I've had cheap pickups that sound great and expensive ones that don't. I've also had cheap pickups that are generally built with higher quality than $200 PRS pickups... My suggestion is find what you like and use those, no matter the price

i dont get the "not worth it on cheap guitar" argument. if you have a cheap guitar that plays well maybe has some emotional value to you, it can be tremendous. if you get a 3k gibson was the guitar worth it if you have to change pickups? i think we shouldnt always listen to the bean counters. there is also the aspect of making it your own, comparable to getting a car for 2k and putting parts on it for double the amount. working on something and actually making it better or more beautiful is a thing worthy of pursuing. it makes you feel better and you learned a practical skill.

There's cheap pickups and there's cheap OEM pickups. Artec for instance has been producing great sounding pickups for decades that retails around 15€ and 25€ (for the high end) a piece. There's really no discernible sonic difference between a good Korean or Japanese made pickup and any Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan or Bare Knuckle. So no, cheap pickups don't suck. Sometimes (although rarely) even super cheap OEM pickups sounds fine.

My favorite pair of pickups are $30 ceramic Artec pickups. They are fantastic! I had fender custom shop fat 50s and they were terrible. They were $250ish. Not saying cheap pickups are better but just because pickups are cheap doesn’t make them bad. And just because pickups are expensive doesn’t make them good.

And hot take: the primary benefit of really flash boutique guitars is how fiercely they get defended by people who splash out the dosh for them. Are there stinkers? Yes. At every price range. But past about $500-$700 the returns diminish fast.

I recently compared Harley Benton Roswell and Gibson P90s - except at the subtlest level, they sounded exactly the same

Just for Devil's Advocate : How did it sound on the other positions ? How about adjusting the pickups ? Dropping the pickup body and raising the screws will make significant difference in the tone . That might or might not result in sufficiently usable tones , but definitely worthwhile to try *free* options before dropping the the cost of the guitar for new boutique pickups .

Last May, I picked up a "Leo Jaymz" Les Paul knockoff for $150, for kicks. The stock ceramic pickups were microphonic and useless. Stuck a set of 59 reissue style pickups in it, replaced the tuners, and filed down the sharp fret edges. Did a setup on it. Strung it with 10s. And it's banging. Instantly recognizable tone. Tons of sounds available from it. Plays well enough for me.

I was tinkering with the single coil that comes in a Glarry guitar and found the ceramic magnet under the windings can be popped off and different copper, brass, hybrid shims can be used to get different effect. Nothing under the E and A string, but .020 brass shim stock gave the cords a more vintage ring (to me everyone has their own tastes) Customizing coils can be fun! Thanks for this comparison. Am taking notes!!

