So... MIM ceramics sound great to me

[wildschwein]

In the '70s a 'Hot Rod' kit offered by Alembic allowed you to 'boost' the tone of your PAFs by changing out the Alnico magnets for ceramic ones:

ALEMBIC HOT ROD KIT pickups and pickup covers

Information, specifications and reviews of ALEMBIC HOT ROD KIT pickups and pickup covers made by Alembic. ALEMBIC HOT ROD KIT pickups and pickup covers for sale.

www.guitar-list.com

The more driven sound of ceramics were much in demand at the time. Consumers are a fickle lot though -- once they get what they want they they then go backwards into dream-like states of nostalagia and try to purchase some lost past. Cracks me up!

New gear is not a replacement for just practicing and trying to be a better player.

 

[tfarny]

A couple of times I've done comparison testing of multiple different pickups into one guitar, results were very enlightening to me.

1. There really isn't "good" or "bad" just "not what I'm looking for" or "what I'm looking for"
2. Fralin SP43 at over $100 each sound exactly like stock MIM ceramics at around 1/10 the price used. A good sound, could be great for rock, but not what I'm looking for.
3. My favorites each time, by the slimmest of margins, over several others, were Lollars. But I could also have been really happy with the BL Keystones, just a different sound.
4. Used Duncans are a good go-to, they are easy to resell if they don't work out, well described on the website and widely available.

 

[sudogeek]

I've tried a lot of pickups since the 60s and what I have in my Tele are ... Tex-Mex pickups; just plain run of the mill Tex-Mex pickups found in literally thousands of MIM Teles. They (well this set in this guitar) are great.

 

[mexicanyella]

The guitarist I play bass with is on a kick of hotrodding Chinese LP knockoffs. He has a real LP but seems to be into this new phase right now...

Anyway, he had his most recent knockoff acquisition (a purple one!) in for a setup and his repair tech buddy gave him a set of pickups to try in it, saying “now these are ceramic magnets, so...no real tone to speak of. You’ll probably love them!”

We’ve been laughing about that ever since.

The purple “Less Paul” sounds pretty cool with those in it. Brighter and thinner than I’d expect from something that looks like an LP, and no idea how much of that is down to the pickups or the guitar itself, but it suits the band mix and we got a fun thing to give the guitarist a hard time about. Win-win...

 

[SPUDCASTER]

In '94 I bought a Black Label Strat. It had ceramic pickups.

It thought they sounded pretty good, very Strat like.

But, being someone that has to tinker with things. They were switched out along the way.

I still have them. Not sure I would put them back in. But they did sound pretty decent.

Jack Pearson plays a Squier Strat. He claims it's stock. Probably ceramics.

 

[Blackmore Fan]

I've tried a lot of pickups since the 60s and what I have in my Tele are ... Tex-Mex pickups; just plain run of the mill Tex-Mex pickups found in literally thousands of MIM Teles. They (well this set in this guitar) are great.

The Tex-Mex pickups are a treasure. If you told me tomorrow that I had to order a set of great sounding Strat pickups that would cost under $150, I'd order the Tex-Mex set and not give it another thought. One of my current Strats has that set and sounds amazing, and another Strat that I regret selling had that set as well.