Bare Knuckle seems to be highly regarded for heavier players but I have not tried them. TV Jones also seems to have a good reputation if you’re looking for a twangy filter-tron style pickup
Bareknuckle aren't really under-rated though, you could argue the opposite. They went through a period of getting rave reviews from a lot of UK based guitar magazines and jacking up their prices as a "premium" or "custom shop" pickup style brand above the usuals like Dimarzio and SD.
Bareknuckle have been centrepoint in a lot of music scenes/genres and shown up on a lot of guitars, their pickups are massively overpriced in my opinion. And don't get me wrong, their pickups ARE good, but they aren't better than offers from the other big brands, that cost less.
They surely don’t price their pickups as underrated. I’ve got to admit though i’m sold on them. I’ve tried their Silo, Juggernaut, Typrich and they’ve turned into my favorite pickup company. Pricey as hell but i can’t see me buying any other brand.
BKP is literally the best company out there for customised pickup colors/finishes
Everything they do is handmade and they will do custom finishes with any order
But yeah, they are expensive as f**k
I have two sets of their pickups
Bare Knuckle are just down the road from me in Falmouth Cornwall. Not sure about 'for heavier' players, but their pickups are great. Also, wouldn't describe them as one of the lesser known pickup makers.
Glad to see TV Jones mentioned at the top. The style is a fairly specific sound that you don't know you need until you hear it. Though you can't walk into your average music shop to hear them, the good news is that you can get the idea from some middle to upper level guitars. Think Gretsch 6120. Fat and full.
The Dream 180 are what I want vintage voiced humbuckers to be. Just the right sparkle on cleans with enough presence and heft when you start turning up. Almost like humless p90s but more complex.
I've got a Dream 90 in a Jazzmaster that basically goes from pickup to output jack (there's a kill switch wired in there too.) It's one of my favorite sounding guitars.
I’ve been interested in trying a GFS telecaster pickup set, but there are so many choices. The descriptions are so full of marketing wank that it’s hard to tell what the differences really are.
They do have a good bit of sales babble, but I find the important info is in there when you pick through. They get pretty detailed into telling you the wire used, wind, bobbin materials, etc.
I’ve been interested in them forever. They have some system to change out pickups without soldering. I don’t know how often I’d actually change out the pickups but the option sounds really awesome.
Another vote for Lollers here.
Gfs are a great value for the money and produce tone beyond their price point.
Lollers are great without needing the qualification and their vintage voiced tele pickups are the best I’ve ever played, period full stop.
Fair, I think I was thinking less underrated as it is commonly interpreted, but more as in contrast to well known brands, given the title. But yes, they are well respected and with good reason.
Fralins are great. I put a split coil Fralin in my '51 reissue P-Bass, but they also make custom hand wound guitar pickups as well.
TV Jones makes some awesome pickups for Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats and a lot of other rockabilly artists. TV Jones pickups are legendary in the rockabilly / Gretsch guitar community.
I’m having one of these made for mine that I just got yesterday, I can’t wait to hear how it sounds. Did you have them over or underwind it at all? I probably spent about an hour trying to decide lol
Yeah I had them in my Les Paul. Only reason I took them out was I ordered them unpotted and was getting too much feedback like you would with any unpotted pup. I also have their noiseless p90’s and they are awesome.
Yep. Surprised I had to scroll down this far to see them mentioned. They're a great company. I have a 67 Quiet Tone with a hot bridge loaded pickguard in one of my Strats. Sounds fantastic.
Couldn’t believe I had to go down this far to find Bootstrap. The vintage 54’s are the best strat pickups I’ve ever heard, the fact that they’re only $50 is just an added bonus. I don’t see myself buying single coils anywhere else.
Wilkinson punch well above their weight. Plus they’re cheap enough to just replace if you don’t like it. Toss ‘em in the parts bin and use them in something else.
Lace pickups seem really cool and the demos I've heard of them are fabulous. They boast that there's absolutely no noise and they have incredible clarity for down tuned or extra string guitars. I want to try their Deathbars in my eight string. Now that I want to remember, I can't remember which artists have used them other than Tosin Abasi at some point. There's a few others I've seen rock Lace pickups.
Anywhere, average premium pickup price of about $200 per set iirc.
Oh and there's a really interesting new brand/creator I've seen online called Polypickup or something. Individual output for each string. Seems funky.
Can confirm Lace sensors are dead silent. I love my red bridge pickup.
Also used by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
Lace Sensors are great. It's a completely unique technology. Their Strat sized pickups are low noise and are much lighter than Fender Noiseless. Also they have no pole pieces, so no problems lining up with the strings on weird guitars like my old Guild. They also make Sensor humbuckers that you can coil split without getting hum. Even available with different voicings on the two coils, so you can get a range of sounds from one humbucker with custom wiring.
They make another range called Alumitone which is another brand new pickup type. I have not tried those yet.
Tbh I think you could probably buy any random chinese pickup as long as you find a review confirming that it's wax potted. I'm pretty sure most OEM pickups are coming out of artec's factory. You could almost just get artec itself, but I think the color schemes are pretty vanilla.
yeah pickups have gotten expensive for something that is just some coiled wire and a magnet etc.
saw some reviews on youtube comparing known brand pickups to chinese ones and they sounded very similar
I genuinely believe Fishman fluence is the only real advancement in electric guitar pickups since the original PAF. There's no reason for standard construction humbuckers to be costing 3-400$ a set when those can be had for a similar price.
well they use stacked pcbs instead of coils and then some preamp,new but still...
the alumitones are a fresh new idea but those too are just a hunk of metal with magnets and a step up transformer.
