I think big companies like epiphone make so many pickups and wiring harnesses that they would accumulate an over stock and then sell them off to 3rd parties. It is a super smart business move as you are now more likely to purchase a whole guitar if you like the pickups. Great video Thank you.
I recently bought a Probucker & solderless harness set after i did a lot of research if they are real Epiphone or fake. My conclusion was, i believe they are real. I installed the set in my Chibson Les Paul, it is a significant improvement in sound! Now i believe even more they are genuine Epiphone!
I have bought the Probucker set. Look legit to me. I have managed to get hold of Spector necks that were factory seconds - a lot of these Chinese factories are a bit... "leaky". Factory second bodies necks and other items frequently end up on the open market. A lot of the so-called "Chibsons" are often shown to be using epiphone hardware and bodies.
I'd have to guess its far less of an effort to sell stock out the back door of Artec or wherever these are made in SKorea than counterfeit the pickups, harness and labels.
This research is incredible! I was trying to find out if these were genuine. Thank you for making this video. I would love to see the AB comparisons to the Seymour Duncans if you do it.
I'd agree that they are probably the same based on what you've shown here. It seems more likely that, much like the Japanese fenders from the 70s, the factory simply made more to make them available through other channels! It would cost far too much to reverse engineer these right down to stamping the components, for the price they are charging. And at the end of the day, these are epiphone branded - not exactly a sought-after set of pickups! To me, odds are Ali Express is intercepting these at the factory! Awesome work with the research!
I heard that these factories will finish an order for a large co. And than continue turning out thousands of the same components to sell “back door” got a set of these for n HB rebuild/mod. Very nice.
Thanks a lot for going through this tedious process in such detail. According to what I've read so far, I was believing they were true and close enough to the Gibson counterparts, which your findings seem to suppport. I'd like to hear them, too.
Hugo Alvela you're welcome, mate. This vid could help a lot people in their decision. In fact I've bought a pair of Alnico Classic Pros recently (based on another pup shootout) as a replacement for my epi g400, the original Alnico classics are too dark for my tastes.
I had a LP Standard with those same stock pickups previously and I thought they were actually some of the worse pickups I ever had. They are called "mudbuckers" for a reason! But these new "Pro" pickups from Epiphone are actually a HUGE step up compared to those stock ones. I hope you are enjoying your new pups =)
Hugo Alvela thanks for your answer. Yeah "mudbuckers" makes sense, they're usable with fresh strings, the amp set as bright as it gets and tone and volume wide open :-)
I noticed the Slugs on my Probuckers are way smaller than the screws, most buckers are about the same size. They sound great and after lifting the wrap around the end I can see the wood spacer..
I bought the gold probuckers from aliexpress. Installed them, they sound very dark compared to my original epiphone standard pickups in a Les Paul. I assumed the dark sound was just because they were dark sounding? they work flawlessly and appear legit to me.
That is very strange. In my experience they are actually very bright, especially when compared to standard Epiphone pickups (the ones with brass cover) which are known for being very dark themselves. It could be a problem with the pots I guess. Did you try those pickups with different pots? Or maybe check the pickup height?
@@nefer7 I don't know how many iterations of humbuckers Epiphone have used over the years, but I have a 90s Les Paul made in Korea, the pickups always sounded amazing, bright, crisp on bridge and fat and squishy on the neck. The probuckers I bought from Aliexpress I installed on a semi-acoustic 355 replica I made. They sound much darker, not as brilliant on the high end and the volume roll-off leads to no high end at around 5. The coil split helps bring back the highs, but the difference between the two functions are incredibly far apart. I wonder if I can fit a mod to maintain the high frequencies when rolling off the volume pots?
@@PaulGalvinPhoto Yes, there is a mod you can do to keep the highs while you roll of the volume, its called a "Treble Bleed". It consists of adding two caps of a specific value to the volume pot. I can't give you the exact values but i'm sure you can find more info on the web about that specific mod. Another thing you could do if you don't want to mess with buying and adding more caps to your circuit is trying the famous "50's wiring". It basically switches the place of a couple of wires and it also fixes the problem of the treble being lost when you roll off the volume. Do not add "Treble Bleed" to the 50's wiring, pick either of the mods because they don't work well together! Also, you could look into replacing the cap on the tone knob. It usually comes with .47uf, which are more commonly used on single coil pickups. If you replace that with a .22uf cap it should help making the tone knob more usable.
I suspected they would be too expensive to make a perfect, stamped steel copy and sell them at this price. They're almost certainly surplus from Epiphone.
It's nickel silver plate, which is considerably more expensive than the alternative which is brass. The stamp is also perfectly done and don't forget the detail of the wooden spacers inside the pickup, which I have never seen in any other pickup (not in high end Duncan's/DiMarzio, and certainly not in low end cheap ones!)
Thank you for your kind words. I have another video on my channel where I demo these pickups and compare them to seymour duncan JB/Jazz, feel free to check it out and listen to how they sound. Be sure to read the description on that video if you want my opinion on them!
You can see the seller's name on the video, its GuitarFamily. I'm not sure I can post the links to the actual product but it should be easy to find if u know the store name. If u need more help, leave some way for me to contact you and I'll send u the links.
Thank you for your words! The link no longer exists, but there's the shop name and listing names on the video, I'm sure you can find it if they still exist :)
So I've been seeing a so called Epiphone Probucker set being sold with two conductor wiring one hot and braided ground cover. Anyone know what that is? It doesn't have the Probucker sticker on the base plate but it is nickle and stamped Epiphone. I'm not a fan of the micro wire of the split coil, don't care about split coil. Bought these same ones from Aliexpress, peeled the tape back a little and for sure there was the wood spacer. Am very happy with the quality of tone..
