they’re too hot and too muddy.

I have the stock pickups in my Jackson Adrian Smith budget model, and I don’t like them.  What to do?  Right now, the guitar doesn’t play all that well.  If I can get it to play awesome, I might spend the money to replace the pickups.

Pickups I want (It’s a very short list:)

  • Gibson BurstBucker 1 and 2.  These sound great and I want them, for the right price, for my Les Paul 70’s Tribute.
  • Gibson 490R and 490T.  Great sounding pickups – love ’em.  Similar to the Pearly Gates in a way.  Vintage PAF sound.  Great for rock.
  • Fender Shawbucker.  These sound sort of like BurstBucker 2 pickups to me.  It’s a semi-hot sounding humbucker with a lot of growl, and I think it sounds great.  I’d love a Strat with two single coil Texas Specials and a Shawbucker in the bridge.  That’d be a better version of what my 48th Street MIM Strat was.

I told you it was a short list.  There are, no doubt, other fantastic pickups out there.  Probably most pickups over $100 sound great.  I’ll keep listening, learning, and discovering.