Rule 1 - If it sounds good, it is good!

"If it sounds good, it IS good".....words to live by.

To remove knobs- I place a thin cloth over the knob, and two spoons at opposing ends of the knob placed under it, and use leverage to gently lift them off. Works like a charm, never scratched or dinged a guitar. And it's free!

I live in Scotland, you have NO idea what windy is :) I like the fact you said "will it be better? That's entirely subjective. It will be different" . That has the smell of honesty about it :)

I love that you have an engineering degree and background and can speak to the science, not just bullshit it. You also speak the truth, if a cheap pup sounds good, it’s a good pup. It doesn’t have to be a specific brand, good is just that...good.

The biggest difference that I (as a luthier (and pickup manufacturer)) know: Noname Cheapo pickups vary vastly, even if it's "the same model". If I buy 5 PUs of the same model from Seymour Duncan for Example, they all will be the same regarding windings, wire gauge, magnet material and strength and so on. If I have to replace a pickup in a guitar that I made for a customer, there will be no surprises, if I wound them myself or if I used some from a serious manufacturer.

Great video as always, so much good information and explanation. Really appreciate your work Dylan. Can't wait for finished build

Dude I really enjoy these tech videos. You do a great job of explaining everything for those of us that are hobbyists . Thanks

Just wanted to let you know how much i enjoy your shows and I’ve sure have learned so much. Thanks and keep up the great job. I’m not a guitar player yet just learning but i do love working on guitars. I’ll be joining your patron site soon.

Haha, a little Freudian slip near the beginning... “We’re going to talk about the difference between cheap pickups and good pickups.” Love the content. Keep it up.

I've spent about 4 hours going down the rabbit hole with your content. Very cool and interesting stuff. I am now a subscriber. Keep it up!

an excellent and informative video. Thanks, I learned a lot of useful stuff :)

I've learned a lot from you sir... Because me too did a lot of mods on my guitars. Knowledgeable information. Thank you sir! More power!

Excited for the next video

Thx Dylan, it was interesting as usual. Good job man.

Dude, you just did what I always wanted to do when I was a kid with my own guitar. Something always stopped my from dismembering my 1971 Tele bass w its big ole honkin' humbucker. But seriously, this video was very informative and entertaining at the same time, thank you!

Keep it up man. Love your videos

I learn so much from your videos about pickups, a big help on the remodeling of my old guitars, You didn't go into the Dimarzo thing you mentioned

Love these pick up vids. Can't wait until you do something like this for bass humbuckers.

great information and interesting to see the insides of an Epiphone..Thanks and I hope to see more as a subscriber....

On the wiring inside a guitar-- absolutely agree that it mostly doesn't matter; it certainly doesn't from a tone perspective. I will suggest that some grades of PVC insulation can interact with some guitar finishes. I personally prefer Teflon insulated wire because 1) Teflon has massive dielectric strength, allowing very thin insulation 2) It has a high melting point so you could solder relatively carefree and not worry about melting the wiring. There are silicone-insulated wires out there too that offer similar benefits of chemical inertness and high temperature robustness. I'll let you all in one one of my "wiring secrets" for guitars that seems to work really well. I have some Romex scrap that has 14ga copper in it. Way overkill for guitar wiring. BUT it's stiff enough you can use it like a "bus bar" to tie your pots together on the ground side if you strip off all the insulation. So instead of star grounding to one pot and risking all that heat input to a pot, I solder a length of the stiff 14ga bare wire across the tops of the pots. It ties all the pots together, and then you can solder any ground you want anywhere along that "bus bar" . This keeps a lot of heat out of the pots because you're only soldering to the pot one time AND you're not applying heat to directly the pot with your soldering iron (using the pot to melt the solder). Instead, you're heating the bare copper wire and using that wire to melt the solder and wet out onto the pot. (put some extra flux on the pot). And because you have this 14ga big chunk of bare wire, you can leave your iron on it all day and you won't melt insulation (there is none!). The downside is that because you have this 14ga "bus bar" to heat up, some soldering irons won't have the horsepower to get it hot enough to do the job. Although this generally has more to do with the tip shape than the power of the iron. With a wide chisel and 25w or more ,you should be able to pull this off.

