CHEAP vs EXPENSIVE Guitar Pickups! - Can You Hear The Difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2018
- In this week's video we compare a set of $15 pickups vs a set of $150 pickups!
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Always making good, useful & genuinely interesting comparisom vids. Keep it up man!!
+All Kinds Thanks man!
Darrell Braun Guitar brother, can you pls make a detailed video of Framus custom master built pantera 'll supreme!!
All kindzz.....
All Kinds here here. Legendary.
Great vid - kind of shocking. Out of interest, what amp/effect set up were you using?
Too funny. My son and I watched the video together. He's a HS senior and I'm an old man. We listened, paused, discussed and both agreed that the neck pickup was the less expensive pickup. Thought it was pretty simple. Then we listened the the bridge pickup and paused the video. He said it was the more expensive Fender pickup. I said no way, it didn't have the bite/energy (I like your term - clarity) that a strat bridge pickup should have. When you said it was the expensive Fender pickup, my jaw hit the floor. My son got up and walked out of the room, giving me that "what do you know, old man" look. I had to call him back in to let him hear the real answer.
+baumfr 😄😄😄 Nice!!
You’re an awesome Dad!!
Ha!! Would love to know what was his reaction
I wish my dad are like you, have same hobby, etc.
I'm so jealous. My Dad just yells at me and tells me to buy a house.
NIce demonstration of the fact that it's always the last 10% of sound costing 90% of the money.
Pretty much guitar industry in a nutshell.
What a great statement. Very much like wine. a $50 bottle of wine is only a little better than a $25 bottle, which is only a little better than a $13 bottle.
Yea, and a good amp is much more important than whatever pickups you have unless they're like the ones on those Amazon no name guitars
@@michael83479 Yes, amp and speaker matter more unless the pickups are truly garbage.
@@michael83479 these pups are only $15 for all 3, can't get much cheap than that and they sound fine
Every time I watch this video... the little voice inside me goes "stop shopping for pickups and practice!"
Exactly
Have you been practicing?
Well said.. I spend 3 hours today to decide how my Bare Knuckle radiator pickups WILL be looking when I'm gonna be having the money to buy them. Lol.. I might as well decide then (when that time comes), and practice my a$$ in the meantime.
@rio .....here’s some wisdom I got - - don’t just practice, but listen to yourself as you play. Sounds kind of stupid to say, but my playing has improved since I started doing that.
And record your self, and actually listen to it. The microphone doesn’t lie.
Great guitarists plays, miserable guitarists buy stuff. That's why I have 7 guitars, 2 amplifiers and 11 pedals.
actually it's absurd that we still pay some hundreds of dollars for a 70yo technology. it's more or less as if you were gonna pay 600$ for a nokia 3310, just because there is a strong brand logo. it's a magnet with some cables around, c'mon! by the way, great video, as always!
@Kurt Cobain it's funny cuz it's kinda true... In the end it's all a synergy between the pickups, Amp and even the cables... And obviously SKILL !!!
To be honest, there is actually a difference between both. I switched my oem pickups on my yamaha eg112c with the lace sensor pickups, and to be honest, the sound was really different. But yeah, depends
If you just play yes but if you're recording no
Lol your logic
@@nocapmajor O my girlfriend! When the design even has an entirely different name, how on earth could you NOT hear a difference?! Are you kidding? A standup guitar player?
I spent years replacing pickups on MIM Strat and a made in Indonesia Squire Strat. After a lot of money being spent on Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio, I went back to the stock pickups and realize they were the best sounding pickups of all. A Friend of mine did the same thing with his. Live and learn. The grass is not always greener on the other side. Its just a different shade of green.
I have a cheap 15 year old Squire that has amazing sounding pickups! I want all my Strats to sound like it! Go figure!
You mean, "its just a whiter shade of pale"
This is the beauty of the internet today. 25 years ago, looking through catalogs and listening to guitar salesmen, you'd be inundated with so much marketing garbage. Tonewoods, "vintage voiced" pickups, resonance and sustain (which.... lol--if the body is resonating a lot it means it's absorbing a lot of the vibration, which means less sustain) etc. almost mean absolutely nothing, and even if there were any discernible difference, you'd have to be playing alone in a room and listening extremely carefully to really notice anything. But A/B tests of pickups, woods, expensive and cheap pedals, etc. just proves that much of what goes on in the industry is pure BS marketing, or differences that are so negligible that there are massively diminished returns after surpassing certain price points for specific items (pickups, pedals, amps, etc.).
So true
Totally agree with you! That is the same issue with guitar’s body. Plenty of electric instruments today are made without body (just the skeleton) and they sound as well as if they have been made with an extremely exotic Brazilian wood or something else!
