Anyone with more than
a passing interest in the guitar would, at some stage, have tempered
with or attempted to temper with the pickups on his or her guitar. That
is only natural, we are all curious and there is always a nagging feeling
at the back of our heads : am I getting the best sound? Is there a better
sound somewhere out there? We all want a guitar sound that soars up
to the heavens, stands out from everything else on stage, gives you
all that all-conquering power and inspires that gut-wrenching feeling.
If that is not what you are looking for, you should think about stop
reading right here. But let us the goal posts first :-
1. I am talking and only talking about
the bridge pickup. I am not here investigating the neck pickup
which is an entirely different animal;
2. I am looking for a powerful sound
that is "biting" but not stinging. I don't want a razor
sharp tone that causes ears to bleed within the first two minutes
of my solo; I am looking for a sound that has a good "body",
just like a good bottle of wine;
3. As I not a Metal player, I want a
good of articulation of the notes I play when I go to overdrive
mode. I don't use a distortion pedal and I only go as far as overdrive. |
EMG H1A
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This following is the
anatomy of a typical humbucker pickup. And this is how it works. When
guitar strings vibrate, physical energy is generated. The pickup is
the device through which the energy of vibrating stings are converted
into AC (alternating current) electric pulses. When these pulses are
fed into a guitar amp they are magnified thousands of times and the
loudspeakers transform them into sound waves. A pickup is simply a magnet
with insulated copper wire wrapped around it several thousand times.
This winding is an electrical coil, hence the "single coil".
The more wire, the louder the output. The humbucking pickup is simply
two single coil pickups wired together. The humbucking pickup was first
invented by Mr. Seth Lover (what a name!!) in 1955. The two single coils
in a humbucker is wired in series ( so that the current flows through
the first one then the other) but out of phase with each other. This
created two opposite currents flowing in different directions thus can
canceling the hum found in many single coil pickups. Most pickup magnets
are made from Alnico (an alloy of aluminum), or nickel or cobalt or
ceramic. Different types of magnets will produce a different sound.
The stronger the magnet, the more treble the pickup will sound.
Passive or active? That
is usually the first question one would ask. I remember in the late70's
and early 80's the active pickup was really in vogue and EMG was one
of the first pickup manufacturers to manufacture active pickups. Indeed,
all the Steinberger L Series were fitted with a EMG 85 active humbucker
and two active EMG single coils. I own five L Series Steinbergers and
have first hand experience with the active EMG pickups. The big thing
about the active pick-ups when they first came out was that they were
quiet as the deep blue sea yet powerful as a mustang at the same time.
The high output of these pickups was one of their selling points. But
all the active pickups on my Steinbergers have been replaced with passive
pick-ups. Let me tell you why.
DiMarzio Air Norton
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Seymour Duncan JB SH-4
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Yes, the active pickups give
you a very high output indeed. But do we need all that output ? All
that means is you turn down the gain or drive of your overdrive pedal.
But a good passive pickup can give you just as much punch with a lower
output. You simply dial up the gain or overdrive level to get a good
sound. Of course I am not talking about an under-powdered pick-up. I
am talking about a passive pickup with a good punch. As to the noiseless
aspect of the active pickups, you get that more or less on every single
passive pickups from any reputable manufacturer these days. The definite
down side of active pickups is they are battery-powered and batteries
run out. The battery is normally on when you plug the jack into your
guitar. If you forget to unplug it, the consumption of battery power
continues. And I can tell you this, the battery will not run out when
you are practicing at home. You can put your house on it that the battery
will run out at most inconvenient moment : on stage. One Saturday night
, my Blues club was packed to the hilt and everyone in the band was
in the mood and looking forward to enjoying a great show. When I plugged
in my guitar, something was wrong, the sound coming from the guitar
was weak and intermittent. I started checking all my effects, the connecting
cables, the power supply but could not find anything wrong. I just could
not work out what was wrong until someone from the audience asked me
to check the battery in my Steinberger. And that was the culprit indeed.
Using an active pickup gives me an extra worry that I do not need. And
I have yet to hear from anyone what I can get from an active pick-up
that I cannot get from a passive pickup (except the extra output of
course).
The Gibson Burstbuckers
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Before coming to the actual
performance of the pickups, I should say a word or two about
the guitar. No two guitars in this world are the same. Believe it or
not, even Steinbergers are not the same albeit they are made of synthetic
materials and all come from a mould. Apart from the difference inherent
in each guitar, we need to distinguish two main types of guitars : the
Gibson style or non-Gibson style guitars. I have been a Gibson Les Paul
player for a long long time before switching to Steinbergers and I had
a '58 Les Paul Reissue and a '59 Les Paul Reissue. Although I now longer
play them, I must say the Reissue Les Pauls are really something special.
They have a sound that is so sweet that nothing in this world can come
close. Through a combination of the best choice of wood, a longer and
deeper neck joint, a shorter scale length, special '57 pickups, these
guitars deliver a sound that nothing comes close. Generally speaking.
Gibson types of guitars tend to have more bassy sound than a Start style
guitar. The newer guitars made by Ibanez and Musicman tend to have a
brighter sound. This will be an important thing to bear in mind when
it comes to choosing your pickup.