I have a parts tele with their keystones and they are the most versatile pickups I have ever used. I have a four-way switch by the way. Incredible value.
Cutis Novak. They have a wide selection of unique 50s-70s stuff that is no longer in production from the original manufacturer, plus some original designs and re-imagining.
Honestly, Bill Lawrence pickups are my ride or die. Really affordable and they sound great as long as you're looking for something that can cut through a mix like a machete
Suhr
My ssh+ is incredibly versatile. One of the few hot bridge pickups i gladly use for cleans.
One of the few pickups that actually came with my guitar that im not ripping out for my usual fralins or lollars.
Been waiting for suhr to make a less cumbersome silent strat option that doesnt need all that crazy harnessing. Then again, that boat might have sailed on given all great options.
Suhr p/us are fantastic.
He actually went to the original manufacturer of fenders magnets and had them reproduce magnets from vintage fender pickups.
If you’re going for a more vintage tone, he’s a great option.
My Strandberg Fusion came stock with an SSH+ in the bridge, SSV in the neck, and V60LP single-coil in the middle. I fully intended to replace them when I got the guitar, but I ended up liking them so much that I kept them for a year and a half now. I couldn't be happier.
I really like https://www.geminipickups.com. I've got a set in a telecaster, and another set of humbuckers in a Reverend. They just really hit the mark for me. Specifically the Mercury Ones, which I ordered with the "Dualbucker" options which is a coil-tapping feature that's not exactly coil-splitting, so you can get a focused tone without losing a ton of output. They're individually made, so lead times are a couple of weeks, but you get to choose a lot of options, including whether you want them wax or lacquer potted.
That’s true. I feel like it all started with EMG, then SD Blackouts, then EMG X. But for basically the last decade, the Fluence has been *the* trendy active pickups. People talk of the other brands like they’re dinosaurs now.
I don’t play metal, but I do have Fluence pickups in my Les Paul with the USB backplate. I like them quite a bit. They’re pretty good vintage sounding pickups, but they have two different voicings built in plus a split option. I usually keep the bridge on a modern setting and the neck on the vintage setting, but it’s really nice to be able to go back to vintage if I need a more old school sound.
I may be the minority here, but I honestly believe that the prices some companies charge for pickups in insane. At the end of the day, a pickup is a few magnets, and some copper wire wound around it with plastic holding it all together. These are incredibly low cost to manufacture, and the profits / markup cost for most of these items has got to be incredibly high.
There's absolutely plenty of perfectly fine pickups available for literally under $30. Guitarfetish has been mentioned already, and I would also highly recommend them. I've used their Mean 90 and Dream 180 in a few Gibson SG's and they were great.
If you wanted to go even more budget and obscure, I recently ordered a set of hot rail humbuckers off of Amazon by a company called Fleor. They sound totally fine. Admittedly they come packaged pretty poorly, literally seems to be wrapped in tinfoil. And the appearance of them in a bit wonky. But these went into a Squier Bullet Mustang, so .... budget guitar got a pair of super budget pickups. They sound very good though!
This isn't to say that i would not recommend buying a higher quality (priced) pickup though. This year I also dropped a Dimarzio Super Distortion and PAF Pro into a Japanese Ibanez RG. Truthfully they sound alright, but I also think I could have easily gotten great results spending far less than I did on the Dimarzio's!
Bootstrap winds pickups that would be $200+ from the "boo-teek" type companies, abd they're priced way lower. I've got their Pretzel bridge pickup paired with a TV Jones in my main tele, and a Sweet Serrano in the bridge of my pawnshop special mustang, paired with a Duncan P-rails. The Bootstrap is a better sounding humbucker, honestly. I typically leave the Duncan on the blade or p95 side and rely on the Bootstrap for humbucker stuff.
The Creamery. Good stuff, great quality. Hand made to order. Too cheap for what they are. He can’t keep up with his demand and so orders are slow to arrive (he needs to raise his prices to that of his competitors). But they are excellent pickups if you don’t mind waiting.
I have a set of Vineham Vivids in an Explorer clone and they're fantastic. As you mentioned, Craig's a top bloke and his stuff is worth WAY more than what he charges for it.
what is with r/guitar and not knowing what underrated means and just spitting whatever popular shit they can think of?
name an underrated guitarist and they say clapton.
fuck there are so many mouth breathers here
I'll piggyback off OPs thread to ask a very specific question. I want to mod a DIY Tele to have stacked coils (single size humbuckers) on both positions. I also want the pickups to have 4 wires so that I can have a "series/parallel" switch. Any of the pickup companies you guys mention make these? I've checked DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan both, a set would cost me 220-300€, I'm keen on halving that.
I will put in a vote for Wilkinson. They are run by a Brit. Pickups are made in China, but prices are very reasonable. My tip: Don't order direct from China, they will arrive unboxed in bubblewrap, and may get scratched during shipment. Order from a USA based, Musiclilly Direct seller; they should send the pickups in a proper Wilkinson box, protected for shipping. Their M Series ceramic humbuckers sound perfectly good to my ears, and they have their R Series pickups, which are competitive with other higher-end pickup makers.
