VellaJ
So I've got two guitars in the pipeline, one of which is much closer than the other, so we'll start with that one...
I'm building this myself, having butchered a Vester guitar for it's neck, and I'm making the body myself (solid maple). So now I'm looking for pickups.
Parameters: 3 single-coils, preferably capable of reasonably high gain, but decent cleans are also important to me. And these must be reasonably priced, I'd love Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios, but let's be realistic, I don't think I could afford them for my first project guitar :-[ And as per usual with me, looks are important, so I'm going to try getting hold of closed black covers for the pups. I took a look at the Terry Distributors' single-coils, and thought R70 per pup is pretty darn good, but I have no idea what they're like. Does anyone have any experience with them? Suggestions for alternatives?
The second guitar is going to be a modded Strat-style axe. Without giving too much away, I'm going for a HSH configuration, high-gain superstrat kinda vibe. again, as this guitar is going to be given a complete overhaul in terms of hardware, I'm on a pretty limited budget. Any suggestions for pups would be greatly appreciated ?
I know I sound a bit like Ebeneezer Scrooge here, but hey, I'm a student with GAS, I can't help it ?
Warren
I'd recommend Toneriders, though you won't get them for R70 per PuP...
I spent about R1000 x 2 for upgrading two of my guitars with Toneriders, one is a Strat and the other an H-H Parker.
They're not crazy expensive, local service and support and they sound very good.
ryanguit
MikeM is selling some great pickups for way below what they are worth... kinmans and some handwound BG's in the classifieds.
TerryD pickups are more for the look than the sound. if you are looking at that sort of quality, you could probably get pickups like that for free off any member worth their salt... cos we won't use them. ceramic should not ever have been put into singlecoils and this is not an uncommon opinion. if you can find any, i mean ANY, manufacturer with upgrade singlecoil pickups using ceramic magnets. please let me know (as it is technically a downgrade).
the humbuckers from TerryD on the other hand aren't as bad because ceramic bar magnets are even used in seymours and dimarzios, so it's not like you getting something far from the sound. i agree Toneriders are a great way to go on a budget. R1000 a guitar vs R1000 a pickup (or more).
Cheers