To my knowledge Epiphone doesn't produce pickups with braided wire. If you see them in second-hand market it could have been changed by the previous owner (i did that myself for example), but I've never seen them coming out of factory with that type of wire. Also Epiphone only uses the "pro" type pickups on med to high end guitars, and they all come with the same solderless 4-connector that you see in the video, so they can use the same pots etc on all guitars
Just like Epiphone, Wilkinson has two types os pickups. The cheaper ones have a brass baseplate with no special markings while the more expensive ones have nickel baseplate with "Wilkinson" engraved on them. I would say that the nickel baseplate ones should be roughly on par with these Epiphone ones while the brass ones should be a little worse but they do still sound decent enough. As with any pickup change I recommend first to try and understand exactly what you don't like in the current ones and what type of sound you are after, that will help you save quite a bit of money in the long run.
@@nefer7 I have the Wilkinson M series pickups in my 335 copy , they are called Vintage Voiced Double Coils. They sound quite muddy so I need to turn the treble up for the amp.
@@rockthecasbahs from what I can see online, the "M series" are the cheap ones with brass baseplate with ceramic magnets. I'd say these Epiphone ones are overall better pickups than those. If you want more treble, I'd go with the probuckers.
Nice review! I've been wondering if risking these PUPS, but afyer seeing this, I will give them a try. Any chance you could send me or post the link to the probuckers you ordered?
@@nefer7 it seems like they do have gold and silver ones but after adding to the cart their description say gold. Can You please see your order history and check what did the full description say?
@@adamk.7021 Hello, and sorry for the late reply. If you check the first minute of the video you can see the order details right there. It shows the name of the listing "1 conjunto original genuino epi.... niquel/ouro..." (niquel/ouro means nickel/gold). And bellow you can see "Product Properties: All Ni Kit IV C" which I'm assuming means the whole kit (wiring harness + pickups), Ni probably stands for Nickel cover, IV for the 4 conductor wire and C for curved rings. I just tried adding one of them to the cart and it does indeed have the name of the listing and the properties bellow it, similar to the order details.
Yes, the Probuckers are wax potted. As you can imagine, I can't say 100% if they are fake or not. I do believe they are genuine Epiphone pickups and here is why: - The base plates are exactly the same as the pictures I found of Original Probucker pickups. The stickers as well. - The screws used look exactly the same, both the thread and the material used. - And the big one: they have maple spacers. No other generic pickup uses those. They were used in the original PAF pickups back in the day and they have since been replaced by plastic spacers by pretty much every manufacturer out there, from Chinese cheap pickups to Dimarzio and Duncan. To my knowledge, the "only" pickups that use maple spacers are boutique pickups that try to replicate the original PAF design, some Gibson pickups (57 Classics, Burstbuckers) and the new line of "Pro" Epiphone pickups (Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pro). There might be a few others but the point is that most pickups, especially cheap Chinese ones, use plastic spacers on their pickups and I seriously doubt that if someone wanted to make a cheap copy of these pickups they would go through all the trouble of using the correct maple spacers when its something that 99.9% of their clients will never look at since you have to disassemble the whole thing just to be able to see it. As I mention on the video's description, this is just my opinion and I could very well be wrong. But at the end of the day, they look exactly like the real thing and they sound really good so I think that even if they are fake, which I doubt, they are still incredible value for the money and an awesome set of pickups if you want to get that classic PAF tone on a budget! There is another video on my channel if you want to hear what they sound like :)
But you didn't see the video ... Hugo gave himself a Chinese job finding out ... a detective job ... very hard ... and you still ask? Didn't you see the video? But what are you talking about that you cannot discover if they are false or not? Didn't you see the video? EVERYTHING MATCHES ... In simple words: If you have a lion's tail, a lion's head, a lion's body, dandelions: IT SEEMS THAT IT IS A LION! Slow!
I don't think it is original, i own a couple epi, but none of them had a silver/nickel colored back, all of em is brass do please correct me if I'm wrong, but if that sound as good then i don't care wheter it's fake or original, as long as it good its good
Hey man, what's important is that you like your sound and overall tone. As Yngwie Malmsteen says: "If it sounds good, its good". Regarding the back plates, what you have are the older Epiphone pickups that usually come with a brass back and just have "Epiphone" stamped on them, with the occasional marking for front and/or back. There are many models of Epiphone pickups that look just like those and they usually have a little sticker on the back that represents their respective model. Some of the most common ones are the "Alnico Classic", the "Alnico Classic Plus" and the "57 Classic", just to name a few. Most of their lower tier guitars still come with those pickups but they have been upgrading some of their newer models to come with these new pickups which they call the "Pro" line of pickups. To my knowledge, only the "Alnico Classic Pro's" and the "Probuckers" are from this new line of pickups. I have also heard that there are some new "Ceramic Plus" pickups that also have this nickel back plate, but I can't confirm that at the moment. I won't go into much detail about this new "Pro" line of pickups since you can find their promotional video here on TH-cam (and you should check it out!), but the gist of it is that they are trying to replicate the original PAF pickups so they are trying to use the same type of materials for the cover, back plate, wire, and even the screws.
@@nefer7 yup if it's good then who cares fake or real, you got quit a bargain for around 50 bucks or so, is it bright ? Dark ? What are your tought ? Say compare to thoose aliexpress wilkinson WVC is it on par or better ? I know perhaps the characters is different but how bout sustain, clarity, attack ?
@@ariearia4891 I'm not familiar with with those specific AliExpress Wilkinsons so I really can't compare them. I have another video on my channel where I compare these Alnico Classic Pros, the Probuckers and the Duncan JB+jazz combo, feel free to check that video out and listen for yourself! If you do, please read the video description so you can read my detailed opinion on those 3 sets. In short, the Probuckers seem to have more highs and so they are the brightest of the bunch. To me they sound just like a PAF should sound. The Alnico Classic Pro neck pickup is extremely similar to the SD Jazz, with a more modern voice and more mids compared to the Probucker.
Olá João. Não, chegou sem qualquer problema nem entrave Alfandegário. Poderá ter ajudado o comentário que deixei na encomenda (visível durante os primeiros dois minutos do vídeo).
@@nefer7 Obrigado. Quando puderes faz um video para podermos comparar a qualidade do som deles. Também estou a pensar em mandar vir uns para a minha EPI Les Paul.
