Defining Pickups

I want to share an article from Premier Guitar written by famed guitar luthier Jol Dantzig, that addresses the goals luthiers have when choosing pickups for their guitars. Here are a few excerpts that describe ways to obtain the right pickups.

“Choosing a pickup can be a daunting task, but if you know what to look for it’s a whole lot easier. I learned a valuable lesson while working with Don Gehman, a legendary and brilliant record producer.” Dantzig details his experience with Gehman that he refers to as “The Human Voice Lesson.”

“With everything in place, Don asked the vocalist, Tommy Shaw, to speak into each mic while we listened with eyes closed. As Tommy went from mic to mic, speaking, shouting, then finally singing, I had a hard time making up my mind. Don, on the other hand knew immediately what he was listening for. When I told him I couldn’t choose which one I liked best, he offered some sage advice. Don reminded me that I knew Tommy’s voice well enough to identify him on the phone with a single word, and that I should listen for the mic that made Tommy sound, well, like Tommy. “The object,” Don confided, “is to bring out the character in the voice that makes it sound like who the singer is.” This is the identical process I use today to determine which pickup to pair with a guitar.”

Once Dantzig finds the sound that he covets he then unites it by matching the composition of the guitar to the pickup. He goes on to say “An unamplified test confirmed my intuition—the guitar was airy and projected well. The bass was tight but not pronounced. The most apparent virtue was a nice upper mid that was well defined, smooth, and breathy. This, I decided, was the attribute to emphasize—it was the instrument’s true voice, and I didn’t want to bury it. I’d need a pickup that could support the low end without sacrificing the breathiness of the upper mids.”

Finally, Dantzig tests the guitar and pickups through several amplifiers, listening for the guitars true character. He continues stating “It’s always a good idea to use your main amp to set a comparative baseline, but I also like to audition with a slew of amps to get a better feel for what the pickup/guitar combination is capable of. If I can find a magic combination that just blows me away, it will be worth considering even if it is a specialized setup. In this case, the test amps ranged from small combos like my vintage Ampeg Jet, a Fender Pro Jr., and a tweed Fender Harvard, to a Mesa/Boogie Rectifier half-stack and a 1972 100-watt Marshall. Plus a lot of stuff in between, like my trusty red- panel Vox AC30 Twin and various Fenders.”

Dantzig concludes “My advice is to be open to the possibilities within any instrument—then celebrate it. Just like good friends, guitars come in all shapes and sizes, and every one has a different personality. Find a pickup that highlights the character of the guitar instead of trying to make it only what you can imagine. In the end, you’ll be surprised how liberating it is. And that’s a game worth playing.”

While most of us don’t have the time or the resources to test dozens of pickups, the steps outlined in the above excerpts extend an easy template for choosing your next set of pickups. Another recommendation is to listen to various sound clips from various pickup manufacturers. At Fervor we have made it easier to hear our pickups through sound clips. We know that purchasing pickups can be daunting and expensive, so we narrow the difficulty of choosing a pickup by offering vintage pickups that come as close to the originals as possible. We want to make it easy for you to select the right pickup.

Noted designer, builder, and player Jol Dantzig founded Hamer Guitars, the first boutique guitar brand, in 1973. Since then, he has worked or recorded with many of the most talented and famous names in music. Today, as the director of Dantzig Guitar Design he continues to help define the art of custom guitar.