The Best Electric Guitar Pickups I think You Should Upgrade to
OK so here’s the scenario. You’ve got a guitar that you love, it plays great, looks awesome, stays in tune and all that but it’s just missing a liiiiiiiittle something sonically.
Option one would be to call your Sweetwater rep and put this signature model from Chicago guitarist Terry Kath on their financing program (only $834 a month for the next 24 months!)
Option two would be to just upgrade the pickups. Either one sounds like a good idea to me!
In any case, if you decided on the latter, here's a list of pickup makers that I think everyone should check out! Disclaimer at the top here: the brands I’m about to mention are ones that I have personal experience with.
There are TONS of boutique pickup makers these days and as such there are bound to be a lot of great ones that I don’t cover here.
OK HERE WE GO -
1 —
Righteous Sound Pickups
Handmade in Austin, Texas Righteous Sound Pickups have it all. I have these in my Walsh Sela guitar and they sound and look incredible. So incredible in fact I’ve ordered three more sets for different guitars. You can find these in incredibly high end guitars like Frank Brothers, Walsh, Lockhorn etc. These pickups are known for being super clear and I guess I would have to say they’re best known for LOOKING incredible. RS has some of the most creative pickup covers I’ve ever seen and does a lot of custom commissions, doing a great job of matching your pickups to the aesthetics of your guitar. Like a lot of makers on this list, they offer a lot of vintage voiced options up to modern stuff and some curated sets. Shit is really cool. These are some of the priciest pickups on the list but with very good reason. Definitely worth checking out.
2 —
Gemini Pickups
I LOVE Gemini Pickups. These are my #1 blanket recommendation for someone who’s not sure about what kind of pickups to get. The price is right and they sound amazing, you can talk directly to owner Rob Banta if you need anything customized. You can get vintage pickups rewound, humbuckers in the size of single coils, single coils in the size of humbuckers, the snozberries taste like snozberries you know what i mean? Anyway, his Suprocaster pickup is super popular. Gemini also offers a “Dualbucker” option
https://www.geminipickups.com/dualbucker.html#/
That is super cool and makes the split coil of your humbucker infinitely more usable and much more like a believable single coil. Did I mention the price is right? These are real hand wound pretty much custom pickups for the same price or less than the mass produced shit you would buy off the shelf at Guitar Center. Do yourself a favor and check these out.
3 —
Bareknuckle Pickups
Bareknuckles have been around for a long time and have won a ton of awards for their pickups. The Mule is one of their best known and best liked models, an Alnico IV PAF clone that is really Jimmy Page-ish. I’ve had Mule pickups in multiple guitars and they really are incredible. Bareknuckle has some super high output modern pickups including ceramic options. If you’re looking for stuff on the metal side but you still want passive pickups, Bareknuckle has some really great options.
4 —
Mojo Pickups
Another British offering, Mojo Pickups makes some of the coolest pickups out right now. You have most likely seen their huge dual foil pickups on some guitars and thought “what the fuck is that?” Well it’s a humbucking dual goldfoil pickup. And I have two of them coming on a new guitar. And I can’t wait. And it’s gonna be cool. Did I mention they’re humongous? They just started making them in the size of Wide Range Humbuckers which are a little smaller to save some real estate but who cares the swag kinda lies in how giant they are. Mojo also makes those Kleenex pickups that look like a rainbow prism. A bunch of other cool old oddball models too. The demos online sound great and again you see these in some really high end killer guitars and I think that’s usually a fair mark of if something is decent or not. In a general sense anyway. I haven’t heard these in person yet but I included them because I think it’s such a cool brand and you do see them often now, they’re one of the only companies to offer a humbucking gold foil pickup and they make some really great other stuff. I’ll let you know when mine arrive!
5 —
MJS Pickups
This guy built humbuckers into my Rickenbacker 370 pickup cases and they were awesome. Super affordable and really fast turnaround time. Just built great sounding tele pickups for my cousin as well. Check them out.
6 —
Lollar
Jason Lollar is a super popular boutique pickup builder, definitely one of the better known and his work is featured on some production model guitars for big companies. The Imperial is their, I guess you would say “standard” humbucker and comes in both low wind and high wind options. They’ve got a bunch of stuff for sale though and chances are they have something that will fit whatever guitar you’ve got including Jazzmasters, Firebirds etc. Lollars M.O. seems to be taking what’s best about vintage pickup designs and improving on any flaws. I have owned quite a few Lollar pickups in my lifetime and they are definitely nice though I usually end up swapping them out. Whenever I hear them in other people’s guitars though I am always blown away, different strokes ya know.
7 —
Wolfetone Pickups
Had a pretty bad ass set of Wolfetone humbuckers in a Warmoth tele build that was stolen. Man that was a fucking cool ass guitar. Whoever has it now I’m sure they’re riding high. Anyway like a lot of these pickup makers Wolfe specializes in like classic rock kinda shit, but these sound good and are priced pretty darn well. I am glad to see him on the short list of pickups that can be selected when you purchase a new Kauer guitar. They don’t mess around.
8 —
Fishman Pickups
If you’re into active pickups the best sounding ones I have heard in a very long time are the Fishman Fluence pickups and the Fishman Devin Townshend set. Best part about these is that you don’t need a 9 volt battery anymore. You can just charge your battery with a USB cable, although I have had a student's guitar die in a lesson before. Yeah that wasn’t shit you thought was gonna happen in 1998.
