Pickup TEST: PAF, JB, ToneZone and Evolution comparision

[hihowareyouitsme]

what is the song you play at 2:00?

[rafport]

@hihowareyouitsme i was just improvising, maybe it seem a song but i really don't know. Thanks for post!

[hihowareyouitsme]

@rafport Then I'm amazed.... Have you written any songs?

[TheMichaelsnumber1]

Are the strats actually Fenders or are they a creation of your own. They look and sound awesome.

[rafport]

@TheMichaelsnumber1 thank you, no they're not Fender. The Tone Zone one is an SX (or was just the wood still live now, anything else is mounted by me) and the Evolution one is a BaCH (modded too now, but less than the SX). Both are cheap brands, and both play nicely, even if BaCH is FAR better even without changing all hardware. Bye!

[MemorymanDL]

That is a wicked looking strat man! and tasty playing to match.

[rafport]

@MemorymanDL thank you

[alecr666x]

First = evolution, second = tone zone, third = jb, last = wilkinson.Just my opinion, we all like different sounds thank god.

[GpGx9955]

in the guitar with the evolution in bridge, ehat pickups do you use in middle and neck position?

[Chaif15Let]

Those Wilkinson pickups just ROCK!!!

[GuillermoSmyser]

Tone is in the "fingers" but it's in the brain too; in the sense that it's just as much how you play.

I used to think "tone in the fingers" meant you had a tone and couldn't do anything about it. But you can change how you play. Guthrie Govan explains this well if you look for the videos.

[anewgift4u]

Hands down the Wilkenson PAF pick-up dominated the field. Much more robust and full, not so many spikes but with a much more balanced roll off and less bite. More frequencies represented equally in my opinion. Very Classic rock sounding in the biggest sense. The tone zone tried to get close, but then again differernt guitars.

[givemeajackson]

wow, that spalt maple strat is a beauty! what model is that?

[mankasban]

thanks for the trouble bro but I got EVO on two guitars yet to install Tone Zone on another guitar... :)

[sokas]

Great video. It proofs my theory that 80% of the TONE are in YOUR FINGERS!

[rafport]

@sokas sure your right, i think even more than 80%. anyway it is a complex series of elements, changing just a part is useful to understand (in my vid is less evident than it seem in real, maybe i'll do something clearer in future) but a real tone is a mix of various things, so guitar+pickup+amp+mic and so on and just a change of pickup can not show dramatic difference in recording, maybe in feeling when playing but as you said, you will ear more for sure a different hand than a different pickup

[MeltdownNuclear]

JB Papa

[LostRiderIbanez]

only tone zone ;)

[skotty92]

jeff beck sounded the best on high gain settings, medium... tone zone or jb, wilkinson sounded cheap from time to time...

[maxivai]

tone zone is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rickinch21]

JB and Evo for me !

[TiboukMusiChannel]

As you said in the description, pretty hard to see the real difference because they're all different guitars...but anyway thanks for your vid

[rafport]

@TiboukMusiChannel tone is a complex mix of elements, some are evident when playing but not so clear just listening, some are enhanced with a particular mix of amp/pickup/woods/effects and some not. I tried this vid but i understand differences can be listened are very small, "live" differences are greater. I'm thinking about find a way to do a similiar try with a better result

[cikicrocus]

I liked the Tone Zone...those chords are sounding like you are playing on arena with the tone zone.

[ecgedsel]

the lick at 2:48 is a slash lick :P

[rafport]

@ecgedsel i'm just improvisating :)

[Kingddd333]

On "Clean", I'd say... well they all sounded harsh on that setting but jb was the harshest with paf the least.

[BruisedEyeSockets]

Your clean tone isn't even close to clean.

[Jasaxos]

The Les Paul was the the most controlled

Abdvi like you sunburstish guitar the most.

What is it

[rafport]

@Jasaxos it is a BaCH Les Paul

[instrumentalist28]

evolution all the way!!!!!

[92stone]

Cool i use the Wilkinson Open coil Paf great pickup,

[CapnPuff69]

@FromOutsideTheBox He uses a JB

[WutangClan4LiF3]

@FromOutsideTheBox evolution pickups = watch your moves . Try to imagine As the pickup which will get any " smart ass " move that you will do . Evolution is the Big brother of pickups lol watch your mistakes ;p

[instrumentalist28]

@WutangClan4LiF3 i know!!! i got some, and it don't lie if you make a small noise error

[squirttilithurts]

JB sounds the best for what I would like...