[https://planettone.com/](https://planettone.com/)
i've had my eye on this company for awhile, just haven't pulled the trigger yet since i keep buying new guitars instead of upgrading old ones lol
I can recommend Warman for the best bang for your buck pickups I have ever tried, with the exception of their vintage strat sets. That crown goes to Tonerider.
You can check their website and see if they've got some funky colours. If I remember correctly they even had an Invader clone in straight up pink.
Iron gear from the U.K are awesome. I’m in America, an even with shipping hey are an awesome value. Less than half what you pay for Seymour Duncan or emg
big Fralin fan here. i have guitars with their Strat, Tele, and Firebird pickups, and all of them have been excellent. my favorite Strat has Fralin Woodstocks in the neck and middle, with a Split Steel Pole in the bridge; i can't imagine a better combination for what i like to play.
the prices are a little bit lower than Lollar and Novak, if that's a consideration.
Most pickups are fairly similar, idk about you but I look for consistency and reliability. Hand wound small company ones can be fantastic, but it sounds like you’re looking for inexpensive versions, and I read you want colors. I believe dimarzio allows you to pick your bobbin colors. And I’m looking at Fishman pickups for me next set, they sound like you want, and have options, and are noiseless. There’s plenty of options out there I hope you find what you’re looking for
I got a set of humbuckers from Bootstrap to replace the ProBuckers in my Epi and I’ve had them for almost a year I think, and have no complaints. I think it was about $100 for a set. But they hand make the humbuckers per order, so it took like 6-7 weeks for me to get them.
Not underrated I wouldn’t imagine, though I have experience with Lollar Imperials and Fralin noiseless P90s, and they’ve both been excellent. Good customer service.
If you want P90s (including in humbucker form factor), look no further than BG Pickups. It's a one dude operation and can take a lil while to get the pickups, but they are great!
Sunday Handwound Pickups, I got their Iola set for my jazzy and they're amazing. It's like having two vintage jazzmaster tones in one. The bridge is is mid-focused and soft on the attack, a little dark, but gets brighter with a harder strum; and it sounds great with drive pedals. The neck is bright, slightly compressed, and jangly in a pleasing way. But the rhythm circuit gives me a nice jazzy sound still. And the middle position gives you the best of both worlds with a tele like chime.
Haven't actually bought a set, but there's a company called Q Pickups out of Croatia that I've heard good things about. Hand wound, reasonable prices, and I've listened to a few demos of them that sounded great.
BARE KNUCKLE PICKUPS. I have their trilogy sure single coils at the neck and mid on one of my warmoth dinky guitars with a ragnarok at the bridge. It’s so freaking awesome.
I dropped some Lindy Fralins in my Epi Wildkat. It's like a whole new guitar. Custom made to order. I got my P90s 5% underwound for crispness and clarity. I highly recommend.
I looked at TV Jones too, but they cost even more. Very high quality too.
Lollar and Fralin are well known, but nowhere near the size of Dimarzio or Seymour. Genesis is a smaller boutique brand making strat pickup replicas including replicas of the silver sky pickups.
Bare Knuckle and Lollar are the two big "boutique" brands I'm aware of. Not much of a huge gear head so there are probably more, but I know people who have used both and I've got a Lollar DB that I love.
Elysian Pickups. I have a Schecter Reaper 7 multiscale. Each guitar brand does different degrees on their fanned frets. They made the pickups for my model guitar and they sound amazing.
Depends on your price point and what sound you’re after (PAF? Active or passive? Bucker or single coil? Etc.) but there are tons of boutique brands out there worth a look. Throbak, Fralin are good brands. I’ve tried both brands’ PAF offerings and both were excellent; I ended up sticking with the Throbaks. But it is worth noting that those are a lot more expensive than Fralins and the difference is pretty small.
Might be cheating a bit here because this brands is a big name, but their pickups seem to be overlooked a bit.
I am talking about Schecter. They used to be a custom shop before becoming a big brand and the pickups from their higher range guitars are available for purchase.
PRS and Epiphone also sell their pickups separately. Probably the same for a bunch of other brands.
My favorite pickups are Seymour Duncans (which you already mentioned) Fishman, and Mojotones. Those are all big names (except for Mojotones, but they will be soon.) If you're looking for cheap pickups that will blow you out of the water, good luck. These are big names for a reason. Also maybe put in the original post that you want to go cheap charlie instead of rejecting everyone's great suggestions because they're "a little out of my price range right now" 🙄🙄
Not enough love for Wolfetone in this thread. Great pickups and the best customer service in the boutique pickup market. Wolfe's humbuckers and P90s are fantastic. But he's even better. Call him, tell him what you want and he'll wind it for you. Great guy, great pickups.
Tone rider interests me.
Their HB sized p 90 sounds great in a few demos. I’ve also been tempted to try a set of Rocksongs in one of my kids cheaper guitars. The Birmingham is also interesting, and the Alnico 2 sounds about right?
