I just ordered a set of Fullerton Premiers, even though I just need the neck and middle pickups. I’m going to pair them with a Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge position on my mid-80s Kramer Focus 3000. I think that should be a pretty balanced set that should work well together. Your review videos of the Tone Hatch pickups are the best of all the ones I watched, and I watched them all, lol. I was torn until I heard you play the Fullertons. You can really hear the difference next to the Rude Blues. Thanks!
@@stingylizard They worked out great, and paired nicely with the Pearly Gates. The guitar sounds the same across pickup positions, the humbucker just sounds fatter like you’d expect. I ended up wiring everything with greasebucket tone circuits, as well as the Gilmour neck pickup mod, so I have a couple of new pickup combinations (neck/bridge, neck/middle/bridge), and have the humbucker splittable via a push/pull tone pot, so this guitar is really versatile with position and phasing now. I really recommend these pickups. The construction is top notch.
Finally a decent pups for around what they are really worth. Honestly, for what most of these boutique pickup manufacturers charge (including SD) you can buy two guitars from Firefly. The absolute nonsense in pricing on almost all those boutique pups is outrageous. To be honest, I myself have gone through the boutique pickup madness and I learned that you can get a set of great pickups for well under a 100 bucks. These pups sound great! I also think that the Dragon-fire pups sound great as well for basically the same price. Stop the madness even Fender tex-mex pups sound good with the right amp. Just my 2 cents worth. Peace.
I don't actually do many pickup changes, but I just happened to end up taking on a bunch of video work from a few pickup companies so over the last few months I've done 5 videos about pickups, but I suspect I won't be doing anymore for a while now haha!
I’ve got one of Adam’s (Tone Hatch) sets it’s the Fullerton and I honestly can just barely tell the difference. The rouse blues sound so close but I think the Fullerton delivers a bit more highs and sustains a bit longer Could be my hearing😛 Either way I love his work I’m just getting ready to have him build some pretty hot one for a customer of mine. he’s a goof guy and stand behind his products Tone hatch is the way to go they are worth 3 times what he sells them for 😙 don’t tell him that!
I did a video on the Fullerton set too. Out of the two, they were my preferred set. They have a bit more of a vintage chime to my ears which I find really pleasing. I personally found the Rude Blues to be brighter, and the Fullertons to be a little less bright, which is what I prefer. I find the slight roll off of a vintage style pickup very pleasing because some Strat pickups can just be too harsh and too bright. Adam makes some killer stuff for such amazing prices! Haha! I told him he should be charging way more! His pickups are just fantastic!
Refreshing to hear a grown-up product review for a change! A very articulate and well-structured presentation. These are certainly 'budget' pickups in cost terms, but seem to sacrifice nothing in quality of design and construction... Well worth considering if one day I want to swap out the pickups in my 2015 Sterling Cutlass... Thanks (and Subscribed)
Hey Anthony, Thanks for the comments and for checking out the video. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. You're spot on, they are affordable, but they are still hand made and to a high standard. I know the guy that builds them and I've told him on many occasions he should be charging way more haha!! His pickups are fantastic. He can even so some custom stuff so if you were looking for a specific sound, he could probably help you figure out how to make that happen!
I just got a set of those Fullertons. I put them in a japanese Tokai strat and gotta say they sound fab ! I used to have squier cv strat with alnico 3 pickups but they were quite dull sounding compared to these !
The Fullertons are awesome. I did a video on their Rude Blues set too which are also killer, but the Fullertons won it for me. I actually swapped out my 80s Tokai Strat pickups for another builders set, he built me a 63 style set and the Fullertons are very, very close to that sound too. They're awesome pickups.
Im guessing there's something about the degree of pedal effect and your mix that makes it hard to hear a difference once the audio goes through RU-vid compression. That said Adam has been offering HSS Strat sets no one has yet debuted on video. We need to talk him into making a (couple?) matched HS Tele sets, imo...
I have a Squire Strat as my project guitar too. I just ordered the Rude Blues pickups. Great vid! Question, what bridge and tuners did you swap on your Bullet? I’m looking to make upgrades on my Squire.
Awesome! I think you'll enjoy them, they're great sounding pickups and very, very well made! The bridge is the stock Squire bridge on this guitar. It's a Bullet Strat so the body is slightly thinner than a regular Strat, so any aftermarket bridge will protrude from the back. There is a company called Guitar Fetish based in the US that make a great bridge upgrade with a short block, but it would have cost me way too much in import duty and shipping to justify it. The tuners are the locking tuners from a company called AxeTec: www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_037.htm They aren't expensive by any means, but I've bought a lot of hardware from these guys over the years and it's never let me down. The tuners feel pretty solid.
@@LeighFugeGuitar thanks for the info man, yea I was actually looking at a short block bridge from guitar fetish. I’ll definitely check out the bridge. I feel like there are limited options for a Squire when it comes to upgrades, but if I put in extra research, can always come up with a decent upgrade. Thanks again man, and keep up the great work! 🤟
Naah ,, it's not that good. I,ve tried one bridge pickup from eBay but nope, it's just like any other normal pickup. On the other hand I,ve got a seymour Duncan at the neck which is quite distinct. Not good