The P90 is such a good design that even the cheap no-name pickups sound good.

Love your videos. You actually inspired me to start building pickups on a larger scale and not just for myself. Learned alot from hours of watching your videos

This was helpful. I learned a few useful things. Thanks.

My Little Sister CR pickups have solid brass covers as well as B&G's private builds ... but I guess they want that to shape the tone to where they want it to be. So not every material choice might be driven by cost, even if it seems to be the lower cost option. :)

Thanks for all the great content

Thank you Dylan for the video. You talked about the differnet quality of magnets despite they are the same "type" A5, and so on. So, there are some way to recognize a "good" magnet before to buy it ( I like to make pick ups by myself) ? What characteristic should I looking for to get a really good magnet? Thank you and sorry for my bad english.

i honestly like the Epiphone classic alnico II pickups that are in the les Paul i have. the fit and finish on the guitar isn't great, but it has some of the clearest sounding humbuckers I've played. i usually don't like neck humbuckers, but i like that neck humbucker. the bridge is pretty crunchy, but not muddy. As long as a pickup doesn't sound too thin, our muddy i can probably eq it to my liking.

Hey Dylan. Great channel, keep up the great work. Have you ever looked at or played Guitar Fetish guitars, like the Slick? Would love to see your thoughts on one, or even an upgrade recommendation!

i needed to know this thanks man.

Awesome videos Dylan I have learned so much. Fender has the V-Mod 2 that use 2 different magnets on each pickup. Have you ever used 2 magnets on a PAF? Just curious, thanks.

so IF the magnet was swapped & the cover taken off AND left off then would this compare well to a more expensive humbucker?

Thanks for breaking down the pick up!

Fascinating vid here. I know the ceramic magnet humbuckers in my Lotus L520 Les Paul copy are cheap, but they sound good. I wonder if they're Artec, the South Korean company you mentioned. I totally agree with the mantra "If you like how they sound, they're good pickups". With my Lotus, I spent about $85 or so on a P94 (Gibson P-90 in a humbucking enclosure), and I could never get it set up to sound good. It would either sound way too tinny, or the pickup would give the guitar 'strat-itis'. I ended up destroying it by accident so the stock, ceramic magnet humbucker went back in the guitar and for the life of me that's when I realised that it actually sounded pretty good. Ya live and learn. I also have learned to enjoy the tone of the Powersound humbucker in my Ibby Gio but that's a whole 'nother story. Peace.

Hi. I have some humbucker-sized pickups and want to choose two to put into a small-bodied semi-hollow. One is a Lollar Novel 90 (9.7K); one is a Lollar Imperial Bridge (8.4K) and the other two are Tom Andersons: an H1- and an H1 (I don't know the resistance). I don't think the Novel 90 can be used with the others, because it probably requires a 250K pot instead of a 500, and the guitar has just one volume and one tone pot. If I'm right about that, then either the H1- or H1 should go in the neck spot, and the Imperial in the bridge position. Am I right about the Novel 90? Do you know the Andersons well enough to make a recommendation between them? Thanks.

Are you going to change out the plastic jack holder? Thanks for sharing all your knowledge.

Execllent video. I've been playing guitar since '68. Not really that great but I love it. Having just a degree in electronics, I love the geeky stuff. I really learned a lot. I enjoyed the video.

I have guitars with Seymour Duncan SH-6s, DiMarzio HS-3s, and couple with cheap $10 Chinese ceramic pickups. Honestly the only real difference I can tell is that the expensive "boutique" pickups are potted better and are not as microphonic as the cheapies. But tone-wise? It's my opinion that unless you KNOW what you're hearing, you can't tell any differences.

Dylan, I really enjoy your content on guitars. Do you have a channel for RC cars as well? Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such an easy to follow and pleasant way!

Thank you for the deep explanation and dedication for Quality products 👌❤

Am I the only one cliffhanging on the DiMarzio thing?

I have only one guitar, epiphone LP standard I have no problem with pots and pick up after 3 years of playing I only replaced the 3 way switch recently.