With amps is other story, but I agree with your comment.
well said
Sorry diese828, that's a big myth that the body will "take away" resonance through "absorption". The word "resonance" MEANS "the intensification and enriching of a musical tone by supplementary vibration". This supplementary vibration includes feedback from the guitar body itself which is recycled (not absorbed) through the neck, body and strings. And while "tone wood" is a myth (mostly), chambers and cavities in the wood also impart changes to tone and sustain through the pickups. Again via sympathetic vibration (resonance), certain frequencies are emphasized, while others are not, causing those frequencies to recycle back to the strings. If this were not the case certain guitars - notably ES175 and other hollow bodies - would not have the well known feedback issues at high volumes. This is extra vibration coming from speakers and resonating in the hollows causing the strings to vibrate out of control. But it doesn't happen nearly as easily on solid bodies due to less chambers for resonance. If you think you can get good sustain by suspending strings between unconnected points in space, good luck with that. You will "lose" the same amount of vibration into the ethers (or whatever) that would otherwise get fed back into the loop of the strings via a resonant body. If you have ever owned a hollow/semi-hollow or neck-through instrument you would likely know this from experience.
When you have resonances you also have anti resonances where your tone disappear. An extreme example is an almost disappearing note on a well known popular bass guitar. diesel828 is not suggesting unsupported floating strings. On the contrary you will have a natural frequency at zero Hz and no tones. In an electric guitar we want the opposite. We want infinite stiff supports for the pickups to work without mechanical filtering. That is not possible and the electric guitar is a compromise. Normally the first natural frequency of a solid body guitar is determined by the neck and body to neck connection. The next natural frequency may be determined by the body to neck connection and the following natural frequencies are influenced by mass density and stiffness of the solid body. This is not the full explanation but just a rough overview.
Yeah, the extras cost for expensive pickups gave me ability to hear the fret buzz :)
The real question is: During a Live setting would you be able to tell if the guitarist was playing on $5 pickups or $150 pickups? I wouldn't.
mindblown
unless they were feeding back like crazy
Depends on the trousers. (See: The Rutles)
they feel different
@@jannatinkarlen8702 I haven't noticed.
**Be sure to watch the riff comparison after the solos to hear some clean tones**
Let me know if you'd be happy with these super affordable pickups or if you would prefer to spend the money on a more expensive set :)
Totally agree dude. I bought a complete strat pick guard with real anico 5 magnets and they sound deadly. 29 bucks free shipping on ebay lol. After that success I found a 7K output alnico 5 humbucker with 5 wires and it also sounds deadly lol 14 bucks free shipping :P
I have been looking for some of those Fender select pickups seems like they stop making them.
I preferred the sound of the cheap ones but then I prefer humbuckers and are playing a classical acoustic guitar mostly. Yeah I know I will be switching to a steel string this year maybe the new Yamaha apx600 as I have a shoulder injury which the shallow body guitar seems to help.
The cheapo have better tone than I would expect, especially on runs and harmonics. But for chords and blending notes they do not hold up at all. If I had a small budget for a project maybe, but there are quite a few inexpensive great playing guitars that will come with pickups as good or better.
+speedwayaudio3 Yeah, they are hard to find :(
I’m a custom guitar builder. I use $40 Wilkinson ceramics as standard equipment in all my builds. I’ve yet to have someone complain about the sound. It’s all a scam.
Exactly. Anyone who understands a pickup and how easily and cheaply they're made, understands the absolute rip offs that are out there.
There are definitely good and bad sounding pickups. I just don’t think cost is a factor that dictates sound. I also think that the minute differences between them can be overcome with your amp. Output is most important. So is single coil vs Humbucker. Buy pickup type and with with output based on the type of music you play.
Yep. I'm very happy with my the stock pickups on my Les Paul, Jackson and Kramer Baretta.
Hey man how do I stop all the buzzing on my strings?
@@domdraper3221 noise gate, humbucker, or hot rail single coil.
Another EXCELLENT video! Congrats Darrell! Great quality content, as usual!!! Thanks for sharing!
Pretty damn good for 15 bux
For real..
Vince Brown the creators of this pick ups also sell Floyd Rose style bridges for 80$! They’re officially licensed
@@forbiddensun9524 you probably get what you pay for on the floyd rose bridges, would risk it haha
According to my ears the difference between the $15 ones and the $150 ones is $135.
Thanks Darrell, I own a Squier Strat and the neck is the best on any guitar I have played & it sounds great, all stock.
Ray Ross what squier model do u have?
