Stop naming pickups after famous players

[Zhangliqun]

I'm going to start my new line of pickup maker buckers.

1. MacloudBucker
2. SpenceBucker
3. GundryBucker
4. GeezerBucker (Dave Stephens)
5. BelwarBucker
6. LollarBucker
7. ZhangBucker II
8. SchwabyBucker
9. WadeBucker
10. WCRBucker

That way I capture the tones of the tones of the makers. Is that a great marketing idea or what.

Just one correction:

Zhangbucker-bucker

There we go...

[soundmasterg]

Fuck all of you ;-) Just been busy and not in chat mode. Geezerbucker, eh? Some of you are older than me, so I guess you're making "corpse-buckers? Actually I'm working on a "star" set of pickups, won't say who but I won't use his name on the product, just that the research was done in that direction. I have very little interest in anyone's particular tone but I did target SRV's pickups and learned alot in the process, they are just called my "59" set. I could of called them Satisfying Revolutionary Vedic pickups like Duncan's method (Evenly Voice Harmonics, was it?) I do have a PG set of buckers though, "Pretty Good." Some star players from classic rock days are worth researching and studying their gear etc. not that I give a crap about sounding like them but as an exercise in back-engineering the pickups, because I always learn something new along the way. I"m also in the Vintage Lab working on a pill "to make a man larger," Greg asked me since he needs help

Anyway, the truth is that too many guitar players want to sound like their heroes, and it does sell pickups, but I don't do that unless I think I got it really darn close, and I don't use anyone's name on the pickup. The ones I'm working on now I got some wrong information but even that resulted in a nice set of pickups that I'm just naming after the year they were typical of, so back to the drawing board, this is also pushing me into working on a different year set I've not messed with before, after than I think I'm done with this subject.

I don't need any help thank you Dave. I try to step in for you and give you a break so you can work, and you treat me like that, sheesh!

Greg

[LtKojak]

To Wolfe:

I've seen this posted in other forums as well, you do want to get noticed.

Anyway, to tell a long story short: the Marketing trick of naming p'ups after famous players, although older then all three pyramids altogether, simply WORKS.

People would like to play like those, but unfortunately they can't. That's a source of internal conflict. The fact that with some two bills they actually can BUY something they feel represent'em, well.. THAT they CAN do, so they WILL. This creates some internal relief to the forementioned conflict.

They still can't play, but they feel at least they've tried, so they feel better 'bout themselves.

That's the way it works. So you see what you can do with your tales of morality and such. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

So just let it go, man. You just don't have the right to prevent Joe Blow to suck playing feeling good about it instead of being miserable!

HTH,

[David Schwab]

Anyway, to tell a long story short: the Marketing trick of naming p'ups after famous players, although older then all three pyramids altogether, simply WORKS.

Actually it's not that old at all, and it's really poor marketing. The ironic part is the players they are trying to imitate didn't use those pickups, and in fact just used what ever was stock with the guitar. So a Peter Green pickup might as well be the same as a Duane Allman pickup. But of course the young players who are clueless about getting a good tone from their guitar think a pickup will do it (forget about the amp, etc.). And of course it wont.

Now if it's the name that's selling, then Gibson should have been able to sell a truck load of those Hendrix guitars! Or how about this, forget what the pickup sounds like, just stick a famous name on any old pickup, since it wont sound like that player anyway. If the person who buys it complains, just tell them they suck and wouldn't know a good pickup if it hit them on the head. Or do like Zackery, and tell them they aren't a good enough player for your pickup.

I do believe that legally you cannot use the name of a living or dead person to sell a product without permission of the person/estate. I was able to get back a web domain that way because it was the name of a famous singer who's web site I was managing for a while. Some cyber squatter bought her domain from Sony when it expired, but we got it back with no trouble at all because it was her name.

And besides it's tacky. Just make a great sounding pickup and people will buy it.

[Spence]

The thing is that people need to get some idea of what they can achieve from a pickup. Sometimes references to a player or a certain recording done with the same such pickup, will help steer the customer through the inevitable minefield. This is clearly what Bare Knuckle Pickups do and it's been an enormous success for them. Some of us spend months finding a good name for a pickup before releasing it even though the development was done months before. I suppose other pickup makers may resent the ones who grab all the good names. But pickups need names just like cars do. A Ford Mustang wouldn't have been so iconic if it had been just a number.

[madialex]

By the way Spence, I just noticed, Your head is on fire, well the bag anyway...... :-P

[kevinT]

I'm with Spence. I've banged my head up against the wall and lost sleep over coming up with names for pickups.

I don't think it's that big of a deal to name a pickup after something like a song, or a player, but indirectly. I agree, there are limits on how far someone should go in naming a pickup without having an endorsement from the player, but I haven't seen anyone crossing that line yet. As a tone artist, the pickups I design are my interpretation of good tone whether I tie it to something or not. If you're talking about artist names you might as well throw in PAFs. Stating that your pickup sounds similar to a PAF is your interpretation of that tone and you're basically doing the same thing. Instead of naming it based on the tone of a famous living/dead person you're aligning it with the tone of a famous inanimate object.