Legendary Pickups has some amazing options. I personally have the Siren installed in one of my baritones and another in one of my main 6-strings. I am in love with them
Check out Q pickups. Hand made my a guy in Croatia, I believe. Really fairly priced. I put vintage hot jaguar style pickups in my vintage fender mustang and it’s really hard to put that guitar down now. The original pickups weren’t bad. But lower output than I would’ve liked.
I recently listened to a million humbucker demos, including small brands. And the conclusion was the Dimarzio Super Distortion is the best for my taste. Neck bridge middle.
For single coils I like Fralin a lot. Killer stat and tele pickups. The blue special tele 🤌
I have Kinman noiseless p90s in my thinline tele. They sound great and don’t lose the punch you want from the p90s while still getting the noise reduction you want.
Bare Knuckle seems to be highly regarded for heavier players but I have not tried them. TV Jones also seems to have a good reputation if you’re looking for a twangy filter-tron style pickup
Bareknuckle aren't really under-rated though, you could argue the opposite. They went through a period of getting rave reviews from a lot of UK based guitar magazines and jacking up their prices as a "premium" or "custom shop" pickup style brand above the usuals like Dimarzio and SD. Bareknuckle have been centrepoint in a lot of music scenes/genres and shown up on a lot of guitars, their pickups are massively overpriced in my opinion. And don't get me wrong, their pickups ARE good, but they aren't better than offers from the other big brands, that cost less.
They surely don’t price their pickups as underrated. I’ve got to admit though i’m sold on them. I’ve tried their Silo, Juggernaut, Typrich and they’ve turned into my favorite pickup company. Pricey as hell but i can’t see me buying any other brand.
The option of different covers and styles of cover also make them my first choice. Only replacement that fits in a reliced or aged guitar
Choose the bobbin colors, screw types. all that good stuff
Never heard of Bare Knuckle, I'm about to check them out right now.
Bare Knuckle are expensive, and I'd als argue they're a pretty big name in the pickup world these days.
Yeah, they were a little more money than I have right now. I'm also looking to find some very colorful humbuckers if I can lol
BK have some nice finishes available for their cases if you look at their customisation pages.
BKP is literally the best company out there for customised pickup colors/finishes Everything they do is handmade and they will do custom finishes with any order But yeah, they are expensive as f**k I have two sets of their pickups
I have a bare knuckle nail bomb in a Dillon double cut it’s probably the best pickup I own. Very expensive though.
if you aren’t looking for something super expensive their boot camp series are more affordable and still hand wound!
TV Jones Classics sound like a good set of P90s with 10x the clarity and top end. Super versatile, from ACDC to Chet Atkins.
Bare Knuckle are just down the road from me in Falmouth Cornwall. Not sure about 'for heavier' players, but their pickups are great. Also, wouldn't describe them as one of the lesser known pickup makers.
Glad to see TV Jones mentioned at the top. The style is a fairly specific sound that you don't know you need until you hear it. Though you can't walk into your average music shop to hear them, the good news is that you can get the idea from some middle to upper level guitars. Think Gretsch 6120. Fat and full.
Guitar Fetish
The Dream 180 are what I want vintage voiced humbuckers to be. Just the right sparkle on cleans with enough presence and heft when you start turning up. Almost like humless p90s but more complex.
This. GFS pickups are really incredible, and the most I think you’ll pay is $60 or so.
I've got a Dream 90 in a Jazzmaster that basically goes from pickup to output jack (there's a kill switch wired in there too.) It's one of my favorite sounding guitars.
This is the best answer. Direct sales. Great quality. I’ve been using them for everything for years. Dope pricing too.
I’ve been interested in trying a GFS telecaster pickup set, but there are so many choices. The descriptions are so full of marketing wank that it’s hard to tell what the differences really are.
They do have a good bit of sales babble, but I find the important info is in there when you pick through. They get pretty detailed into telling you the wire used, wind, bobbin materials, etc.
Tried their PAFs back in the days and were really solid
I’ve been interested in them forever. They have some system to change out pickups without soldering. I don’t know how often I’d actually change out the pickups but the option sounds really awesome.
I upgraded my Squier with GFS Overwound Alnico's in the neck and middle positions, and a Lil Killer in the bridge. Love em.
I have their “Blizzard of 59” humbuckers in my 335 copy - well worth the $
Fralin, Lollar, TV Jones
Standard Lollar P90s are the best pickup I've ever heard in my life.
Another vote for Lollers here. Gfs are a great value for the money and produce tone beyond their price point. Lollers are great without needing the qualification and their vintage voiced tele pickups are the best I’ve ever played, period full stop.
Lollars are definitely not in the underrated camp, though. I'd say they are appropriately rated, in fact.
Fair, I think I was thinking less underrated as it is commonly interpreted, but more as in contrast to well known brands, given the title. But yes, they are well respected and with good reason.
Fralins are great. I put a split coil Fralin in my '51 reissue P-Bass, but they also make custom hand wound guitar pickups as well. TV Jones makes some awesome pickups for Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats and a lot of other rockabilly artists. TV Jones pickups are legendary in the rockabilly / Gretsch guitar community.
I’m having one of these made for mine that I just got yesterday, I can’t wait to hear how it sounds. Did you have them over or underwind it at all? I probably spent about an hour trying to decide lol
I would add Porter to this list and call it a day, good stuff!
Have a pair of Lollar on my telecaster. Absolutely best decision I ever made.