@@JoaoBatista-sz9ww tens um video no meu canal com a comparação de som entre estes dois sets e uns SD Jazz+JB. Se decidires ver o video, recomendo que leias os comentários que deixei na descrição! Resumidamente, o pickup do neck do alnico classic pro é bastante semelhante ao SD Jazz com um tom mais moderno, enquanto que os Probuckers têm um som mais "classico", mais semelhante aquilo que eu esperaria de uma replica dos PAFs originais. Não tenho grandes comentários em relação aos pickups da bridge, sao ambos low output PAF-style e com alguma distorção soam relativamente semelhantes um ao outro. Aí é que o SD JB se destaca uma vez que tem consideravelmente mais output e consegues ter mais definição nas notas quando tocas em high gain. Se procuras um tom mais "classic les paul", aquele tipico "british rock", recomendo os Probuckers. Se preferires um tom ligeiramente mais moderno mas mantendo as caracteristicas classicas dessa era (low output, etc), os Alnico Classic Pro's talvez sejam uma boa aposta. Se quiseres algo mais "metal", então secalhar deves ver outras opçoes. Mas vê o video e tira as tuas conclusões!
olá. o video tem 2 anos, o link já não existe. mas de certo que se procurares pelo nome dos pickups no aliexpress consegues encontrar iguais! boa sorte =)
Probably real pickups and wiring harnesses just sold to 3rd party vendors either due to over stock or old inventory I can imagine. I'd probably still be careful cause even though there probably isn't a big profit to make from selling fake Epiphone parts there's always a buyer who's willing to give up a few bucks.
€63 is not cheap. You'll likely find them cheaper on Ebay. Also, I imagine a fraudster likely impostering something worth more, like actual Gibsons. Having conveyed that, I CAN tell you that I have both types of Epiphones in their original guitars straight from the dealer and they are fantastic pickups! If you so-happen to purchase a set of the new "Alnico Pro CUSTOM" pickups, I would be interested in hearing those!
I think you misunderstood. 63€ was the price of the whole order, both sets together plus the electronics and shipping. each set was around 20€-23€ or something like that. You can see it in the video :) I probably can't get those alnico pro custom any time soon, but thanks for the suggestion! Maybe one day I will. I have been wanting to do a video on some hand-wound alnico 2 single coils that I purchased from eBay like 2 years ago for my mexican strat, but somehow I still didn't find the time for it :( but that will be the next video, if I ever decide to actually do it. But again, thanks for the suggestion on the custom ones, I will keep an eye open for them!
Fala Hugo! Tudo bem? Primeiramente meus parabéns pela pesquisa, muito bem detalhada. Comprei pela guitar family também. Semana que vem deve estar chegando aqui em casa. Você chegou a testar a resistência dos pots? Queria saber se eles batem 500k mesmo ou pelo menos próximo disso. Grande abraço
Olá Daniel! Não medi os pots na altura porque a ideia sempre foi utilizar uns CTS que aí tinha, mas posso medir isso agora e já ficas com uma ideia. Tone (normal pots): 523, 459 Volume (push-pull pots): 511, 473 Os pots e o switch parecem-me ser de boa qualidade, feitos na Korea. Bastante mais pesados e robustos que os mini pots chineses que vêm nas guitarras baratas! Mas é importante referir que os fios são de terrivel qualidade e partem com muita facilidade. Lembro-me que parti uma ligaçao quando testei os pickups e agora parti outra ligação enquanto media os pots... Se estiveres a pensar em utilizar estes pots, espero que tenhas alguma experiencia em soldar fios porque é muito possivel que te aconteça o mesmo! Abraço e espero que fiques satisfeito com os teus pickups novos ;)
Hey man, I'm not a pro youtuber and to be honest, I don't know how to put more volume on the videos. I tried recording them with maximum volume but even the other video that i recorded straight from the Line6 POD still came out with low volume for some reason :( I guess I probably need better software for youtube recording. Anyway, I'm sorry the quality is bad but thanks for stopping by and watching the video anyway! :)
It depends on what you are looking for, they have that classic low output PAF tone. You can check my other video if you like where I compare the Alnico Classic Pro's, the Probuckers and a SD Hot Rod set (Jazz+JB) and listen to what those pickups sound like. It probably won't be exactly the same since they were recorded in a Les Paul, but it should be close to what you can expect. Headphones recommended for that video. My findings were that the Probuckers had more bass and treble while the Alnico Classic Pro's had a lot more mids. Anyway I hope these videos were helpful and that you end up satisfied with the pickups!
@@nefer7 Opa, eae Hugo, muito obrigado por responder cara, comprei esses mesmo captadores zebra no AliExpress chegou dia 09 de Fevereiro e já mandei meu Luthier instalar, a expectativa tá alta !
@@jeancordeiro7667 Eae mano, foi mal por falar 2 meses depois kkkkkkkkkk então, já levei pro luthier e já tô com a guitarra pronta a um tempo. E sinceramente, me impressionei muito !! Até onde eu sei, os caps são de alnico 2, e tem um propósito por ter pegado esses caps, já que meu guitarrista favorito é o slash e os caps do slash são de alnico 2, então pra tocar Guns é excelente !! Falando da característica dos caps, eu sinceramente, achei o cap do braço bem grave viu e em determinados pontos, pode chegar a "embolar" como muitos dizem, mas isso tem solução, é só mexer mais um pouco na equalização do ampli ou da pedaleira, agora meu amigo o cap da ponte é muito foda po sonzera demaisss fora que o push pull FUNCIONA SUPER BEM é notável a diferença cara, o cara defasar o cap do braço e botar a chave no meio e o tone do braço no zero, da certinho o timbre do November Rain ! Só uma coisa que não foi boa, a chave Seletora que veio nesse kit é bem fuleira viu, aí eu já comprei uma nova e vou mandar instalar em breve junto com tarrachas Guyker.
at Least the ones with braidwire are fake... bought 2 sets, Alnico classic pro and probuckers... they sound bright as fuck, compared them with a real probucker on the same guitar (I even dismateled the molex conector) and they don´t sound good... waaayy to much highend... the actually sound like a Vanson 59, but brighter andmore scooped.
yeah, no epiphone pickup comes with braided wire as far as i know. that doesn't automatically mean that any pickup with a non-braided wire molex is "original" ofc, but it does mean that those with braided wire would have a much lower chance of being original. i'd love to get more info on those pickups tho, if somehow you got the tools to get that info! like their output reading and if they do have the wood spacer insider them or just the standard plastic one that most companies seem to use. also, do they have a silver-colored baseplate with the epiphone logo and stickers etc? or is it the cheaper brass one without the logo? that would also be a HUGE indicator that they could be cheap replicas. sound wise, it's sad that you didn't like the sound, despite them being original or not :( it would at least have been a decent purchase if they did sound ok to you.