What is cheap? What is suck? It is a few cents of wire, a dollar worth of magnets, particle board and and a couple of drops of solder. There is inherently no reason why price should dictate sound quality.. Leo Fender picked whatever bulk woods that wouldn't dent too easily for the best price he could obtain, mainly alder and ash, he chose lacquer from the automobile industry - whatever colors were in style (he didn't even provide a color chart until 10 years into his guitar production), and ALL pickups from the start until CBS bought him out where all over the place with regards to number of windings, what alnico magnets he got hold of, and actual measured resistance - furthermore those PUs were scatter wound - so essentially no pickup that ever left his factory measured the same. Which means achieving some esoteric Goldie locks tone was never really part of the reasoning for ANY of the decisions made - apart from, arguably, the way he staggered the poles in a PU. Interestingly those specifications were based on a different mix of wound and naked strings than what (pretty much all) guitarists used today. Jimi Hendrix used his PUs mirrored the wrong way due to him being left handed - did his tone suffer for it? You think?? Interestingly, people today pay extra $$$ - for tone reasons - to get their guitars made by woods Leo Fender, Gibson or others never chose for tones, get their guitars painted with lacquer that Leo Fender, Gibson or others never chose for tone reasons, get their guitars equipped with PUs to certain vintage specs that never existed when the real vintage PUs were wound. For tone reasons. When boutique builders today make PUs true to vintage specs, true to what vintage specs do they mean? PUs from Strat number 11372 or 11373? Or 11374? Because those PUs were all slightly or even significantly different. Do you think the Mexican, unskilled workforce winding those PUs at Leo's plant cared about exact measurements? They did not. They operated within a "ballpark". Did production managers measure each PU and say, "Hey, this PU is no good.. it is 0.3 kHz off!" .. no they did not. What is underwound? when is a PU not underwound? When is it overwound? Overwound compared to what? Is it a fixed threshold? No, it ain't. Is formvar wire inherently and objectively better than plain enamel wire? No, it is not. Did ever a person exist that can pick up a guitar, plug it in, strum it and consistently separate between formvar and plain enamel wire in PUs through the use of his ears? No, that person does not exist. Does a person nonetheless strongly believe he can hear a significant difference? Yes, in fact, many people do.. Can nature tell us the ideal number of windings on a single coil or a humbucker PU? No it cannot. Did Leo Fender or Seth Lover find out what resistance is "ideal" for their PUs? No they did not. No such "ideal" exist. Does modern amps deal with the signal coming from PU differently than how vintage amps did? Yes they do. Were vintage amps consistent with regard to how they amplified PUs? No, they were not. Will a PU sound the same in any guitar? No, they will not. Will a PUs characteristics change with how big the string clearance is? Yes they will. Will w h e r e and h o w you pick a string drastically affect your sound output? Yes it will. Does Fender Texas specials suck? Yes, they do. Are Fender Texas Specials the best PUs ever? Yes they are. It entirely depends on who you ask. Are Chinese PU winders unable to wind PUs half the resistance of 14K generic PUs. Of course not. Can you easily get low output PUs from even cheap manufacturers? Of course you can. My best P90 PU at my Tele's neck position is made by Gotoh. It sports alnico III magnets and measure 5.95kΩ. I like low output PUs of similar reasons to that of the maker of this video. I used to believe hype. I paid more than 200 USD for a hand wound, boutique PU after lengthy exchanges with the maker. He sent me a 9.38kΩ P90. It's nice. Better than the five PUs I already owned costing just under 100 USD each new. I bought the Gotoh and it rocks. Like, .. fucking rocks. Is it the best P90 in the world? Yes. And No. It depends who you ask. It depends wether or not who you ask actually trust their ears. In my two fav Strats sits a set of Lindy Fralin Woodstock '69s (came with the guitar) and a cheap set bought on AliBaba. The Fralins are slightly hotter than the Chinese made set, but neither are hot compared to most modern single coils. In both guitars I've rolled PUs and tried different sets, but these two sets raaawk. One set is about 300 USD, the other set was 35 USD. Both sound stellar. And I mean stellar. And slightly different.. although I am unsure whether or not the difference in sound is down only to the differences in PUs or if the sounds are different mainly due to differences in guitar construction, hardware etc. I've got friends who payed 650 USD and waited several months to get their hand-wound boutique PUs. They are really nice people. They are also fucking insecure and stupid to pay 600+ USD for a set of PUs . Fender, Seth Lover and others would have never stopped giggling - these PUs are put together from materials probably worth 1% of that price. Most of the best guitarist in the world never paid that kind of money for a set of PUs. Some did. They don't sound better. But OP is right about one thing. That second set of PU sounds miles better. For sure.

I've had some REALLY cheap pickups that put the pricey ones to shame - There definitely are exceptions and it's never good to generalize.

I would like to see a comparison between cheap and more expensive similar pickups - same winds/resistance, same magnet type. These are very different pickups so a bit odd to compare.

The main thing with cheaper ceramic pickups is they are usually way too hot/dark sounding. This is the big reason I replaced the pickups in my mid 2000's Telecaster. The bridge pickup read at like 16.8k and the bridge was 11k. I put a slightly overwound bridge and vintage neck set in and never looked back.

I agree most humbuckers wound over 10k and have ceramic mags, have no character, I like 7k to 8.5k alnico 2 or 5, or even a3 for cleans. 6.4 to 7.5 on my single coils. The more winds the darker and less reactive to your playing.

Thanks so much. Really good demo of what you're talking about. There's so much nuance to electric guitar that the journey is awesome.

I have this guitar, and it is pretty freaking awesome. The paint job is flawless and along with the "roasted looking" neck punches much higher than "normal paint" for guitars in this range. I also have the white Gio with black binding (GRG120EX) with the reverse headstock. Both are pretty fun to play after a good setup. One thing I would say about the Chameleon guitar, and I'm not sure you mentioned it as this video was all about the pickups - I am not REAL crazy about Ibanez's choice for the input jack... it's some sort of hybrid plastic, jack and jackplate all in one deal - kind of weird... It works fine, I recon, but if it ever starts getting weird and breaking I might have to replace it with a more normal traditional jack/jack plate. Perfect time to upgrade to a puretone. 😃

Just wanted to let you know this is one of the most useful videos you or any guitar KZfaq has done. Thanks so much. This clarifies so much.