Macief, a standard model, was $300.00 Can. 2 years ago, maybe I got lucky, but it is a very good guitar.
I have the same experience, Squier necks are generally really good.
agree man! I had a cheap of the cheap affinity HSS, and I do play only in neck. (via DI)
affinity or bulllet?
This is such a well done video. Informative and impartial, really demonstrates how the pups differ.
Excellent video... been watching the videos of your channel for a while.... absolutely lovely and really admire the sense of humour!!! keep it up!!
Closer than you'd expect given one costs as much as a sandwich while the other as much as a new entire entry guitar (or many sandwiches!).
Thirsty Fox you must be hungry? Haha
I love me a sandwich...
Front or rear??
I would love to see your rating review system! "I give the XYZ-123 four out of five sandwiches". Stars are so yesterday.
Mmm sandwiches!
I have put many of those Guitarfetish $15 Strat pickup sets in my project Strats. It started when I was bought an MIM Strat body(unloaded) and I wanted to try to keep my costs down. I saw the $15 GF pickups and I thought, as you said, Darrell, for $15, if I don't like them, I can get different pickups and replace them. Well... I installed them and when I tested them out, I was blown away that a $15 set of Strat pickups can sound so good. I started buying two sets at a time just to have ready for another project. It became really hard to justify paying $150 for a set of pickups when I can use these $15 pickups. I found it hard to justify $70 and $80 sets, too.
Yes, if you are a professional musician with an amazing ear and can hear really subtle differences, then I can see paying whatever it takes to get the sound you are looking for,
but if you do not have that rare ability, and most of us don't, these $15 pickups are excellent.
Now, just to clarify, as I see in the comments many people making this mistake. These are NOT GFS pickups. These are clearance section pickups on the Guitarfetish web site. They don't come with screws or height adjustment springs. They are not packaged in any way. They arrive wrapped in thin foam-like paper. But they are excellent pickups.
BTW, Guitarfetish also has a set of Tele pickups in the clearance section that are just as good. They are $20 but worth every penny.
Hi Darrell, could you please do a cheap guitar with expensive pickups vs expensive guitar with cheap pickups comparison? I think that would be super interesting!
Was thinking the same!
Good idea
Do you remember that young guitar builder, who wanted to hear the strings only, and not that resonating piece of wood? Maybe his name was Les Paul. Result of this idea could be, you don't need wood almost as expensive as solid gold. Because you don't hear that special wood anymore. A heavy log is okay. You hear strings resonating, and nothing else. Maybe those expensive guitars are beautiful, but maybe you can get that great bright sound, using something like The Log?
This could be an interesting example of cheap guitar and expensive pickup. Knock on wood. What do you hear? Do you want that, in your guitar sound? That is the question, here.
@@voornaam3191 See the concrete guitar build. Tonestone!!!
expensive guitars are more comfortable to play, and provide inspiration - the tone is only from the pickups and the player. This video clearly demonstrates this.
I've been subscribed for a while but this is the first time I have watched this one. Your playing is always great but those harmonics on this one were so good. Oh, the pickup comparison was great too.
Fantastic video. Thank you for making as close to an empirical comparison as possible. In a live gig setting, even the most exquisitely refined ear could not possibly discern a difference. Even in a careful, delicate studio recording, it would impossible to hear any difference if the guitar were mixed in with drums, vocals, or any other instruments. The only remote possibility of hearing a difference is in a side-by-side solo comparison, which is what you gave us. Again, thank you for approaching the subject with wisdom, sanity, good ears, and excellent chops!
+Evan Hansen Thanks Evan!
I'm glad you enjoyed the comparison ☺
The Fenders did sound a little better but not enough to pay for imo. BTW, most impressive to me is that you can remember--and play--the same riffs twice in a row. I forget a good riff as soon as I play it.
Lucky he recorded the first time already he played it. Of course, no doubt, the musical memory of a pro, what he is in fact :)
I actually usually not remember how to play, but remember the sound - then the playing of it comes in a moment, I don't know how it happens, probably a connection with my guitar :D
Gee Mac72 YEAH. Definitely
yup. you pay for the name. But be glad its not Gibson prices. They're the Apple Iphone's of the guitar world. They're better..............but not really
I forget where my guitar is after I've played it.
The $15 pickups sound hella good for sure, especially compared to $150 competition. The more expensive ones do sound a little... wider? Like they have a little more presence overall. It's a pretty slim difference though, in terms of comparing the actual sound. Once you got them in a mix with other music/effects, you'd probably never even notice it.
Tell it to all members of the band - go cheap... Go cheap with the recording process as well... They won't notice... No one will notice.
