numberthirty wrote:Even a pretty Plain Jane production pickup, let's say a Gibson Burstbucker, will run around $130.00 brand new.A smaller company selling a more specialized pickup for another seventy bucks seems completely reasonable, to me.FWIW, the Burstbucker Pro Lead and Rhythm were the best humbuckers I've played in my life. $260 for a pair of pickups is a lot of money. It's on the cusp of becoming this is a stupid amount of money to spend on pickups. $400 is past the that point. I'm not saying they're not worth the money, since Kevin and his people at EGC put out quality instruments and pickups 100% of the time. I'm just saying that's a lot of money.

ancientbones wrote:EGC finally got back to me and WOW I didn't think it'd be $400 for a set of pickups. I think I'll sort through all these other options to find something suitable to my ear.I don't know. When you factor in what the cost of another set in that ballpark would run, it doesn't really seem like a "WOW" number. Not cheap, but not "WOW".

Even a pretty "Plain Jane" production pickup, let's say a Gibson Burstbucker, will run around $130.00 brand new.A smaller company selling a more specialized pickup for another seventy bucks seems completely reasonable, to me.

Two quick things -I saw a specialized/small company two humbucker set for five bills. I did flinch when I saw that.As for "That's a lot of money.", I do have a set of small company/north of $240 for the set pickups on one of my guitars. My younger brother scoffed loudly at the very idea. Once he borrowed said guitar, I haven't played it since.

numberthirty wrote:ancientbones wrote:EGC finally got back to me and WOW I didn't think it'd be $400 for a set of pickups. I think I'll sort through all these other options to find something suitable to my ear.I don't know. When you factor in what the cost of another set in that ballpark would run, it doesn't really seem like a "WOW" number. Not cheap, but not "WOW".As point of comparison, Rickenbacker pickups are about $150 a piece. EGC is a smaller operation, and probably doesn't have a ton of extra pickups just hanging around. Considering they don't do custom work any longer $400 for a set doesn't seem super out there.

EGC is not really in the replacement pickup game. If they're making 100 guitars a year, that means they're probably making 250 pickups a year. Duncan/DiMarzio is probably making 250+ pickups per day. When you buy your supplies in those quantities, the cost goes way down. So yeah, I'd probably not ever buy replacement pickups through EGC for a non-EGC guitar. Taking all of this into account, though, the price seems even more reasonable for a made to order in the U.S.A. custom guitar.

holmes wrote:I've been reading through your posts, and I don't know why you don't just get a telecaster. I mean, you aren't going to get the p-90 shape, but the closest any guitar, including an egc, has come to the sound of my tb500, is a single coil telecaster. The sound of beans is as much about constructural considerations as it the general sonic characteristics of the single coils used. The 500 sound is the result of a metal neck and a quite microphonic bridge p'up extremely close to the saddles - and through-body stringing, without anything getting in the way. Likewise, with the tele, the stinging sound and clarity is mainly because of the single coil pick up mounted directly to a metal bridge, very close to the string saddles, and through-body stringing. It's a similar sound, not the same, but it's a lot closer to the egc 500 I have. Personally, I use my tele all the time now, I like the slightly fatter sound I get. I'm not getting the same 'shing and zing' as from my 500, but I'm old and my ears hurt so that's ok. I'd do some research into decent single coils known for having a microphonic quality, or look into really high end boutique telecaster pick ups, virtually all of which would ironically set you back way, way less than these EGC pick ups. Though not single coils, and incorporating a blade design, I've heard great things said about the clarity of Joe Barden Danny Gatton tele pup's. Watch some of the videos of him playing, the sound is stinging as fuck.I guess why I haven't gotten a telecaster is because I haven't played one I liked. Most have been too twangy for me. Same with strats. Not to mention strats are the epitome of boring to me and teles are ok, but still kinda bland. I don't mind some extra mid. I'd probably like a tele more if it had overwound pickups for more mid presence but I haven't come across one like that. I guess with microphonic pickups my only experience has been with an old ibanez roadstar of my dad's. the pickups are incredibly low output and kinda dull.

Are there any teles in particular that are a good bang for your buck? I mean there's a million out there.The '72 deluxe reissues look sweet but i've heard mixed things about them. Mostly the pickups not being real WRHB. Too bad I can't afford one of those sweet natural brown-stained 70's tele customs with the normal tele bridge and the humbucker neck. Those are sick but I don't think fender will ever put something like that out.edit: I guess fender did put out something like that. Fender '72 Telecaster Custom. huh, never knew. I guess they're a part of the classic series but I've found a couple mij ones floating around ebay.

ancientbones wrote:EGC finally got back to me and WOW I didn't think it'd be $400 for a set of pickups. I think I'll sort through all these other options to find something suitable to my ear.Yeah, I would not recommend you spend this, that's far too much money for two production p'ups. You will most likely regret it, and I don't think they are worth that. As you can see from people justifying $400 pick ups, people get very defensive about EGC on here, which is fair enough, but most of the time it goes a little too far. I'll tell you what I found with my single coil EGC pick ups. They are dark sounding pick ups, very much so for single coils, and quite mid heavy. They aren't bad sounding, but they really sound way more p-90 than straight single coil. I would say putting them in a wooden guitar for treble-y clarity purposes would rather defeat the object of the exercise. And you would be fucking nuts too spend $400 doing so if this is your goal. EGC pick ups are more applicable to sounding 'normal', though, which can be useful and more too many peoples taste. A great example of this is the new Shellac record, dude incredible - Albini changed the bean coils to EGC pup's before this was recorded, and the sound of the guitar is noticeably different to the first three records, which featured the bean pups in the guitar. It's a more middy sound and a lot of the 'shing/zing' sound is gone, but it's still pleasant and has more weight too it.I've been reading through your posts, and I don't know why you don't just get a telecaster. I mean, you aren't going to get the p-90 shape, but the closest any guitar, including an egc, has come to the sound of my tb500, is a single coil telecaster. The sound of beans is as much about constructural considerations as it the general sonic characteristics of the single coils used. The 500 sound is the result of a metal neck and a quite microphonic bridge p'up extremely close to the saddles - and through-body stringing, without anything getting in the way. Likewise, with the tele, the stinging sound and clarity is mainly because of the single coil pick up mounted directly to a metal bridge, very close to the string saddles, and through-body stringing. It's a similar sound, not the same, but it's a lot closer to the egc 500 I have. Personally, I use my tele all the time now, I like the slightly fatter sound I get. I'm not getting the same 'shing and zing' as from my 500, but I'm old and my ears hurt so that's ok. I'd do some research into decent single coils known for having a microphonic quality, or look into really high end boutique telecaster pick ups, virtually all of which would ironically set you back way, way less than these EGC pick ups. Though not single coils, and incorporating a blade design, I've heard great things said about the clarity of Joe Barden Danny Gatton tele pup's. Watch some of the videos of him playing, the sound is stinging as fuck.

My buddy Mark runs a company called Crash: http://www.crashpickups.com/His pickups come in lots of styles (visually and size-wise) but his general pickup 'flavour' is very Travis Bean-y. I had him wind two P90-ish pickups for my Acoustic Black Widow guitar and ended up changing them (and changing them again soon) because they were just too zingy and articulate and reminded me of my old TB500 a bit too much. I'm a much more ham-fisted player than I was when I had Travis Beans and I'm after a more 'globby' type sound - a "gargh" rather than a "claaaang" if you will.But, as someone who had a TB500 for years, the Crash single coils do a pretty decent job.I do know Mark was taking a break from making pickups for a bit though so it might be worth shooting him an email if you are interested.There's loads of sound clips on the website too and prices are generally around 70 a pickup.