Pickups don't matter?

[Lemonbaby]

Bass pickups don't matter when you're playing tracks on Metallica's "And Justice for All".

 

[Emperoff]

When I saw this video posted I thought "I'm sure it's the same bullshit as the tubes one he did". And I was right

This guy has made a following based on ridiculizing everyone that doesn't share his opinions, shouting every two seconds in an attempt to... be funny? His tests always claim to be "scientific" and show no difference. I can always hear clear differences in his videos. His ear doesn't seem to be very good for being a "producer"

Now, onto the topic itself:

No one can quantify how important things are for someone else. Pickups don't matter for you? Fine. You will spend less money! It's all good. For someone like Eric Johnson everything matters, and someone like Marty Friedman doesn't give a fuck about gear as long as he has enough gain. Different strokes for different folks.

For me, they matter. To the point that if I don't like the pickups on a guitar, I don't feel motivated to play it. I am not a pickup swapper. I try my best to choose the right set from the start and never touch it again, but sometimes guitars are very picky.

I see pickups as the first layer in how we shape or tone. As others pointed out, any EQ we do before the preamp will shape how the amp distorts. So if we have muddy pickups, we will amplify muddiness. And that's why people use boosts. Now, obviously slamming the front end of the amp with a boost cutting a lot of lows and compressing the signal to hell and back will make most pickups sound very similar. But I don't use boosts, so why would the "pickups don't matter" apply to everyone?

The "into the mix" argument is only valid if you are "into mixing". Period. Plenty of people play guitars just for the fun of it. Not liking a pickup set is not fun. Having to do extra work on EQing your tones for a particular guitar which pickups you don't like is not fun. We buy gear to make our playing experience more satisfying, and in turn, perform better. That is what the audience will hear. No one buys pickups thinking the audience will hear them. We are naive, but not that much

Then there are other aspects people overlook on youtube because they only translate live. Do you have a pickup set with too much mids? Chances are that if you swap guitars mid show the guitar may feedback between stops at high volume. Same thing with output differences. You'll need specific presets for specific guitars, which is also a pain in the ass (specially using analog gear). So for me is very important that pickups are all in the same ballpark (in my case mid-output A5 pickups) for the sake of consistency live.

 

[dr_game0ver]

Glenn video is like: "Can you tell the difference between a P90 and 3 variations of PAFs?"

 

[Dr. Caligari]

It means you should worry about more important stuff like playing and composing. No one will ever be impressed or even be aware that you've managed to find the perfect pickup for your guitar that has a +1.3141db boost at 1742.235hz that you can perfectly A/B blindfolded against your other 500 pickups.

To make my point clearer, I'm not writing this for those chasers' sake, if your goal is to collect guitars and gear and listen to minute details - that's fine. If your goal is to practice and write music, worrying about shit like this is extremely counterproductive. There is such a thing as "good enough" where none of your little problems are a limiting factor to what you're trying to achieve.

So I don't entirely disagree but I think there's room for both music and gear considerations.

I know I have/had pieces of gear that just don't work well for me. When I switch to something I like better, all of a sudden everything is easier and I stop feeling like I'm fighting my gear. I don't have to deal with stuff like pick noise from an overly bright guitar, or palm mutes sounding bad. Instead I can focus on the making music part.

And there's plenty of examples of pro recorded albums where I would like them a lot more if the guitar tone was different.

Maybe I'm unusually picky, but that's how it is for me.

 

[4Eyes]

well, as he is still using that over clipped, compressed to hell sound clip as intro to his videos and it hasn't changed for over couple of years, I take his opinions about mixes and what sounds good or bad with grain of salt. the guy must definitely deaf from all that yelling...

but on the other hand I can't say I don't agree to some extent. He says B without saying A just for clicks. A is all pieces of the chain starting from picking hand, going through picks, strings, wood, pickups, amps, speakers... make some difference. some make bigger, some smaller. The B is that in greater context a finished recording most of those differences are not very important, some not even noticeable.

So I won't to believe that these guys want to help us to point our focus at things that are actually worth it in the sense of finished recording, so we can be more effective, without wasting precious time at things that do not make much difference in the end. But they present the B in such way, that with the same logic we can say that in the context of grand scheme of an album and songs even amps, cabs, speakers don't matter, because song is what's important and most importantly because 99% of people listening to the song don't care about those things.

does the last sentence make me want to stop messing with pickup height at 1/4 turn increments? hell no!

 

[Emperoff]

- Fortin: Makes constant memes on social media making fun of digital modelling.
- Also Fortin: Releases Fortin Nameless plugin with NDSP.

- Fluff: Says pickups are irrelevant and he won't make pickup comparisons ever again.
- Also Fluff: Releases Fluff Fishman signature pickups.

- Glenn Fricker: Whines all the time about drum samples and bass players.
- Also Glenn: Releases drum samples pack.

 

[ExMachina]

- Fortin: Makes constant memes on social media making fun of digital modelling.
- Also Fortin: Releases Fortin Nameless plugin with NDSP.