[Kingddd333]

JB shines in soloing that's for sure

[Kingddd333]

@Kingddd333 But that's where it ends in my opinion lol. If I wasn't selling my ec later, I'd probably change it to a custom 5 or just a 59.

[rafport]

@FromOutsideTheBox try to discover the exact model. anyway tone depends from lot of elements, and maybe same pickup on different guitar and amp play in different ways, and different pickup can seem similiar. but the better way is to try to use similiar hardware. thanks for apreciating my channel :)

[rafport]

@FromOutsideTheBox unfortunately i don't know his pickups, but i guess you can find searching in some forum of he has a own homepage (usually guitarist if endorsed say to everyone what stuff they mount :D) or if he use a guitar of a brand you can seek for his model and read the specs (and woods and measures, they change the tone too). Evolution bridge is a very nice pickup, but is not for anyone in my opinion so can be good or can be a bit acid and mid cutted. where you should mount it?

[Micker97]

Cool video! Im kinda leaning toward the JB to put in my American Standard HSS. strat.

[rafport]

@Micker97 JB is a great pickup, and work fine with alder and a strat. is enough brillant to be balanced with strat singles, is quite hot near to strings and quite soft far so you can put choose (i prefer hotter and compressed, but it really depends), play nice spitted. anyway any pickups has his own tone. if you need a jb with more bass presence you can consider the dimarzio at1 that is a copy of a JB (timmons use jb from a long time but is dimarzio endorser) with a renforced bass response.

[Micker97]

@rafport Thanks for the help bro. Its funny you bring up Timmons because i "LOVE" that guys tone. I have a maple neck on my stat so it tends to be on the bright side ( which i like ) so you think the JB will work out? This video is very helpfull. I appreciate you posting it with the same riff and such cause you can definetly tell the tonal differance's. We all know there are other factors involved with the sound such as woods, strings, body styles, but you did a good job. Keep up the good work.

[rafport]

@Micker97 jb will be very good (and at1 at same, they are very similiar). you can correct the tone quite easily, for example mantaining the 250k pots good for single coil ti will "eat" part of high frequencies of an humbucker and should results in a darker tone. is not same to have more bass but it can be very good, a guitar need to be balanced. it is difficult match in a perfect way (and perfect is perfect for someone) at first attempt, but step after step... :) bye!

[blazer551]

so the evo would provide good balance to my ibanez i guess since its made of mahogany :D

Thnx for the reply

[blazer551]

whats the type of wood used on the evo pickup guitar?

i have the ibanez s420 with mahogany, wt do u think?

[rafport]

@blazer551 the evo pickup is on a alder body with maple top. evolution is quite brite pickup, with strong midrange, i think it can be mounted in various solution except too bright woods (like ash for example, the guitar with tonezone is in ash with maple neck and is VERY bright, i mount tonezone which is fat and with very strong basses to balance it)

[tdag100]

the jb tone zone and evolution had a fair comparison but for the PAF you forgot to consider the variable of the tone of woods the les paul is made of mahogany which is a much denser wood than that associated with the makes of strats swamp ash, ash, basswood etc.

[rafport]

@tdag100 you right, different pickups should be tried on same guitar but it really can be diffcult and long for me unsolder all my guitars just to do this vid. i simply compare different guitars with different pickups on some common tone and pattern. thanks for post on my video!

[tdag100]

@rafport no problem i understand about not unsoldering everything just for a video cause thatd be goin waayyyy out of the way to make the video and good video by the way

[00DirectorsCut00]

tutti bei pick up ognuno con le sue sfumature.. belli ciao :)

[rafport]

@00DirectorsCut00 grazie della visita ciao!

[resington]

gud comparison

[petrochemicals4u]

Is this the same SX ash strat you put the American Standard Pickups with the Pearl pickguard in ???

[rafport]

@petrochemicals4u sure, and just now the sx is different again from this video :)

[petrochemicals4u]

@rafport  sweet

[Stratboy999]

Really good video. Thanks for posting this, a really helpful vid.

[rafport]

@Stratboy999 thank you!

[Poldo77miticu]

io alla fine ho trovato un buon compromesso utilizzando questi registratori digitali nuovi con microfono a condensatore....Nello specifico utilizzo il microBR boss con il microfono a condensatore stereo aggiuntivo cattura molto molto bene...

