Seymour Duncan Vs Aliexpress Pickup - Who Wins the Battle? Find Out Here and Now! #seymourduncan 

I could only tell a difference on the cleans. I thought B sounded better, richer somehow. I like cheap wine too. 😁😁

If it's one thing I've learned over the years, expensive doesn't always mean better! I use both Seymour Duncan pickups as well as import brands. And they both sound awesome!

I was looking for a new bridge pickup for my Epiphone SG. I am going to try the Donlis. Thanks for the videos!

They sounded pretty identical for the crunch tone, slight difference in the clean, but miniscule. wow this is revealing

Wow. Like so many others I also was convinced the better clean tones were coming from B. Totally blown away. The distortions sounded identical to me. I will definitely consider these for my next kit build guitar. If the sound is as good/better than the SD's, then this is a no brainer!

Thank you for the follow-up video. I'm pleasantly surprised with the results (that being that for me, it is basically a dead heat because I can't really tell which is which...still.). Thanks again and please keep these great videos coming!

As a SD and Dimarzio fanboy...I stumbled across this video trying to find out if cheap pickups suck or not. Mainly eyeing Wilkinson pickups. Buuuut....I have to admit....I got it wrong in the first video. I thought SD was B.

Great job Richard!!! The two sounds were very similar indeed. As far as I'm concerned, I preferred the clean sound of the B pickup which sounded brighter to me than the Seymour Duncan pickup, also because I find it easier cutting the treble when they are too much, rather than "create" them with an eq when they are few; I honestly couldn't hear any difference in the distorsion mode on. I love blind testssssssssssssssss!!!!

Hello Richard. I'm a bit late to this party but wanted to share some thoughts anyway. This vid was the first to come up on my feed so I went and watched part 1 first. Which one was which? No idea, and don't really care. Both sounded really good, with "B" sounding a little brighter to my ears. Mostly I was just really enjoying your playing - some nice licks there! In this vid I could hear more of a difference through the amp. but both pickups still sounded really good! So.. Thanks for these vids, it's fun listening. Subbed!

If the person playing the B guitar hadn't of made so many mistakes due to trying to over play for the purpose of trying to make them sound better I wouldn't be able to tell , as both pickups despite one having different tones I would never of been able to guess as one pickup its self didn't sound better then the other ... I would like to see this done again but this time without trying to over play when playing using the Chinese pickups

damn, the china knockoffs almost nailed it. the sound is almost identical to the genuine SD. thanks for the video, you deserve my sub

i just watched both video, and my guess was right… i can hear a little clarity in the clean tone…. the cheap one also very good sound…

Wow, I was wrong! I better check out that Donlis, thank you!

Well clean tones were much clearer and with more definition on the Donlis set but the problems with these pickup comparisons is that only one Seymour pickup was used and the JB being a classic vintage has a larger bottom end boost so the cheapo one will sound clearer. On another note, I recently purchased a pair of P90 humbuckers from Ali Ex and was blown away by how good they sounded. I'm pretty sure Donlis is China's equivalent of Seymour Duncan but with much more realistic prices.

I bought a cheap pair of pick ups, offer eBay and ordered alnico two magnets which I put in the cheap pick ups. They sound pretty good.

Wow! Thank you Mr Shredder I am on several guitar mod pages, and I asked about budget replacement humbuckers for my Shecter PT FR-S bridge position, and 80% of the suggestions were high end $80 plus pickups. Then I remembered your channel band knew that you'd have the answer! And sure enough, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Great sound and a great price! Thank you Mr Shredder!!!! Rock on Dude!

I've listened to the battle guitar samples many times now and on the clean tones i definitely way preferred the Donlis pickups , in fact i'm gonna say it , i prefer the Donlis , they sound awesome .

Just subbed. Sorry I missed the vote. I really liked the clear tone on the B sample. And now I'm very surprised those were the Aliexpress pickups. Cool vid brother.

