What is your single biggest pickup related purchase?

[David King]

My pickup lines are so cheesy I had to buy a Groucho disguise before women could take me seriously. It cost me $4.95.

[copperheadroads]

I bought a Pickup truck load of curly/birdseye maple lumber .Then i had to buy a $1000 bandsaw to cut it up

[David Schwab]

I bought a Pickup truck load of curly/birdseye maple lumber .Then i had to buy a $1000 bandsaw to cut it up

A Delta bandsaw with a riser block was my first machine purchase when I started building. Then I got a Jett long bed jointer and a Delta planer.

[copperheadroads]

A Delta bandsaw with a riser block was my first machine purchase when I started building. Then I got a Jett long bed jointer and a Delta planer.

It's a clone of the 14" Delta with the riser block

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

I'm jealous. I'd love to be building, but I don't have the space or finances. That is why I decided to get into pickups...

It is painful to see a nice chunk of wood and think what you could do to it, and realize that you don't have the tools... maybe if I sit outside a woodworking store and look sad some stranger will buy me a planer.

[jmaf]

I'm jealous. I'd love to be building, but I don't have the space or finances.

If you add a "YET" to the end of that sentence then it changes everything.

[David Schwab]

I'm jealous. I'd love to be building, but I don't have the space or finances. That is why I decided to get into pickups...

I'm actually in the same boat as far as not having any space. 16 years ago I had a full workshop and a partner. After we stopped working together I moved the workshop to a small room in the house where I grew up.

But now i'm in an apartment. I have a small space that was intended for storage in the basement that I have a couple of machines setup, but no space to build guitars! I share a workspace with my former partner in his garage, but we can only work during warm weather months.

So pickups, electronics and repairs are things i can do from my apartment. Plus I wanted to make my own pickups for my basses for a while.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Hate to invoke a cliche, but it really isn't a good economy for guitar sellers/builders. Everyone I know who has survived has done so by expanding their business to cover a larger footprint of consumers. Some guys from Taylor were telling me the other day that all across the country guitar sales over $1k are hard and rare.

My hope was that it would mean MORE repair work since people are holding onto old instruments or buying cheaper and investing parts/labor into them, but it doesn't quite seem like that is the case, either.

/whining

[big_teee]

Hate to invoke a cliche, but it really isn't a good economy for guitar sellers/builders. Everyone I know who has survived has done so by expanding their business to cover a larger footprint of consumers. Some guys from Taylor were telling me the other day that all across the country guitar sales over $1k are hard and rare.

My hope was that it would mean MORE repair work since people are holding onto old instruments or buying cheaper and investing parts/labor into them, but it doesn't quite seem like that is the case, either.

/whining

Don't forget the imports.
Nobody wants to hear it, but there are some great imports out there.
That's why I started winding, to replace cheap crappy Pickups in some pretty nice imports.
Unless you are rich or a Professional Musician, Joe Blow Picks up a Pretty nice Low Cost Import.
He likes the guitar ok, but it has those crappy Pickups in it, and that's where the winder can come in.
The problem with that he isn't going to order a $400 Reproduction set to put in a $150 Dollar Axe.
Thats why I use ready made parts, and cater to Low and Mid Price Customers.
Sorry if I Helped HiJack the Thread!
T

[jmaf]

Hate to invoke a cliche, but it really isn't a good economy for guitar sellers/builders. Everyone I know who has survived has done so by expanding their business to cover a larger footprint of consumers. Some guys from Taylor were telling me the other day that all across the country guitar sales over $1k are hard and rare.

My hope was that it would mean MORE repair work since people are holding onto old instruments or buying cheaper and investing parts/labor into them, but it doesn't quite seem like that is the case, either.

/whining

I know that because I am across the Equator from most of you and the stories I hear locally here are exactly the same....

[belwar]

Hate to invoke a cliche, but it really isn't a good economy for guitar sellers/builders. Everyone I know who has survived has done so by expanding their business to cover a larger footprint of consumers. Some guys from Taylor were telling me the other day that all across the country guitar sales over $1k are hard and rare.

I would say that statement is accurate - Though in the last 4 months there has been a distinct turn to the high end.

[Bill M]

I bought a Gibson Customshop Joe Bonamassa Goldtop Les Paul for Pickuptesting.
;-)

One of this guys Les Pauls. He came by my booth this past weekend and kept bothering me to take a photo with him.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Don't forget the imports.
Nobody wants to hear it, but there are some great imports out there.
That's why I started winding, to replace cheap crappy Pickups in some pretty nice imports.
Unless you are rich or a Professional Musician, Joe Blow Picks up a Pretty nice Low Cost Import.
He likes the guitar ok, but it has those crappy Pickups in it, and that's where the winder can come in.
The problem with that he isn't going to order a $400 Reproduction set to put in a $150 Dollar Axe.
Thats why I use ready made parts, and cater to Low and Mid Price Customers.
Sorry if I Helped HiJack the Thread!
T

It is also added job security for techs, too. The electronics aren't the only thing that can be funky on those off the rack. Why so few off-shore manufacturers can figure out how to make a decent pickup, I'll never know. It isn't that hard, especially given that they're typically already being designed by an established American company. I won't knock it, though... it is our job security!

[jmaf]

It is also added job security for techs, too. The electronics aren't the only thing that can be funky on those off the rack. Why so few off-shore manufacturers can figure out how to make a decent pickup, I'll never know. It isn't that hard, especially given that they're typically already being designed by an established American company. I won't knock it, though... it is our job security!

There is a recent thread on the Lobby here about Australia Christmas, I understood it as "de-globalizing". I think we're headed there. Folks will have a hangover of all the cheap imported crap soon and will come back to the local markets. Lots of things should be globalized, others shouldn't.

[ken]

jmaf

Quote Originally Posted by FunkyKikuchiyo
It is also added job security for techs, too. The electronics aren't the only thing that can be funky on those off the rack. Why so few off-shore manufacturers can figure out how to make a decent pickup, I'll never know. It isn't that hard, especially given that they're typically already being designed by an established American company. I won't knock it, though... it is our job security!

There is a recent thread on the Lobby here about Australia Christmas, I understood it as "de-globalizing". I think we're headed there. Folks will have a hangover of all the cheap imported crap soon and will come back to the local markets. Lots of things should be globalized, others shouldn't.

I look at it this way - You get what you pay for. I spend a lot of time on other forums where inexpensive replacement pickups are talked up a lot. I could never figure out why someone would replace a set of pickups in a $499 Epi Lester with a MIK set costing $49.95 the pair. It seems hardly worth the bother myself.

I guess some only see how much the pickup retails for, and never see all the effort and research some makers can go through to give their customers the best possible sounds. Am I 'elitist'? No, actually.

I see people simply buying a winder and assorted parts from StewMac, winding a pickup or two, and ads appearing on Ebay with the hype machine in high gear. They invariably disappear in a month or two, and the rest of us suffer from their claims.

I make the best pickups I possibly can, and I make no apologies for them. I obsess over them, I make as many of their parts by myself I possibly can, and I charge what I think is fair for the work I put into them.

What does this have to do with anything?? Simple. I think that some people put much too much value in how cheap something costs, and not in the object's *real* value - how well it works or how long it lasts. I'm sorry, I cannot see the value in a set of Korean import wrenches costing $8.99 the set when they break the first time you use them. I would rather buy a set of properly made wrenches for $39.99 that I can pass down to my children. I believe that many people are finally starting to see the value in real 'quality made' purchases and away from the 'inexpensive at all costs' mentality, which is what I believe the trend toward 'deglobalizing' is all about.

How about that... I hijacked my own thread!

ken