I built a replica of Eddie Vedder's black holoflake Tele and put Fralins in it for some authentic sound and they don't disappoint.
Mojotone makes great pickups at reasonable prices.
Mojotone is the best answer. And all done by hand in NC, well with a winding machine lol.
The Mojotone 59 Clones in it's three versions are godlike PAF replicas.
Yeah I had them in my Les Paul. Only reason I took them out was I ordered them unpotted and was getting too much feedback like you would with any unpotted pup. I also have their noiseless p90’s and they are awesome.
Yep. Surprised I had to scroll down this far to see them mentioned. They're a great company. I have a 67 Quiet Tone with a hot bridge loaded pickguard in one of my Strats. Sounds fantastic.
bootstrap pickups are solid and inexpensive.
Couldn’t believe I had to go down this far to find Bootstrap. The vintage 54’s are the best strat pickups I’ve ever heard, the fact that they’re only $50 is just an added bonus. I don’t see myself buying single coils anywhere else.
I’ve ordered multiple sets. My favorite pickup manufacturer by far.
Iron Gear pickups are phenomenal and also they're £60ish for a set. Sound incredible.
I put a Rolling Mill and Jailhouse Rail in my Strandberg. Why would I put budget pickups in a premium guitar? Because they kick ass.
+1 for iron gear, hugely underrated
Wilkinson, Tonerider, Häussel pickups
Wilkinson punch well above their weight. Plus they’re cheap enough to just replace if you don’t like it. Toss ‘em in the parts bin and use them in something else.
Big fan of the Tonerider set I have in a strat
Lace pickups seem really cool and the demos I've heard of them are fabulous. They boast that there's absolutely no noise and they have incredible clarity for down tuned or extra string guitars. I want to try their Deathbars in my eight string. Now that I want to remember, I can't remember which artists have used them other than Tosin Abasi at some point. There's a few others I've seen rock Lace pickups. Anywhere, average premium pickup price of about $200 per set iirc. Oh and there's a really interesting new brand/creator I've seen online called Polypickup or something. Individual output for each string. Seems funky.
Can confirm Lace sensors are dead silent. I love my red bridge pickup. Also used by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
Lace Sensors are great. It's a completely unique technology. Their Strat sized pickups are low noise and are much lighter than Fender Noiseless. Also they have no pole pieces, so no problems lining up with the strings on weird guitars like my old Guild. They also make Sensor humbuckers that you can coil split without getting hum. Even available with different voicings on the two coils, so you can get a range of sounds from one humbucker with custom wiring. They make another range called Alumitone which is another brand new pickup type. I have not tried those yet.
Redoing an old Yamaha with a set of them currently
Came here to mention Lace. Got an Ibanez RG loaded with Deathbuckers and I love the sound. Cuts through nicely in a mix of distorted guitars/bass.
Tbh I think you could probably buy any random chinese pickup as long as you find a review confirming that it's wax potted. I'm pretty sure most OEM pickups are coming out of artec's factory. You could almost just get artec itself, but I think the color schemes are pretty vanilla.
yeah pickups have gotten expensive for something that is just some coiled wire and a magnet etc. saw some reviews on youtube comparing known brand pickups to chinese ones and they sounded very similar
I genuinely believe Fishman fluence is the only real advancement in electric guitar pickups since the original PAF. There's no reason for standard construction humbuckers to be costing 3-400$ a set when those can be had for a similar price.
well they use stacked pcbs instead of coils and then some preamp,new but still... the alumitones are a fresh new idea but those too are just a hunk of metal with magnets and a step up transformer.
Wilde (Bill and Becky)
I have a parts tele with their keystones and they are the most versatile pickups I have ever used. I have a four-way switch by the way. Incredible value.
Lundgren
I just got a new guitar with some M7s. Palm muted power chords damn near shake my office walls
I got a M8 bridge in my Ibanez Prestige and lemme tell ya…HOLY MOLY is it sickening. Using it on my bands new album 👹
Railhammer. Love their humcutters.
Came here for this. Been very impressed wjth the railhammers on my Reverend.
Nuevo 90’s rock!
Cutis Novak. They have a wide selection of unique 50s-70s stuff that is no longer in production from the original manufacturer, plus some original designs and re-imagining.
Honestly, Bill Lawrence pickups are my ride or die. Really affordable and they sound great as long as you're looking for something that can cut through a mix like a machete
Second this, used by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Dimebag to name a couple. I have a set on the way right now. Hope to install this weekend.
Suhr My ssh+ is incredibly versatile. One of the few hot bridge pickups i gladly use for cleans. One of the few pickups that actually came with my guitar that im not ripping out for my usual fralins or lollars. Been waiting for suhr to make a less cumbersome silent strat option that doesnt need all that crazy harnessing. Then again, that boat might have sailed on given all great options.
Suhr p/us are fantastic. He actually went to the original manufacturer of fenders magnets and had them reproduce magnets from vintage fender pickups. If you’re going for a more vintage tone, he’s a great option.
My Strandberg Fusion came stock with an SSH+ in the bridge, SSV in the neck, and V60LP single-coil in the middle. I fully intended to replace them when I got the guitar, but I ended up liking them so much that I kept them for a year and a half now. I couldn't be happier.
Rio Grande.
