What's the Best Method for a Newbie to Pick a Pickup?

[Evan Skopp]

Click here and then weigh in.

[Fusion1]

Tone Wizard must be taking a break as it doesn't work. As soon as you try to click on a submenu for say body wood, it goes to another page.

[Fusion1]

I must have stumped the Tone Wizard in another example:

Jazzmaster

Rock/Metal

Ash/Alder

Maple fretboard

Vintage tremelo

Click on Ask the Wizard and next page comes up blank.

Are you guys hiring for a new wizard by chance Evan? I may not be as wizardly as

Harry Potter, but I'd give it a shot.

[DeanSweden]

Tone Wizard must be taking a break as it doesn't work. As soon as you try to click on a submenu for say body wood, it goes to another page.

I always thought DMZs 'Pickup picker' works really well in that aspect

[Franknfilms]

Step 1: forget the 100's of stock pickup options and IMMEDIATELY move to swapping magnets. That's right, before you are even competent at the "smoke on the water" riff you should be negotiating the delicate intricacies of alnico 4, UOA5 and 8 magnets.

Sorry I couldn't resist My original response was going to be to immediately direct them to the forum, which is usually great. But then some of us (me too) get carried away with the above...

[Bfeeney]

I'd say the forum. I'd rather someone who has the pup tell me which ones to get than a computer program. The discussions get very in-depth on a lot of pickup, you find the pro/cons and possible cures, don't see mag swapping options on the tone wizard. Plus if you say you play metal, well what kind of metal then? 80's Metallica or Sepultura Chaos A.D. metal?

[formula73]

It doesn't really matter as I decide what I really want before asking questions. From there, the honeymoon ends and the quest continues.

*did that guy really say 'amazeballs' in his comment? yes, yes he did.*

[idsnowdog]

There's little substitute for actually hearing what a pickup sounds like first hand. My idea would basically entail a guitar with routes to the edge of the body and an adapter shoe to hold the pickup for testing. Kind of like the modular pickups for the old Dan Armstrong guitars. The pickup slides into the shoe and you connect the hot and ground to slide terminals. The shoe then slides in to the body and completes the circuit. This could be used for trade shows and in store demos.

[the guy who invented fire]

As the VP of SD I wouldn't direct ANY new customers to the forum...this place should be an embarrassment to Seymour Duncan the company and any one associated with it.

So...I vote Tone Wizard!

[JeffB]

As the VP of SD I wouldn't direct ANY new customers to the forum...this place should be an embarrassment to Seymour Duncan the company and any one associated with it.

So...I vote Tone Wizard!

Oh Snap...

No you dit'n!!!


Mmm hmmmm...

[Binnerscot]

Click here and then weigh in.

Buy a JB, live with it for a year...then ask the forum?

[AlexR]

Your local shop should be a great place, with perhaps 1 more senior employee of each shop versed in what SD pickups do what.

That said, I had one guy recommend a JB for vintage tones in a 335 so maybe thats not the best way to do things.

[JeffB]

On a serious note.i I don' t thin the Tone Wizard is worth much. Every guitar is so different, even two similar ones, and does not (and can not) take into account amp types.

Not to mention the musical genres are way too broad as categories. Heavy Metal...well geez.. are we talking 70s Sabbath, 80s Scorpions, 1990s Pantera. Classic rock. Do we mean Layla? Or Working Man? Or Purple Haze? Hotel California?

Clips are the best way to do things. Gives you everything in relative manner.

[lazyfinger]

Tone Wizard kept telling me to get a DMZ.

. No, I

[Mr. B]

Tape the names of the pickups to a dartboard, blindfold myself and...


Seriously though. I read ALL the Duncan forum posts (I've never found the tone clips useful at all, sorry). I get one pickup into my head that I think will be perfect, and then using my now biased opinion, I cherry pick the good posts about it, and dismiss the bad posts as uninformed idiots who have no concept of tone.

I then buy the pickup and become one of those idiots, hearing all the flaws that I ignored reading about during the first read-through. On the second read through of the same posts, it is amazing how many negative posts spot on about the weaknesses... and they weren't there before! I swear!

I then sell the pickup because of its "flaws" and wait a week (sometimes two) before realizing I was just running it with the wrong guitar/wood/tone pot/caps/bridge/etc... and buy it again for another project.

[misterwhizzy]

Tape the names of the pickups to a dartboard, blindfold myself and...


Seriously though. I read ALL the Duncan forum posts (I've never found the tone clips useful at all, sorry). I get one pickup into my head that I think will be perfect, and then using my now biased opinion, I cherry pick the good posts about it, and dismiss the bad posts as uninformed idiots who have no concept of tone.

I then buy the pickup and become one of those idiots, hearing all the flaws that I ignored reading about during the first read-through. On the second read through of the same posts, it is amazing how many negative posts spot on about the weaknesses... and they weren't there before! I swear!

I then sell the pickup because of its "flaws" and wait a week (sometimes two) before realizing I was just running it with the wrong guitar/wood/tone pot/caps/bridge/etc... and buy it again for another project.

This might be the best post I've ever read on this forum.

[SAVAGE DISTORTION]

Buy a JB, live with it for a year...then ask the forum?

that what i am doing! sounds to easy but i really am loving the JB.
I am still checking out other models that interest me like the hybrid and the distortion but the JB was everything i had heard and more,no wonder it is his biggest seller.
on a side note i was very disappointed with the tone wizard why is it lumping alder and ash together on body woods? they are nothing alike?

[darthphineas]

As the VP of SD I wouldn't direct ANY new customers to the forum...this place should be an embarrassment to Seymour Duncan the company and any one associated with it.

So...I vote Tone Wizard!

+1

Buy a JB, live with it for a year...then ask the forum?

+1


I heard something several months ago about plans to scrap the TW and make a new one that is better. the comment I heard from the person at SD was along the lines of 'we started that and then other companies are now doing it better'.

[formula73]

As the VP of SD I wouldn't direct ANY new customers to the forum...this place should be an embarrassment to Seymour Duncan the company and any one associated with it.

So...I vote Tone Wizard!

That's a dumbass thing to say...and yet, you stick around.

[blueman335]

I'd say the forum. I'd rather someone who has the pup tell me which ones to get than a computer program. The discussions get very in-depth on a lot of pickup, you find the pro/cons and possible cures, don't see mag swapping options on the tone wizard.

+1. I'd much rather hear from a owner/user. They'll tell you more real-life info, like what woods and guitars certain PU's prefer.