Thanks Dylan!!

great vid thanks

Leaned a really rare guitar against an amp with 4 subs,one of the giant magnets i think attracting side ,was an inch away from the pickups,now the guitar doesn’t sound as good. Any fixing or checking them at a GCenter,or a Sam Ash? What should i do? It’s from the 80’s and all original. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! Crisis

was there a follow-up video where we can hear the epiphone lp with the new wiring, pots, caps and pickups?

After 60 years in the music business, I've learned that sound & tone are SO subjective & the business is so full of bullshit it's incredible! These pups, those pups, this guitar, that guitar, this amp, that amp! A decent player with whatever axe & amp he entertains the audience with & is successful is what works! The arrogance of musicians & builders is nuts, & yes, I've owned some of the finest axes made. A good musician with a good ear is not always subject to ridiculously overpriced gear & brand names! I worked in a large music store for a decade, & saw plenty of name brand & custom crap go out the door, just due to a brand. Become skillful, & think about it, it's not musicians who make you a living, unless you're in the instrument business. Musicians who do well are producing music to the masses, NOT to musicians & their gear brands. I've heard musicians get humongous tone from unheard of sources!

I've seen some pickups made by companies like "tonespecific" and the several models they have sound extremely different from each other... how they manage to do that? what does influence so much the sound?

What kind of tonal diverences would it make if you change let say the backplate and cover? Or the magnets?

I built a tele a while back and this is what my finding about some pickups. I tried a GFS hotrail pickups squealed like a pig. I then went expensive with Seymour Duncan Hot rail sounded the same it squealed like a pig. I bought an Artec hot rail and is quiet and played really well and was hotter then both the others yet quiet.

Just subscribed!

Do you have a recommendation for a gauss meter that’s appropriate for pickup building? They seem all over the place price wise, and I’m just starting but I want to get something that’s worthwhile

Thanks for the explanation

Hey dylan i was wondering, i love jaguars and i asked myself how would a p90 jaguar would look and sound like, and googling i found a guy that sells "jaguar sized p90s", is that possible? Is it even worth? What would a jaguar pickup sized p90 sound and be like?

Great Channel …. Does anyone know where the Part Two to this video is? I searched the video page but couldn’t find it? 🎊 🎊 🎉🎉

Dylan, I really appreciate your videos, and now I finally know what the difference is between cheap vs. good pickups. * I recently bought a Player Fender Tele HH - generally like the sound of the PuP - but I want a very Jazz oriented sound, at least from the neck pickup. What would you recommend? Tim Lerch, and the Jazz Guitar Channel guy frequently recommend pickup upgrades on guitars < $1,000. ** Oh, the volume pot on my NEW Telecaster has a 60 cycle hum until I turn it between 8-10.

so IF the magnet was swapped & the cover taken off AND left off then would this compare well to a more expensive humbucker? If so there could be a mod video in the making!

Gibson 498T is also 14 k and alnico 5, 43 AWG, but plain enamel instead of poly. Likely the pickup is modeled after that one and sounds about the same.

Can someone recommend which humbucker set can I get for my strat so it sounds as closet as possible to a Les Paul? I know woods and scale are important but what would be the closest?

I've got a Korean made Epi Custom, and the bridge did in fact measure 14k. Was really surprised, but now I'm not! Shelved the guitar a number of years ago with neck issues I didn't want to deal with, and now I think it's time to get this back up and running. Have fret leveling/dressing tools, and have to get in some good pickups/pots and hopefully make it sound great. Cool interesting vid.

I bought a used 97 Les Paul studio ebony and gold trim ebony fretboard with 496/500 Gibson pups. Always liked these pick- ups when guitar searching; L P Classic, J Page 1st sign. So these kinda were what I was looking for. Changed a lot of the crap that Gibson originally installed. Crap pits ,wiring, bridge. Ended up from top to bottom Kluson locking tuners, Tusc XL nut, Tonespro locking bridge, alum tailpiece, CTS 500k pots, 50's wiring w/Garrett cloth wire, Switchcraft switch and jack, Schaller straplocks. Bought in different times as a package I would work a deal on each deal. Saved money each time. All this before Corona came along. Probably put about $350-400 into parts. But guitar is set for a while.