Gibson '59 Reissue
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Let's start with the price. I have compared
prices on the internet from the various suppliers. Competition is fierce
these days and there is not much disparity between the price for these
pickups. There are discounts offered here and there,
but these are the average prices :-
| |
US$ |
Gibson Burstbucker
#2 |
$129.5 |
EMG HZ H1A |
$79.95 |
Seymour Duncan
JB SH-4 |
$72.95 |
DiMarzio Air
Norton DP193 |
$69.99 |
Now let's set up the gist of what the
respective manufacturers say of their product :-
There are three models of these pickups, #1 (warm),
#2 (warmer) and #3 (hot). The #1 is the exact replicas of the
Gibson '57 PAF pickups that are found on their vintage Les Pauls
made in the late '50s and early 60's. Model #2 is slightly over-wound
and Model #3 is more so producing a hotter sound. The emphasis
here is on the 'vintage" sound that made Gibson famous
the world over. These pickups are fitted in the Les Paul Reissues.
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The H1A is the birth of the EMG passive
pickups. The "A" refers to the Alnico magnets. This
pickup has over wound coils and has a much warmer sound with a
pronounced mid-range and less top end. This pickup has EMG's 5-wire
quick-connect output allowing a number of wiring combinations
and are fully shielded for a minimum of noise. TheH1A-B is the
pickup for the bridge position. |
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According to Seymour Duncan, this pickup
is good for heavy Blues to Heavy Metal. The pickup has a high
output and has singing highs and and aggressive harmonics. It
is suppose to have a tone ranging from sweet to raw Rock &
Roll. |
DiMarzio
Air Norton DP193 |
This pickup is in "medium output"
DiMarzio category. This pickup is primarily recommended by DiMarzio
for the neck position but DiMarzio also suggests that it be used
in the bridge position. According to DiMarzio, in this position
the sound is medium output with solid lows and biting harmonics.
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So how do they perform? The
way I measure how they perform is to divide the sound of each pickup
into to three aspects : Bass, Mid and Treble. Each pickup is given a
total of 9 points. So if a particular pick up has something like this
as a rating :-
It means the pickup in question
has no bass, a minimum amount of mid and a lot of treble. The overall
tone of this pickup will be predominantly treble. I should also mention
that the guitar I used to try out the pickups are my Steinberger L Series
and the Steinberger Flying V. The signals from the pickups are fed into
a Marshall JMP-1 connected to a mixing desk. This is how each of the
pickups performed :-
| |
Gibson Burstbucker |
EMG H1 A |
DiMarzio Air Norton |
Seymour D. JB |
| Bass |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
| Mid |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
| Treble |
6 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
All four pickups have very good
output. So power is not going to be a problem. The real issue
is tone. To my ear, the Gibson Burstbucker and the DiMazio Air Norton
quite simi liar. The Gibson Burstbuster, however, seems to have more
"character" in it, if you know what I mean. It kind of sounds
more "alive". But both of them have a very marked emphasis
and the treble.They certainly have bite but sound a bit thin to my ear
and liking. At least that is how they sound on my Steinbergers. Having
said that, however, I have every confidence that they will sound good
on a guitar which is bottom heavy like the Les Paul. The high treble
end will compensate the dark tone from a Les Paul. So if you have a
guitar which is predominantly made from rosewood with a maple top, I
think either of these pickups will sound good. I also think either of
these two pickups will sound good in a 335 type guitar. But one thing
you have to bear in mind : the price. The price of the Burstbucker is
nearly twice that of the DiMarzio.
The most surprising of the four
pickups is the the Seymour Duncan JB SH-4. On my Steinberger,
the tone is stinging bright and thin as paper; it hurts me ear to listen
to it too long. The treble end just cuts through like a razor, there
is no bass, no mid and only treble. If I turn the tone full on, it sounded
almost like a small transistor radio. I think this pickup is good only
for Metal Metal. I am sure the high end will cut through even if you
play your guitar through a great deal of distortion. But that is not
the sound I am looking for, and I don't play Metal Metal.
The best of them all is,
surpassingly, the EMG H1A. Compared to the rest of the pickups, the
H1A had a great meaty sound, and it has a lot of bottom. It sounds chunky
and with a lot of sustain and there is a lot of body to its sound. This
is ideal for my kind of music, and I should think for classic Rock music
as well. The tone of the EMG pickup is just right, it has enough high
in end but at the same time there is enough bass and mid in it that
gives you a meaty and crunchy sound. EMG has really got it right with
their H1A passive pickup. Putting an H1A on the bridge of my Steinberger
gives me a sound reminiscent of my 1959 Les Paul Reissue, powerful but
not over-powering, just the right blend of bass, mid and high. Who would
have thought, of all people, EMG well-known for making clinical-sounding
pickups will come up with something so warm like the H1A.
In this his day and age,
the problem is not finding pickups, the problem is we are spoiled for
choice. There are so many manufacturers around and so many models on
the market it is sometimes hard to know just where to start. Hopefully
what is said here will be of some help to anyone trying to find their
right pickup in this jungle of a market.
For me, the Steinberger with the EMG H1A gives
the best guitar and the best sound in the world.
A rare white Steinberger GP refinished in white with
an EMG H1A at the bridge position and a Dimazio Virtaul Heavy
Blues in the neck position
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