Pickups

[JamesStrawberry]

I have an Epiphone SG - I want to put Seymour Duncan's high voltage humbuckers in it... anyone who bought these - are they good? Do they sound good? If you can could someone provide a video of how they sound? Thank you. https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/high-voltage

 

[syco]

I have no experience with these . If you don't mind me asking .... what is it you are trying to achieve tonally ?

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

59/Custom bridge and a Jazz neck in my Gibson SG. Im very happy with them. The 59/ Custom has a DCR of 11.2k, the Jazz neck is 7.5k. Both have Alnico 5 magnets.

The High Voltage set have Alnico 2 magnets and DCRs of Neck: 7.7k, Bridge: 8.6k.

Therefore they won't be as hot as their name suggests. K, which may or may not be what you want.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

PS look for videos on youtube.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

I have an Epiphone SG - I want to put Seymour Duncan's high voltage humbuckers in it... anyone who bought these - are they good? Do they sound good? If you can could someone provide a video of how they sound? Thank you. https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/high-voltage

I'm not sure as these are fairly new. Spec-wise they don't seem very different than say what the current probuckers 2/3s offer though.

 

[JamesStrawberry]

I have no experience with these . If you don't mind me asking .... what is it you are trying to achieve tonally ?

I'm looking for like a hard rocking tone for the pickups, my current pickups sound very lightweight and tinny. Though I don't have much experience with humbuckers, from what I've heard online the ones from Gibson sound much better than the Epiphone ones. I don't know much about pickups in general, so I don't know if I want them hot or not, whichever side gives a more hard rocking tone. If you have any recommendations for pickups that can provide that type of sound (and not be tinny like the stock Epiphone ones) please let me know - I'm sorry I couldn't respond for a while I've just been offline for a little while.

 

[syco]

I'm looking for like a hard rocking tone for the pickups, my current pickups sound very lightweight and tinny. Though I don't have much experience with humbuckers, from what I've heard online the ones from Gibson sound much better than the Epiphone ones. I don't know much about pickups in general, so I don't know if I want them hot or not, whichever side gives a more hard rocking tone. If you have any recommendations for pickups that can provide that type of sound (and not be tinny like the stock Epiphone ones) please let me know - I'm sorry I couldn't respond for a while I've just been offline for a little while.

I've used the Seymour Duncan Hot-Rodded set ( SH- 2 Neck 7.5K output , SH-4 Bridge 16.6 k ) can be played clean or dirty . If your SG still has stock wiring /pots ..... before you swap pickups , you might want to do a rewire /upgrade . It will really open up the stock pickups . My opinion for whatever it's worth .

 

[JamesStrawberry]

I believe it does. It's a 2008 Epi SG Standard, and I bought it in April 2022. I only started getting interested in Epiphone this year, before that I was a strat-only guy. I love double cutaways so naturally, the SG is my favourite shape for a guitar now. More than likely it's original, but I have no way of knowing as I bought it from a store after it was turned in. It's had a lot of mods already, such as a 5-hole > 11-hole pickguard conversion & a strap button relocation to the top horn. It also had its tailpiece replaced, because I string it up as a wraparound with an ABR-1 style Epiphone branded bridge. This guitar had some serious problems with strings breaking under tension, but now they barely ever break. The tailpiece ended up getting all scratched up from the ball-end sharp part of the string, so my luthier put a higher quality tailpiece on. I'm also doing a Grover > Kluson conversion on it in a couple of weeks so yeah. I have a very unpopular opinion that Grovers are terrible and Klusons are great. I just like the feel of the Klusons more (and the look) and also it usually stays in tune better. I put the same strings, bridge, & tailpiece on my ES-335 once and the Klusons stayed in tune better than the Grovers. So yeah. Anyway, the pots and wiring are more than likely original and as well as the pickups.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

I think there is an important point to consider (and often ignored because ppl insist it's the pickups they want to change). What amp/ effects are you using? How much pre-amp saturation do you want? Are you using digital units?

For example, when I play through my Marshalls, older Fenders and Oranges, I'd go for hotter pickups if I need to drive the front end a bit more, but didn't want to put a booster pedal in front. This is more for classic and maybe some hard rock type sounds. But if you want a metal tone with good tight bottom end, nice chug, tons of gain - then it actually starts to matter less because you would first and foremost need your amp to be able to do that. Everything from a 5150 and beyond typically has high/low outputs, tons of gain, wide EQ controls, presence, resonance etc... the works. With those controls, you should be able to dial-in a strat to chug too (but of course you'd get 60 cycle hum). So if you're running anything like a modern high gain amp, you'd probably not need to swap pickups and jsut need to play around with the EQ and settings a bit.