It's all in your head lol
Seeing as to how simple of a design a single coil guitar pickup is, I see this as more a comparison between ceramic pickups and alnico. I personally prefer alnico, it's easier to dull the tone down than to try to add chime/clarity to the slightly duller ceramic pups. And this will be true throughout any price range. And as I mentioned earlier, a single coil pickup is a simple design, so as long as you do your homework and are able to figure out as many details about a particular pickup you're looking at (number of winds, alnico or ceramic, and what the output reads on a multimeter) you are pretty safe just finding the best deal. Obviously there are some factors which are less noticable to the ear but are more just the sentimentality of it, like handwound pickups from a particular maker (i.e. Abigal or something), in which case, yeah, you're going to have to pay a premium for that, and if that's what you're into then in my eyes you got just as good of a deal as anyone else getting any other pickup at any other price range. It's your money, your preference, and at the end of the day YOUR guitar tone.
Great comparison. The Fenders sounded better to me, but certainly not ten times better.
The secret is 500$ amp
Edit : wow I got 100 likes but I'm a *small youtuber 😢😥
Manoj kumar 1000$ m8
3000
@@williemurray2523 yeah ✌
It's long overdue, and I know this is an old video, but I really owe you and this video and need to give you my thanks. I bought an old, massively screwed up squier bullet from a work buddy for $20, just to mess with and kinda customize and rebuild. Took me four hours late into the night, using almost every tool I own (filing and sanding the frets and neck edges, opening out the headstock holes for the tuners, which I replaced, soldering in a new loaded pickguard, resoldering the input jack, e.t.c.), about $60 or so in parts (the loaded pickguard and tuners), and a lot of sweat, but it's now a sweet strat (which I affectionately call my ratocaster) and is easily my favorite guitar in my collection, and is pretty much always my go-to now. I went straight to guitar fetish for my loaded pickguard based on this video. So once again, my lovely ratocaster and I give you our thanks.
Another fine video Darrell... thanks so much for keeping it real!
I'm listening through a good quality headphone amp, using high end well broken in headphones and, understanding that the audio has been compressed at least twice (once from video editing and once from TH-cam), I honestly couldn't tell much difference until you got to the pos 1 comparison. I was surprised, great video!
I thought the cheapo pickups would be a joke but they weren't so bad. Love the white Strat, love my artic white HSS.
Do u still have the v60lps on it? 😊
Kasra Moghaddam Yup, Thornbucker Plus Bridge Humbucker then the Suhr V60LP in the neck and middle positions. Just did a Van Halen cover on my channel with my HSS Strat with my new Helix.
Thanks bro, I have been watching your videos long time ago, and you make TH-cam a really good place to be
Love your vids bro!
4:34 Darrell's bandmates: Hey man amazing tone on that solo!
Darrell: Thanks! That's a Fender custom shop pickup, especially on the harmonics in the beginning you could just hear how they flew off the strings, the string definition...JK, I recorded it with the cheapest pickups ever made!
+John John 😄😄😄👍
This is a great video. Very helpful as I am 15 and am redoing a guitar. And looking for pick ups on a budget.
You really shouldn't consider redoing a guitar until you are at least 16
@@journeyfortwo5211 you replied to a 1 year old comment. By now he IS 16 lol
@@howsurcows Whoops, then that makes all the difference
Get any pickups with low prices, at the end of the day what matter the most is how comfortable your guitar and how skillful you are in playing them...
Love this video for being so real world in its tones. I don’t understand when builders or retailers dial in a thin, weak tone that no one EVER records a song with, selects the middle pup, and plays the same “funky” strumming pattern so you can hear the pups. No one hears that and then records a beautiful solo with it. You dialed in realistic and great tones, which is what pups actually “sound like.” Through good headphones I think they sound great, both of them, and believe that we could find a bunch of popular songs where the musicians use expensive pups but dial in the sound of these inexpensive ones. The difference was more apparent with OD, but you are a very good player so they both sounded great!
Really enjoyed the comparison, keep up the great videos .
That demo caused me to make my first order from GFS! I ordered the overwound set to drive my tube amp a bit more since I don’t use many effects. In fact, I ordered several items from them while I was at it...nearly a whole Strat remodel coming up! Nice playing by the way...believe it or not, you are the only person I subscribe to on here.
+Jeffrey Freel Awesome!
Let me know what the overwound set sounds like!
Thanks so much for subscribing to the channel ☺
Will do!
