Pickups you love or Loathe

[kimball492]

The ones I hate the most where on a Gibson Les Paul I thought After reading how tremendous The EMG 81 and 85's where They are muddy and sound over compressed awful sound. Switched them out for some Lindy Fralin Pure PAF. Also again a pair of EMG 40 Hz bass pickups flat and lifeless may buy pre amp or will change for some Bensons.

Now to my Favourites
American Deluxe Telecaster I removed the originals and fitted a pair Bill Lawrence Pickups before he sold the business, stunning sound.

Fender American Strat fitted a set of John Benson JM pickups position 4 is amazing.

Fender Blacktop fitted a set of Custom John Bensons

Warmoth Precision Bass Custom Bensons Modelled on Pino Palladinos Pickup.

DB made strat body again John Benson Customs.

Love the Pickups on my ibanez SDGR SR900 Bass Bartolini Mk 1 with pre amp

[wokkaboy]

good one KB, you are sponsored by Bensons pups !

might as well put a plug for DB hates GFS pups ! add it to the 55 terabyte DB hates document haha

[kimball492]

Lol do you know it's funny you search through so many pickups that are harsh or muddy then you find something that shines you stick to em . Not sponsored by John at Bensons I've had to buy every one lol. But again you find something a bit special you have to recommend to others. Does anyone have DBs things not to buy bible in PDF format lol.

[kimball492]

What's your fav and most disliked pickups Woks

[wokkaboy]

haha KB, the pdf is too large to send or I'm waiting for a 100TB external drive to come out to get a copy.

I haven't played with that many pup manufacturers to comment KB, I've been happy with Toneriders and Entwistles for value for money. Have a set of TonyW pups being wound at the moment for a tele baritone.
I have a set of active EMGs (not sure the model #) in an Ibanez and they sound great, not too muddy.

I must try some Benson pups in a special build, got to save up for them !

[tonyw]

Like: Very Very good are Bill Lawrence (Wilde Bill not the other bloke) and Harmonic Design, i also like the G&L MFD pickups designed by Leo.

Dislike: anyone that talks crap about their product, and or uses inferior materials.

[kimball492]

I've met a Bill and his wife Becky both wind. Fabulous tele pickups. You have to be careful because there are two companies called Lawrence pickups only one of them that makes the genuine Bill Lawrence. Bill once stated that the other pickups where fakes. http://www.kramerforum.com/reviews/billlawrence.html Totally agree Tony nothing worse than people blowing there own trumpet and not backing it up.

Wilde Pickups, also known as "Bill and Becky," are manufactured by Willi Lorenz Stitch (Bill Lawrence) and his wife Becky. The family has long claimed that the pickups sold by EZ Wajcman are "counterfeit" and have implied that the trademark passed to EZ Wajcman unfairly.
Generally, it is not uncommon that a "named" brand passes to another person or company. In the guitar business, the Charvel brand was passed from Wayne Charvel to Grover Jackson, Kramer was passed from Gary Kramer to Dennis Berardi and Peter LaPlaca, etc. Examples of this are many and they don't imply that the quality is negatively impacted after the brand is contractually passed to another party or company.
Willi Lorenz was born in 1931 near Cologne, Germany and passed away on November 2, 2013. It is unclear whether his family will continue the business after his passing.Bill made sme stunning pickups for Gibson also. Sad loss to the industry real nice guy.

Woks DB has some great EMG bass pickups. I was unfortunate bought them just after they changed manufacturer from Stew Mac. The ones I have are the newer ones who knows where they are made.I should get the EMG 81/ 85s re wound.ill get round to it.

In truth Woks I've known John Benson when he first started building guitars and making pickups. He's just a really nice down to earth,hard working family guy that's very humble.

[dingobass]

Used to love the EMG HZ's, but as Kimball said they are crap now.
What I have discovered is pups wound by guys like our Tony are, generally speaking, far superior to the big name ones.

Had a Guitar in last week, owner was complaining that the pups had no balls.
They were one of the big name brands that retail for an arm, leg and your left testicle.
As an experiment, I dropped a set of Tone riders in for him to road test. He rang me last night and after a few minutes of heavy breathing announced they were miles ahead of the sd's...

As for gfs, well, they are no better than the stock PBG pups. Probably come out the same factory in China.

[wokkaboy]

wow DB, so what model Toneriders did you put in and were they humbuckers or single coils ?

[dingobass]

Rock songs, Woks.