Because of the way modern amp rigs are nowadays, that's why a lot of companies are going back to using lower output pickups. particularly if you run multi-channel amps because when switching to clean, you can always add gain via the amp/pedals, but if your pickups are pushign the front end too hard, it's more of a hassle to dial it away.

 

[JamesStrawberry]

my amp is a Marshall MG-15FX. So it has built-in effects. I use Octave & Reverb most of the time. More so Reverb. I almost always use clean (as my amp literally turns into a static festival if I use any of the "OD" options) Sometimes use "crunch". Gain is always 5 otherwise it gives an insane amount of feedback. Bass - 5, Mids - 10, Treble - 10. Tone knobs on guitar - 10. Reverb - 100. Volume on the amp - 10. I have no pedals nor any interest in any pedals besides a trem pedal (for the Rumble sound at the end of the song where it goes in and out). I am still looking for a trem pedal so yeah. I've used Marshall amps for my entire 10 years of guitar playing. Also, I have looked into my model a bit more, and have determined it is more than likely an Epiphone SG '61 reissue. But for the sound, I need a hotter pickup from what I'm understanding from that comment. if you could recommend a good one please tell me - my amp is very weird but more than likely it's how the settings are on why it's like how it is under some channels. it is a quad-channel amp. Clean, Crunch, OD-01, OD-02. the two OD ones turn all static, which is a bit weird.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

I see. if gain at 5 is giving you a lot of feedback on the crunch channel, it could be a multitude of things including maybe microphonic pickups. Is the feedback like some high pitched squealing that goes out of control when your volume is up? Or is it only feeding back when your hands are off the strings?

A hotter pickup will help with pushing your crunch channel a bit, but it's probably not going to give you THAT much more. Now, I'm just assuming - but if you do have microphonic pickups what getting hotter pickups (or any new pickups for that matter) that are properly potted MAY let you do is crank the crunch channel so you get enough distortion to your liking. That would be one way of doing it. Getting hotter pickups will also push your crunch channel a bit more too (but then that brings into question why not try to fix the OD channel - assuming it's still fixable). Have you tried cleaning out the channel switches with some contact cleaner? Sometimes it's just a few bad contacts causing static.

Seymour Duncans have a very wide range of pickups that can achieve that - including classics like the JB, Distortion, Invader etc... more modern takes like the Nazgul, Pegasus, Holcomb and then you have stuff like the Dimebucker - common denominator is that they're hot.

Dimarzio offers a whole variety as well, including the infamous Super Distortion or something crazy like the X2Ns.

 

[JamesStrawberry]

High-pitched squealing - I can stop it by killing the gain down to 1 or 2 and turning down the volume intensely.

The amp is completely new, so more than likely it was some kind of manufacturing defect (if it is). The only problem is, it's a trade-in product, meaning according to the store I go to's policy, it cannot be returned or exchanged. Trade-ins from both sides are non-reversible. If I had to guess gain is too high. The OD channels do the same thing with every guitar, so it's most likely the amp. I haven't tried readjusting the settings and given it's now almost 8 pm I'm not gonna do it right now, but tomorrow I will test changing the gain for the OD channels. I've always noticed Marshall amps go well with my Epiphones, which is why I continue to use them.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

High-pitched squealing - I can stop it by killing the gain down to 1 or 2 and turning down the volume intensely.

The amp is completely new, so more than likely it was some kind of manufacturing defect (if it is). The only problem is, it's a trade-in product, meaning according to the store I go to's policy, it cannot be returned or exchanged. Trade-ins from both sides are non-reversible. If I had to guess gain is too high. The OD channels do the same thing with every guitar, so it's most likely the amp. I haven't tried readjusting the settings and given it's now almost 8 pm I'm not gonna do it right now, but tomorrow I will test changing the gain for the OD channels. I've always noticed Marshall amps go well with my Epiphones, which is why I continue to use them.

Uncontrollable high-pitched squealing means your pickups are likely microphonic. So new pickups will definitely help (or you could pot them yourself if you want to foray down that route). If you do go down the route of getting new pickups, what's your budget?

