Live Musician Central

Tag: Pickup

  • Save Money With Price Drops On EMG Pickups

    EMG Active Pickups
    EMG Active Pickups

       Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different pickups in my guitars. It seems like there’s a pickup made for every kind of music under the sun. So if your live band plays country or heavy metal, there’s a guitar pickup that’s perfect for your instrument.

       One of the best heavy metal pickups ever made is the EMG 81 active humbucker pickup. What makes the EMG pickups so unique is their use of a powered onboard pre-amp that boosts the signal of the active pickup. This gives them a very hot output which is perfect for pushing amplifiers into heavy distortion and extreme sustain. Even with this high output, they are extremely low noise.     (more…)

  • Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups Video Demo

    Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups
    Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups

       The other day I wrote a review about the Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups that I have in both of my Fender American Deluxe Stratocasters. I love the sound of these pickups and they’ve been a huge success onstage in my live band.

       They are a bit warmer sounding than the classic vintage single-coil pickups but the fact that they are noiseless puts them way ahead in terms of live functionality than standard single-coil pickups. When you’re dealing with varying power conditions at every venue that you play in, not having to worry about your noisy single-coil pickups gives great peace of mind.

       Today I’m posting up a couple of really good demo videos that feature the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster loaded with the SCN pickups. These videos are both really great examples of how the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups sounds. You can also hear the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups in the clips on my Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch download page.      (more…)

  • Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Guitar Pickups Review

    Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups
    Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups

    My favorite electric guitar is the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. I use it onstage constantly with my live band. I have two American Deluxe Stratocasters. One is the 2004, 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Stratocaster and my other is a 2006 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster. They’re both equipped stock with Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups. In fact, Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups are found on all 2004-2009 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster guitars.

    One thing that I’ve always hated about traditional single coil pickups is the irritating 50/60 cycle hum that plague them. Obviously if you use a high gain amplifier or use any kind of compression, the hum is amplified and sounds even worse. I play a lot of high-gain, compressed sounds. The hum that comes with a traditional single coil pickup is unacceptable for a lot of what I play. Simply for the noiseless design, I have been very happy with the Fender SCN Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups.   

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  • Video Demonstration Of The Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup

    Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup
    Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup

       The other day I talked about my experience using the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker in my custom made Stratocaster. I truly have been happy with the SH-4 JB and I highly recommend it for your guitar as well.

       Today I’m posting a couple videos from YouTube that were posted by user “walkintheseshoes”. He is demonstrating the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB pickup in the bridge position and the Seymour Duncan SH-2 in the neck position. It’s a very well done demo video because he plays the same riff with the pickups set in their various configurations so you can really guage how the pickup sounds.

       In the video he demonstrates each pickup alone, then combined and finally with the coil tap engaged. This is really an excellent example of how the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB pickup sounds. It’s also a great demonstration of how versatile this pickup is.   (more…)

  • Upgrade Your Guitar’s Pickup With The Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker

    Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup
    Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup

       One of the best (if not THE best) humbucker pickups I have ever owned is my Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB pickup. I have been playing in my live band using the SH-4 in my custom built Stratocaster for quite a few years now. I have had this pickup in my guitar since 1986 and I have always loved the way it sounds.    (more…)