This is literally the 1st time I get why someone complains about cheap pickups. Excellent explanation indeed. No balogna, just a real clear description of WHY a pickup can be nicer than another. Thank you sir!

Buy the cheap ones, if the output and build meet your needs just get alnico humbucker bar magnets of various types and keep switching them out until you find your match. The magnets are cheap. Of course I mean uncovered buckers.

This is exactly what I look for in a good pickup. Sometimes pots can hinder your pickups too though. Have a guitar with great pickups(humbuckers), but the pots drifted close to 250k. It sounded like it was missing high end definition. Replaced them with 500k audio taper + 50's wiring, and now it’s perfect.

A friend had an Ibanez with ceramic pickups that I fixed up. Awful sound. The example here sounds better. In all reality, the guitar shown is really good for the price. A beginner today is massively blessed compared to someone 20, 30, 40 years ago. The crap that used to be sold is shocking in quality.

Why did you start picking closer to the bridge when you put your own pickups in the guitar. Was it to give the illusion that the pickups had more clarity? Didn’t think anyone would notice that, did you?

Price isn't that important, it's what you ears like. I have $15 and $27 sets of pups that I like the sound because I put in higher output pots. IMO the output of pots is more important than the cost of pups. Example: I have a $100 humbucker in bridge I replaced with a $6 one and like it more go figure.

Machine wound, ceramic no-name pickups sound just fine to me, as long as they're potted. In my experience, cheap potentiometers makes a bigger difference, with them doing nothing from 10-7 and then being dead quiet when reaching 3 or so. This mangles any hope of using the volume control to clean up the sound, and even more so with using cheap tone controls to cut the high-end, since those either work like an on/off switch or not at all

As a pickup snob I found this validating. Your complaints, like no dynamic contrast, lack of high end clarity and flubby gain sound, are exactly the reasons why I generally swap or wind my own pickups on every axe. It's always fun to take a 'cheap' guitar and make it great!

For me the main difference is the new pickups have clear high ends, the first ones the sound was sounding like the tone pot was closed

Most of time it's the pots..those tiny pots really are terrible..HB PUPS..need 500k pots

This really resonated with me, I just bought an old Peavey V series guitar, early 2000's . Always wanted the original, but this is the offshore rereleased one. The guy sat on it for 20 years. No fret wear or anything, basically brand new. Anyways the tremolo system is knock off stuff, soft metals. So I actually bought a whole new Schaller system and Seymour Duncan blackouts for it. Something, people say the guitar isn't worth it, but the neck plays amazing! One of the stock pickups is microphonic. All the wood is really nice stuff. So I'm making it my own lol, Gold hardware one a nice metallic Blue body and a reverse headstock, just screams sexy lol. The guitar is worth it for me and put the stuff I want one a decent platform.

Took that same guitar and hot-rodded it with all new electronics and a setup. Played great! The neck and fretwork were already good and better than anything squier has put out.

"it's not worth it because it's too cheap". isn't this what cheap guitars are for in the first place? not like people buy custom shop guitars for the purpose of modding them.

I love how you demonstrate here how a cheap pickup compares to a quality one. It's hard to describe but so easy to hear. Clear bobbins look really cool.

That was excellent advice that I wish someone had given me 30 years ago! My second electric guitar was a Japanese (1980S) Stratocaster in candy red. I loved that guitar but the pick-ups were really weak and did not sound at all like my friends American made Strat. Like an idiot I sold that guitar and bought an Ibanez with much hotter pick-ups. I still regret that to this day! Now there is a part 2 to this, as I went on to have a custom made Carvin. That stayed in the case for a number of years as it just started sounding like bollocks and I was enjoying playing my Fender acoustic. Then I discovered this guy called Dylan who made really cool informative KZfaq videos! Inspired, I ended up replacing the pots and caps which made a huge difference immediately (there were bad solder joints and defective pots). I have gone on to replace the pick-ups and do a very extensive fret job (first one in 30 years) and now I am back in love with that guitar. Thank you Dylan - it was watching your videos that gave me the confidence to do it, and boy am I glad I did.

