Odd pickup shapes

11top

Cousin Eddie's cousin
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
11,103
Location
18 miles from Markie and Nana.
I’m not crazy about odd pickup shapes like 408s. It’s not that I think they look bad; quite the contrary, I think they look ok. And, more importantly, I think they sound really great. And I have more than one guitar with them. My problem with odd pickup shapes is that I like the option to change to the plethora of traditional pickups available. 1) My tastes may change down the road, 2) I may decide to go for a particular tone change, and 3) (and I’m bracing myself for the gasps of astonishment- Yes, on a rare, misguided occasion I have sold one) I think a guitar is easier to resell with traditional pickup shapes, because the buyer may want his own pickup choices installed.

Anybody else feel this way? :confused:
 
Last edited:
Yes I agree. Guitars with odd pickup shapes literally have to punch above their weight. You kind of have to be sure it’s the one you want, short of finding some custom pickup maker who can do your personal “PS pickups”. Perhaps PRS, with the Paul’s Guitar and 408’s being such mainstays in the line up, should consider the concept!

How about a 57/08 in the shape of a narrow 408? :D
 
Personally it doesn't really bother me at all. I buy a guitar for what it delivers at point of sale. If I didn't like the tones, then I wouldn't buy.

If my tastes change further down the road, I have the option to either sell or use a different guitar and maybe, I will come back to that guitar and want what it offered, want that sound. If its not doing it for me, I have other guitars that I can use so its not a big deal - even with my meagre guitar collection. I also believe that a guitar is better sold as stock, not that I plan to trade. The fact that I don't buy with 1 eye on the used market price, don't buy thinking that I will sell, it doesn't bother me.

My 509 I believe would be a very difficult guitar to swap PU's for after-market PU's. I don't know if they would be more difficult than the 408 PU's or not and I also have a Narrowfield in my Special 22 which I doubt is particularly easy to swap either but the 58/15 MT's at least could be - not that I have any inclination to do so.

One of the things I find odd is that people calling PU's like the 408 or TCI now as 'negatives' because of the lack of options IF you wish to swap out those PU's later down the line, even before someone has actually bought the guitar and actually used those PU's in their own rigs. If it doesn't sound great, then don't buy a guitar with 'unique' or at least difficult to swap out. Its not as if PRS doesn't sell 'something' with regular PU's that are similarly built - just routed for a normal Humbucker if that is a big concern. One of the attractions of guitars like the 509, 408 or Paul's Guitar is that unique Pick-ups that set them apart from the 'regular' sized Pick-up guitars.

Maybe I am the unusual one, in the minority where that isn't a concern at all...
 
I kind of agree. Or, I at least know where you're coming from. I like to move pickups around and not because I'm unhappy with a particular guitars current pickups. Sometimes I just want to be different. The odd ball (not that much of a stretch)!

Having said that, I have moved an NF3, Pauls, 513 and 408 with no problem. The 408 was part of a trade, so I lost on that one. I broke even on the Pauls, and made money on the 513 and NF3.
 
Don’t you have enough guitars to jack around with the pickups on another one?!?:D

Dammit Vaughn! I hate guys that use common sense against my arguments!!! :mad::p

On the other hand, is there any sense to that many guitars? :confused: Yes! The perfect response for my wife.



Again, I like the 408s tone. Not really the issue.
 
Dammit Vaughn! I hate guys that use common sense against my arguments!!! :mad::p

On the other hand, is there any sense to that many guitars? :confused: Yes! The perfect response for my wife.



Again, I like the 408s tone. Not really the issue.


You can use the excuse that the guitars you have, especially if its very difficult if not impossible to find an alternative after-market pick-up, does not have the tone you want/need for a specific use and rather than trade because you may need the tone in the future, you need to buy a new guitar to fill that gap in your tonal palette....

In other words, an excuse to justify the purchase of yet another guitar... :D:D:D
 
You can use the excuse that the guitars you have, especially if its very difficult if not impossible to find an alternative after-market pick-up, does not have the tone you want/need for a specific use and rather than trade because you may need the tone in the future, you need to buy a new guitar to fill that gap in your tonal palette....

In other words, an excuse to justify the purchase of yet another guitar... :D:D:D

There's this thing called NAMM next week...…………………..hmmmmmmm.

 
.

It's the same problem as having 'signature models', you not only need to find a buyer for the brand, for the model, but someone who likes that artist. The Venn diagram gets pretty small at that point and your sale price will be pretty small too. Resale price impacts the amount of cash in your pocket to go buy another PRS guitar...

I was glad to see on the SE line they went to putting the artist name on the truss rod covers so a buyer who is not a fan of that artist can flip the cover over or get a different one.

.
 
What!? No sir-ee... I ain't said sh!t! That's Paul's game.

Actually, you didn’t tell her. You asked me (with guesstimate) in front of her. I was put in an impossible situation for pulling off a convincing lie. :eek::confused::p

And the only difference between you and Paul is he did it in front of a thousand people and then put it on YouTube. LOL!
 
Back
Top