When selling a guitar...

[emperor_black]

do you leave the original crappy pups on or your upgraded pups? :think:

Rather, when buying a guitar, are the chances higher that you'll buy a decent guitar because it has upgraded pups or will you buy it anyways thinking "the guitar is great, I'll replace the pups later"?

I plan on selling a guitar which came with EMG-HZ's. I have a SD JB/Jazz set which I can put in the guitar which are a 1000 times better than the crappy HZ's. Not sure if its worth the cost/effort to do so.

[Trem]

I took the EMGHZ that came out of my RR1...?
And they sold on the bay within a week, so there are people out there that like them i guess.. i would leave them in or offer one or the other in your auction, or however your going to sell it and keep the other set and sell or use them?


in short i would'nt bother putting a new set in just to sell it at first.

[Grandturk]

I only consider the base guitar when buying - as in, whatever crap pickups and shit wiring job you put in will be fixed/replaced.

I just sold my old Les Paul and I left the Fralins in it and gave the original pickups over. It wasn't worth my time to remove & sell the Fralins.

[emperor_black]

I took the EMGHZ that came out of my RR1...?
And they sold on the bay within a week, so there are people out there that like them i guess..

I know exactly what you mean! I sold a set of HZ's on the bay for almost $80 and it sold like hot cakes. And they sound like shit!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I leave the upgraded pickups unless they're hard to find or I think I'd use them again, when sellling. It can't hurt to help sell the guitar if they're at least better than the stockers that would be in the guitars most people would cross-shop against it.

When buying, I don't care. It's either right or it's not and since the pickups usually are a matter of personal taste and easily replaced, I don't give it that much thought, because I'm probably just going to slap a Duncan Custom TB5 or a DiMarzio Tone Zone in it anyway.

When you're talking about n00bs, it's different, because they may have to pay someone to install the pickups.

[missionguitars1]

I usually leave the old ones in there...especially if the newer pickups are ones you like and will use in another guitar...

[Carbuff]

Yeah, its a judgement call depending on the guitar I guess. If the guitar itself isnt really of any value then the upgraded pickups might not be worth leaving in. In something nice like an LP I could see leaving them in. Also, if its some uncommon brand or model that you happen to like it might not be such a great selling point for some other potential buyer. Then youre better of just saving them for your next project.

[DonP]

I don't sell enough guitars to answer this. But I will say you could probably make more money selling the guitar with cheap pickups and selling the expensive aftermarket pickups separately.

From a buying perspective, I prefer the original pickps.

I know exactly what you mean! I sold a set of HZ's on the bay for almost $80 and it sold like hot cakes. And they sound like shit!

PAF's in the 70's sounded like shit too.

FWIW I had a DXMG for 30 days and liked the HZs.

[emperor_black]

PAF's in the 70's sounded like shit too.

FWIW I had a DXMG for 30 days and liked the HZs.

I too had a DXMGT with EMG HZ's. There seems to be different types of HZ's and probably the ones in the DXMG's were the "better" kind? Those are the pups I eventually sold. There was a bidding war going on at the time and some "sell it to me off the eBay" emails too. :ROTF:

Its an ESP/LTD neck-thru guitar I'm talking about. I've decided that 3 Jacksons are more than enough guitar I can ask for and selling the odd-ball away! Anyways, there's a buyer who is interested and when I told him I took out the SD JB and replaced the stock HZ, he actually thanked me! :ROTF: But these HZ's sound really very bad. They have the o/p equivalent of single coils. Unless I wired them wrong! :ROTF:

[Trem]

I know exactly what you mean! I sold a set of HZ's on the bay for almost $80 and it sold like hot cakes. And they sound like shit!

Ironically they sound better than active EMG imo, i did a recording comparison, one with my jackson and one with my bernie, and the HZ sounded much better to me - but still crappy.

i just hate emgs all around, just shit tone.

[Axewielder]

I put the originals back in so the guitar has a "less molested" appearance!

[Jayster]

I keep all of the original equipment from a guitar, down to the shitty strap pins that come on most guitars. If I've done anything to the guitar, when selling I always include the original parts(and if asked will restore them, I will then keep my after market parts). Things like pick up rings, knobs, truss rod covers, etc ....

I also did not care for the EMGHZ's(but have heard from some friends that they sound better with the afterburner). A set of those came on my SLSMG and they were alright for cleans(not great), but distortion wise they just couldn't make me happy!

As for when I'm buying a guitar, as long as the seller is straight forward about any and all abnormalities then I'll usually buy with the intent to 'fix' it to my liking.

[atdguitars]

From a dealers perspective I don't pay more, or allow more on trades, for upgrades on guitars. Like GT said I pay for the base guitar and thats about it. If its got a set of SD hotrodded buckers I can guarantee they would rather have stock or a set of 59's or something when it comes to the retail side. If Epi's and such come in with upgrades I will normally put them back to stock and sell them as a baseline guitar. If the customer wants upgrades then I do the upgrades ala carte. I won't go out of my way to put something back to OEM but I usually have the right parts laying around from other upgrades to do the job with just labor involved. I see ads and sometimes wonder if the person is selling the guitar or the parts they threw on it.