I did some research on Epiphone pickups a couple of years back - I was never able to confirm Artec as the maker, but I was told by a couple of suppliers that the ones marked "BHC" are made in China and the ones marked "BHK" are made in Korea. Is one better built or better sounding then the other? Who knows.... my research never went that far.

I try to pay close attention to all of your tech videos; that pup you disassembled appeared to have been wax potted. Did uou mention that and I missed it? Thanks, Dylan!

I recently swapped an Ibanez 320 ex for Jackson 7. Stringer and I’m considering some upgrading including popping in something a deathbucker and a Nazgûl. The guitar sounds fine as is, but I’m searching for a crushing vibe from it.

Thanks for everything.

You can also upgrade the parts. Why not change the cover and baseplate to nickel? Also didint mention the pole piece screws. Theres different types of steel the screws are made out of with different carbon content that make subtle differences. Could swap the screws too. Can also swap magnets if you want. Cover+baseplate+screws are ~ $10 upgrade if you shop around.

Is Canada included this time on the giveaway? Why don't you wire the volume parts as independent and put push pulls on them

Fun fact -- "nickel" and brass covers and baseplate made on 80-90% from copper. Also nickel in nickelsilver parts has magnetic properties which can spoil overall performance the pup.

Do the Eddy currents (from the brass) affect/reduce the high frequency output and clarity?

Infected with the RC bug eh? Yeah, along with bangin' on my Epi Casino, flyin' my RC planes is one of my fave things. Best advice on pickups I've seen yet.

fascinating , I have 3 Wilkinson P90 Stacked pickups on my guitar, and like Artec they are made in Korea, there is a whole slew of pups made in Korea under different name, the thing that stood out for me is how hot those artec pickups are, now my bridge Stacked P90 is hot it's around 15 k and the middle and neck in the 9's but this really opens up things when someone states these pickups are too bright, I don't mind these P90's but I am thinking of replacing them with a higher quality name brand, great video Dylan !!

Hey I've just seen 'spectrum' guitar pickups- they look awesome, they sound awesome.. Just wondered if you might do a spectrum pickup autopsy. The other pickups that really catch my attention are 'sims' quad pickups for bass guitar- those are not only versatile to my ear they are 10/10 for every function they serve.

Hi Dylan, you mention quality pickup parts are important, can you recommend a seller to get quality alnico pole pieces from. I trust stew mac but find they a re usually over priced and charge a lot for shipping when buying a small order. im looking to experiment with some alnico 2 and 5 pole pieces in my vintera style wide range humbuckers. love the cunife but im a cheap bastard so im waiting for some used to come up on reverb or ebay. anyway thank you for any info you can share.

I know this is a video about pickups but I just bought a new set of pickups and want to get rid of the push-pull pots that my old pickups used and I tried a guitar that had some pots that you could lock in the highest setting almost like it had a detent to keep it from being knocked out of position and wanted to know if you had any idea what type of pot that would be. Thanks for any help you can offer, and appreciate all the videos

I would like to learn more about the eddy current issue in brass vs nickel. From what I know, brass is non-magnetic but nickel is. So, to the extent eddy current is an issue at all (which would be nice to explain) I would have expected it to be more of an issue with nickel than brass.

Good straight dope all the time. Great channel.

I watched your vid where you replaced squier Tele PUs with your brand. I could hear the diff and agree it was an upgrade!

Hey Dylan, I have an 84 Jap Strat (system one trem) The System one was only available in 84 and 85 I think. The Bridge was modded with a Lawrence blade humbucker. I have the original middle pickup but lost the neck pickup (having bought a Fender Lace sensor and installed it there) I want to keep the Lawrence and middle pickup but need a Fender neck pickup that is close to the original. I also need a wiring diagram for all of it so it will be like the original except for whatever the Lawrence requires. I have the original pots, caps etc but probably need a push-pull treble pot for the coil tap on the Lawrence. I did not know your email, so hoping you see this.

I've had some pretty amazing results with "cheap" pickups. But the first thing I do, if I can, is de-pot the pickups. I took apart a Yamaha pickup that had the wax dripping out of the cover. ...don't get me started on epoxy potted pickups.