E' che non ho un cavolo di tempo di mettermi a registrare....

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu immagino. io di fatto buona parte delle ore che dedico alla chitarra sono dopo l'orario di lavoro, e spesso non posso fare casino (niente insonorizzazione) magari investendo qualcosa in attrezzatura (ho il classico shure sm57 mi sembra) e facendo prove senza dover smontare tutto ogni volta (e devo farlo invece) arriverei a risultati rispettabili con gli ampli "veri". il pod lo uso solo in cuffia, registro digitale via USB, è di una impagabile comodità e il risultato non è male

[Poldo77miticu]

belle chitarre....peccato che usi il pod per registrare...le differenze tra i vari pickup e le chitarre sono molto ridotte...sembra che utilizzi quasi quasi sempre la stessa...

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu effettivamente la differenza sentita la registrazione si percepisce poco, il che è un po frustrante visto che ci ho perso un po di tempo per creare il video e suonare tutte le cose e poi rimontarle. registrare da un vero ampli è fattibile, ma richiede un certo tanto di lavoro con vari inconvenienti in termine di disturbo per i vicini, di orari, ed è più oneroso da farsi. comunuque ad esempio nel sito della seymour duncan, che ha mezzi ben diversi dai miei, ascoltando i

[Poldo77miticu]

@rafport bhe chiaro...infatti è veramente un peccato...sti simulatori.....bah!!

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu ho diversi ampli a valvole ma francamente non riesco ad ottenere i suoni che sento dal vivo quando registro, ho un sacco di complicazoni in più senza effettivi vantaggi. lungi da me aprire diatribe, preferisco di gran lunga il suono di ampli vero che però è una cosa diversa da cosa ti viene effettivamente in una incisione, specie da cosa viene a me con i miei mezzi :) ma vedo che anche tra i professionisti per la registrazione sempre più spesso si ricorre al modeling.

[Poldo77miticu]

@rafport bhe il modelling ti da la possibilità di avere con pochi soldi ottimi risultati ...basti pensare a cosa si può fare con amplitube e similari e una schedina interfaccia USB stile behringer :-)....Il discorso è che 2 chitarre diverse anche con pick up simili devono suonare diverse nelle stesse mani di chi le suona almeno questo è un mio parere personale...se suonano uguali allora non stanno suonando loro!!:-). Cmq complimenti bellissimo lavoro per quello ritengo sia un peccato!! ciao

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu sicuramente, però non è solo un problema di soldi, è proprio una questione di comodità, potresti avere attrezzatura di primo livello e non riuscire per competenza, per acustica, per tempo o per "buon vicinato" ad ottenere un suono migliore o altrettanto buono. ogni pickup suona diverso, anche due chitarre uguali di solito hanno delle differenze acustiche, e provandole dal vivo (anche col pod o con qualsiasi altra cosa) è indiscutibile. quello che si sente in una registrazione

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu tuttavia è qualcosa di diverso, che può anche sembrare migliore (è piu facile rovinarlo tuttavia :D) dell'amplificatore ma di sicuro ha molte meno informazioni, meno dinamica e meno sfumature di quello che l'orecchio o le dita percepiscono di fronte al vero amplificatore. la differenza enorme che ci si aspetta spesso in registrazione è una sfumatura. mentre suonavo per il video, la sentivo benissimo la differenza tra le chitarre ma convengo che sentito così si noti assai poco...

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu pattern dei pickuo a confronto, spesso la differenza è così poca da essere quasi impercettibile, se non da pickup smaccatamente differenti e questo con ampli veri, microfonaggio professionale e tutto. diciamo che è anche una cosa di insieme, di pickup che si mischia a tutta una serie di componentistica ad hoc, cambiando solo uno dei termini continua a sentirsi il tocco ma non si stravolge totalmente (non con un tipo di prodotto almeno simile). per questo quando si vedono i

[rafport]

@Poldo77miticu sample di qualche prodotto fatte da professionisti ne vengono fuori suoni assurdi che in realtà dipendono dalle mani e da tutto il contesto piuttosto che dal pezzo reclamizzato, probabilmente un altra cosa analoga che non sia di infimo livello suonerebbe in modo assai simile. suonando la differenza è più spiccata, ma all'ascolto (e non sono molto sicuro che microfonando un ampli vero ci sia grande differenza) molte sfumature si perdono. comunque se mi ricapita ci riprovo :)