Probucker Pickups on ebay from Asia - Legit?

[AJ6stringsting]

To me, brand name, price , origin of musical products don't matter to me .... All that matters is performance, tone and reliability.

China, Germany , UK , France and other countries are making magnificent musical gear and accessories.

I forgot the name of the pickups, they were of Italian origin.
The Pickup was heavenly, mean and aggressive, when on ten ; it was Metal to the bone, roll the volume knob to 6 and half ....you got that classic Paul Kossof tone.

Good tone, knows no borders !!!!

 

[BGood]

To me, brand name, price , origin of musical products don't matter to me .... All that matters is performance, tone and reliability.

China, Germany , UK , France and other countries are making magnificent musical gear and accessories.

I'm with you, but I need to know what I'm buying. I know real Probuckers are more than likely made in China. If I buy a legit set, I know what I'm getting. If I buy a fake copy, it's a toss of a coin.

 

[Raiyn]

I'm with you, but I need to know what I'm buying. I know real Probuckers are more than likely made in China. If I buy a legit set, I know what I'm getting. If I buy a fake copy, it's a toss of a coin.

Agreed. I've bought and or encountered cheap pickups with varying results. GFS / Artec come to mind straight away as does Dragonfire, but I don't want to buy a brand name pickup and get a Chinesium copy. Put your own name on the pickup or sell through a GFS type outfit.

 

[AJ6stringsting]

I have had incredibly great luck with Dragon Fire pickups, they were well wax potted and gave me great tone like my Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Carvin, Bill Lawrence or Bare Knuckle pickups.

 

[Keefoman]

If the Probucker was such a great pickup, it would be officially released for sale without a guitar attached to it.

 

[BGood]

If the Probucker was such a great pickup, it would be officially released for sale without a guitar attached to it.

Not real hard to type Epiphone Probucker and find this : https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-and-Electronics/IEPB

 

[Keefoman]

Not real hard to type Epiphone Probucker and find this : https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-and-Electronics/IEPB

So they do sell them now. Good!

 

[BGood]

So they do sell them now. Good!

Been out of stock for I don't know how long though ...

 

[Raiyn]

Not real hard to type Epiphone Probucker and find this : https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-and-Electronics/IEPB

The whole operation seems to be out of stock.

I was going to look at their shipping prices, but considering it really isn't that much more for a Switchcraft shipped and delivered in two days...

I think I'll keep on keeping on, even if it means I gotta break out the reamer once in a while to install one for someone.

 

[Antigua]

FYI, I bought some ProBuckers on AliExpress to see if they were the same thing as what come in Epiphone guitars, they are not. The covers are brass, not nickel silver, and the spacer within the pickup is plastic instead of wood. The spacer doesn't matter, but finding that the cover is not nickel silver was a real disappointment.

The price might have seemed too good to be true, but AliExpress does some quality stuff for shockingly low prices, it's hit or miss.

It's been said that Epiphones were being counterfeited, which was a little funny because Epiphone is itself the "copy" of the more premium Gibson brand, but nevertheless Epiphone has a lot of brand appeal, and sadly I suspect these degraded ProBucker imitations are probably used in those counterfeits.

The look so alike that I'm not sure they can always be told apart, the only difference I can see is that the fakes have a rougher looking part tag, and use less solder to hold the cover in place. They're so alike that it makes me wonder if they're made in the same factory. They might not even technically be counterfeit, but rather a degraded version of the real thing. Under the cover, the pickup looks fine, it has a real AlNiCo magnet, so if you're shopping for an uncovered humbucker, they're just fine, quality wise. The brass cover is the only real shortcoming, as it shaves off about 2 to 3dB of treble in the 2kHz range.

 

[BGood]

It's been said that Epiphones were being counterfeited, which was a little funny because Epiphone is itself the "copy" of the more premium Gibson brand, but nevertheless Epiphone has a lot of brand appeal, and sadly I suspect these degraded ProBucker imitations are probably used in those counterfeits.

Epiphone are built under Gibson license. They are Les Paul if Gibson says they are.

As for Probuckers in fake Epiphone, I'd doubt it. Most fakes were made some years before the Probucker was introduced. I haven't seen recent fakes.

 

[Raiyn]

Epiphone is itself the "copy" of the more premium Gibson brand,

Epiphone are built under Gibson license. They are Les Paul if Gibson says they are.

They're the same company.

Just like Chevy and Cadillac are both GM.

 

[Antigua]

Epiphone are built under Gibson license. They are Les Paul if Gibson says they are.

As for Probuckers in fake Epiphone, I'd doubt it. Most fakes were made some years before the Probucker was introduced. I haven't seen recent fakes.

Probuckers havewood spacers where as these have plastic, and I have testing equipment to verify if covers are brass or nickel silver. The Joe Bonamassa authentic pickups have nickel silver gold covers, and the AliExpress ones for sure are brass. They can be told apart because brass is of higher electrical conductivity than nickel silver. But it is strange, they come with the correct molex connectors and you can even buy the wiring harnesses. I tried to compare with what is shown on epiphone.com https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-And-Electronics , but it's giving a 500 error.

