Welcome to D Man Guitar! My name is Eric and I check out everything guitar: Guitars, amps, pedals, plugins, software, DIY, etc... Demos/Reviews of guitars and gear and hopefully a little entertainment too! 🤘Rock on!!!
There's no "correct" answer to this. Better is subjective but ceramic will usually tend to be a little bit "tighter" and cutting in my experience. I would start there if you are playing mostly heavier music.
These guitars are quite bad. If they really are swamp ash, why are they so heavy? If the pickups are alnico, why do they have so little gain? I bought one and I˝m really disappointed with it.
Searched around for a gfs comparison vid that was informative and not a talent show……found it!!! Great sound and awesome approach showing how these p/u’s stack up.
**UPDATE** After making the video, while I was handling the HBZ pickups, the hookup wire completely came out of one of the pickups! I think this could possibly explain why I was unable to get a CLEAN sound out of the stock pickups. I uploaded a video discussing this specifically : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gNFPxyETkhg.html
Those Tone Hatch are taking me by surprise, they sound so neutral and balanced wow, I understand what other’s are commenting but my test for a good pickup is strictly clean, if you got a good canvas, colors will play nice is a matter on how it is used
Just bought this and popped my "pedal cherry". Thanks, this video was rad. I also have autoimmune issues, so this is gonna be how I workout my nerve damage. Gotta keep it fun, appreciate the hard work!
Great demo thanks. Overall I think the Duncan's sounded best and was surprised at how well the GFS sounded. For my taste and pocketbook I'd get the Duncan's.
The 81 is the "standard winner". The easy one. However, Im playing with a H4 now since 1 or 2 weeks. Took some time to get adjusted. I'm also using a bit thicker plectrum with the H4. But when you dive in with the right hand, once you got used to passive, man..... The H4 sounds INCREDIBLE! I'm hitting the studio somewhere in August and in all fairness, I think Im gonna use the H4 for the rhythm parts (Thrashmetal, in E). Sounds so much more organic, lively, real, filthy. The EMG H4 straight in my EL34 loaded Peavey Triple X (and NONE of those HORRIBLE boostpedals!!) is pure Thrash Heaven.
Dude once you have played with the passive EMG HZ / H4 pickups for some time to get used to them being passive if you are used to actives, they sound better than the active and the very common and boring 81s. I have never really liked active pickups to be honest, and the active EMGs is no exception. But at least EMG made me in to a believer of the brand for the first time years ago when a friend bought a Jackson Soloist that came with these EMG pickups that said HZ on them , I just loved the sound on that guitar when him and me played it. When he said that they were passive pickups I first did not believe him because I did not know EMG made passives. But then he showed me that the guitar did not have any battery space on the backside. Since then I have put these EMG HZ pickups in a couple of guitars over the years and I really love em. Not only do they sound great for being EMG and all but they also sound great compared to a lot of other passive pickups from other brands. My fav pickups right now for metal and the neck pickup also sounds great for solos and even cleans. Also they are not that common, I have rarely in my life seen guitarists use these great pickups and I think it is because most people think they are just another pair of active EMGs or they have not even heard of them like me that did not know even know that EMG makes great passives. For me it is either these pickups, the Dimarzio Super Distortion or the Seymour Duncan SH-6 Distortion for heavy music and great cleans.
THANK YOU a million times for actually using a CLEAN AMP! I JUST saw a "demo" where the guy had the ENTIRE new Azor line and he spent 11 minutes unboxing them and then RUINED the ENTIRE "demo" section because his "clean" tone was already Overdriven as HELL from his amp... THIS is how a pedal DEMO is SUPPOSED to be done... Kuddos from The Budget King!
I really like the GFS pickups for the money. They definitely hang with the EMG's....they actually sound just a little better to me. Not quite as compressed. GFS passive pickups sound great as well....for the money, they are incredible.
Eric Clapton, not only my favourite strat player, he is my favourite guitar player. Good thing is that you actually measured the action and pickup output, most reviewers do not do that.
I own both. And I was reluctant to buy one of the big brand versions of the Klon for YEARS. Finally I bought this one. The Wampler Tumnus. And my God... it's AMAZING. The Mosky is not bad. But definitely is not even in the same cathegory of the Wampler Tumnus. Maybe in a RU-vid video like this one, both sound similar. In the real world, the Mosky is not even close... I have to say: the hype is justified. A good Klon style PEDAL (and the Tumnus is the best one IMHO) deserves all the good comments.
Damn I love the sound of these guitars. Great all around sound setup... I also appreciate your comments about the fretwork. I will be prepared. Thankfully I just got a lot of fret tools from MusicNomad and StewMac, so maybe this is where I start digging in and learning technique. Either way, too cool a guitar to not be played and sound great.
