Yeah, it seems like whatever guitar you stick it in it sounds sweet. Very smooth and punchy pickup. Really glad you like it. I've been playing for over 40 years and i'm not easy to please at all and I still can't believe the sound you can get out of a $45 pickup. Iconix rocks. Later, man
You are welcome. You'll like dealing with Don. He's a great guy and he will work very hard to make sure your pickups are right. Good luck with it and please let me know what you think if/when you get them installed.
Glad the review helped, man. Let me know how you like the pickup in your axe. I freakin love it in my son's guitar. Very solid and clear voice that has punch and character. Don't forget to adjust the height of the poles. Later
I just got them in. Very very PRO looking set of pups. The packaging was nice and included a set of instructions as well as a letter he typed up telling me how he would go about setting up these specific pups. Both packages and pickups have stickers that say what position and the exact specs. Very professional. Can't wait to get this trem routed out, the locking nut installed and a few odds and ends sorted so I can hear them. Baseplates are nickelsilver, not brass, too. Impressed so far. :)
Cool man. I'm kinda psyched myself after all the messages we swapped. Make sure you keep me posted and if you happen to follow Don's suggestions to the letter I'd like to know how he did in terms of nailing your sound. Thanks.
I'm mostly using a heavily modded Peavey 5150, so an amp that looks like a 5150, haha. They have a pretty saggy low end when driven to the level of saturation that I play with so that's where that low cut shines for me.
Hey man, you said the DF pup was 18K? What was the TBone? The TBone sounded radical with those harmonics, but I thought it was more of a vintage spec'd pup.
The T Bone measured 8.6k. Like I said, its not for metal, but it is able to voice a lot of harmonics well. Also my style of playing is geared towards drawing out a guitars naturally inherent harmonics. The T Bone is definately vintage spec'd. You didn't hear the harmonics like that in the old days because the amps of the day were not nearly as driven as the amps of today but pumping a vintage pup through todays amps gives them a whole new life. I love the 5150 sound as I am a huge Van Halen fan.
CONTINUATION: Kirk Hammett records A LOT with his 1958 V and 1960 Explorer. Both loaded with the original PAFs (7-10K). The output only has a nominal affect on harmonics which are produced soley with your hands. Amplifying them is easy, getting them out is whats hard. Many players today have their action so low that most of the natural harmonics get transfered to the frets instead of being allowed to ring out. Eddy V's Frankenstrat also was loaded with a PAF. No shortage of harmonics there.
First off let me say, great mustache. Second, I have a pair of Don's pups coming to me this week or next. I'm freakin psyched. Thanks for making the vid, I wish I could've heard it in person. :)
@bedofrazorsqwerty Hey, thanks man. Let me now how you like the pups from Iconix. I freakin love the one I put in that Peavy. You can tell from my video that it aint a heavy metal pup but you can also see that I'm old enough to remember what real PAF pickups sounded like and I gotta say the T Bone is the closest thing to it that I've heard. Perfect classic rock pickup and I love how it does not take over the guitar but rather brings out the guitar and the player. Let me know. Joe
@hansonsubdz Hehe. That's great news! Don's making me a custom pair. Double black screw poles, 18K bridge and a lower wind on the neck. He was great about figuring out what I wanted. I tried so hard in my first email to nail it down with lots of info, but he had even more questions and asked for some links to guitar sounds I'm after. Can't be more pleased with the attention I got and I'm sure the product won't disappoint. I'll vid reply this when my build is done in a month. It's for metal. :)
@bedofrazorsqwerty Can't wait to hear it. The construction of your pickups is similar to the Dirty Fingers that I have in my Explorer. Double screw poles, 18k output. High output analog pups tend to have a huge, loose low end and a ton of highs which is great for metal. Zeroing in the middle usually takes some time because these type of pups have such a small midrange but once you nail it it's sweet. I too was blown away by Don's attention and the pup I got was not custom. Keep me posted.
@hansonsubdz I told him what sort of EQ response I was looking for and he said he'd get me pup I'll love. It's a ceramic in the bridge so that helps too. Also, I don't use a tone pot in the same fashion as most. Instead of the appropriate capacitor for trimming highs, I trim the lows. This keeps any pickup very tight. Yeah, I could do two, but I have never come across a pup that needed the treble trimmed more than I can achieve in a tubescreamer type circuit. Btw, your family band is kickass!