If the OD channels are static-y, at least this happened a bit for my JCM 2000 as well, you could try sliding the amp out of the enclosure and giving the switches a good spray of contact cleaner. It's just that sometimes these things get dirty in shipping and what not and it happens (especially since it's a trade in product). The gain shouldn't be giving you static even at 10 (but the other problem is that you've got microphonic pickups). If the switching is working and you're getting signal on these solid state PCB amps, its usually either a loose connection or it's just dirty and needs cleaning. They're usually built like a tank and don't fail that easily.

 

[grinwer]

my amp is a Marshall MG-15FX. .... Mids - 10, Treble - 10. Tone knobs on guitar - 10. Reverb - 100. Volume on the amp - 10.

Problem with pickups? Are you sure?

 

[Norton]

dimarzio super distortion = hard rocking tone. and they sound surprisingly good clean too.

 

[Paulbf70]

I have an Epiphone SG - I want to put Seymour Duncan's high voltage humbuckers in it... anyone who bought these - are they good? Do they sound good? If you can could someone provide a video of how they sound? Thank you. https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/high-voltage

I have just had some Wilkinson hight output pups put into my SG and they sound awesome, the lad who did the wiring for me had a set of Seymour Duncan's in his Les Paul, and to be honest the Wilkinson's sounded better, they seamed to alot more sustainability, the lad did my guitar was extremely impressed with the pups, he even commented about how good they were, and said I bet they cost a small fortune, and when I showed him how much I paid he nearly fell on the floor, his words were "next time I do a build I'm going get some of those I'm very impressed with them"

 

[JamesStrawberry]

Uncontrollable high-pitched squealing means your pickups are likely microphonic. So new pickups will definitely help (or you could pot them yourself if you want to foray down that route). If you do go down the route of getting new pickups, what's your budget?

If the OD channels are static-y, at least this happened a bit for my JCM 2000 as well, you could try sliding the amp out of the enclosure and giving the switches a good spray of contact cleaner. It's just that sometimes these things get dirty in shipping and what not and it happens (especially since it's a trade in product). The gain shouldn't be giving you static even at 10 (but the other problem is that you've got microphonic pickups). If the switching is working and you're getting signal on these solid state PCB amps, its usually either a loose connection or it's just dirty and needs cleaning. They're usually built like a tank and don't fail that easily.

I have no budget unless it exceeds 400. My guitar is only worth $500 on the used market so I'm not going all out. Pickups will improve the value a little. Not too much. Eventually one day I'll sell it as a heavily modified Epiphone SG '61 Reissue.

 

[JamesStrawberry]

Uncontrollable high-pitched squealing means your pickups are likely microphonic. So new pickups will definitely help (or you could pot them yourself if you want to foray down that route). If you do go down the route of getting new pickups, what's your budget?

If the OD channels are static-y, at least this happened a bit for my JCM 2000 as well, you could try sliding the amp out of the enclosure and giving the switches a good spray of contact cleaner. It's just that sometimes these things get dirty in shipping and what not and it happens (especially since it's a trade in product). The gain shouldn't be giving you static even at 10 (but the other problem is that you've got microphonic pickups). If the switching is working and you're getting signal on these solid state PCB amps, its usually either a loose connection or it's just dirty and needs cleaning. They're usually built like a tank and don't fail that easily.

ok, quick edit: I dunno why but I moved the plug to the direct wall outlet instead of an outlet extender and the issue is pretty much gone - you can still hear some static but it goes away when you start playing unless your really quiet and you'll still hear it while playing. The amp is quite weird - it was bought new from a trade-in, basically I traded in 3 amps & 1 guitar for a $230 amp. The guitar was a Squier Affinity Strat, and the three amps were a Marshall MG-10, Orange Crush25, & Esteban G-10. The reason I needed these 4 items for 1 item was that they didn't want any of these. The only way they would accept them was for the trade-in. And the Esteban was just donated to a school so yeah. I asked the saleswoman to donate it to a school for me as I don't know any music schools I could donate it to. They weren't interested in the Squier or the Marshall. Only the Orange. so yeah I had quite a bit for 1 item. And since it was involved in the trade-in, I cannot return it nor take back the items I traded for it. Just how the store policy works. But given I was able to somewhat fix the issue with this pretty simple fix maybe it's just something dirty in the amp. I don't use OD channels much anyway but I like knowing they are there.

