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Vintage threads from the first ten years

previous: Jason Lollar To me Vintage means that you can ex... -- 9/1/2002 11:58 PM

Re: Pickup "copies" rant

9/2/2002 2:26 AM
SK	Re: Pickup "copies" rant Jason, I understand your add, I've seen it. In fact, I think you HAVE to make statements like that to make advertising worthwhile (as in getting business from it) But I think it's a falsehood really. Most of us believe we make the best quality, at least we try. Many of us are willing to make totally custom designs (for a price) and are capable of doing a good job of it. I've done quite a few "one-offs" all with favorable reviews, but I know very well you have more experience at it. In fact, I've sent people your way when contacted for something I know you have more experience with (steels and the like). I've had customers do side by side comparisons of my pickups to pickups from Lindy(similar design) and give mine much better reviews...I do work for local shops who used to use Lindy... And I, like you, make each and every pickup to customer specifications (I think many of us small timers do). I believe I make the best pickups for my customers. I certainly make the best I can; my customers are ALWAYS 100% happy (it's part of my guarantee), and I think the same is probably true of most of us. I believe if we started making "stock models" and they were installed in guitars "factory", then there will be an increase in the number of people who just don't like "our pickups" because they are no longer tailored and they probably don't know anything else about us. It's got to happen...A "stock pickup" just can't suit everyone... Not picking on you, now or originally, but you were the first to reply... Maybe I have an overly idealistic view, maybe we don't all do our very best for our customers, but I like to think otherwise. As for the vintage thing, I HATE that. I swear 90+% of the people have no idea what they are talking about. I've played MANY vintage guitars (not 100's but better than 50. I was in retail at one time, and I still have a small network...) and most of them sounded marginal or ok, of the few that sounded good (to my ears) most sounded good only at one setting. Very few were very good AND versatile. I've pretty much avoided the vintage market for many of those reasons, and the other things in my rant about fallacies and voodoo. I'm glad I have because the ones who do know something about vintage pickups usually know things like exactly how thick the forbon should be, if the edges of the forbon is "sharp" on the ends, exact height for each polepiece etc etc based upon information from a reference which is probably a conglomeration of numbers amassed from several samples. (i.e. they allow nothing for manufacturing tolerances etc even though they've been "averaged into" the reference numbers they're using) But, there IS money there...

9/2/2002 2:26 AM

Re: Pickup "copies" rant

Jason, I understand your add, I've seen it. In fact, I think you HAVE to make statements like that to make advertising worthwhile (as in getting business from it) But I think it's a falsehood really. Most of us believe we make the best quality, at least we try. Many of us are willing to make totally custom designs (for a price) and are capable of doing a good job of it. I've done quite a few "one-offs" all with favorable reviews, but I know very well you have more experience at it. In fact, I've sent people your way when contacted for something I know you have more experience with (steels and the like).
I've had customers do side by side comparisons of my pickups to pickups from Lindy(similar design) and give mine much better reviews...I do work for local shops who used to use Lindy... And I, like you, make each and every pickup to customer specifications (I think many of us small timers do). I believe I make the best pickups for my customers. I certainly make the best I can; my customers are ALWAYS 100% happy (it's part of my guarantee), and I think the same is probably true of most of us.
I believe if we started making "stock models" and they were installed in guitars "factory", then there will be an increase in the number of people who just don't like "our pickups" because they are no longer tailored and they probably don't know anything else about us. It's got to happen...A "stock pickup" just can't suit everyone...
Not picking on you, now or originally, but you were the first to reply...
Maybe I have an overly idealistic view, maybe we don't all do our very best for our customers, but I like to think otherwise.
As for the vintage thing, I HATE that. I swear 90+% of the people have no idea what they are talking about. I've played MANY vintage guitars (not 100's but better than 50. I was in retail at one time, and I still have a small network...) and most of them sounded marginal or ok, of the few that sounded good (to my ears) most sounded good only at one setting. Very few were very good AND versatile. I've pretty much avoided the vintage market for many of those reasons, and the other things in my rant about fallacies and voodoo. I'm glad I have because the ones who do know something about vintage pickups usually know things like exactly how thick the forbon should be, if the edges of the forbon is "sharp" on the ends, exact height for each polepiece etc etc based upon information from a reference which is probably a conglomeration of numbers amassed from several samples. (i.e. they allow nothing for manufacturing tolerances etc even though they've been "averaged into" the reference numbers they're using) But, there IS money there...