@@nefer7 the „alnico and the probuckers“ had the epiphone baseplate but the alnico classic pro didn’t had the stickers… I compare them to a real probucker 3 (that’s why I dismantle the molex connector from the original). all to a harley benton cst 24 full modded, and with stainless steel frets from jescar (done by me). the ali pickups did sound like a vanson 59 but with less output and brighter even. the original sounded like a prs se custom 24 pickup but with a little more high end. I did also put a nickel cover on the alnico pro (zebra) and sound almost like the ali probucker. i’m gonna put next some prs 85/15s next. but trust me, the ali pickups were even brighter as a emg retro 55.
just dismantled the alnico pro from aliexpress, braided wire version, it has a wood spacer but doesn't look like maple, the screws look like the ones in this video
I did own a Korean SG G400 Custom Shop (white with 3 humbuckers) and a Chinese LP Standard in the past but ended up selling them because I really didn't like them. So it's not that I don't have experience with them, I just don't like them. What I meant in the video is that I don't have those same pickups in an original Epiphone so i can't A/B them side by side. So, even if I loved them and owned 20 of them, if none came with these pickups (which few models actually do), the end result would be the same. As I explain in the video, I made this research for myself as I was looking to buy these pickups and I could not find any information at all on the web regarding if these were real or fake. So I bought them and did my best researching the web for any information I could find regarding these pickups while I was waiting for them to arrive (which took a few months). Then I decided that if I was going to open them and try to find out if they were real or fake anyway, I might as well make this video to put this information out there for people that are looking for it, just like I was and couldn't find any. I'm sorry this video wasn't helpful to you, but thanks anyway for stopping by and watching it!
How is this a question? Everything sold off of these chinese sites, are copies due to no copyright laws. A bit of a boot in the balls to manufacturers, but it's a mad world isnt it? I'm all over aliexpress at the moment. Just had a strat arrive recently, and I'm waiting on all kinds arriving to upgrade it.
Hey man, I don't know 100% for sure if these are a copy or not, but if they are I must say they are the best copies of anything I've ever seen off of chinese websites. As you can see on the video I opened one and compared it to the "real" ones and they are exactly the same. Same base plates, same covers, same screws, same maple spacers, etc. Usually, from my experience, chinese copies tend to be worried only about "what you can see" and don't really bother with what's under the hood. All that usually matters to them is that the items "look" the same as what they are usually copying. Thats why I really wanted to open one and see for myself. Personally, I was sold at the maple spacers since 100% of the pickups I've bought come with plastic spacers and I really doubt they would go through this trouble just to fake something that usually nobody looks at. My theory is that these are indeed original Epiphone pickups as they say they are, but are being sold in some "non official" way. The Epiphone factories are in China, so its not that wierd to me that someone might have found a way to sell them separatedly. I could be wrong ofc, but that's my oppinion on them at this moment. If these are indeed fake, they did a damn good job faking it to the last detail!
But it is strange what you say that because it is a pill that is sold in a Chinese portal it will be false ... Well, remember that Epiphones ARE CHINESE at the moment, and they could well be sold in a Chinese portal (as they are in fact sold) and then one has to find out if the Epiphone China is a copy of another Epiphone China or not ... Basically, every Epiphone that they make in China and that they sell on Chinese portals, are copies of other Chinese Epiphones that they have already made before ... I don't know if you get it ... Counterfeiters if they are good counterfeit brands that are NOT made in China and that are exclusive ... Not cheap guitar brands like Epiphone that, as I said, are made in China ... I have a Korean Epiphone (1992) and there if you can see some differences of better quality ... which are not so many by the way
I think big companies like epiphone make so many pickups and wiring harnesses that they would accumulate an over stock and then sell them off to 3rd parties. It is a super smart business move as you are now more likely to purchase a whole guitar if you like the pickups. Great video Thank you.
I recently bought a Probucker & solderless harness set after i did a lot of research if they are real Epiphone or fake. My conclusion was, i believe they are real. I installed the set in my Chibson Les Paul, it is a significant improvement in sound! Now i believe even more they are genuine Epiphone!
I have bought the Probucker set. Look legit to me. I have managed to get hold of Spector necks that were factory seconds - a lot of these Chinese factories are a bit... "leaky". Factory second bodies necks and other items frequently end up on the open market. A lot of the so-called "Chibsons" are often shown to be using epiphone hardware and bodies.
I'd have to guess its far less of an effort to sell stock out the back door of Artec or wherever these are made in SKorea than counterfeit the pickups, harness and labels.
This research is incredible! I was trying to find out if these were genuine. Thank you for making this video. I would love to see the AB comparisons to the Seymour Duncans if you do it.
Thank you, I'll try to have that video up in a few days :)
I'd agree that they are probably the same based on what you've shown here. It seems more likely that, much like the Japanese fenders from the 70s, the factory simply made more to make them available through other channels! It would cost far too much to reverse engineer these right down to stamping the components, for the price they are charging. And at the end of the day, these are epiphone branded - not exactly a sought-after set of pickups! To me, odds are Ali Express is intercepting these at the factory!
Awesome work with the research!
I heard that these factories will finish an order for a large co. And than continue turning out thousands of the same components to sell “back door” got a set of these for n HB rebuild/mod. Very nice.
