Fat Tone pickups

[Freight Twang]

I just wanted to chime in on this subject, I am a pro builder and have taken a chance on installing Fat Tone Pickups in my guitars, and I have to say that these are some extremely fine pickups. I have build guitars for alot of Nashville players and usually use SD 5/2 Studio pickups, but I had ordered some tele and strat sets from Tommy (which is a super nice guy) and have really been impressed.

The FTV tele set measure out at 7.5k at the bridge and around 6k on the neck and have plenty of twang but a fullness that I had not experience with Frailins, SD, or any other tele pickups. I'm not saying that they are better, different in a good way. Matter of fact , I am using this in my personal guitar and are selling my 5/2's(anyone want them?). Don't let the price fool you, the reason there wound overseas is to keep costs down. If they were not any good, people in the industry would not be talking about them. Most people that buy a production guitar don't realize where the pickups in their guitars are made anyway. Anytime something new comes out on the market, people are sceptic(slices,dices,etc.) but in a few years this company could be huge, so take a chance, I know I did, I don't think you'll regret it. I like em' and my customers seem to dig them too. Good Luck

[Stan H]

Please correct me if I am wrong and it may be just my imagination but has this thread turned into people trying to sell pickups to pickup makers?

[Freight Twang]

Please correct me if I am wrong and it may be just my imagination but has this thread turned into people trying to sell pickups to pickup makers?

I think you may be right, it may be your imagination. For me, its about letting people know about an affordable, good sounding pickup, and I don't have a dog in the hunt, and don't really care if people buy them or not, more for me. Just my two cents, use it for what is worth. I sure their not the quality of your pickups anyway, so live and let live.

[Fat Tone Tommy]

Selling Pickups to Pickup Makers

I am definitely not trying to sell pickups to pickup makers. Just trying to enlighten and educate people about my product. I believe that if it is fair for people to openly speculate about a product without seeing, hearing or touching it, then it is only fair for me to respond to the concerns with accurate information. I think that all of this is a little out of hand. Especially when only 2 people on this forum have had any experience with the product and they both like it. It's so hard for someone in the MI business to accept that we can make a great product overseas, yet almost everything else they might use in a normal day is made somewhere other than the USA. Funny.

Thanks,
TommyB

[mick]

It's all swings and roundabouts guys and in a year or 2 it will be someone undercutting the fat tones etc because they have found somewhere cheaper to manufacture..
And if you are trying to educate people about your product then you really don't need to be on here doing it , as you are likely aware most of us don't really care for your sales talk or your cheaply made off shore product .

Some of us actually still have a bit of pride in what we do..

Mick

[Fat Tone Tommy]

Wow!

Wow! What a sleazy thing to say. I take a lot of pride in what I do and everything I do. The only reason I am on here in the first place is because someone asked a simple, general question about whether anyone knew about the brand. Flags went up and everyone started speculating and the thread was brought to my attention and I thought I would jump in and explain, not give a sales pitch. Have I tried to really sell anything here? No, just to explain what we actually do vs. what everyone might think we do. I thought forums were open so that people could discuss gear and not to sit here and bash people and their products, especially when, again, they have not even come in contact with it. That's real smart!

I really hope you don't speak for everyone else, as so far, you are the only person who has been rude to me at all. I think your comment was uncalled for.

[Possum]

good points..

All good stuff, but I think one of my points was missed, or misunderstood. Sure alot of pro players really don't know much about pickups and play what they are used to or get for free in endorsement deals. Don't forget I have done almost all of Shrapnel Label Group's album packaging for 25 years, and did the marketing in the 80's that brought EMG Pickups out of obscurity back then, so I have been around the best players on the planet for a long time. I've been making pickups for about 6 years maybe, now, so I"ve talked to some of these players about pickups and found out alot of them know almost nothing about pickups, saying enlightening things like "well they sound good." Most of them have endorsement deals with DiMarzio being in that genre of music that uses his stuff. So they are prohibited from being seen in public using anything but DM product. So there IS that factor. BUT, again I will say that probably 80% or more of my customers ARE professional players, guys who may not be able to verbally describe or quantify what "tone" is to them but who have extremely educated ears and haven't found what they need in the larger public market. They are out there and they know what they like and its not a mass market pickup. I do also get customers who buy because they read about me on some forum where a customer will post he liked my work, and these tend to be more common garden variety guitar player, they buy my stuff because its perceived as being "cool." Anyway thats my experience with the market, I mostly get players who have tried all the big marketed companies product and found it all lacking and come to me and others of my ilk :-)

This all brings up another subject that could be interesting in another thread maybe, and that is marketing pickups. Being in that business, (well I recently quit my design career to make pickups and nothing else), marketing is super important. For instance I almost get zero players who play metal or hard rock, because my sound samples have none of that type of playing. Those guys don't relate to my playing at all, being mostly blues based, they just don't "get" it. I hope to enter that market once I finalized my long time PAF project in the next month, and am dreading the new research and R&D to try and get a handle on that world.....maybe I need to go out and get my arms tatooed to the hilt :-)

[mick]

Well you may have pride in something that someone else is doing for you , you aren't making these yourself are you?? forgive me if you are up till all hours winding and trying new things instead of having someone else develop and wind them for you , most on here are are doing the hard yards mate , .....so there is a slight difference ,
I will say whats on my mind and if you think it's rude or sleazy then so be it..there would be nothing more sleazy than saying it behind your back IMO .