A paf-style pickup is the pickup maker's interpretation of a real paf. A jimmy page-style pickup is the pickup maker's interpreation of a specific Page tone , whether it's based on a pickup model that Page used in the past (TTops), a zepplin live recording, or a specific zep song, etc. There is really no other way to pique the prospective customer's interest unless you relate it to something or direct them to a tone that they like.

Bare Knuckles has done a good job of it. The War Pig is obviously a Black Sabbath inspired design.

The thing is that people need to get some idea of what they can achieve from a pickup. Sometimes references to a player or a certain recording done with the same such pickup, will help steer the customer through the inevitable minefield. This is clearly what Bare Knuckle Pickups do and it's been an enormous success for them. Some of us spend months finding a good name for a pickup before releasing it even though the development was done months before. I suppose other pickup makers may resent the ones who grab all the good names. But pickups need names just like cars do. A Ford Mustang wouldn't have been so iconic if it had been just a number.

[Bill M]

I think builders who use song names or reference to an artist in their product are only doing so to give the consumer an idea of the sound that particular product is capable of. Not trying to pull the wool over anybodies eyes that that artist uses their product.

I'm still in the process of creating my Tribute series of pickups and they are nothing more than a tribute to the artist, although every effort has been made to recreate, in great detail, the sound of the pickups that were used by them. I know there are other builders here, as I, who spend countless hours researching great artists tones and how they achieved that tone. We go into great length to find out every detail and spec. of their pickups in order to recreate them. So, if someone is going to go through all this trouble to emulate a particular songs, or artists tone then I believe they should be able to relate that to their particular product. Granted, by no means should they infringe any trade mark or copy write.

[LtKojak]

Actually it's not that old at all, and it's really poor marketing. The ironic part is the players they are trying to imitate didn't use those pickups, and in fact just used what ever was stock with the guitar. So a Peter Green pickup might as well be the same as a Duane Allman pickup. But of course the young players who are clueless about getting a good tone from their guitar think a pickup will do it (forget about the amp, etc.). And of course it wont.

Well yes, David; I know that, you know that,but they obviousy DON'T. And to be honest, judging from the customers' requests I get, most of them won't know good tone if it came and bite'em in the ass.

That's why they come to me in the first place. isn't it?

It's a psychological thing... including the economic transaction as well. If I just SAY it's so, they don't believe it. But if I CHARGE'EM (represented by a product, any kind of product), suddenly they start to hearing things in a different way, and THEY'RE HAPPY.

I'm a whore, I know. But as a whore I make somebody happy. Wait, isn't that what we ALL want? Happy customers?

[Spence]

By the way Spence, I just noticed, Your head is on fire, well the bag anyway...... :-P

Indeed. I've always been a hot head. Hey! Great name for a pickup!

[Mark Hammer]

I think I should make an Eric Clapton tribute pickup. And since I don't have a winding machine, I'm gonna call it......the Sorehand.

[RedHouse]

A-hole mode /on

Why? What purpose does it serve? Unless you've designed said pickup for said player and said player uses said pickup, how can you possibly call a pickup the whoever bucker?
Unless you made the pickup for that person, chances are, you're not even close
Develop your own name. Don't rely on the name of other famous people to drive up sales because some player some where wants to sound like some other person. Because they won't, and no amount of naming and pickup after someone will ever get them to sound like them.

I'm sorely disappointed on the morals of some people in this community.

And if you keep it up, I'll have to release the Holy Trinity. The DuanePageClaptonBucker. The one gar-an-teed to make you sound like all three, no matter what gear you're playing, or your abilities.

Wolfe, I raise my beer mug to you!

[Sam Lee Guy]

The thing is that people need to get some idea of what they can achieve from a pickup. Sometimes references to a player or a certain recording done with the same such pickup, will help steer the customer through the inevitable minefield. This is clearly what Bare Knuckle Pickups do and it's been an enormous success for them. Some of us spend months finding a good name for a pickup before releasing it even though the development was done months before. I suppose other pickup makers may resent the ones who grab all the good names. But pickups need names just like cars do. A Ford Mustang wouldn't have been so iconic if it had been just a number.

Bareknuckle velly good example. Tim Mills no need to sell pickup with artist endorsement. He make pickup
for many many famous player, Gary Moore, Matt Belamy, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher, Aynsley Lister, Telly Wogan, etc... etc... but for ads
he use pics of himself, or pics of friends (lucky some friends good player too!)

Anyway, why everybody forget noodlebucker?

[Spence]

That's it! I'm gonna do an SLG NoodleBucker. I'll give you a bowl of spicy JuJu Pangolin surprise for every set I sell.

[d. spree]

So after hearing about the Hendrix chord and seeing Hendrix pickups a friend did suggest we market the Hendrix vomit.