I do agree with Dylan, a good pickup should have dynamics. I do believe pickups are subjective to the tone or style of music a musician prefers. Low gain pickups are awesome for a particular style of music, classic rock or clean to edge of breakup. High gain pickups like Seymour Duncan JB are great for high gain so Distortion becomes creamier where low gain can sound snarly but that could be the tone your going for. Still I agree with Dylan, it should remain dynamic. That's why tube amps are typically preferred over older solid state amps. Tube amps react dynamically to the player. Speaker impedance makes the tubes react differently depending on on frequency, which is difficult to model in solid state. Only recently have modeling amps been able to even come close.

Good video! This is usually the thing that bothering me on some pickup that I adress with changing pickup. But first I tried to position the heigh of the pickup to get better clarity, less bass and more dynamic. If I put a good pickup too close to the string I sometime get the same issue. Some pickup however, cheaper one usually, no matter the positionning behave like you just show. I think it's because they compress. Because of magnet saturation. They are usually humbucker with strong magnet. The magnetic circuit constuction of a Humbucker, compare to a single coil, is almost close. I honestly cannot thing an after marker or higher pickup that I couldn't solve with positionning.

Ill swap pots and caps. Some pickups i have played using the stock that came with the guitar. I have enjoyed seymour duncan amd tesla pickups lately amd been impressed with the tesla ones. I think ibanez and jackson share almost the same type of pickups just to get you by

This is an interesting comparison, but it doesn't really tell me *why* - pickups aren't particularly complex devices, what makes one coil of wire wrapped around a magnet have greater dynamic range or note clarity than the other?

The cheaper pickups were higher gain. Your demonstration is no surprise. Most people buy cheap pickups for higher gain. But it is not strictly because they are cheap pickups. Usually when I buy cheap pickups, they are takeoffs from a guitar I know and like. But the replacements you put on sound great!!!

Picked up a brand new LTD EC-256 for $388 on sale - total steal, this thing is an A++ from a playability standpoint. I'm a metal player, and the ESP bridge pickup just wasn't built for metal. It wasn't terrible but it was too tame, it had to go. I installed a SD Distortion and this thing is a monster now. It's a warm growling beast, the distortion it creates - believe it or not, it's in the name - is just creamy and SO freaking ballsy. I'm liking the tone better than my EMG guitars. PS - I really don't care much about clean stuff, but the stock neck pickup handles that decently.

I learned the same lesson when I upgraded my Squire Affinity Strat to Dylan's Bonneville single coils. I discovered playing at the "Edge of Breakup" and using sting attack and the volume knob to transition between clean and dirty.

Fricker would disagree with you and I think a cheap EQ pedal would sort a lot of the "issues" you are finding.

I just bought this same guitar model. The guitar is amazingly beautiful, I even prefer the looks of it better than my 4x more expensive RG550 Purple Neon. What is wrong with this guitar are NOT the pick-ups, I've read online they were microphonic, mine are not at all! What felt cheap, and that's expected, is the fret work on that neck. The woods are fine, there's nothing fake about it being roasted maple, it IS roasted maple, the fretboard doesn't pretend to be roasted maple as it's very clear that is NOT! It is a great guitar for the price, but you gotta live with some shortcuts to make it that price. This youtuber is doing something just to sell you shit, I have the same guitar with the same pickups, they are not as muddy as this guy makes it seem, actually they aren't muddy at all though a boosted 6505+. He's selling you HIS stuff, don't fall for these traps.!!!

I've got a cheap chinese knock off of an SRV #1 and believe it or not I've gotten a lot of remarks about how good the pickups sound , from people who repair guitars for a living. The guitar looks great , sounds great and has a really nice neck on it. So maybe I got lucky or maybe who ever wound the pickups put a lot care into the build quality. Dont know , but I'm happy with it.

I put Dylans in my Ibanez. I like the clarity at high gain. They sound just as good as my 3 guitars with actives.

the problem is picking a pickup because pickup makers keep the tone as a secret. seymour duncan is the only one that let's you know which is brighter etc

Are there cheap pickups that sound great? Probably, but how many do you have to try before you find one? Best to just save up for good ones to begin with, could even save you money in the long run

OK - your pickups definitely sound much better. What I would love to know is what is the difference in manufacturing that makes this difference? What is Ibanez doing or not doing in their process that they could change? Would it cost that much more? Thanks for the vid!