About the squealing - I've never seen a guitar do that. And it doesn't do it on every amp either. But most amps I use it ends up happening. Usually leading to the employees shutting off the amp. Also this whole time I haven't understood "microphonic" until just looking it up right now - yeah more than likely that's the issue. Anything $400 or below is fine for pickups, I just really want something that works and has a nice hard rocking tone to it. I initially thought "microphonic" was some type of pickup that is based on a humbucker, but now I think it should've been pretty obvious that it starts acting like a microphone instead of a pickup. So if I'm understanding this right as well, are acoustic guitar pickups also microphonic?

 

[Noodling Guitars]

ok, quick edit: I dunno why but I moved the plug to the direct wall outlet instead of an outlet extender and the issue is pretty much gone - you can still hear some static but it goes away when you start playing unless your really quiet and you'll still hear it while playing. The amp is quite weird - it was bought new from a trade-in, basically I traded in 3 amps & 1 guitar for a $230 amp. The guitar was a Squier Affinity Strat, and the three amps were a Marshall MG-10, Orange Crush25, & Esteban G-10. The reason I needed these 4 items for 1 item was that they didn't want any of these. The only way they would accept them was for the trade-in. And the Esteban was just donated to a school so yeah. I asked the saleswoman to donate it to a school for me as I don't know any music schools I could donate it to. They weren't interested in the Squier or the Marshall. Only the Orange. so yeah I had quite a bit for 1 item. And since it was involved in the trade-in, I cannot return it nor take back the items I traded for it. Just how the store policy works. But given I was able to somewhat fix the issue with this pretty simple fix maybe it's just something dirty in the amp. I don't use OD channels much anyway but I like knowing they are there.

Oh hmrm.. it almost sounds like a grounding issue. When you say "static" is it more like a hum than crackling/fizz/popping? (might help if you have a sound clip). But if plugging it in directly solved your issue, I'd almost just leave it at that! It was broke, now fixed. Now it ain't broke, so no need to fix

About the squealing - I've never seen a guitar do that. And it doesn't do it on every amp either. But most amps I use it ends up happening. Usually leading to the employees shutting off the amp. Also this whole time I haven't understood "microphonic" until just looking it up right now - yeah more than likely that's the issue. Anything $400 or below is fine for pickups, I just really want something that works and has a nice hard rocking tone to it. I initially thought "microphonic" was some type of pickup that is based on a humbucker, but now I think it should've been pretty obvious that it starts acting like a microphone instead of a pickup. So if I'm understanding this right as well, are acoustic guitar pickups also microphonic?

Acoustic guitar pickups are very much prone to feedback. This is because of the way it is mounted and how acoustics generate sound. The whole pickup is vibrating with the soundboard.

For solid body electric guitars, in particular humbuckers like the ones you have in your SG, is usually because the windings in the pickup or the parts holding the pickup together come loose.
You don't have to spend time doing this, but if you want to learn more, search up "wax potting pickups" on YouTube and that should explain everything for you.


$400 is a HUGE budget for pickups - that can get you a brand new guitar these days. Most pickups that you can buy will at most run between $20 (less reputable brands, internet based sales) to $150 (name brands, even some boutique stuff) a piece.

The Super Distortions that Norton mentioned run at $90 a piece directly off their website:

Super Distortion® | DiMarzio

This pickup started a sound revolution. Replacement pickups simply didn’t exist before the invention of the Super Distortion® in the early Seventies. The Super Distortion® (and its original 3-conductor version, the Dual Sound®) was the first pickup specifically designed to kick a tube amp into...

www.dimarzio.com

A full set of Wilkinsons like what Paulbf70 mentioned won't set you back more than $50-60 for an entire set.

If you search up Guitar Madness or Guitarfetish, those dealers will also sell all kinds of pickup sets for under $50 a set - you might even want to buy a couple different sets to experiment with.

I'd probably go for the less brand name pickups and put some of that money away into an amp fund.

 

[JamesStrawberry]

Ok so this is what I've selected to do: https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/high-power/super-distortion
Putting on a nickel cover stock brings the price to $106. Now I am curious, do they come in a set automatically or..? Cause from Seymour Duncan's website you have to select bridge, neck, or set,