Hi. Because of your video I bought that pickups and they are amazing. Thanks for the advise. But now I have a question, have you tried Donlis´ P90, are they as good as the humbuckers. If yes, alnico 2 or Alnico 5? Thanks a lot. You save us a lot of money

They sounded virtually the same to me. On the positive side the cheap pickup companies are forcing the big name brands to step up their game. I realize there are lots of negatives too. It’s nice to hear the difference without the marketing hype.

Great video. Thank you for enlightening us!

Another great video. I especially enjoy the pickup truck interjection with your alter ego self...Oh, and personally, I think they should have offered you more than just a 10% discount for your "video endorsement".

Thanks for the tests! Do you know if the pickups are wax potted?

You made me a subscriber ! But tell me did it sound that close in your room?

Well done 👍🏻 ….good info, good humor, good chops …thank you….see ya next time 😎👍🏻✨👉🏻

Great video, I found them to be pretty much equal, any small little difference could be tweaked away in the EQ. Do you know if they have anything similar to the Seymour Duncan 59?

I could hear the difference and preferred B throughout. It had the better tones that met my tastes. I was surprised by the outcome! Well done.

They dont have any difference in the sound its like the same pickups Alliexpres pickup with the price of 20-25$ is insane and awesome deal.

I was right but they're close is the small percentage in clarity worth an extra $70 US ???? What about overall build quality ???

I actually liked more the sound of the Chinese B pickups on the other video, they have better definition and clearer tone although to be a more exact comparison the pickups should have been installed on the same guitar with the same strings, it's also important to test them at stage volume because many cheap pickups are microphonic due to low quality waxing and that's something we can't notice at room levels or direct recording, also test them for noise shielding near computer monitors, the quality of materials against rusting is also important but we can't tell that unless time have passed and the guitar has been in different weather, resistance to sweating etc. those differences are what will make them more expensive, for professional reliability, but I think that for most people who only play at their home with amp sims there's no difference and it's better to buy the chinese ones

Hey @thebaldshredder, I can vouch from experience with a different brand, but same concept. I replaced the hardware on my Kramer that had been hot-rodded with an SD Dimebucker with an entire setup from Guitar Fetish, using their Power Rails in the bridge and two Lil Killers (basically Hot Rails) in the middle and neck. All three PLUS a wiring harness all on their QuikPlug system was about what I paid for just the Dimebucker a decade ago, and they sound so close I can't tell the difference on either my Crate combo or my half stack. Also, got a question about that Destroyer...do you know if Phil ever had one of those with a Kahler installed? I know Steve Clark had a Les Paul with one that he played up through the Hysteria tour, and Phil had several Destroyers before he got his endorsement and signature model from Jackson, but have never been able to find out if he stuck to only Floyds and hardtails. Regardless, would love to have either Kahler-ed up and left handed!

Have you tested bridge only? what about neck pickup.

I thought B sounds better in the previous video. Guess most on the price tag went to the brand and quality control, but little for the sound. After all, they were just wire around the bob, how much difference can you do to make one 4.5 times better than the others... strength of the magnet?

Just received mine. I noticed these are a little bit longer than the original pickup I have. Did you have the same experience?

Upgrading my generic pickups and this video really helped. I guessed right. The SD's are cleaner but is it worth the price?

hello that was the SD Pickup mode ? and thanks for the test ..

