Seymour Duncan Humbuckers

[STrider3]

Hello All, This is my first post so forgive me if any of the rules I just read get broken or bent.

 

4 months ago I picked up an Epiphone LP STD in black/cream/chrome. Being a somewhat immature 54 yo and forever dreaming of playing to thunderous crowds I ventured into a Guitar Center, walked straight to the used section of electrics, and within 30 seconds I found this guitar with a $225 price tag and carried it straight to the counter. In the store 10 minutes tops. Lessons are going well but have been kind of scatter shot lately but I have all of the basic chords down and now working on scales and guitar music theory. Its been mostly book and online classes. A big help is that my 23YO daughter has taken an interest. I got her a new (factory 2nd) Fender Squire Telecaster from eBay. She played the violin as a child so does have a clear understanding of music and it helped. She was playing complete songs the first night of our evening practice sessions.

 

Being an engineer the other side of my brain is always figuring out how things work and worse, trying to make things better. Even if they aren't broken. My guitar now houses a self made JimmyPage harness using push-push pots, vintage wiring, Russian PIO caps, a new Switchcraft three way all installed with slightly too big Molex micro-connectors. Wy workmanship is passable but there is definite room for improvement.

 

Problem 1 started with the first strum. The sound coming from the strings was tinny and skinny. No meat whatsoever. I spent a few days with the cover off poking around with a voltmeter but everything pointed to the harness being correct while all grounds measured 0 ohms all the way through. The pickups I chose were the well touted Dragonfire Screamers so off and running on some reviews for these pickups. Basically the information I found wasn't as generous as the sellers self interested self promoting descriptions of these pickups. One youtube post actually called them $2.00 asian junk. So, off in search of better pickups. This time I steel myself to spend $200 instead of $35.

 

I found these at Sears of all places:

 

Seymour Duncan Duncan SH-4/SH-2n Hot Rodded Humbucker Pickup Set, Zebra+Page Wiring Harness

 

I don't know why a link isn't showing up but yes, Sears sells a pair of HotRodded Seymour DUNCAN Humbuckers with a made for American Gibson Jimmy Page push-pull long shaft pots and orange drop caps. All for $145. Know that I DO NOT work for Sears,

 

The purpose of this post is to say hello, share my guitar interest, share my struggles, brag on my guitar a bit. and most importantly ask all in the know here if this deal is to good to be true? Does anybody have ill words about these pickups that I need to know.

 

I ordered this set with the intention of installing this harness and pups then work on my harness to improve some workmanship issues.

 

Thank you all for listening and I hope to be as active on this forum as you will have me.

[milod]

Strider...

 

First, welcome to the party that's mostly quite civil, entertaining and on occasion quite informational.

 

Sorry that I can't help you with your specific question beyond a note or two here...

 

First, I've been playing guitar for nearly 52 years after starting as a folkie back in the '60s. Rock starting in '65, etc., etc. I've never changed out pups in a guitar, including when I was buying beater electrics and upgrading them into playability in the early '70s.

 

Second, messing with controls on both guitar and amp has always gotten me a "sound" I could be happy with on stage. Then again, one's tastes may differ - and some folks just plain enjoy a hobby of messing with the electronics in electric guitars.

 

But basically I've always figured that an amplified guitar, whether an acoustic miked into a sound board or mixer, or an electric with various sorts of pups, becomes immediately an instrument of two parts - the assembly holding the strings, and the stuff involved in amplifying it. Usually the stuff involved in amplifying an instrument has lots of potential adjustment.

 

The one exception to "not messing with" actually was dumping a Washburn semi-hollow that just never felt right regardless; that brought me my first Epi "Dot" - and I now have two of 'em.

 

Anyway, again welcome. it's good to have you young folks on the forum. <chortle> Yeah, that's jealousy. I wish I were so young again.

 

m

[rct]

I will only suggest that you abandon all hope of engineering things guitar wise. It is just sound, what sounds good is good, what passes engineering muster often sounds crap, and what you think would never work is just heavenly. A couple engineers at my work have tinkered with my guitars, going to make me happy. Fail. And then they just shake their heads because it should work.

 

rct

[capmaster]

Hello STrider, and welcome to this nice place in the web.

 

In my opinion, there's not necessarily serious trouble with your guitar. There are factors like

- brand, make and gauges of strings

- guitar setup

- guitar cable capacitance, and

- amplifier including correct input impedance.

 

To my experience, your guitar with nice new strings, nicely set up and connected with a fine guitar cable - there are very useful ones available, 10 feet long, for less than 10$ - to a fine amp at appropriate settings should sound nice. Different pickups will produce a different tone, switching options will allow for lots of additional options, but they won't change a guitar basically. Somebody putting down a certain pickup may have wanted to say it won't match the guitar or his taste, but a result perceived as crappy may depend on lots of factors besides the pickup itself.

 

On the other hand, an Epiphone LP WILL sound rather different from a Fender or Squier Telecaster. They are completely different beasts.