This test is deceptive. You should call it Ceramic vs alnico...and high output vs low output...

The pickups, the situation is very simple, they have metal covers, the metal covers are made of brass, it's cheap metal. That kills the treble. If you buy a cheap guitar with humbuckers, get one with pickups that are without covers or youre gonna have a bad time.

I've got no guitar which I paid more than 600 Bucks for and my main one...hell...bought it used for 80! If the construction is fine, the neck and frets are good and you like it, go for it! There's in my opinion no better way of having a "custom" guitar with great electronics, tuners and everything than buying a cheap but well made guitar and modding it.

Dylan thanks for the video - you've really broken down how different a poor pickup vs. a better pickup should sound - Cheers from Canada

Why can't it be roasted maple. It is a misconception that roasting is an expensive thing. According to the US Forest Service timber faults classification that I've read, that's just a cheaper way to quickly dry by overheating resulting in certain discoloration faults.

I wish I swear this video a month ago. I had the 229 version of this guitar. I loved it, but couldn't get the sounds. Sold it and miss it

I know how to fix this, you should sell me those pickups for 5 dollars, then I will sell them back to you for about 300 USD. They will no longer be cheap pickups then.

You've disproved another big KZfaqr who recently said pickups make no difference playing distorted. I always knew they did, by my own ears. Nice vid.

those pickups sounded amazing far from generic i just replaced them with some imbalanced ones because I wanted cleaner tones without as much volume rolling but the neck probably is roasted since it stays in tune better than my newer ibanez s standard which I sold I think the lighter body causes some instability at that price point

things are really bad when we have to fake roasted maple

Without giving away any proprietary secrets, what would you say is the major differences between both that allows them to be more expressive? Is it the magnets? The wire? The poles? The way the pickup is wound (scatter, etc.?)

is what we are hearing not the difference between ceramic and alnico Pickups ? instead of a price difference ?

To be fair, those original pickups sound truly atrocious to the point where I would think there's something wrong either with them or some other point of the signal chain. There are tons of very good sounding cheap pickups, either available separately or on cheap guitars. So it's not really an issue of these being cheap, more like of Ibanez clearly not giving a single f about how their cheap(ish) guitar actually sounds, because there's no real reason for making even a cheap guitar sound *this* horrible. You could get pickups that sound nigh indistinguishable (or close enough) from the ones showcased here for 30-40 bucks (both, not each), and likely noticeably less if you are someone like Ibanez.

I like the warm sounds of the original pups clean , high gain is mud

Never sell your 1st guitar. Wise, I wish someone had told me that 45 years ago!

Does this mean Glenn Fricker is wrong about pickups...?......rhetorical question of course hes wrong. Thanks for the video Dylan!

Just piling on the price not equal to quality, bandwagon. Rocking a set of $40 alnicos that are much better than stock ceramics in my squier

That was a cool demonstration of how pickups are used and i learned something I feel like i should have paid for lol

Ibanez is really just knocking it out of the park lately. I remember when GIOs were garbage and looked about the same. What a gorgeous instrument that is.

Would you review the new Firefly guitars. The new strats and teles have roasted maple necks, locking tuners, bone nut and alnico 5 pickups for about $210 shipped. Was wondering how they would compare to that Gio.

question regarding pickup winds, don't think anyone has done this but lets ask. if you take a pickup bobbin and wind it to max cap, and install test/remove and cut it back every so many turns and repeat, wouldn't that give you a good test on tone on how many winds are the best? comparison to the min/max winds on the bobbin or the sweet spot?

Wow, Iove the look of those clear pickups!

those ibanez gio pickups sound fine to my ears. i have been playing gio's since 2004 and in the past i have swapped the pickups for EMG's and Seymour duncans and the difference in sound and tone were so negligible, i started to not bother with the time and money it takes to swap when the stock pickups sound fine enough.

This is a great demonstration. One that I wish other channels would do. Who, at some point, hasn't wondered what "good":pickups do for a guitar's sound?

Cheap pickups are wound hot with cheap magnets most of the time. If I understand the new pickups, they are the complete opposite.