Update...I’ve been using the overwound set for about three weeks now and I have to say that they are a definite upgrade in tone! I absolutely love the sound of ceramic magnets. They seem to provide very nice harmonics while keeping the sound tighter than alnicos. They also provide such a rounded and warm sound. That said, these also are very snappy while running clean through a tweed style amp sim. These really shine with a bit of drive. I’ve never played so much in my life since I’ve gone to these pickups. My calluses actually keep breaking open! Lol! They are so versatile. Clean sounds great and overdriven really gets my blood pumping. Pinch harmonics are a breeze! The pole pieces are vintage staggered, which I know you aren’t a fan of, but the sound is very balanced. I’m using these pups in a swamp ash SX Hawk I bought from rondo music and I have to say that you can’t get more guitar for the money. With the upgrades I’ve done I’m still in it for under $200 and it plays and sounds amazing!! My favorite guitar I’ve owned was a G&L Legacy USA in swamp ash with a Mary Kaye finish and a tinted Birdseye maple neck but it wasn’t $2000 better than this guitar. I’d recommend these pickups at $100 let alone at $15!!
I picked up a £25 loaded pickguard from Amazon a while ago just to have something to temporarliy install and test a Partscaster while I was deciding what pickups I wanted for it. They're still there, they sound great. They're a tiny bit on the bright side, but that's what a tone control is for.
You make anything sound good. As always, great video! Thank you, love your channel.
Greatly appreciate these informative vids. Many thanks.
The more comparison videos i see the more it makes me wonder why people buy into all the hype of expensive gear unless your a musical genius and are doing all kinds of recording there is no need to blow 300 bucks on a set of pups i love to see the guy with a 3000 dollar guitar playin through a 100 amp in the bedroom tryin to read tabs i mean hell a 200 dollar guitar will do just as good its all in the hands imo you either have good tone or you dont a good player like yourself can jam a 100 dollar pos and make it sound awesome its all about makin a good sound with what you have not breakin the bank to sound like whoever because you will never sound like them all great players tone comes from the hands heart and GREAT TIMING well i hope this dosent offend anyone its just my honest opinions
Music in general is full of people who insist (without evidence) that they can hear all the minute differences in things and that certain things just sound better than everything else... and people willing to charge a lot of money to sell those people those things.
imo
Outstanding vid!
I think the expensive pickups sounded better but not 10X better.
Frankly, the cheap pickups surprised the living cement outta me!
imo
+Charlie Newman 😀👍
GFS makes some great bang for the buck pickups
these likely arent even the gfs pickups. Their clearance section is usually from big buys they made of pickups made for big manufacturers
with SD i think we're playing for rep. We EXPECT great pickups. Its not like they use secret magic.. probably just make sure they only put out models that sound awesome and then high qc. I have a $15 sc set.. that is mindblowing. Also a sd dimebag thats.. incredible.. and expensive. Id much rather pay $15 for that DD pickup lol. But i dont want to go through 10 noname junk pickups to find one that sounds like that
It's not the pickups, his amp blows my mind over and over again. Edit: Although the Fender pickups do have a prettier sound and more signal.. Still not worth the 135$
thanks great video really helps me decide
I love this, I love your (Darrel's) work. I had a positive experience in some cases changing electronics, its hard to know how much energy a player should put into working on guitars. I guess it depends on the person (and the guitar) but good to imagine it is not important at all!
What you tell me is “Cheap is not always bad”
Thanks man!!
Cool comparisons! can't beat that deal from GFS
+lando27music ☺👍
Not GFS pickups! Guitarfetish Web Site clearance sections pickups. They are different. Damn good pickups, though.
GFS are pretty slick. I have a rail for Tele bridge and their '52 tele neck pickup. The '52 is really, really pristine.
I love the matchup to ceramic and slick pickups. I've used both over the years and like both for different reason. You TH-cam did a great comparison between both. Thank You for your time in this and other cases on your channel. Thanks again.
I could listen to your music after a long day at work! Great skills, my man!
Amazing how close the two sets are for a ten fold difference in price! I preferred the clarity of the Fender, but I could not justify the price difference. Just goes to show why even budget guitars sound so good these days. I have a Squier Standard Strat that I love the sound of (through the right amp). It was bought used for an absolute bargain price, so testing out other reasonably priced pick ups is a future option.
I have been buying the guitar fetish $15 pickups for the past several years putting them in a squire bullet, standard squire strat and other strat copy guitars and i think they sound very good! The original single coil pickups in my squire standard were too bright and thin sounding and when i put the G.F. pickups in the squire it sounded less harsh and thin with a nice rounder tone!
I would recommend anyone doing a project upgrade for a cheaper strat style guitar to buy these pickups,at $15+shipping you cannot beat these pickups for this price!