I was actually pretty sure A had to be the cheaper one as I preferred B all the way through lol. I did wonder if A could be the SD’s because that lower thump is quite signature if SD’s but yeah, full honesty - I liked B the most. But this is something you find out really fast when you look Into making your own pickups or effects pedals. This is all really really basic electronics… there’s not actually much to it. You can change the material or size of the poles, the guage of the wire and the number of wraps of the wire… none of that really costs much different. With the more expensive ones you’re paying for QA oftentimes and support, for a company to exist only making pickups and to make them in the US… you’re not really paying for the pickup itself. If you go and order a bunch of poles and different spools of wire and some pickup bobbins and get winding you’ll find it doesn’t actually take much to get a decent pickup. In fact it’s so not difficult I’ve rather suspected for a long time that guitar companies intentionally make worse pickups for their budget lines than their premium lines not really because of cost of production, but because they want you to upgrade. What they usually save money on use the wire cost - use thinner wire or less winds, but the actual amount you save per pickup is very small. It adds up over thousands of guitars, sure but it wouldn’t affect the sales price of the guitar in any meaningful way to tack that cost on. Like the Porsche Boxster, the real problem isn’t the cost of production or the targeted retail price… they just don’t want to give you a reason not to buy a 911 if you can afford it. Tbh you see this right across the industry. Another great example is drive pedals. I genuinely think most guitarists would benefit from getting a couple of drive diy pedal kits and a few packs of transistors, capacitors, diodes and resistors to try swapping them around. When I first had a look inside my $200 drive pedal and found it was about $20 of parts from my local electronics shop and less than half that for the likes of boss or EHX I was a bit like ‘hmm’. But then you get to playing with them and you realise SO much of what people think they hear is the logo on the box and the status of the pedal within the guitar community. A lot of the differences can only be heard of A/B tested and sometimes the margin of error is as close as a pedal made one week or the next. Not saying one is better than the other, but when you build up two famous circuits on a breadboard and realise they’re basically the same and you can barely hear any difference at all, then google them and see hundreds of forum pages if people proclaiming ‘X is warmer’ and ‘y has more attack’ ‘X has better midrange’ and ‘y really picks up the dynamics’ and such you get an idea for how much BS there is out there. Sure, you can make huge difference just by swapping out a few components or adding in a stage, and that’s worthy of making another pedal, but people should at least watch Brian wampler bust some of the myths of the tube screamer video.

I got it right but t be honest i prefer the cheap pickup in the cleans. Mind boggling test. Thanks

Do you think the $20 aliexpres pickup is at the level of a squier bullet mustang pickup?

I’m watching this video after the comparison was already revealed a year ago. I’m surprised. I thought B was the SD pickups because during the clean playing the B sounded crisper and punchy like a SD pickup, WOW Can’t tell the difference between A & B with heavy gain

I guess it correctly since am already moved to aliexpress pups LOL. The reason is not only on price but more on the sound preference also, aliexpress pups (Fleor) having a bit modern tone and clearer on upper/high reg (lead solo). The rest almost the same

Thanks for this vidéo. J'hésitais à commander des pickups sur Aliexpress mais plus maintenant. Merci à toi et bonne continuation.

Ok...! I had my eyes open. I wasn't totally blind! Both sound good! Thanks shredder

Great channel!! I have a HB fusion 2. I am going to drop a set in it. Thanks brother!

I had no experience with SD pickups other then 1 Pearly Gates in my epiphone years ago. Could not choose which is SD but to me B sounded better. Pickup A was much clearer but sterile sounding especially in cleanish tone. No warmth

Nice vid ! I put some "local" SD clones into my local Jewel clone that cost me $75, I live in China and got a tip from a guitarist, bought them three years ago but never got to it. They sound awesome ! I love messing with the cloned gear, but I'm putting real EMG pickups in my bass :D

Can this be the same case with SD hot rails and cheap 13 dlls hot rails?

I guessed wrong, Lol but I'd like to know how loud you recorded these sounds cause at a band rehearsal at full volume I reckon that would show the fake up.

Hahaha that is great I thought the donliss sounded great, great comparison! Have you tried any Fleor pickups? They are sold on Amazon and I have a set in my cart so just wondering. Rock on dude! 🤘😎🤘

I couldn't tell which was which. Makes me feel good about ordering some Donlis pups.

I got it wrong....thought B was Seymour. They sound more clearer. I bought one of those cheap guitars from amazon then bought some cheap pickups along with locking tuners and new bridge. The tuners are fantastic and were about 30. i paid 40 for the pickups and love them. I have had seymour duncans on other guitars but the cheap ones sound as good. This was a great test !

I really love the B more, it has more harmonics. Thank you so much for your test!!

I choose B cause I thought they sounded way better with the cleans... Could it be coz they had higher g's? Or do they have the same?