Thank god for closed caption, sound is so low.
Thanks a lot for going through this tedious process in such detail. According to what I've read so far, I was believing they were true and close enough to the Gibson counterparts, which your findings seem to suppport. I'd like to hear them, too.
Thanks for your kind words.
I have another video with the sound clips, you can check it out if you want to listen to these pickups :)
Hugo Alvela you're welcome, mate. This vid could help a lot people in their decision. In fact I've bought a pair of Alnico Classic Pros recently (based on another pup shootout) as a replacement for my epi g400, the original Alnico classics are too dark for my tastes.
I had a LP Standard with those same stock pickups previously and I thought they were actually some of the worse pickups I ever had. They are called "mudbuckers" for a reason!
But these new "Pro" pickups from Epiphone are actually a HUGE step up compared to those stock ones. I hope you are enjoying your new pups =)
Hugo Alvela thanks for your answer. Yeah "mudbuckers" makes sense, they're usable with fresh strings, the amp set as bright as it gets and tone and volume wide open :-)
Very nicely done! Scientific and practical. Thank you ❤️!
I noticed the Slugs on my Probuckers are way smaller than the screws, most buckers are about the same size.
They sound great and after lifting the wrap around the end I can see the wood spacer..
Thank you for this great vídeo!
Very helpful video! Thanks!
No volume. Seems like it might be an interesting video but the volume is too low.
I bought the gold probuckers from aliexpress. Installed them, they sound very dark compared to my original epiphone standard pickups in a Les Paul. I assumed the dark sound was just because they were dark sounding? they work flawlessly and appear legit to me.
That is very strange. In my experience they are actually very bright, especially when compared to standard Epiphone pickups (the ones with brass cover) which are known for being very dark themselves.
It could be a problem with the pots I guess. Did you try those pickups with different pots? Or maybe check the pickup height?
@@nefer7 I don't know how many iterations of humbuckers Epiphone have used over the years, but I have a 90s Les Paul made in Korea, the pickups always sounded amazing, bright, crisp on bridge and fat and squishy on the neck. The probuckers I bought from Aliexpress I installed on a semi-acoustic 355 replica I made. They sound much darker, not as brilliant on the high end and the volume roll-off leads to no high end at around 5. The coil split helps bring back the highs, but the difference between the two functions are incredibly far apart. I wonder if I can fit a mod to maintain the high frequencies when rolling off the volume pots?
@@PaulGalvinPhoto
Yes, there is a mod you can do to keep the highs while you roll of the volume, its called a "Treble Bleed". It consists of adding two caps of a specific value to the volume pot. I can't give you the exact values but i'm sure you can find more info on the web about that specific mod.
Another thing you could do if you don't want to mess with buying and adding more caps to your circuit is trying the famous "50's wiring". It basically switches the place of a couple of wires and it also fixes the problem of the treble being lost when you roll off the volume.
Do not add "Treble Bleed" to the 50's wiring, pick either of the mods because they don't work well together!
Also, you could look into replacing the cap on the tone knob. It usually comes with .47uf, which are more commonly used on single coil pickups. If you replace that with a .22uf cap it should help making the tone knob more usable.
@@PaulGalvinPhoto i think it was alnico pro pickups.
I suspected they would be too expensive to make a perfect, stamped steel copy and sell them at this price. They're almost certainly surplus from Epiphone.
It's nickel silver plate, which is considerably more expensive than the alternative which is brass. The stamp is also perfectly done and don't forget the detail of the wooden spacers inside the pickup, which I have never seen in any other pickup (not in high end Duncan's/DiMarzio, and certainly not in low end cheap ones!)
Very helpful ! Thank you very much !!
Thanks for the video. Super-helpful, makes me want to buy a pair. Did you ever install them? How do they sound?
Thank you for your kind words.
I have another video on my channel where I demo these pickups and compare them to seymour duncan JB/Jazz, feel free to check it out and listen to how they sound.
Be sure to read the description on that video if you want my opinion on them!
where did you exactly buy them from aliexpress. There are some for 50 and some for 20
You can see the seller's name on the video, its GuitarFamily. I'm not sure I can post the links to the actual product but it should be easy to find if u know the store name.
If u need more help, leave some way for me to contact you and I'll send u the links.
@@nefer7 Ahh I have found GuitarFamily. I appreciate the help thank you very much!
Wow! What a research job! So thankfull for g the information its very helpfull. Do you have the link on Aliexpress?
Thank you for your words!
The link no longer exists, but there's the shop name and listing names on the video, I'm sure you can find it if they still exist :)
So I've been seeing a so called Epiphone Probucker set being sold with two conductor wiring one hot and braided ground cover.
Anyone know what that is?
It doesn't have the Probucker sticker on the base plate but it is nickle and stamped Epiphone.
I'm not a fan of the micro wire of the split coil, don't care about split coil.
Bought these same ones from Aliexpress, peeled the tape back a little and for sure there was the wood spacer.
Am very happy with the quality of tone..
To my knowledge Epiphone doesn't produce pickups with braided wire. If you see them in second-hand market it could have been changed by the previous owner (i did that myself for example), but I've never seen them coming out of factory with that type of wire.
Also Epiphone only uses the "pro" type pickups on med to high end guitars, and they all come with the same solderless 4-connector that you see in the video, so they can use the same pots etc on all guitars
Would these be a good upgrade from Wilkinson pickups ? I have a 335 copy from Vintage and it has Wilkinson pickups in it.
Just like Epiphone, Wilkinson has two types os pickups. The cheaper ones have a brass baseplate with no special markings while the more expensive ones have nickel baseplate with "Wilkinson" engraved on them.
I would say that the nickel baseplate ones should be roughly on par with these Epiphone ones while the brass ones should be a little worse but they do still sound decent enough.
As with any pickup change I recommend first to try and understand exactly what you don't like in the current ones and what type of sound you are after, that will help you save quite a bit of money in the long run.
