Official Luthiers Forum!

Basically, although I've built a number of acoustic guitars, this will be my first electric.

I'm thinking of building something similar to an Epiphone Les Paul Special II style. . . with an upgrade for tuners and pickups. It will also have finished wood rather than the solid plastic look.

question is: what would some of you more experienced guys recommend I use for pickups? (keeping cost in mind)

My goal is to build a simple, but nice sounding guitar for finger picking and blues. . . . not so much for heavy stuff.......

thank you....

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http://jimwaltersblog.wordpress.com/

Hi Jim.
My personal favorite pickups are the emg single coil strat pickups,
available at stew mac.
The htz model, 7 or so k ohms.
You'll find cheaper pickups, but it's a crap shoot on the tone quality.
They have an almost acoustic tone to them, and they can growl too.
I also reccomend an oil filled tone capacitor,
available from "mojo tone guitar parts", (search the "fender amp field guide").

+1, there are better pickups out there, but not at these prices, not till about twice the price actually.

-John

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

+2

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

i'll 3rd gfs pups. not the highest quality available, but deffinately a major upgrade from stock pups, and for the price they cant be beat. i just go a set for a tele im building and i love em.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

I think you get the idea : )

Their selection is also incredible.

well . . . thanks to everyone who replied. All things considered I've decided on Dream 90 Humbucker SIzed P90 - Black from guitar fetish. Good choice?

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http://jimwaltersblog.wordpress.com/

If you are going to try to build using the woods of a LP....mahogany body with a maple facing....then the pickups I like best are the Gibson 500T for the neck and 496R for the bridge. These are the stock pickups used in a number of their reissue guitars. I think they provide a nice range of rhythm and lead tones.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Since you're going through all the work of building your own guitar why not wind you're own pickups? It's a great part of the overall experience.

John

I saw that also and thought . . . why not?

Well it's mainly because of the learning curve I suppose, but when this first one is complete and I have ironed out this "electronics" question to my satisfaction, where would a guy get the proper instruction to even attempt winding your own?

You DO want it to work at least as well as an upper level commercial one . . . no?

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http://jimwaltersblog.wordpress.com/

If you are building a Les Paul and you want the Les Paul sound, you need some humbuckers. I love these ones:

Entwistle HV58
The classic '50s humbucker manufactured to vintage specifications. An authentic reproduction using top quality components including Alnico V magnet and enamel coated wire. Scatterwound coils with two rows of adjustable pole pieces (12) provides for a very rich and powerful balanced output. Warm, clear and creamy but with plenty of punch. Available in zebra, nickel, gold and chrome for 49 to 69 bucks.

http://www.guitarfuel.com/Entwistle_Humbucker.php

Oh and those prices are for the complete neck/bridge sets, so fifty to sixty bucks would cover the cost for pickups unless you want a third pickup. I have a guitar set up like that, and although it was probably completely unnecessary, I dig it.

Considering how hard so many things are to do well in guitar building, I think pickup winding isn't too hard to learn. As far as I can see, the Stewmac kits contain good parts, their wire is a bit modern but I"m not sure how much that really matters. Maybe someone here will have an opinion on that.

I use an old record player to wind- I don't do a lot of pickups. It's slow but things are moving at a speed where I can see what's happening and keep up with it. I added a bike speedometer to check the number of windings but it turned out that my old record player kept good time and I would have been fine by just keeping track of the winding time.

For standard pickup types the number of tuns is the variable that will have the most effect on sound. It's easier to take turns off than add but if you break the wire in winding you can add a splice so you can add wire too. You can also just start all over.

The wire is small so you have to be careful but since you build acoustic guitars winding a pickup should be a piece of cake.

Then there's the wax potting part but that's not hard to do either.

Stewmac has good instructions for standard pickup types. And you can ask questions here. And once you start winding your own you can do unique pickups too.

It's a great project to do while you're waiting for the finish to harden.

Of course, if there's an exact sound you're going for then you should buy that pickup.

John

thanks again. You guys are handing out some good info.........

I will probably buy those humbuckers @ 60+ (I thought at first that was a per unit price.).....

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http://jimwaltersblog.wordpress.com/