 

[BGood]

I tried to compare with what is shown on epiphone.com https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-And-Electronics , but it's giving a 500 error.

Strange, it was working earlier in the day. Maybe tomorrow ?

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Probuckers havewood spacers where as these have plastic, and I have testing equipment to verify if covers are brass or nickel silver. The Joe Bonamassa authentic pickups have nickel silver gold covers, and the AliExpress ones for sure are brass. They can be told apart because brass is of higher electrical conductivity than nickel silver. But it is strange, they come with the correct molex connectors and you can even buy the wiring harnesses. I tried to compare with what is shown on epiphone.com https://www.epiphone.com/Gear/Pickups-And-Electronics , but it's giving a 500 error.

Could be just the OEM using parts here and there to put together stuff and dumping them on Aliexpress - so what you end up with is probably a bunch of random 5000 wind bobbins (which they probably pump 1000s out each day), baseplates, screws etc they probably just have so many around that there's no need to "degrade" those, but I bet even the spacers, you'd have ones with plastic and ones with wood randomly. I guess what you end up with is probably a range of probucker objects that can sound something like an Alnico Classic to Probucker to stock [put random import brand here] and everything in between. i"m sure they're functional and could sound decent. just that they're not the actual ones Epiphone puts in their guitars. kinda like how toy OEMs dump "loose" figures on e-bay and/or aliexpress

 

[BGood]

Could be just the OEM using parts here and there to put together stuff and dumping them on Aliexpress - so what you end up with is probably a bunch of random 5000 wind bobbins (which they probably pump 1000s out each day), baseplates, screws etc they probably just have so many around that there's no need to "degrade" those, but I bet even the spacers, you'd have ones with plastic and ones with wood randomly. I guess what you end up with is probably a range of probucker objects that can sound something like an Alnico Classic to Probucker to stock [put random import brand here] and everything in between. i"m sure they're functional and could sound decent. just that they're not the actual ones Epiphone puts in their guitars. kinda like how toy OEMs dump "loose" figures on e-bay and/or aliexpress

Still ... Epiphone's official position on all these theories is that they don't sell parts through secondary internet sellers. I can't see why they would feed fakers with overstock parts.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Still ... Epiphone's official position on all these theories is that they don't sell parts through secondary internet sellers. I can't see why they would feed fakers with overstock parts.

It's not Epiphone feeding secondary sellers at all - they would never want to do that. It's most likely the OEM manufacturers doing this (i.e. kind of what G&B was to World Music Instruments, except this same issue doens't really exist in Korea). It's quite common and very hard to enforce when working with Chinese OEMs.. a lot of the companies I have worked with that have operations/ manufacture goods in China have this same issue. Basically, unless it gets to the point where the OEMs are blatantly infringing on intellectual property (and there's good money involved - for example, taking a newly released electronics product and repackaging the technology as another brand and selling it), there really isn't much the client can do. The ebay sellers aren't exactly making millions anyway.

 

[Antigua]

Sorry, I made a big mistake. The pickups I received are "Alnico Classic Pro".

The vendor on AliExpress sells the two side by side as different color options, so I thought I was buying gold "Pro Buckers" but then I received "Pro Alnico Classic" and the labels look almost identical, so didn't realize it until way too late. The brass cover and plastic spacer is consistent with what is expected from "Alnico Classic Pro". I've ordered the correct "Pro Bucker" but it will take another six weeks to arrive. If I could delete all the above I would, it will just serve to confuse anyone who reads that before this.

I though the Alnico Classic would have looked like this:

But it turns out it has the same look as the Pro Bucker label:

I should have paied closed attention to these details but I was so set on the idea that I ordered Probuckers that I didn't give it a thought.

 

[BGood]

Sorry, I made a big mistake. The pickups I received are "Alnico Classic Pro".

The vendor on AliExpress sells the two side by side as different color options, so I thought I was buying gold "Pro Buckers" but then I received "Pro Alnico Classic" and the labels look almost identical, so didn't realize it until way too late. The brass cover and plastic spacer is consistent with what is expected from "Alnico Classic Pro". I've ordered the correct "Pro Bucker" but it will take another six weeks to arrive. If I could delete all the above I would, it will just serve to confuse anyone who reads that before this.

I though the Alnico Classic would have looked like this:

But it turns out it has the same look as the Pro Bucker label:

I should have paied closed attention to these details but I was so set on the idea that I ordered Probuckers that I didn't give it a thought.

I'd bet you anything they're the exact same pickups with different stickers on them.

 

[Raiyn]

I've never put Epiphone pickups into anything. They've either been swapped out and given back to the owner, or left in place with their controls swapped for inch spec stuff. I will note that the latter is less frequent on the newer guitars.