@@nefer7 I have the Wilkinson M series pickups in my 335 copy , they are called Vintage Voiced Double Coils.
They sound quite muddy so I need to turn the treble up for the amp.
@@rockthecasbahs from what I can see online, the "M series" are the cheap ones with brass baseplate with ceramic magnets. I'd say these Epiphone ones are overall better pickups than those.
If you want more treble, I'd go with the probuckers.
@@nefer7 thanks
Very helpful 👍
Nice review! I've been wondering if risking these PUPS, but afyer seeing this, I will give them a try. Any chance you could send me or post the link to the probuckers you ordered?
Cheers man!
The seller name is "GuitarFamily", should be easy to find them. Try looking for "Epi Pro Alnico" or something along those lines.
@@nefer7 it seems like they do have gold and silver ones but after adding to the cart their description say gold. Can You please see your order history and check what did the full description say?
@@adamk.7021 Hello, and sorry for the late reply.
If you check the first minute of the video you can see the order details right there.
It shows the name of the listing "1 conjunto original genuino epi.... niquel/ouro..." (niquel/ouro means nickel/gold).
And bellow you can see "Product Properties: All Ni Kit IV C" which I'm assuming means the whole kit (wiring harness + pickups), Ni probably stands for Nickel cover, IV for the 4 conductor wire and C for curved rings.
I just tried adding one of them to the cart and it does indeed have the name of the listing and the properties bellow it, similar to the order details.
You can probably find these specific listings, or their updated versions, by searching for these numbers:
Probuckers: 32968459671
ACP: 32804989003
Merci je regarde votre vidéo après avoir commandé les mêmes micros.
Is probucker potted into wax?
I couldn't understand that how we discover if it is fake or not.
Yes, the Probuckers are wax potted.
As you can imagine, I can't say 100% if they are fake or not. I do believe they are genuine Epiphone pickups and here is why:
- The base plates are exactly the same as the pictures I found of Original Probucker pickups. The stickers as well.
- The screws used look exactly the same, both the thread and the material used.
- And the big one: they have maple spacers.
No other generic pickup uses those. They were used in the original PAF pickups back in the day and they have since been replaced by plastic spacers by pretty much every manufacturer out there, from Chinese cheap pickups to Dimarzio and Duncan. To my knowledge, the "only" pickups that use maple spacers are boutique pickups that try to replicate the original PAF design, some Gibson pickups (57 Classics, Burstbuckers) and the new line of "Pro" Epiphone pickups (Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pro). There might be a few others but the point is that most pickups, especially cheap Chinese ones, use plastic spacers on their pickups and I seriously doubt that if someone wanted to make a cheap copy of these pickups they would go through all the trouble of using the correct maple spacers when its something that 99.9% of their clients will never look at since you have to disassemble the whole thing just to be able to see it.
As I mention on the video's description, this is just my opinion and I could very well be wrong.
But at the end of the day, they look exactly like the real thing and they sound really good so I think that even if they are fake, which I doubt, they are still incredible value for the money and an awesome set of pickups if you want to get that classic PAF tone on a budget!
There is another video on my channel if you want to hear what they sound like :)
But you didn't see the video ... Hugo gave himself a Chinese job finding out ... a detective job ... very hard ... and you still ask? Didn't you see the video?
But what are you talking about that you cannot discover if they are false or not? Didn't you see the video? EVERYTHING MATCHES ... In simple words: If you have a lion's tail, a lion's head, a lion's body, dandelions: IT SEEMS THAT IT IS A LION! Slow!
I don't think it is original, i own a couple epi, but none of them had a silver/nickel colored back, all of em is brass do please correct me if I'm wrong, but if that sound as good then i don't care wheter it's fake or original, as long as it good its good
Hey man, what's important is that you like your sound and overall tone. As Yngwie Malmsteen says: "If it sounds good, its good".
Regarding the back plates, what you have are the older Epiphone pickups that usually come with a brass back and just have "Epiphone" stamped on them, with the occasional marking for front and/or back. There are many models of Epiphone pickups that look just like those and they usually have a little sticker on the back that represents their respective model. Some of the most common ones are the "Alnico Classic", the "Alnico Classic Plus" and the "57 Classic", just to name a few.
Most of their lower tier guitars still come with those pickups but they have been upgrading some of their newer models to come with these new pickups which they call the "Pro" line of pickups. To my knowledge, only the "Alnico Classic Pro's" and the "Probuckers" are from this new line of pickups. I have also heard that there are some new "Ceramic Plus" pickups that also have this nickel back plate, but I can't confirm that at the moment.
I won't go into much detail about this new "Pro" line of pickups since you can find their promotional video here on TH-cam (and you should check it out!), but the gist of it is that they are trying to replicate the original PAF pickups so they are trying to use the same type of materials for the cover, back plate, wire, and even the screws.
@@nefer7 yup if it's good then who cares fake or real, you got quit a bargain for around 50 bucks or so, is it bright ? Dark ? What are your tought ? Say compare to thoose aliexpress wilkinson WVC is it on par or better ? I know perhaps the characters is different but how bout sustain, clarity, attack ?
@@ariearia4891 I'm not familiar with with those specific AliExpress Wilkinsons so I really can't compare them.
I have another video on my channel where I compare these Alnico Classic Pros, the Probuckers and the Duncan JB+jazz combo, feel free to check that video out and listen for yourself! If you do, please read the video description so you can read my detailed opinion on those 3 sets.
In short, the Probuckers seem to have more highs and so they are the brightest of the bunch. To me they sound just like a PAF should sound.
The Alnico Classic Pro neck pickup is extremely similar to the SD Jazz, with a more modern voice and more mids compared to the Probucker.
Older EPI pickups has brass bottom plate
Is the Bridge pickup F-Spaced?
They are made for Gibson-style guitars so I don't think they are F-spaced.
conclusion? original or copy?... My English is not good. I did not understand anything from the scientific explanations on the video footage.
It's impossible to know for sure but I think they are original.
Hugo, e em termos de Alfandega, foi necessário pagar algum valor?
Olá João.