That's interesting. I know that with the tone pot on 10 the capacitor does nothing therefore not cutting highs or lows. How do you get it to cut lows? The traditional approach has been to just bypass the tone pots/capacitor altogether. Many distortion pedals filter out lows so I assume the same capacitence would work in a guitar. Good choice with the ceramic at the bridge for metal. Thanks for the compliment. Those family vids are a couple of years old. Hoping to get some others posted soon.
@hansonsubdz Ah well, the same capacitor value from a pedal EQ is not going to be the same as what you'd stick in your guitar. It's a bit to go into, but the basics are the pot value and the capacitor value have to work together. Google search "passive bass cut guitar." The first page that comes up will explain it better than YouTube allows me to. It should be a thread on a guitarist forum titled The Tight Control. A dual pot could be used if you like both high and low cuts and hate hard modding
Your videos are great! The Hanson family band was absolutely amazing! Y'know I've toured with several bands professionally as the guitarist and you guys sounded better than most of the bands we've played with... NO JOKE! Great stuff. Also, the pick-up review was perfect. I'm sold. The next pick-up I need I'll be checking them out...
Hey Joe,
Just tried emailing you and it seems that your address is no longer vaild. Please send me new contact info...Don
dsmith003 8 months ago
Joe I put the T-bone in the neck of my epi paul...smooth and rude ...I love it thanks for turning me on to Iconix!!!!!!!!!!!!
RavenMadd9 9 months ago
Yeah, it seems like whatever guitar you stick it in it sounds sweet. Very smooth and punchy pickup. Really glad you like it. I've been playing for over 40 years and i'm not easy to please at all and I still can't believe the sound you can get out of a $45 pickup. Iconix rocks. Later, man
hansonsubdz 9 months ago
Thank you Sir, for this review. I just emailed Don. Really looking forward to trying his pickups out.
ayunana2103 9 months ago
You are welcome. You'll like dealing with Don. He's a great guy and he will work very hard to make sure your pickups are right. Good luck with it and please let me know what you think if/when you get them installed.
hansonsubdz 9 months ago
cool I'm buying one off e-bay ....your review sealed the deal
RavenMadd9 9 months ago
Glad the review helped, man. Let me know how you like the pickup in your axe. I freakin love it in my son's guitar. Very solid and clear voice that has punch and character. Don't forget to adjust the height of the poles. Later
hansonsubdz 9 months ago
@hansonsubdz .....Don is a really cool guy ...got a neck T-Bone .......
RavenMadd9 9 months ago
I just got them in. Very very PRO looking set of pups. The packaging was nice and included a set of instructions as well as a letter he typed up telling me how he would go about setting up these specific pups. Both packages and pickups have stickers that say what position and the exact specs. Very professional. Can't wait to get this trem routed out, the locking nut installed and a few odds and ends sorted so I can hear them. Baseplates are nickelsilver, not brass, too. Impressed so far. :)
bedofrazorsqwerty 9 months ago
Cool man. I'm kinda psyched myself after all the messages we swapped. Make sure you keep me posted and if you happen to follow Don's suggestions to the letter I'd like to know how he did in terms of nailing your sound. Thanks.
hansonsubdz 9 months ago
I'm mostly using a heavily modded Peavey 5150, so an amp that looks like a 5150, haha. They have a pretty saggy low end when driven to the level of saturation that I play with so that's where that low cut shines for me.
Hey man, you said the DF pup was 18K? What was the TBone? The TBone sounded radical with those harmonics, but I thought it was more of a vintage spec'd pup.
bedofrazorsqwerty 10 months ago
The T Bone measured 8.6k. Like I said, its not for metal, but it is able to voice a lot of harmonics well. Also my style of playing is geared towards drawing out a guitars naturally inherent harmonics. The T Bone is definately vintage spec'd. You didn't hear the harmonics like that in the old days because the amps of the day were not nearly as driven as the amps of today but pumping a vintage pup through todays amps gives them a whole new life. I love the 5150 sound as I am a huge Van Halen fan.
