Test Driving Pickups?

[Meowy]

How do you guys test / demo pickups in a guitar? Physical installation and soldering just takes way too long, especially when you are going through trial and error iterations.

I'm thinking of building something like this


(picture is borrowed from the above linked page)

[chevalij]

I've done something similar I took a jig saw to the back of an squier strat body. Now I just install pickups from behind.

[Possum]

...........

All these test bed guitars are ok but the really only true way to know exactly how pickups sound in a real guitar is to put them in a real guitar then go out and play live on stage, nothing else will substitute for that. The problem with the photo you posted is there's a swimming pool route, no pickguard and the guitar itself is not going to sound like it would with a pickguard over that hole and pickups in the pickguard. The test beds are useful sometimes for quick listening but I seldom use mine anymore.....

[SkinnyWire]

I test in a regular guitar. A bit of a PITA, but more "real world" I think. I've thought about building a rig for measuring output and such. Tough finding to time for those sorts of thing though.

I used to test play every pickup before shipping but volume has made that unreasonable. I take enough measurements along the way to be confident I'm building a consistent product and test play new winds, etc., before adding them to the lineup.

[JGundry]

I use the exact same guitar as yours Meowy to test pickups but mine is a hard tail. I got it new at Guitar Center for $69.00.

[Rosewood]

My test guitar sounds so crappy acoustic wise that I don't trust the pickup sound much.

[Possum]

...........

If you're testing pickups to see how they sound as a design process, you absolutely MUST take them to a live gig and play onstage. Then get a pro to take them live and test in a real world situation. Pickups tested at home might sound great to you, but then go play them live and they may totally fail to do anything good, been there done that. Its also essential to have a professional test them for you, I don't know of ANY pickup maker who is also a pro guitar player, and believe me, someone who makes their living playing music has ears ten times better than you can even imagine. I'm priveleged to live in an area known for jazz and blues professionals and they always amaze me in critiquing stuff I've come up, and believe me I LISTEN to what those guys tell me :-)

[JGundry]

Testing in a gig situation is a must for sure. It is the reason I deduct mileage to and from gigs and band practice. Field testing your stuff out an extended period of time at stage volume is a must. The other side of the coin is tone that you might not prefer in a confined area at home at lower volume levels might be perfect at stage levels and really cut through in that context.

[Possum]

amen to that.....

The problem with being a hobbyist in this stuff is that just about anything you make is going to sound good in your bedroom and that includes amps and guitars and effects. Being on stage is a whole other ball game. And for that same reason its in every pickup maker's interest to improve their playing as much as possible. The better player you are the better you can dial something in, and that playing has to be on stage not home in front of an imaginary audience :-) I've seen some guys who can play good in front of their tv but in a real situation are pretty bad. I've seen Fralin and Duncan play guitar before and I wouldn't spend a dime to see them play anywhere, they are smart enough to listen to the pro players tell them what really works out there.

One of my early experiences was exactly a situation like this. I had a strat set I thought just killed for days playing thru my blues junior at home (bad test amp). So took it to the jam and convinced one of the top players there to get up for a set with my guitar and told him man these pickups are the shit. 20 seconds after he started playing I wanted to crawl out the door in front of a bus. It was real obvious they were wound too hot, choked tone, and he was struggling to get through the set. Once that kind of thing happens its real hard to convince those guys to ever try your work again, believe me :-) But taught me a lesson I needed real bad, LOL. These days I play it onstage myself first then if one of the guys says hey that guitar sounds killer, I casually say ya wanna try it out? Then I can listen from the audience and see what they are doing up there. Its fun.....sometimes.......

[Meowy]

I use the exact same guitar as yours Meowy to test pickups but mine is a hard tail. I got it new at Guitar Center for $69.00.

Just to clarify, not mine, but an ariticle I found.

As for many of the responses here, agreed clearly nothing better real world testing, but I'm suggesting a test bed guitar for convenience while still in the experimental stages or in the workshop .

[Possum]

...

My test guitar is a cheap plywood les paul, it has three cuts in it to slide pickups, but the big problem with it is there all this wood missing below the strings so it sound like a piano :-) I only use it when roughy trying to see what something sounds like, but it is way off, I've put pickups in it and thought oh crap this thing sounds bad, then put it in a real guitar and sounded wonderful, thats why I distrust these things....

[Meowy]

My test guitar is a cheap plywood les paul, it has three cuts in it to slide pickups, but the big problem with it is there all this wood missing below the strings so it sound like a piano :-) I only use it when roughy trying to see what something sounds like, but it is way off, I've put pickups in it and thought oh crap this thing sounds bad, then put it in a real guitar and sounded wonderful, thats why I distrust these things....

I'm thinking of building one out of a cheap Yamaha Strat. I am going to cut out the back: trem cavity into the swimming pool route, but I am planning to also incorporate a pickup mount made from a block of warm tonewood (perhaps mahogany) that will be inserted from the back. Hopefully this will address the change in resonance from the hole through the body. Of course I wil have to address possible vibration issues as well, but all in part of the fun!

[salvarsan]

My test guitar is a cheap plywood les paul, ...I only use it when roughy trying to see what something sounds like, but it is way off, I've put pickups in it and thought oh crap this thing sounds bad, then put it in a real guitar and sounded wonderful, thats why I distrust these things....

So, I'm wondering if this is because of microphonics --
too much and the pickup squeals, but with less it gets sonically sweetened.

I'd always wondered about that when a collector friend demo'd two 60's strats
that were 5 years apart. One sounded beautiful at bedroom sound levels and
the other sounded restrained until you played it at barroom levels.

-drh
ps: yup, this is DrStrangelove. This 'salvarsan' handle is so I don't have to see
all the moderator tweaks and buttons on the screen. (drh)

[Rosewood]

So, I'm wondering if this is because of microphonics --
too much and the pickup squeals, but with less it gets sonically sweetened.

I'd always wondered about that when a collector friend demo'd two 60's strats
that were 5 years apart. One sounded beautiful at bedroom sound levels and
the other sounded restrained until you played it at barroom levels.

-drh
ps: yup, this is DrStrangelove. This 'salvarsan' handle is so I don't have to see
all the moderator tweaks and buttons on the screen. (drh)

This is why it makes me mad when an acoustic only player says that nothing matters in an electric, wood or pickups. An electric guitar is as complicated or more so than a acoustic.

[SkinnyWire]

If you're testing pickups to see how they sound as a design process, you absolutely MUST take them to a live gig and play onstage. Then get a pro to take them live and test in a real world situation. Pickups tested at home might sound great to you, but then go play them live and they may totally fail to do anything good, been there done that. Its also essential to have a professional test them for you, I don't know of ANY pickup maker who is also a pro guitar player, and believe me, someone who makes their living playing music has ears ten times better than you can even imagine. I'm priveleged to live in an area known for jazz and blues professionals and they always amaze me in critiquing stuff I've come up, and believe me I LISTEN to what those guys tell me :-)

I did this before I started selling them at all and still ship a lot of pickups to "trusted ears" for review/comment.