A heat gun to de-pot those pickups can be useful. Mine will not only de-pot, but it will melt the solder if I'm not careful.

Hi, not sure if you answered this or if you could point me to your video where you discuss it but I am interested to understand how DiMarzio avoid brass being a questionable material for their base plates. You seemed to suggest that DiMarzio were the exception to the rule. I'm not being sarcastic or ironic, I really would like to know, since I use and love DiMarzio and I can confirm that they all have brass base plates. Thank you for the channel and for the content.

Curious about one thing. You comment that the base plat and the cover are the two most expensive parts. So how is it that pickups without covers aren’t generally any cheaper than those with covers? Even checked your website selling pickups and taking the nickel cover option appears the same price as ones with no covers. Not having a go, genuinely want to know.

Hi, from Puerto Rico. My second guitar coming soon left handed Squier telecaster Affinity, for church.

Do you have videos talking about bass guitars, control pots, pickups etc ?

Ah snap, just what I’m looking for!

I’m thinking of putting mini humbuckers in my Yamaha revstar 502t with p90s . I’d appreciate a good recommendation ! Love your videos!

According how pickup build, the cheap one won’t be very different then expensive one, I tried cheap China Stringray copy, then I switched the PU to EMG....is sounds .....different but hard to say “better”.

You mentioned the baseplate material being brass is bad unless it is a DiMarzio - can you elaborate on that?

Brass is more expensive than steel ? I have played a cheap Chinese copy guitar though guitar rig software it sounded amazing, but though my amp it sounded crap.

What about single coil pickups for a strat? Maybe a video on that. Thanks. Good stuff.

Can you explain how brass makes a difference compared to nickel ? Not very clear to me

I will say the nickel vs brass have different magnetic properties, but if the magnet does not touch the brass/nickel there will not be much effect, for the magnetic path is not complete

I have a set of humbuckers on my les Paul style guitar they are yibuy from Amazon that are fairly cheap is that why when I put any sort of gain on them they distort really bad and sound awful

Is 44 gauge wire worse than 43 gauge?

Rule 1 exactly. Also, buying alnico magnets of various types from eBay and switching them out until you find the right tone for that guitar and application. Assuming the pickup output is around what you need and it's not inherently (broken) noisey.

I don't understand why you didn't met the solder to take the cover off the pickup. I don't believe in damaging components unnecessarily? Someone else may like that pickup and could reuse it if it was not damaged? Good points about the Brass versus Nickel components!

I replaced stock Epiphone pro buckers. Pro buckers coil split to single coils and that reduced output 50%. I purchased Seymour Duncan P rails, which is two separate pickups. A P-90 and a hot rail. Together, they are a humbucker. No output drop when I coil split. In my case, I believe the more expensive pickups are better than the original pro buckers. The pro buckers were lower output overall and didn’t handle high gain as well. I do believe there is a point of diminishing return on things, but I don’t think you’re hitting the point of diminishing return replacing stock pickups in a $600 guitar with a set of good quality $250 pickups from a major manufacturer like Seymour Duncan.

Speaking of cheap pickups, I recently picked up a set of 3 "affordable" single coils and ran into something I've never heard of before. I wired them up and went to test them, but whenever I touch the magnets on any of the pickups, the neck and bridge are the worst, it creates a very loud buzzing exactly like if you were to touch the tip of the jack that's plugged straight into an amp without the guitar. Everything else is fine but it's still weird. A few people say that it's "normal" but I've never encountered such a thing and it definitely does not seem desirable. Some say it's bad grounding or the leads are switched on the pickup, but I don't know how likely it is that it's a defect considering it's affecting all of the pickups. What are the chances that all three were wound incorrectly, right? Another thing people talk about is how the magnets aren't grounded, but messing with that sounds like a bad idea. I tried searching your channel for some info on the problem, but it's hard to find anything of substance about it on the internet and I figured who better to ask than someone who builds pickups and knows the ins and outs of them. Have you ever encountered that before and do you have any idea what could be causing it, or if it actually is "normal" so some single coils?

Hi! Can you please explore duncan design single coil pickups? Are they really bad?

What is your opinion, if you have one, on Dragonfire pickups?