I nailed it. Those AliExpress HBs sound very "singleish" and I spotted it after to hear the clean sound comparison.

Anybody who has spent a C-note on a single pickup wants to hear a noticeable difference and actually will even if there's virtually no difference at all between it and a $20 pickup. I think one of the reasons people buy name brand, name stamped pickups is because they want an audience to know they spared no expense and that it is a quality guitar because of it. Face it the name means something It's wrong for China's producers to counterfeit and it foolish if they're already making good pickups etc. It's not like they're making a killing on the price which, unfortunately, I think name brand manufacturers are probably overcharging for in the first place. If you're a pro, it's a different story but for the casual solo player or sometimes gigging guy, it can be pricey just for a name on a pickup.

Haha yes. Got it right. I couldn’t tell in the overdrive modes. But the clean ones made it really clear to me.

Are the pickups from DGate / Alliexpress usually Microphonic? Just curious because a lot of the less expensive guitars come with Microphonic pickups. The reason I am asking is because if you purchase replacement pickups from DGate / Alliexpress, you would probably be hoping that they are not Microphonic. Thank you for any information on this. Kevin.

Honestly I wavered between the two when I watched the test video, one part I was sure SD were A then another part I was like...well maybe it's B, either way great example...I'm curious about passive vs active pickups also what would the quality be like a year or more down the road with the cheaper ones? are they using the same materials?

I think it's high time we need to consider that amp speakers makes the difference. Not more about cheap or expensive pickups.

How about comparing a Super Distortion to a pickup from Donlis?

Hey , could you make a clean play for this pickups?

I got it right and you can tell a difference in clean tone, but dirty it's right on par just slightly lower output. But that Ali one is 90% there, for 1/5th the price.

Surprised about the result! I thought the SD would be example B. Sounded more ‘open’ when you played clean. I’m happy with the results tho, since I ordered the Chinese pickups a week ago. Excited to have them in my guitar!

In a studio guitar, you would notice the difference. I called it right out of the gate and I barely play, but I had good, even headphones and I design electric guitars. However, in the average bar gig, no one would catch the difference and the savings is pretty ridiculous. Great video and great playing.

How about the Saphue pick ups ? try some ?

For comparision you must use tube amp and microfone not some cheap soundcard. For those everything spunds the dame as there is way too much compression.

Since I own an HSS strat I'm thinking about replacing them. Do you know if they also have equivalent quality pickups for the single coil middle and neck ?

Great video my friend! I like Duncan pickup :D thanks for great sharing! stay safe, Have a wonderful day

Just one little thing. RU-vid compresses the audio and applies some equalization to it, so we lose some of the frequencies compared to when you listen to it live. So, it's not absolute

I commented on the 1st video that it doesn’t matter to me because both options have qualities that I like in pups. I did pick A just because the highs were SLIGHTLY more musical with chords. I build and mod guitars too and my go to companies are GFS and Wilkinson. Both companies have inexpensive, quality pups that compare closely to the pups that cost 3 or 4 times more.

Just upgraded my cheapo pickups to some SD nazguls , and hell of a difference. Was pretty sure with A being the SD , felt better balanced across the strings. But you need good ears and otherwise good hardware for output .

THe difference between these pickups, from a physical standpoint, is the dawnless has more windings while the seymour used a stronger magnet to compensate for fewer windings at approximately the same output.

Is this set of pickups for Gibson or Fender string spacing?

When I went back to listen to the original video before I saw this one, could SWEAR Seymour was B because of it's clarity on the Clean channel because the distortion channels were so SO close!!!! Getting my 20 buck pickups right now!