- Fluff: Says pickups are irrelevant and he won't make pickup comparisons ever again.
- Also Fluff: Releases Fluff Fishman signature pickups.

- Glenn Fricker: Whines all the time about drum samples and bass players.
- Also Glenn: Releases drum samples pack.

Don't hate the player, hate the game?

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

What game? So legal = moral in ur book? I understand there is some wiggle room, but making outrageous claims merely for more clicks is not acceptable imo.

 

[ExMachina]

What game? So legal = moral in ur book? I understand there is some wiggle room, but making outrageous claims merely for more clicks is not acceptable imo.

Really? Morality?

Having the opinion that tube type and pickups are t that important in the scheme of guitar tone isn't outrageous either.

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

Really? Morality?

Having the opinion that tube type and pickups are t that important in the scheme of guitar tone isn't outrageous either.

I do believe in the sense of community, say like the one we have here in SSO. Integrity does matter, at least what I like to believe.

Re Glenn's video(s), if you follow what he's been doing for a while, let's say it is neither scientific nor true most of the time. To give one more example, saying that Vai's tone is mostly in his hands is prob. true, but I'd like to see him try and play a gig w/ a 60s Strat. In fact, there was an old video of Satch where he tried to play one of his classics on a Strat (copy) and although it sounded pretty close, he said at the end that playing it was torture compared to his sig. Just saying'.

 

[narad]

It means you should worry about more important stuff like playing and composing. No one will ever be impressed or even be aware that you've managed to find the perfect pickup for your guitar that has a +1.3141db boost at 1742.235hz that you can perfectly A/B blindfolded against your other 500 pickups.

To make my point clearer, I'm not writing this for those chasers' sake, if your goal is to collect guitars and gear and listen to minute details - that's fine. If your goal is to practice and write music, worrying about shit like this is extremely counterproductive. There is such a thing as "good enough" where none of your little problems are a limiting factor to what you're trying to achieve.

You don't actually have to do one or the other. Brandon Ellis would be a perfect example. Amazing player. Just watched him talk about how he "frankensteined" together a custom pickup himself because he wanted an alnico magnet because he likes the sound of it, but they're low output, so he wanted to make them hotter with more winds, but that made them darker, so he took a coil from a different pickup so that the mismatch between them resulted in adding some brightness.

So are we allowed to care about "little problems" again? I just can't chalk up furthering your understanding of your instrument with low cost adjustments as being "extremely counterproductive" to making music. Misha... Nolly... also good examples. Putting out more music than basically anyone else here... also anal about the details.

 

[Sleazy_D]

I've done my part to avoid the YouTube Guitar Influencer circle jerk, I wish it wouldn't spill over so much.

None of these chodes actually believe any of this shit, it's just for clicks and to get the guitar nerdo-sphere worked up.

It's a self feeding engine by a bunch of dipshits and the absolute most cringe part of being a guitar player.

Well said

 

[ExMachina]

I was playing the other day and could sense a fraction of dB attenuation at exactly 2.34 kHz, so I checked my tone fingers. I noticed my calluses were 0.1 mm too thick on the anterior portion, a quick file, and all was right again. Lesson learned, always check your tone fingers before playing.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

One time i went to Download Festival in the UK. Think it was 2009. Next to where I put my tent, was a guy from Scotland who had put up a full Gaezbo setup with his tent

day 2, I wake up at around 9am to someguy shouting and swearing at the top of his voice?. I went outside the tent to see what was happening and it turns out my camping Neighbor was already drunk, sitting on a deck chair, screaming at the sky. He was literally shouting for some clouds to fuck off etc.
Including giving the sun the middle finger - all this happening in a Glaswegian accent made it even more hilarious.
anyway, this random guy and his opinions on the clouds, were more informative than Glenn

Last summer was probably the first time I've been to a festival where this didn't happen (I go to Bloodstock every year and occasionally Download). I did hear "Fuck off sun!" many times though.

 

[John]

Bass pickups don't matter when you're playing tracks on Metallica's "And Justice for All".

Not cool, man. This is not the roast of Metallica.

That was in 1992.

 

[lewis]

Last summer was probably the first time I've been to a festival where this didn't happen (I go to Bloodstock every year and occasionally Download). I did hear "Fuck off sun!" many times though.

Off topic but damn I find bloodstock superior.
I played it that same year I believe it was. Best experience ever

 

[EPOTH]

Really don't agree .

I turned 50 this year, and I see that from my experience there are two things that are not well shared in life. the first is the intelligence, the second is the ear.

When some people have a bad ear, it does not really make the difference to change the pickup, the amp or the cab ...

From my experience , guitar sound is a mix of strings , pickups , amp and cab , each can make a big difference in the final sound .

 

[CTID]

Misha... Nolly... also good examples. Putting out more music than basically anyone else here... also anal about the details.

probably, but they're also the kind of people who will create no matter what. if nolly and misha weren't currently rocking the highest end stuff they possibly could, they'd still make music with what they had, which i think is something that a lot of people get caught up in

 

[DECEMBER]

Different pickups will completely change the tone of a guitar.

 

[Sleazy_D]

I keep checking back to see folks taking a shit on him.