Cheap Pickups?

[Nanker Phelge]

What are some good cheap pickups? I have a beater guitar with 2 humbuckers that I’m looking to replace, but don’t want to break the bank.

Looking for something aggressive, not necessarily active.

 

[owlexifry]

i’m not sure what cheap means for you, but for a bridge pickup:
- imo the seymour duncan JB or Distortion humbuckers are well-priced, solid winners that sound great in just about anything. i have them both.

JB is heaps common, gets fitted to a shitload of factory guitars, so shouldn’t be hard to find used / secondhand.

 

[gunch]

dragon fire screamer
tonerider generator
entiwistle hdn
used agile cepheus (improbable)
bill Lawrence l500xl

I’m sure artec has OEM’d some kind of other insane aggressive and tight pickup but those are the ones off the top of my head

 

[sonoftheoldnorth]

UK has Iron Gear which are pretty good for cheap. No idea if worth it with any currency conversion, postage, customs etc. But yeah; figure out what pickups you want and look used.

And if you don't use the neck pickup much, don't bother replacing it.

 

[Chri]

Just find some Jackson humbuckers that somebody ripped out of their guitar before even trying. Even the stuff from the JS line is killer.

 

[budda]

Gfs, agile, amazon

 

[DoctorStoner]

Duncan Designed - used for pennies on the dollar. $25-$40 per set.
USA SD or Dimarzio - Used sets for probably under $100 if you look.
I like Kiesel pickups, people will sell like new pull outs for ~$50 per set.

 

[SalsaWood]

Used Dimarzio PAF (not Ibanez/Jackson) or JB59s. PAFs are less aggressive, but with their excellent response you'll never notice it.

 

[Drew]

Another vote for used, non-trendy Dimarzio or Duncan. They're pretty cheap, and there's a lot of awesome sounding options out there that aren't the flavor of the month. And, I still haven't found anything I like in the neck position more than a PAF Pro.

 

[littlebadboy]

Hi! Take a look at Guitar Madness pickups on eBay. They are getting great reviews around the guitar-playing communities. I have tried a few from them on my ex-guitars and I agree that they are awesome!

 

[CanserDYI]

Dude I have had GREAT luck with FLEOR brand on Amazon. I have a JB flavored 16k ohm covered humbucker I got from them for like $22 just to sell a guitar, and I ended up liking it so much I bought another for my strat.

 

[Bearitone]

Entwistle makes the best cheap pickups in my opinion. On par with stuff 4 times the price

 

[Roadsterjosh]

GFS - Guitarfetish pickups are dirt cheap and get really good reviews
DragonFire have similar reviews
Bootstrap pickups - single operator, but reasonably priced for "hand wound"

You can probably get a used Duncan JB for really cheap, or DiMarzio PAFs which were factory installed in a lot of Ibanez Prestige models. Both of these are really really good options and will do basically anything you could want.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

+1 Dragonfire, I've not used their humbuckers but have put sets of their HSP90s in a couple guitars.

You can also get used SD models quite cheaply. I used a Distortion for a while that I paid $40 for.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I liked my Guitar Fetish knockoff dimebuckers.

 

[remorse is for the dead]

Get a set of Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio. They are affordable if you look at the used ones. There is a difference between cheap and /or inexpensive.

 

[Crungy]

Another vote for used Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan anything. There's so many of them that if you watched the used market you should be able to find a good deal.

 

[Breeding The Spawn]

Here is a comparison I did of an EMG81 vs a Dragonfire Screamer years ago. At that time they were $20. Looks like they're $30 now but I would definitely recommend it.

 

[Edika]

One more vote for Tonerider and the even cheaper Iron Gear.

I got a High Octane one (Alnico 8 magnet) from Tonerider and while it's med output on paper it could do a lot of high gain stuff easily and with good clarity. I got a couple of Iron Gear high out put single coils and they're really great too. All of these are cheaper new from what you can find SD's and Dimarzios used nowadays.