What a great, objective video. I'm making my first guitar from scratch and AGONIZED over the pickups. I'll totally sent you the end results when we are done. It's coming along SO much better than I thought possible.
Cool!
I hope the project comes together nicely!
Great review, thanks
If you're going to sit around in a quiet room with your tube amp listening to sparkles get the expensive pickups, for everything else get the gfs ones :)
There's the wisdom. The difference in sound exists and it is noticeable but not significant in most real usage situations.
but we like to do both man :D You see that shredder screamo lead guitarist with a 7 string tuned to drop z with 3 fuzz pedals going into his marshall stack .. and you know at home late at night he hits the clear channel bypasses everything , maxes reverb and chorus and strums :D (and denies the hell out of it)
They are NOT GFS pickups.
I guessed cheap on the second test and you still made me doubt my judgement based on the pinch harmonics comment. Nice one.
+Ishan Kapse 😄 Sorry about that!!
No need to apologize. I had a good chuckle over it.
Sparkle.
I like the tap harmonic in the pos 1 riff.
Thanks for the vid. I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade the bar magnet pickups in my MIJ mystery strat (WHAT is an ST-62DGF???), and this did not make my mind up at all :).
Darrell, you perform all tests we imagine to make!!! Thanks man.
If Darrell plays it , what's the point of comparison . Everything gonna sound amazing :P
+TheStonedGamer9 😄 Thanks man!
4:53 that was pretty funny! I was so sure those were the expensive pickups.
Hey Darrell, I heard this comparison with my Beyerdynamics DT 990 Pro headphones and i must say i can´t hear any different between the cheap or expansive pickups !! It´s amazing !!! thanks for the test !
Great video!
Spotted the cheapo in the bridge, but the neck one sounded good, I thought.
Fraser McFadyen he needed to lower the pickup a few hairs and there would be little to no difference. Lower pickup= more clarity.
Fraser McFadyen That bridge was a little harsh I thought but I was listening through the speakers. GFS is almost always going to be hotter for anything other than metal and hard rock pickups. The budget pickup guys need to differentiate their product somehow and that's an easy and a smart way to do it. Unless you are playing some very specific kinds of music then they are fine for anyone on a budget or just budget minded. I have one of their Surf 90's for under $40 shipped. A unique pickup that I really enjoy. A surfy single coil with a smidge of P90 crunch. Very versatile. That's where I think the real differences are. Unique takes on vintage pickups. Otherwise the ingredients are mostly the same and the tones will be too.
@RT, Those are not GFS pickups. They are Guitarfetish Clearance section pickups. But they are excellent pickups.
me too
Same here. When you hit the higher notes, I definitely heard tinny sound on the bridge pickup. Still, I can't think of a better way to spend $5. Those are probably more impressive than the pickups on my '88 Japanese Strat.
Dawg when you said the second solo was the fender pickups I was about to puke
That was enlightening Darrell thank you
Cheers for this! I love the sound of my cheap GFS pups. Thanks for making me a bit less of a snob. Great video!
Seems to me that the smartest thing to buy to cover ALL your bases is simply an 8-band graphic EQ pedal.
Put that as the first thing your guitar is plugged into and you can create at least 50 different pickup sounds.
😎👍👍
Haha... I somewhat did this with Metalzone when I was a teenager and cannot afford any additional pedals... it oddly nailed almost all types of distortion from different band just by mixing the Boss GE7 equalizer with the inbuilt EQ of the MT2.
You cannot EQ yourself out of everything, then life had been very easy.
The funniest thing about most markets is that people tend to thing more price = more quality, which is horrifically UNTRUE! More price really only means there's a more prolific name stamped on it. This couldn't be more evident with Apple products!
As for pickups, I've noticed through my quest to find the perfect PJ setup for my wrecked eBay Ibanez project, that a pickup is a pickup, unless you start messing with the actual physical properties (like Duncan Quarter Pounds with the HUGE magnets in them)......
Second time I've watched this, 2 years later. Even more impressed with both content and style. PS I own a slick sl57 from guitar fetish, great guitar .
thank you for this comparison, very eyes opener
Those cheap pups actually have a completely viable tone! They're pretty damn good. ESPECIALLY for the price.
+PokéGamer5000 Absolutely 👍☺
The $150 pickups overall are maybe 30% 'better' sounding to me. Not 10x, or 1,000%, relating to the price difference. lol.
Great video. Thanks. I found that the expensive pickups have some pleasant harmonics and overtones and a little more depth than the cheap ones.
Hi Darrell, have you tried a comparison test with See More Drunken Disorderly Zephyr silver wound pups? Scarily dear but would they add that bit extra?