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
CONTINUATION: Kirk Hammett records A LOT with his 1958 V and 1960 Explorer. Both loaded with the original PAFs (7-10K). The output only has a nominal affect on harmonics which are produced soley with your hands. Amplifying them is easy, getting them out is whats hard. Many players today have their action so low that most of the natural harmonics get transfered to the frets instead of being allowed to ring out. Eddy V's Frankenstrat also was loaded with a PAF. No shortage of harmonics there.
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
First off let me say, great mustache. Second, I have a pair of Don's pups coming to me this week or next. I'm freakin psyched. Thanks for making the vid, I wish I could've heard it in person. :)
bedofrazorsqwerty 10 months ago
@bedofrazorsqwerty Hey, thanks man. Let me now how you like the pups from Iconix. I freakin love the one I put in that Peavy. You can tell from my video that it aint a heavy metal pup but you can also see that I'm old enough to remember what real PAF pickups sounded like and I gotta say the T Bone is the closest thing to it that I've heard. Perfect classic rock pickup and I love how it does not take over the guitar but rather brings out the guitar and the player. Let me know. Joe
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
@hansonsubdz Hehe. That's great news! Don's making me a custom pair. Double black screw poles, 18K bridge and a lower wind on the neck. He was great about figuring out what I wanted. I tried so hard in my first email to nail it down with lots of info, but he had even more questions and asked for some links to guitar sounds I'm after. Can't be more pleased with the attention I got and I'm sure the product won't disappoint. I'll vid reply this when my build is done in a month. It's for metal. :)
bedofrazorsqwerty 10 months ago
@bedofrazorsqwerty Can't wait to hear it. The construction of your pickups is similar to the Dirty Fingers that I have in my Explorer. Double screw poles, 18k output. High output analog pups tend to have a huge, loose low end and a ton of highs which is great for metal. Zeroing in the middle usually takes some time because these type of pups have such a small midrange but once you nail it it's sweet. I too was blown away by Don's attention and the pup I got was not custom. Keep me posted.
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
@hansonsubdz I told him what sort of EQ response I was looking for and he said he'd get me pup I'll love. It's a ceramic in the bridge so that helps too. Also, I don't use a tone pot in the same fashion as most. Instead of the appropriate capacitor for trimming highs, I trim the lows. This keeps any pickup very tight. Yeah, I could do two, but I have never come across a pup that needed the treble trimmed more than I can achieve in a tubescreamer type circuit. Btw, your family band is kickass!
bedofrazorsqwerty 10 months ago
That's interesting. I know that with the tone pot on 10 the capacitor does nothing therefore not cutting highs or lows. How do you get it to cut lows? The traditional approach has been to just bypass the tone pots/capacitor altogether. Many distortion pedals filter out lows so I assume the same capacitence would work in a guitar. Good choice with the ceramic at the bridge for metal. Thanks for the compliment. Those family vids are a couple of years old. Hoping to get some others posted soon.
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
@hansonsubdz Ah well, the same capacitor value from a pedal EQ is not going to be the same as what you'd stick in your guitar. It's a bit to go into, but the basics are the pot value and the capacitor value have to work together. Google search "passive bass cut guitar." The first page that comes up will explain it better than YouTube allows me to. It should be a thread on a guitarist forum titled The Tight Control. A dual pot could be used if you like both high and low cuts and hate hard modding
bedofrazorsqwerty 10 months ago
Thanks, man. I'm going to look into it. I might be old but I'm always on the prowl for tone and it sounds interesting. What amps do you use?
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
You're a guitar expert, Joe.
bubses 10 months ago
I got the following comment in an email from my friend Mike Didanato so I posted it here.
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
Your videos are great! The Hanson family band was absolutely amazing! Y'know I've toured with several bands professionally as the guitarist and you guys sounded better than most of the bands we've played with... NO JOKE! Great stuff. Also, the pick-up review was perfect. I'm sold. The next pick-up I need I'll be checking them out...
hansonsubdz 10 months ago
brilliant review of Iconix pickup, wish I played the guitar to experience in person.
davidwhitfield 10 months ago