NPD: Toneriders for Epi Lucille

[Funkfingers]

Just pulled the trigger on some Tonerider humbuckers to go in my Epiphone B. B. King Lucille semi-acoustic. They should arrive by the weekend.

I have enjoyed the SD Brobucker and Pearly Gates but their open-bobbined appearance just seems wrong on an otherwise black 'n' gold blingfest of an electric guitar. I want the guitar to appear outwardly normal. This is because I plan to sell it or exchange it for another instrument.

Actually, what I have been obliged to order is one Rocksong HB for the bridge position and an Alnico II pair. Either way, the guitar should finish up sounding and looking right.

[GuitarDoc]

But then you may not want to get rid of it.

[Funkfingers]

Doc, you could be right.

Tonerider Alnico II pair arrived today. The neck/Rhythm position unit is in. Sounding sweet 'n' woody.

Still waiting for the Rocksong bridge/Treble position unit. If it turns out to be too darned hot, I shall break the seal on the AC2b packaging.

The question I have to ask myself is, how come China can make pickups as nice as the Tonerider range at the same time as churning out the crud that appears as stock on Epiphones?

[LtKojak]

Tonerider is based in the UK, but they have it their OWN p'up making factory in China.

If you give'em the specs and you pay'em, they can follow your recipe. They're YOUR employees after all, you know?

HTH,

[Funkfingers]

Like I wrote in post #3, I am currently enjoying the AC2n. This is not as detailed sounding as the SD PGn that it replaces but, in a way, this is for the good. The SD reveals the cheepnis in the MIC Epi construction whereas the TR does not.

What actually sold me on this brand and this model was a video demo posted by an eBay shop. Since I was trying to judge by ear rather than appearances, to begin with, I did not look at the pictures. Eventually, when I did trouble to observe closely, I realised that the hairy geezer was trotting out some tasty blues rock licks on an Epiphone LP Standard.

Kerr-ching!

[Funkfingers]

If you give'em the specs and you pay'em, they can follow your recipe.

So, if I requested a 25 Gauss A5 bar magnet, unbalanced coils totalling 10k, 42 or 43 AWG copper wire, I could get myself a Brobucker clone for a fraction of the price of the genuine article.

[Funkfingers]

TR Rocksong B pickup installed. Nice and crunchy but nothing like as detailed as the almighty Brobucker. I still need to fiddle with the pickup height and polepiece adjustments before passing judgement.

[teleblooz]

I am a fan of Tonerider pickups. I've had a set of the Pure Vintage in my old Tokai strat for 5 years now with no desire to replace them. After going through many, many botique and not so botique offerings in the past 15 or so years, the PV's put my pickup lust to rest. Sweet, responsive and detailed, they do the job perfectly.

I have a set of the A4 buckers in a custom built semi hollow and again, they just work well for this particualr guitar. Going to give the Rebal 90's a shot somewhere down the road.

[LtKojak]

So, if I requested a 25 Gauss A5 bar magnet, unbalanced coils totalling 10k, 42 or 43 AWG copper wire, I could get myself a Brobucker clone for a fraction of the price of the genuine article.

The average A5 bar charges at 800 Gauss... where did you get the 25 Gauss number?

If you have the actual recipe of the Brobucker, of course it can be reproduced. But asian p'up makers don't do one-offs, they only do PRODUCTION, meaning a minimum order of several hundreds p'ups.

[Funkfingers]

where did you get the 25 Gauss number?

Hand-written on the underside of a Custom Shop pickup box and initialled MJ.

Admittedly, there is quite a wide gap between the two and the five. Perhaps, another digit should have been in there?

[LtKojak]

Hand-written on the underside of a Custom Shop pickup box and initialled MJ.

Admittedly, there is quite a wide gap between the two and the five. Perhaps, another digit should have been in there?

You're right, Duncan has those old gaussmeters that show a relative scale between 0 and 50. I think they were mostly used to distinguish an A2 from an A5... or when they were "dunageing" the magnets.

They're not actual calibrated Gaussmeters, so you can't have an actual reading, although a person with a lot of experience and with only few mag types to work with, it might be all she/he'll ever need!

HTH,