Não, chegou sem qualquer problema nem entrave Alfandegário.
Poderá ter ajudado o comentário que deixei na encomenda (visível durante os primeiros dois minutos do vídeo).
@@nefer7 Obrigado. Quando puderes faz um video para podermos comparar a qualidade do som deles. Também estou a pensar em mandar vir uns para a minha EPI Les Paul.
@@JoaoBatista-sz9ww tens um video no meu canal com a comparação de som entre estes dois sets e uns SD Jazz+JB. Se decidires ver o video, recomendo que leias os comentários que deixei na descrição!
Resumidamente, o pickup do neck do alnico classic pro é bastante semelhante ao SD Jazz com um tom mais moderno, enquanto que os Probuckers têm um som mais "classico", mais semelhante aquilo que eu esperaria de uma replica dos PAFs originais. Não tenho grandes comentários em relação aos pickups da bridge, sao ambos low output PAF-style e com alguma distorção soam relativamente semelhantes um ao outro. Aí é que o SD JB se destaca uma vez que tem consideravelmente mais output e consegues ter mais definição nas notas quando tocas em high gain.
Se procuras um tom mais "classic les paul", aquele tipico "british rock", recomendo os Probuckers. Se preferires um tom ligeiramente mais moderno mas mantendo as caracteristicas classicas dessa era (low output, etc), os Alnico Classic Pro's talvez sejam uma boa aposta. Se quiseres algo mais "metal", então secalhar deves ver outras opçoes.
Mas vê o video e tira as tuas conclusões!
Hola, me puedes compartir el link por favor.
olá. o video tem 2 anos, o link já não existe.
mas de certo que se procurares pelo nome dos pickups no aliexpress consegues encontrar iguais!
boa sorte =)
Thanks 🤘
A good working copy.
Probably real pickups and wiring harnesses just sold to 3rd party vendors either due to over stock or old inventory I can imagine. I'd probably still be careful cause even though there probably isn't a big profit to make from selling fake Epiphone parts there's always a buyer who's willing to give up a few bucks.
I'm seeing Duncan, Suhr, Fender ... at 25 to 40 percent cheaper on that website. I would like to believe they're fakes. How to tell?
@@RideAcrossTheRiveri have real sd 59 jb and i order fake 59 jb in alexpress if bilind test sound bot difference
Thanks you i will buy now
€63 is not cheap.
You'll likely find them cheaper on Ebay.
Also, I imagine a fraudster likely impostering something worth more, like actual Gibsons.
Having conveyed that, I CAN tell you that I have both types of Epiphones in their original guitars straight from the dealer and they are fantastic pickups!
If you so-happen to purchase a set of the new "Alnico Pro CUSTOM" pickups, I would be interested in hearing those!
I think you misunderstood. 63€ was the price of the whole order, both sets together plus the electronics and shipping. each set was around 20€-23€ or something like that. You can see it in the video :)
I probably can't get those alnico pro custom any time soon, but thanks for the suggestion! Maybe one day I will.
I have been wanting to do a video on some hand-wound alnico 2 single coils that I purchased from eBay like 2 years ago for my mexican strat, but somehow I still didn't find the time for it :( but that will be the next video, if I ever decide to actually do it.
But again, thanks for the suggestion on the custom ones, I will keep an eye open for them!
Fala Hugo! Tudo bem? Primeiramente meus parabéns pela pesquisa, muito bem detalhada. Comprei pela guitar family também. Semana que vem deve estar chegando aqui em casa.
Você chegou a testar a resistência dos pots? Queria saber se eles batem 500k mesmo ou pelo menos próximo disso.
Grande abraço
Olá Daniel! Não medi os pots na altura porque a ideia sempre foi utilizar uns CTS que aí tinha, mas posso medir isso agora e já ficas com uma ideia.
Tone (normal pots): 523, 459
Volume (push-pull pots): 511, 473
Os pots e o switch parecem-me ser de boa qualidade, feitos na Korea. Bastante mais pesados e robustos que os mini pots chineses que vêm nas guitarras baratas!
Mas é importante referir que os fios são de terrivel qualidade e partem com muita facilidade. Lembro-me que parti uma ligaçao quando testei os pickups e agora parti outra ligação enquanto media os pots... Se estiveres a pensar em utilizar estes pots, espero que tenhas alguma experiencia em soldar fios porque é muito possivel que te aconteça o mesmo!
Abraço e espero que fiques satisfeito com os teus pickups novos ;)
Put some volume man! Hard to hear even with my speakers max out...
Hey man,
I'm not a pro youtuber and to be honest, I don't know how to put more volume on the videos. I tried recording them with maximum volume but even the other video that i recorded straight from the Line6 POD still came out with low volume for some reason :(
I guess I probably need better software for youtube recording.
Anyway, I'm sorry the quality is bad but thanks for stopping by and watching the video anyway! :)
@@nefer7 Just bought a trio of them on AliExpress 1 week ago...just need the bridge to put on my Sheraton II and I hope it sound good.
It depends on what you are looking for, they have that classic low output PAF tone.
You can check my other video if you like where I compare the Alnico Classic Pro's, the Probuckers and a SD Hot Rod set (Jazz+JB) and listen to what those pickups sound like. It probably won't be exactly the same since they were recorded in a Les Paul, but it should be close to what you can expect. Headphones recommended for that video.
My findings were that the Probuckers had more bass and treble while the Alnico Classic Pro's had a lot more mids.
Anyway I hope these videos were helpful and that you end up satisfied with the pickups!
they are legitz
Algum brasileiro de bom coração aí, pode me dizer a conclusão, se esses captadores são reais ou falos...
Provavelmente são reais. É impossível ter 100% certeza, mas tudo indica que devem ser.
@@nefer7 Opa, eae Hugo, muito obrigado por responder cara, comprei esses mesmo captadores zebra no AliExpress chegou dia 09 de Fevereiro e já mandei meu Luthier instalar, a expectativa tá alta !
@@felipealvesdesousa2979 EAE Man, como ficou o som da sua guitarra após esses captadores?