Really enjoy your vids. Keep 'em comin'.
Fender PU's at 10 times the price sure didn't sound 10 times better!
realjumper thats like a custom shop lp for $5000 isnt 10x better than a good epi lp,
I agree 100%
Listening this as a non - musician, I think in live situations the pick ups used would not matter since the venue alters the sound of the guitar & amplifier anyway. As long as the chords and solos are in the right place and if you dig the band, having a good time can be possible.
Gr8 vid its all in the combo of pickup, pre amp, head and speaker and cab ... the pickup is only the first faze of the eq chain
I preferred the cheap neck pup and the expensive bridge. The middle, I didn't have a real preference. Either way, what a great value for 15 bucks! Thanks again for another great video. It is nice to have someone dispelling all the myths and hype that have been plaguing the music world for decades and making honest comparisons.
I’ve had very good luck with a couple different sets of GFS pickups.
Awesome vid, mate! Do another one with the cheapest set of Humbuckers!
+Joe Redfield ☺👍
I find the biggest difference is the sound and feel WHILE YOU'RE PLAYING. There's usually only a dimes worth of difference for the LISTENER or the PLAYBACK on the cheaper pickups. This comparison shows that to be true. GOOD JOB!!!
As always... thanks for keeping it real, Darrell!
All I can hear is Gomer Pyle "Surprise Surprise Surprise" Lol
Great video Darrell and great eye!
Peace!
+Godof thedesecrated 😄👍
What a true canuck. you give Canadians a good name in my book
+Nicholas Rogers 😄 Thanks man!
Nicholas Rogers ya I love the shirt. I am Canadian but don't those nice lumberjack shirts...
Nicholas Rogers yeah, but what aboot those Leafs ay?
@Eddie Bjørnsen I'm from Michigan, near the Canadian border. Detroit/ Windsor. Grew up with Canadian TV and radio channels, and Hockey Night in Canada. I think people from each city feel related...i doubt Canadians would admit that, but before Canada went socialist, i felt almost more Canadian at times...That was then however. The leftists ruined Canada.
@Eddie Bjørnsen Sweden is even worse. Better stop feeling guilty, or your race and culture will be wiped out, and soon. You leftists sure get triggered easily.
I watched a lot of videos on TH-cam on this topic and you are the only one who said my opinion! I've been playing electric guitar and listening to electric guitar music for a few years now and still can't hear the difference in pickups.
Hey man, discover your channel last week...thanks for all the clues
Greetings from Brasil
Fender did sound better, but not 10x better. Not even twice as good.
Russell Ives I agree with you man
In the neck and middle they were VERY close. The bridge and in 2 and 4 the tone was very noticeable. The Fender pickups had a little more quack in 2 and 4. I would probably hate the bridge in the GFS set. But the other 2 were really not bad, and for $15 a set, I could buy a different bridge pickup and still have some change left over.
how would you tell something sounds 9x or 10x better than something else? quality assurance, materials and brand name make it worth more, not just the sound itself.
José Henrique It's all subjective, but for the most part I disagree. Quality assurance, maybe. Materials, why pay more for same result? Brand name, why on earth does anyone pay for a brand? Its just a name, it doesn't effect the sound.
He should tried them in clean though, with distorsion/od and delay everything sounds good
That tapping harmonic thing is one of the coolest techniques I've never seen before.
Also this makes me feel a lot better about my little Crate Electra strat copy that I put a cheap aftermarket pickup set in. There's not a ton of audible difference here.
Is the delay on your lead done via pedal or in post?
I don't understand people saying that they can't notice the difference between the two sets of pickups... For me the difference is just absurd. Great video man! Cheers.
Really cool video! I can barely tell the difference but it does not sound like the cheap ones sound ten times worse than the expensive ones. The cheap ones seem like a great buy
Very interesting! Pickups are just wire wounded around magnets. A magnetic field from Alnico or Ceramic is The same, what only changes is is strength. Don't be fooled, guitar is a simple instrument, no need to cost the price of a car...
I rebuild/build/ customize guitars and can tell you that certain things the cheaper ones are just that, cheaper and the sounds or feel or durability is reflected by their price. I would say the biggest non electrical item where cheapness can be detected is in the tuners. A cheap set of regular tuners can be easily detected because a lot of the time they do not hold tune, slip, are difficult to turn, fall apart or the ratio is not as advertised. Of course this varies from one manufacturer to another. I put a nice $80 set of Sperzel locking tuners on a Gretsch and I put a set of cheapo ($20?) locking tuners on another guitar - I detect no differences at all. I installed a regular set of tuners on a Fender and could immediately feel that they were cheap and they would constantly cause the guitar to fall out of tune.