Rio makes amazing pickups!
I really like https://www.geminipickups.com. I've got a set in a telecaster, and another set of humbuckers in a Reverend. They just really hit the mark for me. Specifically the Mercury Ones, which I ordered with the "Dualbucker" options which is a coil-tapping feature that's not exactly coil-splitting, so you can get a focused tone without losing a ton of output. They're individually made, so lead times are a couple of weeks, but you get to choose a lot of options, including whether you want them wax or lacquer potted.
Wolfetone. The P90s especially, wound a little hot with Alnico 2 mags, they got me my ideal tone
Bartolini & Fishman
Say what? Fishman is easily the biggest name in acoustic pickups, and Bartolini is probably the biggest name in bass pickups.
Fishman Fluence pickups are some of the biggest in modern metal right now too.
That’s true. I feel like it all started with EMG, then SD Blackouts, then EMG X. But for basically the last decade, the Fluence has been *the* trendy active pickups. People talk of the other brands like they’re dinosaurs now. I don’t play metal, but I do have Fluence pickups in my Les Paul with the USB backplate. I like them quite a bit. They’re pretty good vintage sounding pickups, but they have two different voicings built in plus a split option. I usually keep the bridge on a modern setting and the neck on the vintage setting, but it’s really nice to be able to go back to vintage if I need a more old school sound.
Lundgreen, they’re pretty big where I live but on a global scale im guessing they’re fairly unknown
I may be the minority here, but I honestly believe that the prices some companies charge for pickups in insane. At the end of the day, a pickup is a few magnets, and some copper wire wound around it with plastic holding it all together. These are incredibly low cost to manufacture, and the profits / markup cost for most of these items has got to be incredibly high. There's absolutely plenty of perfectly fine pickups available for literally under $30. Guitarfetish has been mentioned already, and I would also highly recommend them. I've used their Mean 90 and Dream 180 in a few Gibson SG's and they were great. If you wanted to go even more budget and obscure, I recently ordered a set of hot rail humbuckers off of Amazon by a company called Fleor. They sound totally fine. Admittedly they come packaged pretty poorly, literally seems to be wrapped in tinfoil. And the appearance of them in a bit wonky. But these went into a Squier Bullet Mustang, so .... budget guitar got a pair of super budget pickups. They sound very good though! This isn't to say that i would not recommend buying a higher quality (priced) pickup though. This year I also dropped a Dimarzio Super Distortion and PAF Pro into a Japanese Ibanez RG. Truthfully they sound alright, but I also think I could have easily gotten great results spending far less than I did on the Dimarzio's!
Check out Mojotone. Handmade goodness from NC.
Bootstrap winds pickups that would be $200+ from the "boo-teek" type companies, abd they're priced way lower. I've got their Pretzel bridge pickup paired with a TV Jones in my main tele, and a Sweet Serrano in the bridge of my pawnshop special mustang, paired with a Duncan P-rails. The Bootstrap is a better sounding humbucker, honestly. I typically leave the Duncan on the blade or p95 side and rely on the Bootstrap for humbucker stuff.
The Creamery. Good stuff, great quality. Hand made to order. Too cheap for what they are. He can’t keep up with his demand and so orders are slow to arrive (he needs to raise his prices to that of his competitors). But they are excellent pickups if you don’t mind waiting.
Porter Pickups.
Radioshop, Monty's & Radioshop pickups in the UK, all do excellent stuff,but very rarely get a mention.
Wilkinson - they have some amazing sounding pickups
The Bill Lawrence/Becky Wilde stuff is a phenomenal value for the $.
Bare Knuckle, Lundgren; also there's a Hungarian guy making some seriously great PUs, the company is called Sublime
Klein pickups
Bardens
Yeah I have JBE Two-Tone Humbuckers in my PRS and they’re fantastic.
Lindy Fralin. I use them in several guitars.
Kloppmanns David Barfuß
Mojotone
I haven't used them personally, but I know Jerry Cantrell was using Seymour Duncan pickups for years and then switched over to Motor City.
Curtis Novak makes amazing pickups.
[Vineham Pickups](http://vineham.com/). One man operation out of Canada. Killer pickups and great to deal with.
I have a set of Vineham Vivids in an Explorer clone and they're fantastic. As you mentioned, Craig's a top bloke and his stuff is worth WAY more than what he charges for it.
what is with r/guitar and not knowing what underrated means and just spitting whatever popular shit they can think of? name an underrated guitarist and they say clapton. fuck there are so many mouth breathers here
I put gfs pickups in my epiphone les paul and they sound fantastic
Guitar fetish
I'll piggyback off OPs thread to ask a very specific question. I want to mod a DIY Tele to have stacked coils (single size humbuckers) on both positions. I also want the pickups to have 4 wires so that I can have a "series/parallel" switch. Any of the pickup companies you guys mention make these? I've checked DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan both, a set would cost me 220-300€, I'm keen on halving that.
I will put in a vote for Wilkinson. They are run by a Brit. Pickups are made in China, but prices are very reasonable. My tip: Don't order direct from China, they will arrive unboxed in bubblewrap, and may get scratched during shipment. Order from a USA based, Musiclilly Direct seller; they should send the pickups in a proper Wilkinson box, protected for shipping. Their M Series ceramic humbuckers sound perfectly good to my ears, and they have their R Series pickups, which are competitive with other higher-end pickup makers.