I like B though, there are some bottom for B and it is not that shrilling at height. The only thoughts i have for china's made pickup, its the alnico pole, do they really use Alnico which is an alloy or just plain stainless steel pole.

i like the B pickup

I really hoped that A is Donlis. Because sound in clean on A is more Rounded and ear friendly while B is sharp and pronounced a lot more. Through hi-gain amp all pickups sounds almost the same. So not for a brand i just think that years and years of experience tailored that specific flavor. Heard that ORIPURE aliexpress is more close to JB than Donlis

Both sets of pickups sounded very good in both videos and I guessed wrong. A lot of my guitars are jb and 59 from the factory and it fooled me but I I dont have wine tasting ears lol for tone.

yup, people hear with their eyes, I believe Les Paul said that while speaking about "The Log".... it'd be nice if you could try some more of those Chinese made pickups brands....

I was right apparently but to be honest they sounded quite similar. Any of them will get the job done but the SD has an extra 5-10% something.

Between being right or wrong, I am glad I was wrong this time, because it means that I can buy better for much less money.

Only the Clean sample gave it away! With overdrive & distortion it doesn't matter

do you have any recomendation for volume/tone pots? Im just trying to revive my old yamaha pacifica, i love my SG, but sometimes i just want a thinner body and neck and lighter guitar to sit and play.... i'd love some inexpensive options. this was a 1994 model pacifica 112 that was my first guitar, i will probably never sell it, but it needs some love.

what specs were the ali express? resistance and magnets used?

great test. It's so funny how many people have a case of the emperor's new clothes when it comes to pickups. It's just wire and magnets.

If people are convinced that they sound close or similar, then I dont have to worry about my LP made in Korea. Blitz by Aria pro ii brand or other guitars that does not have Gibson logo I think would be a better alternative than a counterfeit.

Great video Richard, that was awesome man 😀🤘🎵🔥🔥🔥🔥

The difference,is very clear, especially in clean channel... If you are a musician,you have this sensitivity... fortunately or unfortunately....if you know what i mean....

Well, the b pickups do sound more muted, they are not uber close, if i can hear that on simple audio, it will translate live very well. The truth of the matter though is it doesn t matter as much since they sound good enough

I liked the A sample better with gain but I slightly preferred the B sample for cleans.

The difference in sound would come from the difference in magnet and pole pieces. The Donlis is ceramic and the Duncan is alnico v. Plus the fillister and slug poles on the Duncan vs the all hex poles on the Donlis make an impact on sound as well. To my ears every time I hear a pickup with alnico v magnets they always sound warm and have a fuzz quality to them compared to ceramic which usually sound tighter. Have you tried Saphue pickups yet? I see them on Amazon a lot. Oh and are those Donlis micro phonic at all? I have had a lot of the import pickups sound great but be very micro phonic.

To me B was more open sounding.... I have just browsed through Donlis selection they offer now a wide range of humbuckers and singles... I have a vintaged sound Fleor set and those sound amazing. I am just about to bin my Ibanez stock pups in my JiVA Jr and replace them with some nice Donlis one. Thanks for the video

Well. You are very Clever to build the test like this, blind One and Wait and let people debate. Very important, because we have a lot of "tone lovers" in guitar world. By the way, my Guess was right, but only in the first sample I notice something wrong. Maybe was not the Pickup. Anyway, thank you for the support, because poors like me cannot afford such expensive Pickups. The difference of money is not worth to me. Peace and thanks

LIES!! No way. Those are some damn good Donlis. I was at least 80% sure otherwise. This actually makes me want to get one (or two)

There's always the bias of: You hear what you want, or you hear what you're told you'll hear. I'll agree that china should stop the counterfeits and just brand them as one of their own brands

when were kids we have been programmed on name brands are the best and the ones you go with because of that it's hard for us to accept other alternative brands that sound just as good or sometimes better but much cheaper

After watching this video, I purchase a lot of donliss pickups, so far the dh05 is my favourite, still got 7 sets to try.

Dude I got it right but it was 60 40 % so close , the Aliexpress sound pretty awesome .

Man , I bought a set of Donlis vintage single coils. They sound awesome on my Squier Strat. Much better than my Mexican Fender.

I got it right only because i used them years ago and have probably seen a hundred videos of the JB vs such and such. B was just a little tighter in the low end for me, but they really are hard to tell apart especially during the lead solos. Nice job!