Wood can be a HUGE issue as well. Not everyone's Maple is the same. Moisture content is the biggest factor. A lot of times purchasers are looking for a great deal from the wood supplier and as such they will take wood that may not have been dried as well as it should have been. I used to work in a saw mill and there was two people who purchased wood from us to build instruments with. One guy was really picky and another was not, yet both sold their guitars for about the same price.
As far as Pickups go - I have new and old, cheap and expensive and again it comes down to the manufacturer. I installed a set of cheap double humbuckers on an off brand Les Paul, while they sound decent they do not hold up as well when compared to the set of DiMarzios or Deymour Duncans in my other Les Paul's. I purchased another set of cheapo's from a different manufacturer and, while still not quite as good as the expensive boys, they were much better. Pots are not all the same! I have a 2017 Gibson Firebird with cheap Korean pots in it and both of them are terrible and in need of replacement. I purchased several sets of cheapos off of Amazon that are just as good as the CTS ones that are the usually great pots. Again, Manufacturers!
Yes
it's not that simple when you talk to luthier, crafter, musician
For 150$ it's a good start to make nice sounding music. heck, even I've seen expensive boutique made Pick Up that cost less than 100$. It feels warm inside, very nice xD
@@carloswendel.7 Getting a good sound out of a guitar has far more to do with the player's brain and hands than the pickups. Give David Gilmour an Affinity Strat with a good setup and he'll make it sound like a million bucks. 95% of players need to worry more about their skills and technique for better tone than they do their pickups. And as far as gear, pickups are way down the list of priorities anyway. All I can do is laugh when I see guys debating on whether they should get Duncan pickups or Fralin pickups when their amp is a Peavey Vypyr.
Michael Anderson i thought you were about to trash me at millenials but then i realized its true i do use pedals so in the end the sound wont sound like what the pickups make
Just to add my 1 experience with GFS, I bought lil killers for my strat and did not care for them.
I then put SD 1/4 pounders in the axe and can't believe how much better and more useful the guitar is. Not just a one sound pup anymore! Good Informative video's !!
Darrel I have a Fender Stratocaster Player HSS, but I was thinking on changing the pickups because I want to play rock-metal, but don’t know the world of pickups and their differences. What would you recomend?
I'm shocked by these results. Honestly, if you were playing with a band, I don't think there would be any discernible difference. I've got a project I'm working on that I had planned to buy expensive pups for, but you just saved me money.
+John Wilks Glad to help ☺
This tells me that Fender pickups are way overpriced.
Waaaaaaaaaaay overpriced.
Well, this is a free world. If you want them, maybe you need saving money for a while. It never hurts having no debts and have some patience. For 15 bucks you got 3 pickups you can use meanwhile. You might even consider replacing those 6 "bolts" by alnico magnets. Again, in this you still got your freedom. So has Fender, by the way. Take it or leave it, perhaps?
@@voornaam3191 he knows he's just saying price to performance doesn't stack in fenders favour
@@voornaam3191 you went through all that and you had no idea what he was saying how about shut up and listen next time and pay attention
Fender? Lol, how about Lollar, Suhr, and the likes
As someone who is considering a new guitar and is new to this stuff, I never realized how much pickups mattered. Thank you.
Great and interesting video!
Lots of Thumbs up from South Korea! :)
The cheap ones sound better to my ears!
What a surprise! thanks for the video Darrel!
@Everything the opposite
@Everything is actually the contrary Cheap purchase justify themselves..... very expensive need to be justified by quality of results which they dont!!!;-)
@Everything ....said noone ever....
Slightly darker tone not as much treble they seem decent personally especially for the price
Interesting single coil comparison Darrell.... Makes you wonder if a set of cheap vs expensive humbuckers behave any different.
+Marcel Van Der Linden I'll add it to my list ☺
+Marcel Van Der Linden I'll have to do a humbucker comparison sometime too ☺
Darrell, I really like your approach at dispelling myths - thanks for doing all these videos. That said, I didn't like the sound of either one of the pickups in these recordings - it was surprising to me how "hard" and "synthetic" the higher frequencies sounded in both of them, regardless of which pickup(s) you had selected. I love Strat sounds above all else, so it just goes to show the signal chain (effects, amps, mics/interface) and personal taste also matter a lot in terms of what sounds "right" vs "wrong". Were you going direct into a DAW and using an amp model? That's kinda what it sounded like to me.
Hi. I recently aquired a vintage squire bullet MIK early 90's. Looking to make some upgrades. I wanted to ask your thoughts on the Fender Tex Mex Strat pickup set.