I would be really stoked to see you do a review of the propriety tech from different companies that make pickups and what is "real" and what isn't and just crazy marketing. However some companies will do things that are indicative of their sound. Dimarzio, EMG and Bareknuckle have a their own flavour. It would also be interesting to know what you think is the future for guitar electronics? Are Fishman's as 3d and HD as everyone screams? Are construction tech getting better for pickups? Is the Seymour Duncan Hyperswitch the be all and end all switch? If you could have research funded for pickups, what would you invest in? Just if your mate was an eccentric billionaire scenario. Personally I think Dimarzio are the best of contemporary and vitage all in one product. Better than the original for sure with refined elements.

Or you could lower the pickup and/or change the base plate from brass to nickel (nickel's conductivity is just 22% of brass' conductivity, meaning nickel generates a less powerful magnetic field, so your tone will be brighter).

Thankfully I have kept my Washburn KC-40 guitar that I bought over 30 years ago because I like the way it plays/feels. Now I am going to 'hot-rod' it by changing the pickups and possibly the double locking trem. Keep rockin'...

Makes perfect sense. My first Guitar. (1987) now wears 3x its original price in electronic, and hardware upgrades. 😂

So now the guitar not only looks fantastic it plays amazingly too. Good work!

I'm not convinced that your pickups are worth the money or hype. Prove it.

Yeah I get you, Ive had that problem with guitars, Some cheap replacement pickups are good though, But ive had some mushy expensive ones too, gibson dirty fingers need replaced .20.00 Wilkensons has got half of all gibson pickups beat .Gibson should usr dimarzois ,

New pickups sounded harsh to me. I would trade the dynamics for a less sharp tone.

Huge difference. I especially like the sound flexibility you have now with the volume pot.

The comparison with both pickups with covers would have been fair.

Any suggestions for a Jackson guitar with a poplar body? I am particularly looking for clarity in my high gain tone. I tried a pair of EMG HZ pickups but it sounded a bit muddy on this particular guitar. Would you help me with this? I am open to get some pickups from you if possible. Take care

Wow. Thanks for a GREAT video. You taught me a new tool for hearing and evaluating pickups. I appreciate you!

Man, those clear-bobbin pickups look great! I'm glad that you made this video, I've heard many good sounding cheap pickups but almost all of them suffered from one-dimensionitis!

It actually a is roasted maple neck, check the specs.

Glen Fricker is having a conniption.

Looks like a fun guitar to upgrade. Like squiers. Meh out of the box but great for modding

I think what you said about the neck is exactly right. If the neck is good and comfortable, almost any guitar is worth putting new hardware and electronics in.

Wow this has really helped me identifying the problem with my cheap pick uos

This is exactl what i did with my squier affinity strat, love the way it feels, the neck, the color ( surf green) but hate the way it sounded so i swapped the pickups with a Air Norton S, Fast Track 1 and Tone Zone S now the squier sounds better than my charvel dk24 hss lol

Omfg, what a difference between the old and new pups

Clarity… that’s what I usually dislike with low end pickups. I also have a $170 RG-Series Ibanez fired ti me by a friend and the pickup response is pretty null and void. But there is enough to play cleans. Just anything overdriven sounds muddy.

Good tone is always the ultimate goal. There are no absolutes in achieving good tone.

I’ve NEVER giggled a guitar with cheap pickups. Something happens at volume, especially if you’re playing mostly clean with effects like reverb and delay, that exposes cheap pups. It’s too easy to buy/install upgrades to not do it.

its not bad pickup, it just sound different, there are other cheap pickup that might match ur taste

better go the extra mile and buy something with quantum pickups much better than infinity pickups if you dont wanna upgrade

I'm pretty sure it is roasted maple.

If you're playing doesn't use much gain........then pickups do matter. If you rarely use a clean tone......then pickups don't matter. But it's your money.........

Imported electric guitars usually using pickups made in China or Korea the mid-end electric guitars always got cheap pickups and the electronics always bad and not quite good too. For my personal opinion if we buy mid-range electric guitar I have to mod it. That's it.

I wonder if they put high compression pickups in beginner guitars because dynamics are harder for beginners. And does the typical cheap pickup configuration of cheap/weak magnets and too much copper wire produce this? They don't sound bad. I can't think of whether a sensitive pickup might be good for a beginner to learn dynamic control early, or whether the beginner could use the crutch of compression to get to sound musical sooner.