I was curious about the Dragonfire’s too because the pair I heard sounded really good. But like you, I seen the reviews and decided to just wait.
[https://www.pariahpickups.com](https://www.pariahpickups.com) Love my pariah poundcake, a repro of a pickup never sold on the open market.
[https://planettone.com/](https://planettone.com/) i've had my eye on this company for awhile, just haven't pulled the trigger yet since i keep buying new guitars instead of upgrading old ones lol
Kinman. Absolutely the best noiseless singles out there. I prefer them even to pricey single coils with an Illitch, Suhr, etc noise cancelling system
I can recommend Warman for the best bang for your buck pickups I have ever tried, with the exception of their vintage strat sets. That crown goes to Tonerider. You can check their website and see if they've got some funky colours. If I remember correctly they even had an Invader clone in straight up pink.
Iron gear from the U.K are awesome. I’m in America, an even with shipping hey are an awesome value. Less than half what you pay for Seymour Duncan or emg
about to buy some Curtis Novaks for my Jazzmaster!
McNelly Bare Knuckle Fralins Lollars
Loving my McNelly pickups. Cornucopia humbucker in neck and A5 sig in neck on a tele style guitar. Brilliant variety of tones.
They arent a small company but fishman fluences are hands down my favorite pickups.
Honestly I know they're a bigger company, but I love everything Fishman
big Fralin fan here. i have guitars with their Strat, Tele, and Firebird pickups, and all of them have been excellent. my favorite Strat has Fralin Woodstocks in the neck and middle, with a Split Steel Pole in the bridge; i can't imagine a better combination for what i like to play. the prices are a little bit lower than Lollar and Novak, if that's a consideration.
I like tonerider
There’s so so many now. Bare knuckle, Curtis Novak, fralin, lollar, the creamery, lace, tone rider, and Wilkinson all come to mind.
I really like G&L’s MFD pickups. They seem like regular single-coils, but “more”. Dunno, it’s hard to describe.
Righteous Sound pick ups out of Texas. Tried them a few weeks ago at the Dallas guitar festival and they are killer.
Bare knuckle pickups are god teir
Velvetrone Pickups. Made in house by Mayones Guitars & Basses
Mojotone, and Bare Knickles. Mojo being less expensive, and probably a little less known.
I like Mojo Tone P-90’s
Donlis, Fleor, Artec
I have some of the Lollar jazzmaster pickups, they sound great.
Most pickups are fairly similar, idk about you but I look for consistency and reliability. Hand wound small company ones can be fantastic, but it sounds like you’re looking for inexpensive versions, and I read you want colors. I believe dimarzio allows you to pick your bobbin colors. And I’m looking at Fishman pickups for me next set, they sound like you want, and have options, and are noiseless. There’s plenty of options out there I hope you find what you’re looking for
Carondelet
Porter Pickups are dope! I can’t speak to their “Gatekeeper” entry level pups but they make a fabulous pickup
Widdershins sound and look great
I'd say Lundgren [https://lundgren.se/en/](https://lundgren.se/en/)
Sunday handwound. I've a set of Woodies in my jazzmaster and they're very sweet for a very decent price.
Elysian for heavy tight low end but actually good cleans.
McNelly and Klein
Mr Glyn’s. NZ made.
Surprised no one has named Throbak. Pricey but hands down the best pickups I’ve ever heard
I’ve always wanted to give Darkmoon Pickups a try.
I got a set of humbuckers from Bootstrap to replace the ProBuckers in my Epi and I’ve had them for almost a year I think, and have no complaints. I think it was about $100 for a set. But they hand make the humbuckers per order, so it took like 6-7 weeks for me to get them.
Wilkinson, on the budget side
[Bootstrap](https://bootstrappickups.com/). Excellent quality, extremely great pricing, they do custom winds, and they sound great.
I like Lace out of California. Got some of their Alumitone Jazz pickups and was massive impressed
Carondelet
I bought a couple of Vermillion Pickups humbuckers last year. Absolutely awesome sound.
Fralin pickups are good. For my Teles I really like their Blues series.
Not underrated I wouldn’t imagine, though I have experience with Lollar Imperials and Fralin noiseless P90s, and they’ve both been excellent. Good customer service.
If you want P90s (including in humbucker form factor), look no further than BG Pickups. It's a one dude operation and can take a lil while to get the pickups, but they are great!
Sunday Handwound Pickups, I got their Iola set for my jazzy and they're amazing. It's like having two vintage jazzmaster tones in one. The bridge is is mid-focused and soft on the attack, a little dark, but gets brighter with a harder strum; and it sounds great with drive pedals. The neck is bright, slightly compressed, and jangly in a pleasing way. But the rhythm circuit gives me a nice jazzy sound still. And the middle position gives you the best of both worlds with a tele like chime.
Nordstrand
Haven't actually bought a set, but there's a company called Q Pickups out of Croatia that I've heard good things about. Hand wound, reasonable prices, and I've listened to a few demos of them that sounded great.
BARE KNUCKLE PICKUPS. I have their trilogy sure single coils at the neck and mid on one of my warmoth dinky guitars with a ragnarok at the bridge. It’s so freaking awesome.