Mick

[kevinT]

well I recently quit my design career to make pickups and nothing else

wow dave...you're going for it. cool!!!!

Ohh...while you are getting your tattoos, you might as well get a nose ring and your nipple pierced to be a true metal pickup god.

[Fat Tone Tommy]

Good Points

Possum,

Thanks for the kind reply. I agree with you totally, as i am also one of those players who have a hard time finding what I need for myself off of the shelf. I haven't played a guitar less than custom shop or vintage or the quality of an Anderson since 91. Now I just build my own. I owned a high end amp and pedal shop in Memphis for 3 years and all of the top players in town wanted something better than the average, but just didn't really know what to try. From my experience, the really over the top guys that were amazing were the ones that knew the least about the technicalities of their gear. Guess they spent most of their time just playing. but they know exactly what they want to hear. They just needed a guide to help them find it. I love Jason's pickups, Lindy's Pickups, Antiquity and am a huge fan of WCRs. i use their pickups in some of my guitars and i have Fat Tones in the newest strat that I built. The all sound great and different than each other. I like that. if any one thing were best for everyone, we would all use it and life would be incredibly boring.

Take Care,

Also, I know Mike Varney through Eric Gales. If you hear from him, Tell him TommyB from Memphis says Hi. I didn't get to see him at NAMM this year.

[Fat Tone Tommy]

Pride

mick,

you win. I have no pride. I didn't work on these at all. I had nothing to do with any of it. I never talked to the engineer. I never listened to any of them and went for redesign. Is this what you want to hear? just because someone is not one guy making something in a room by himself doesn't mean he should have no pride in his work.

I have made it clear several times that I am not trying to compete with Boutique USA winders. Yet you still continue to bash me personallyfor just being something other than that. I guess everything that's not hand made by one guy in the USA just sucks. What kind of car do you drive?

You don't know anything about me, yet you know everything. That's ok. You have every right to your opinion, but it should be an educated one, not a blind one.

[Edward R]

Mick, I think your arguement is pretty pathetic. I mean, come on. Questioning someones pride because they make pickups differently or run their business differently than you do?
Just because he operates his business differently than you do, doesn't mean he has no pride. He is trying to fill a niche in the market, or better compete with GFS' niche.
I haven't read any claims of him trying to steal your business or anyone elses here. And for me, it is kinda nice to have a new offering in pickups. I have made a couple in the past but I still like to buy a bunch and tinker, and these Fat Tones seem to be fairly priced. And after making a few pickups myself, I know that you make them for about $15 a pop and probably charge almost $150 for them. Ask yourself, which is more troubling, him offering a product marked up 10 times to $70 a pickup, or you marking up 10 times to $150 a pickup. Seems to be about the same....

Drop your sour grapes, because it sure sounds like you are upset he might actually sell a few. Challenge a mans pride? Please... its an internet forum!

ER

[GlennW]

I guess Fender has no pride either...well, they probably don't.

[Fat Tone Tommy]

Thanks

Edward R,

Absolutely. I am new to this forum thing and it should be a place to discuss gear and ideas and share things among each other. It should be fun. After all, i think that is why we stay in this industry. We enjoy it. the last thing i need is to spend valuable time putting out internet fires when i could be doing real work.

FYI / I am more targeted toward building a solid dealer network in the US and not really selling direct. I sell direct into states where i don't have dealers, then cease when i get one. MAP / Street runs between $42 - $59.00. then there is the dealer cut, and it's generous. After the finished product arrives here, with shipping and customs, I am only a little over doubling my money. It means that i have to sell a lot of pickups and the product better be consistent and be able to stand on its own. I wish i got the 10 x markup on each piece. That would be nice!

Thanks,
TommyB

[mick]

Edward R.. , no need to start jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about me , Now that really is pathetic... and FYI and I'm as busy as I have ever been .
So no sour grapes here . maybe you have got them all ? seems like it !
I didn't question anyones pride if you read my original post properly ,
( assuming your face isn't too screwed up from the grapes and it's affecting your eyesight..)
Tony reacted badly to it and called me sleazy and rude , ( yeah I know , boo fucken hoo )...
I do though believe that actually making my own pickups fills me with just a bit more pride than if they were made O/S by someone else and I just put them in a nice box or something with my cute name on the lid.., so stop ass kissing Eddy , get your tongue outta there dude...
as you say it's an internet forum , and my opinion may well be different to someone else's, so it doesn't quite go along with the flow..? so what..we all have to hold hands do we??

Hello Tony , I didn't question your pride,..I said I have pride in what I do.., how you choose to make money is your business , as is my way of doing things mine.. I didn't knock your pricing , your mark up , your place of manufacture , your quality or your product did I? , did I call you sleazy or rude because of what you said? no I didn't .
it's fact in this business that someone comes along every few years with a new product from another country of manufacture , usually undercutting all the others..,which is what I was trying to point out , I wasn't implying thats what you personally were doing , but if you want to think that I was while you are on the defensive an all thats ok , real professional mate , way to go..
At least I make my own pickups..more than you can say..

Mick