I couldn't find an all-inclusive recommendation thread, which I think we used to have.

For me, a humbucker or humbucker alternative.

Always been a single-coil loyalist, but sold some stuff over the last couple of years, and ended up with two Gretschs. One has filtertrons, which I like, and "get" as someone coming from the s/c side of things, but the other, a G5622T, has "Blacktop Broadtrons", and they're just dull and flat. Neither full and rich enough nor sharp or spiky enough. Just bland, middle-of-the-road h/b's. I love the guitar, and playing a semi-acoustic is proving really rewarding, but after the honeymoon period, the p/ups are the weak point. Putting filtertrons in there is an option, but that seems like an overlap. Any suggestions? It may just be that I'm not a h/b person. I've got P90's, lipsticks, JM, and WRHB in other guitars.

TV Jones Magnatron. It's a humbucker but sounds more like a good bright single coil.

If it's just a matter of humbucker cavities why not throw some Phat Cats in there. You already know you like p90s..

TV Jones is your friend here. They make a ton of stuff and all of it can fit in a filtertron style spot. P90s, Dearmonds, etc.

I'm a singlecoil guy through and through. I don't even really like P90s. Too dark, too harsh/gritty sounding. I'd had a lot of humbucker guitars in my life and the only ones that have spoken to me are vintage Fender Wide Range Humbuckers and Travis Bean. I have some recent real deal reissue WRHBs but haven't swapped out the pots for 1M yet (which is what my old Telecaster Deluxe had in it) so I can't fully recommend them yet. I also have an EGC humbucker in a Strat and like it a lot. But I've also wired it for series/parallel/split and honestly use it split the most. Sooooo...

I have two thoughts.

1) try wiring any humbucker of your choice (that has 4-conductor wiring) to be Parallel instead of the standard Series. It makes a huge difference. I had a Telecaster that someone had put in a hot rails in the bridge which I have NEVER liked, but they had a series/parallel switch in it as well. And I'll be damned if I didn't love it in parallel. So much less mids, and more top end. Still hum canceled.

2) Maybe give the EGC humbucker a shot with 500K pots (or hell, try 1M if you want max top end and you are wiring it series-only). Side note: the EGC one only comes with the longer pickup height legs, so if your route is shallow (like on a Strat) you'll have to route to allow the legs/screws room.

Interested if those recent WRHB repros really sound like the real thing. Until Tommy confirms they are for real all I’ve heard about them was speculation. Curious as I have a Strat body that could use them if they’re on par with the vintage stuff

I like the same weirdo pickups everyone else mentioned, but there are more cool humbuckers:

Firebird
old Guild HB-1
Gibson PAF
Dearmond trapezoidal Dynasonic type

I think most of those aren’t actually regular humbucker sized, which is probably what you’re looking for

I used to think I didnt really like humbuckers except for the weird ones until I got into Guild guitars. I’ve never played an actual 6-string PAF (but i have an 8-string lap steel PAF pickup), but when ppl describe that characteristic sound it just sounds like an HB1 to me.

And as far as Filtertrons go, i have a real PAF version in a Guild guitar. Razory kinda high end sparkle in the bridge, but not at all like a Fender pickup. TV Jones makes some kind of historical signature version (not Classic) that doesn’t have potting. Thats probably too much but its cool

Personally I don’t really like humbucker sizes P90s though. I don’t know if its the look of them, but something always seems kind of off with it. But that doesn’t stop Alan Sparhawk

Not a specific pickup recommendation, but I recently bought an ASAT that the previous owner had put a pair of Alegree pickups in, and they sound fabulous. Hand wound in the UK and very fairly priced, they have all sorts in humbucker size, including wide range (I think).

Recommendations on a GPS/bluetooth tracker for an instrument.

Don't plan on leaving it in there all the time, but after some recent losses of gear (Bikini Kill's Rickenbacker, etc), I'd like to have something to put with (or in the control cavity of) my TB2000 when flying. Would likely take it out once actually at the destination, but definitely a little paranoid about it getting stolen, or just lost by an airline.

Also here to speak in favor of TV Jones. I've only tried the T-Armonds (soapbar replacing a pair of p-90s) and their "Starwood" pickups which are the same concept but for Tele. I like's 'em. As others have stated, they also have a variety of form-factors for most of their stuff so you should be able to find something you like that fits the cavities.

tallchris wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 4:15 pm Recommendations on a GPS/bluetooth tracker for an instrument.

Don't plan on leaving it in there all the time, but after some recent losses of gear (Bikini Kill's Rickenbacker, etc), I'd like to have something to put with (or in the control cavity of) my TB2000 when flying. Would likely take it out once actually at the destination, but definitely a little paranoid about it getting stolen, or just lost by an airline.

After recently reading about Russian Circles having all their shit stolen, it got me to thinking about this. There has to be a way to get a GPS enabled kinda thing that can track, notify and even have a kill switch when it gets too far away from a homing device or even by the user.

Obviously it would have to be as bulletproof technically as possible - can’t have a software based kill switch just go bonkers on its own - but I can’t imaging I’m the first to think of this.

I’ve never used AirTags or tiles or whatever, but it seems like too easy a consumer product to defeat for a touring band.