A Very Important Question for Metal Players!

[Adam]

I am about to begin the R&D phase of my own guitar pickup company. My desire is to design passive pickups specifically for Metal applications.

I'm not looking to get rich or sell a billion pickups, and I'm not really trying to break into the Uber-Boutique, hand-wound-from-wire-extracted-from-the-wreckage-of-the-helicopter-that-killed-SRV, $250-a-pickup market either.

I just want to do something for myself, and for other people who love and play metal that hasn't been properly done before, and that is: offer well-made passive pickups designed and built by someone who knows the difference between the Carcass "Heartwork" tone and the ZW "Perry Mason" tone.

The only thing is that to get started doing it on a real scale I need to invest in some equipment, so I'd like to know if there's an interest here for something like that.

I apologize if this qualifies as spam - I don't have anything to sell yet - just looking for some input.

Thanks!

[Infernal Death]

Well i don't want to discourage you but i think there is quite a big enough selection for metal pickups. From active EMG's to Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan you can choose from so many pickups suitable for metal.
Personally i feel all my desires for pickups are already satisfied. But of course i can only talk for myself. Maybe others are still searching for their ultimate pickup. Whatever you do i wish you luck and success.

Flo

[GodOfRhythm]

I think it might be best to keep it at hobby level. Meaning: buy the tools you need one at a time, when you have the cash to spare. In the meanwhile you can read up / learn more and start experimenting with the tools you've got already.

Once you have all the tools, you can work on pups in your free time, as your hobby and perhaps start offering them for sale on a 'custom' or 'per client' basis.

That way you'll have literally zero risk + a whole lot of fun. I'd be very wary of trying to compete in a big market, such as that, especially with outside/third party investors.

[Adam]

Well Infernal, I'm going to have to disagree with you.

Sure, there are a lot of pickups that are "suitable" for metal, but I feel that most of them were not designed by someone who really had a feel for what specific needs today's metal players have.

Remember that most EMGs, DiMarzio and Duncan "distortion" pickups were designed in the 1970s! Back then people were playing through equipment that could not give them enough crunch or sustain for heavier music. The only answer was to slam the front of the amp with a super-high-output pickup. They had to give it huge output, rediculous bass or insane amounts of high end and just be grateful to hear distortion coming out.

Today's metal player exists in a completely different world in terms of amps and effects, but we're still primarily stuck using pickups that were designed to work with amps from 30 years ago. Now we have 5150's, Engl Powerballs, Bogner Uberschalls, Framus Cobras, and numerous other amps with more than enough muscle to supply the signal with overdrive, and our pickups could focus on other more subtle aspects of tonality that aren't necessarily addressed by the "distortion" pickups or the endless masses of PAF clones.

Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of pickups out there, even for metal tones, that I really like a lot. I just think that someone with ears tuned specifically for that kind of music might be able to come up with something that could work better for some people.

[Adam]

I think it might be best to keep it at hobby level. Meaning: buy the tools you need one at a time, when you have the cash to spare. In the meanwhile you can read up / learn more and start experimenting with the tools you've got already.

Once you have all the tools, you can work on pups in your free time, as your hobby and perhaps start offering them for sale on a 'custom' or 'per client' basis.

That way you'll have literally zero risk + a whole lot of fun. I'd be very wary of trying to compete in a big market, such as that, especially with outside/third party investors.

That's the plan entirely.

I have neither the resources nor the time to gear up for any kind of mass production, and I'm working with 100% my own money. I just wanted to know if people would be interested in the kind of pickups my ears are tuned to make.

[GodOfRhythm]

Oh! In that case, I'd definitly be interested after being able to check the sound of some of them out!

[MBreinin]

I love to try pickups, of course I don't know the difference between the two tunes you posted above, but I know some other metal.

Go for it..and keep the price around the same as a High Order or a DiMarzio.

I am still looking for the ultimate HEAVY pickup without going to an EMG, something uber tight.

Mike

[Adam]

Without getting into specifics, the prices are probably going to be somewhere around $60 - $80 US for basic humbucking designs. I'm also interested in supplying special controls to work in conjunction with certain pickup designs that will result in packages that cost a little more, but none of it will break anybody's bank.