With So Many Pedals, Do Pickups Even Matter Anymore?

[Jefe]

You're doing it wrong. You're only using 1 or 2 pedals and playing expressively with pick attack, pickup choice, and volume/tone controls.

Well, you've got me there. I am guilty of trying to actually learn how to play guitar, as opposed to spending all my time twiddling knobs.

For my playing, I agree, but for people who create atmospheric soundscapes with pitch shifter, phaser, delay, etc... that is a valuable way to play as well imho.

Fair enough. If you're in to that type of "music".. I'm sure you could plug an electric kazoo in to those effects and get the same results. j/k, haha.

 

[guitarzan13]

Your first mistake is listening to somebody working at a guitar store...

Wow... I own a guitar shop.... I have been playing for 36 years and teaching & repairing guitars for 22 years. I wonder if I know what I am talking about?? YES they matter VERY much!

 

[Chiogtr4x]

My short answer YES!

if a clean tone for rhythm and lead is a part of your sound, pickups types are a huge part of sound, and matter greatly

For me personally, I don't need to split hairs about having the 'best, most vintage sounding, or hot...' of any style pickup, so much as having a good-sounding representative of a Tele/Strat/P-90/Humbucker used in these classic guitars, all positions (mini rantrives me crazy say when Strat players just stay on the #2 position, when there are 4 other great sounds there- open it up!)Also each one of these pickups really does put its own fingerprint on whatever OD/distorted tone is produced

 

[gwjensen]

It all matters. Guitars, pups, pedals, and amps all have to play nice together.

 

[11 Gauge]

It's an over-simplification, and assumes a lot of things with playing style, what you hope to achieve, what you'll ultimately be satisfied with, IMO.

Just going from a technical observation of the difference of any two given pickups, there will always be the potential for it to matter.

A "true single coil" will have some 60Hz or 50Hz hum, and it can potentially intermodulate what happens down the line.

Conversely, almost any hum canceling or hum removal design will also impart its own qualities.

Where the pole pieces are, what they are made of, etc. will play a part in many instances.

And the magnets, the wire, whether it's passive or active, high impedance or low impedance...

The pickup design might make for eddy currents that can have an effect.

The number of turns of wire also effects things.

Some designs have more output w/o there being a fundamental change away from a specific characteristic of tonality (i.e. not just "be overwound"), and the output level alone can change things.

Some pedals, amps, etc. are designed to process a multitude of differing input signals so as to nullify the effect, or at least lessen the potential for things to sound bad. A "weak" pickup may actually potentially be a culprit for increased noise, as you might have to set pedals or amps to compensate. OTOH, an "overpowering" pickup can overdrive an amp or pedal, maybe over-emphasize the bass, or cause nasty sounding treble characteristics.

I had a Peavey Delta Blues that I loved dearly, but it is an example of "input processing" - it had basically an entire circuit that you would not find in an old Fender, Marshall, etc. So I "Fenderized" the input to allow different pickups to contribute more.

Analog gear might be able to process the input to a certain extent as to nullify the differences between any two given pickups. Oftentimes, the goal is just to pad the signal and do no more, but that may not really happen.

DSP or multi-effectors are typically a whole different ball of wax, as everything contained inside a singular box has to play nice with each other. So the need to nullify the differences between pickup designs becomes more important just from a functionality sense.

...That said, there are DSP and ME's that will let you override/bypass things like noise gates, pre-emphasis/de-emphasis circuits, input level processing, etc...

So again - it comes down to all of the pieces, how they are configured, and how they are used.

It could even be argued that there is some gear that is used to exploit and over-emphasize some characteristics of certain pickups. "Clean boosters" and graphic EQ's come to mind immediately. So if the pickup design really doesn't provide it at all in the first place, it can be recovered down the line. Or at least not with a somewhat low-tech approach.

 

[surfoverb]

yes obviously... its based on the common mistake people have that people have all their pedals turned on at ther same time. Usally they have different delays for different songs, same with OD, etc; you can see how they add up fast.

 

[Jagg76]

Between brands? Not significantly IMO.

A HB and a single coil P/U is a different story however.

 

[11 Gauge]

Between brands? Not significantly IMO.

I don't know about that so much. Not all companies publish figures in actual pickup output in millivolts.

I have some "otherwise equivalent" pickups that might be really low output - I have some single coils that have less than 100 mV, while I have others that are similar in construction and tone, but the output might be 140 mV or higher.

Depending on how much the magnets yank at the strings will also play a part in how close/far they should be from them. Even if things might seem similar with certain pickup types with different brands, I've found a bit of variation with that as well.

All the things that we aren't aware of so much, like magnet gauss and composition, can really come into play.

Oftentimes, I find that a Tele bridge pickup is quite the different animal from a Strat pickup. And I'm trying to limit that to differences that don't even include the bridge plate's effect for any given pickup.

 

[JoeNeri]

I am constantly amazed at some players who have great guitars (including pickups) and amps, but always put some digital buzz-machine pedal thing in between the two and sound like crap.

If you don't think pickups matter, then you must have some kind of digital crap-making device or devices that are ruining your tone.

 

[surfoverb]

I am constantly amazed at some players who have great guitars (including pickups) and amps, but always put some digital buzz-machine pedal thing in between the two and sound like crap.

If you don't think pickups matter, then you must have some kind of digital crap-making device or devices that are ruining your tone.

im more amazed at people like Vince Gill who uses a ton of boss pedals and still sounds great.

 

[Jagg76]

I don't know about that so much. Not all companies publish figures in actual pickup output in millivolts.

I have some "otherwise equivalent" pickups that might be really low output - I have some single coils that have less than 100 mV, while I have others that are similar in construction and tone, but the output might be 140 mV or higher.

Depending on how much the magnets yank at the strings will also play a part in how close/far they should be from them. Even if things might seem similar with certain pickup types with different brands, I've found a bit of variation with that as well.

All the things that we aren't aware of so much, like magnet gauss and composition, can really come into play.

Oftentimes, I find that a Tele bridge pickup is quite the different animal from a Strat pickup. And I'm trying to limit that to differences that don't even include the bridge plate's effect for any given pickup.

I stand corrected. It's true that Tele & Strat pickups are different in tone. I guess I was basing myself more on same type of pickups (equals) under different brands.

As for the bridge plate, I definitely noticed a difference when I went from my MIM tele to my '52 HRRI. Even unplugged I can totally feel the reverberation of the guitar against my chest. I guess the brass saddles help with that too.

 

[Mike SS]

The tone that every serious guitarist should learn first, and foremost is his guitar into his amp. This is greatly affected by pick-ups. I also have heard people playing high end guitars into really nice amps, but choosing to pass it through a processor where they totally sucked the tone right out of it.

 

[StormJH1]

I won't add much more than what has already been said, but yes, they absolutely matter!

On the general premise that you can make single coils sound heavy or humbuckers sound twangy with pedals, EQ, and other processing...sure. Point taken. But take the same setup with a Strat versus a Telecaster versus a Les Paul, and there is a HUGE and noticeable difference.

Also for the guy above who said The Edge always sounds the same - I understand why you'd say that, but he has a lot more equipment than we do. And if you're trying to clone that setup with a home rig, it's really tough to do with the wrong guitar. He used the Explorer on Beautiful Day (and actually a lot for the Elevation tour in general), and I can do that sound pretty well with pedals and my Les Paul. But to really get the tone on the Joshua Tree album, and especially the iconic opening riff to "Streets", that's a very distinct Strat sound with the two pickup turned on in the "2" or "4" position.

 

[Teleblooz]

Remember one thing - just because there are a thousand pedals on the market doesn't mean you have to use them all.