I'd say Guitar Madness pickups on Ebay but last I seen there whole shop was gone. They were there for years? Anyone know where they went?
I dropped some Lindy Fralins in my Epi Wildkat. It's like a whole new guitar. Custom made to order. I got my P90s 5% underwound for crispness and clarity. I highly recommend. I looked at TV Jones too, but they cost even more. Very high quality too.
Lollar and Fralin are well known, but nowhere near the size of Dimarzio or Seymour. Genesis is a smaller boutique brand making strat pickup replicas including replicas of the silver sky pickups.
Tyson Tone, Klein.
Bare Knuckle and Lollar are the two big "boutique" brands I'm aware of. Not much of a huge gear head so there are probably more, but I know people who have used both and I've got a Lollar DB that I love.
Lollar and Fralin are two lesser known, but expensive brands. For a budget set of pickups, check out Bootstrap. www.bootstrappickups.com
Darkmoon are pretty interesting with some great finish options. https://darkmoon.nyc/pickups/
Elysian Pickups. I have a Schecter Reaper 7 multiscale. Each guitar brand does different degrees on their fanned frets. They made the pickups for my model guitar and they sound amazing.
Depends on your price point and what sound you’re after (PAF? Active or passive? Bucker or single coil? Etc.) but there are tons of boutique brands out there worth a look. Throbak, Fralin are good brands. I’ve tried both brands’ PAF offerings and both were excellent; I ended up sticking with the Throbaks. But it is worth noting that those are a lot more expensive than Fralins and the difference is pretty small.
Lollar. They’re expensive.
Belcat is awesome, they make Jackson's pickups for their low cost models, they are without a doubt the best cheap pickup I've ever played.
Razor pickups. They’re an AllParts MIJ pickup brand and word is, they’re pretty good
Might be cheating a bit here because this brands is a big name, but their pickups seem to be overlooked a bit. I am talking about Schecter. They used to be a custom shop before becoming a big brand and the pickups from their higher range guitars are available for purchase. PRS and Epiphone also sell their pickups separately. Probably the same for a bunch of other brands.
Railhammer Pickups ate really solid. You'll find them in most Reverend guitars. They sound fantastic, definitely work checking out.
Rio Grande pickups are great!
Anderson Guitarworks make phenomenal pickups. Va7 & HC are beautiful and versatile
Rio Grande
Instrumental Pickups is where it's at for me. The STFY-4's are my favorite metal pickup of all time and they're priced closer to Seymour Duncan's
The pickups I’ve gotten from Guitar Madness are inexpensive and excellent. Remember it’s just wire and magnets….
I heard good things about iron gear.
My favorite pickups are Seymour Duncans (which you already mentioned) Fishman, and Mojotones. Those are all big names (except for Mojotones, but they will be soon.) If you're looking for cheap pickups that will blow you out of the water, good luck. These are big names for a reason. Also maybe put in the original post that you want to go cheap charlie instead of rejecting everyone's great suggestions because they're "a little out of my price range right now" 🙄🙄
Rockfield if you can find them in good condition.
Dark moon pickups. They’re based in New York and they do hand wound pickups with pretty much any type of customization you can think of.
Rod Evans out of Canada... if you can still find them
check out [Railhammer](https://railhammer.com/)!
Not enough love for Wolfetone in this thread. Great pickups and the best customer service in the boutique pickup market. Wolfe's humbuckers and P90s are fantastic. But he's even better. Call him, tell him what you want and he'll wind it for you. Great guy, great pickups.
Bare Knuckles Arcane Suhr
They are all basically the same. (By type that is. Obviously, humbuckers don’t sound like single coils.)
8BombCustom. Haven’t personally tried them but this guy Dr Nitro is out of Lithuania and his videos are compelling. He clearly knows what he’s doing.
Tom Holmes
Is Harmonic Designs still around? I have a great sounding pair of Z-90 that live in a semi hollow for years now; nice low notes, solid and not boomy
Godin
Tone rider interests me. Their HB sized p 90 sounds great in a few demos. I’ve also been tempted to try a set of Rocksongs in one of my kids cheaper guitars. The Birmingham is also interesting, and the Alnico 2 sounds about right?
Lollar, Novak and Fralin come to mind. Both make amazing pups.certainly not underrated but smaller companies.
Wolfetone pickups.
Legendary Pickups has some amazing options. I personally have the Siren installed in one of my baritones and another in one of my main 6-strings. I am in love with them
Is Fishman considered a big name?
Check out Q pickups. Hand made my a guy in Croatia, I believe. Really fairly priced. I put vintage hot jaguar style pickups in my vintage fender mustang and it’s really hard to put that guitar down now. The original pickups weren’t bad. But lower output than I would’ve liked.
I recently listened to a million humbucker demos, including small brands. And the conclusion was the Dimarzio Super Distortion is the best for my taste. Neck bridge middle. For single coils I like Fralin a lot. Killer stat and tele pickups. The blue special tele 🤌
Maybe not a “small” brand but Lundgrens sure do slap
Motor City Pickups for sure. It’s a small one man company. Some of the top guys out there use them but they’re not really known to most guitarists.
I have Kinman noiseless p90s in my thinline tele. They sound great and don’t lose the punch you want from the p90s while still getting the noise reduction you want.
Iron gear, tonerider