@@jeancordeiro7667 Eae mano, foi mal por falar 2 meses depois kkkkkkkkkk então, já levei pro luthier e já tô com a guitarra pronta a um tempo. E sinceramente, me impressionei muito !! Até onde eu sei, os caps são de alnico 2, e tem um propósito por ter pegado esses caps, já que meu guitarrista favorito é o slash e os caps do slash são de alnico 2, então pra tocar Guns é excelente !! Falando da característica dos caps, eu sinceramente, achei o cap do braço bem grave viu e em determinados pontos, pode chegar a "embolar" como muitos dizem, mas isso tem solução, é só mexer mais um pouco na equalização do ampli ou da pedaleira, agora meu amigo o cap da ponte é muito foda po sonzera demaisss fora que o push pull FUNCIONA SUPER BEM é notável a diferença cara, o cara defasar o cap do braço e botar a chave no meio e o tone do braço no zero, da certinho o timbre do November Rain ! Só uma coisa que não foi boa, a chave Seletora que veio nesse kit é bem fuleira viu, aí eu já comprei uma nova e vou mandar instalar em breve junto com tarrachas Guyker.
at Least the ones with braidwire are fake... bought 2 sets, Alnico classic pro and probuckers... they sound bright as fuck, compared them with a real probucker on the same guitar (I even dismateled the molex conector) and they don´t sound good... waaayy to much highend... the actually sound like a Vanson 59, but brighter andmore scooped.
yeah, no epiphone pickup comes with braided wire as far as i know.
that doesn't automatically mean that any pickup with a non-braided wire molex is "original" ofc, but it does mean that those with braided wire would have a much lower chance of being original.
i'd love to get more info on those pickups tho, if somehow you got the tools to get that info! like their output reading and if they do have the wood spacer insider them or just the standard plastic one that most companies seem to use. also, do they have a silver-colored baseplate with the epiphone logo and stickers etc? or is it the cheaper brass one without the logo? that would also be a HUGE indicator that they could be cheap replicas.
sound wise, it's sad that you didn't like the sound, despite them being original or not :( it would at least have been a decent purchase if they did sound ok to you.
@@nefer7 the „alnico and the probuckers“ had the epiphone baseplate but the alnico classic pro didn’t had the stickers… I compare them to a real probucker 3 (that’s why I dismantle the molex connector from the original).
all to a harley benton cst 24 full modded, and with stainless steel frets from jescar (done by me). the ali pickups did sound like a vanson 59 but with less output and brighter even. the original sounded like a prs se custom 24 pickup but with a little more high end. I did also put a nickel cover on the alnico pro (zebra) and sound almost like the ali probucker. i’m gonna put next some prs 85/15s next. but trust me, the ali pickups were even brighter as a emg retro 55.
just dismantled the alnico pro from aliexpress, braided wire version, it has a wood spacer but doesn't look like maple, the screws look like the ones in this video
Well the alnico pro does, tested both and recorded dis, the alixpress are fake and sound awfull
Good job "Detective Pickup" (despite the fact that you dont own nor like Epiphone lol)
I did own a Korean SG G400 Custom Shop (white with 3 humbuckers) and a Chinese LP Standard in the past but ended up selling them because I really didn't like them. So it's not that I don't have experience with them, I just don't like them.
What I meant in the video is that I don't have those same pickups in an original Epiphone so i can't A/B them side by side. So, even if I loved them and owned 20 of them, if none came with these pickups (which few models actually do), the end result would be the same.
As I explain in the video, I made this research for myself as I was looking to buy these pickups and I could not find any information at all on the web regarding if these were real or fake.
So I bought them and did my best researching the web for any information I could find regarding these pickups while I was waiting for them to arrive (which took a few months).
Then I decided that if I was going to open them and try to find out if they were real or fake anyway, I might as well make this video to put this information out there for people that are looking for it, just like I was and couldn't find any.
I'm sorry this video wasn't helpful to you, but thanks anyway for stopping by and watching it!
@@nefer7 it was a very good research video
How is this a question? Everything sold off of these chinese sites, are copies due to no copyright laws.
A bit of a boot in the balls to manufacturers, but it's a mad world isnt it?
I'm all over aliexpress at the moment. Just had a strat arrive recently, and I'm waiting on all kinds arriving to upgrade it.
Hey man, I don't know 100% for sure if these are a copy or not, but if they are I must say they are the best copies of anything I've ever seen off of chinese websites.
As you can see on the video I opened one and compared it to the "real" ones and they are exactly the same. Same base plates, same covers, same screws, same maple spacers, etc. Usually, from my experience, chinese copies tend to be worried only about "what you can see" and don't really bother with what's under the hood. All that usually matters to them is that the items "look" the same as what they are usually copying. Thats why I really wanted to open one and see for myself.
Personally, I was sold at the maple spacers since 100% of the pickups I've bought come with plastic spacers and I really doubt they would go through this trouble just to fake something that usually nobody looks at.
My theory is that these are indeed original Epiphone pickups as they say they are, but are being sold in some "non official" way.
The Epiphone factories are in China, so its not that wierd to me that someone might have found a way to sell them separatedly.
I could be wrong ofc, but that's my oppinion on them at this moment. If these are indeed fake, they did a damn good job faking it to the last detail!
But it is strange what you say that because it is a pill that is sold in a Chinese portal it will be false ... Well, remember that Epiphones ARE CHINESE at the moment, and they could well be sold in a Chinese portal (as they are in fact sold) and then one has to find out if the Epiphone China is a copy of another Epiphone China or not ... Basically, every Epiphone that they make in China and that they sell on Chinese portals, are copies of other Chinese Epiphones that they have already made before ... I don't know if you get it ... Counterfeiters if they are good counterfeit brands that are NOT made in China and that are exclusive ... Not cheap guitar brands like Epiphone that, as I said, are made in China ... I have a Korean Epiphone (1992) and there if you can see some differences of better quality ... which are not so many by the way
No time to watch you fumble around opening package. Sorry