Pickup Question from Acoustic player

[Mikey Green]

Hey folks: this question does NOT involve a musical instrument build, so it may not qualify for posting. If it doesn't, Mr/Mrs moderator, I apologize and you may feel free to delete it. Otherwise, if anybody in this section can help with a guitar pickup question, I'd appreciate your help and information.

To cut to the chase, I'm just needing to know what people mean when they refer to "hot" pickups. The background is that I've played acoustic and classical guitar for most of my life and am just now starting to consider an electric guitar. I did have a Les Paul Studio for awhile, and traded it in for my current classical guitar, a Takamine electric classical cutaway. I'm not wanting to get rid of the classical, but am considering getting another Les Paul.

This time, it will have to be an Epiphone, not a Gibson, and I'll go from there. I've heard that I can slowly replace pickups with the Gibsons and possibly work myself up to something approaching a Gibson, although it won't be exactly the same, but it won't cost as much either. I don't have the skills or patience to build a guitar like you folks do, but I keep reading about people who have their guitars up for sale with "hot" pickups replacing the original pickups.

I think technically, I might be approaching "old man" status and am not that interested in seeing how much distortion I can create out of a pickup, although I don't mind distortion on an occasional basis. I'm more inclined to appreciate a clean sound, though, so if by "hot", someone means distorted and staticky (is that a word?), I'm not interested. If they mean "loud", I can handle that. I'm not opposed to effects, distortion, volume, etc, but I like "clean", too. Can I get "clean" with "hot" pickups? Hope this makes sense to everyone. If any questions or clarification needed, please let me know.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Mark Kornell]

You can probably get a better answer by looking on guitar forums, but I'll try to help...

A "hot" pickup is one that sends a higher-voltage signal out of the guitar, in reference to whatever pickup it is being compared to. Usually the reference is a stock or vintage pickup.

A hotter pickup, in and of itself, doesn't mean distortion. The signal coming from the guitar is quite clean. But a hotter signal is a higher voltage signal and depending on how the amp is designed and how the knobs are set, the higher voltage can be used to overdrive the circuitry more easily.

Tonally, a hotter pickup will have increased lows and kids, but less highs. This is a matter of small degrees, and highly dependent on pickup specifics.

So to answer your question specifically - hot does not equal distortion. It doesn't even mean louder, necessarily. It means a higher voltage signal to begin your signal chain. The resulting effect on your sound is pretty specific to your setup and any adjustments you make.

Personally, I like a pickup somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. I find the vintage output pickups to be lacking in low end definition, while the really hot pickups aren't very versatile. I play a wide range of genres and find that a quality pickup with a middle-of-the-pack output works well.

If you go down the road of pickup replacement, you don't have to use Gibson pickups. The Gibson pickups are quite good, but there are a number of pickup makers putting out very high quality pickups that are every bit as good plus offer more selection in terms of resulting sound.

[Mikey Green]

Thanks Mark! Insomnia came over to visit with me tonight so i thought I'd check back in on this site while I'm waiting for him to leave. Now I think I understand, at least enough to wing my way through verbal communication with the younger generation of "Tim Allens" whose solution is to re-wire everything!!]

I was told in my horse-traing years never to buy a horse based on its color. i'm beginning to see some similarities. My cousin is in the music business in Nashville, playing BOTH kinds of music, Country AND Western. Whenever I've been with him and we head into a guitar shop, I always look for the pretty wood and binding, and don't ignore the hardware since my Les Paul had all gold hardware on it and I thought it looked nicer than regular chrome.

My cousin, on the other hand, will pull out a guitar with most of thee finish worn off of it, maybe a hole in the guitar body like Willie Nelson's or Tommy Emmanuel, sits down and proceeds to tear them to pieces, figuratively speaking. Hesays the old ones just speak to his soul.

You never know. One man's junk is another man's treasure.....Thanks again for thee quick reply. Now I can make some decisions based on this information.

[george wilson]

I play clean,and my favorite pickups are Gretsch Filtertrons. They are less powerful(less hot,if you will) than Gibson humbuckers since their coils are smaller. They give beautiful highs and plenty of bass. I have never been concerned with hotter pickups that can produce distortion more easily. With all the effects pedals available today,I can't see why that would be an issue anyway. But I am not an expert on playing distorted anyway.

Gibson had thinner pickups on their Les Paul,or at least one model of it back in the 70's,IIRC. They were not as wide as regular humbuckers,and they produced a tonality similar to the Filtertrons. The Gibson Johnny Smith pickup is also a smaller gibson pickup that has a nice tone. Sometimes they are mounted on the end of the fingerboard of arch top guitars. I have one of those myself.

[Shawn Pixley]

Pickups are a mix aof alchemy and science. When most people talk about swapping out the pickups in Epiphone to turn. It into a Gibson, they are usually a reference to the horrible opinion most hold on epiphone Pickups (produced to a price point). The Epi pickups might or might not be as hot as you want or need. But for my opinion they are very muddy.

I hesitate offering any real opinions around pickups without knowing your amp and what specific sound you like or want. The Lollar and the Seymour Duncan sites have goood sound clips (clean, cranked, and overdriven). But they are limited by your PC's sound.

I play clean, gritty to overdriven

[Mikey Green]

Sorry I've been away for awhile. To answer your question, Shawn, I only have a Vox Valvetronic AD 1000VT. It's a weird mixture of an amp for a classical guitar, but that amp was really bought for my stepson's electric guitar. He's out of the house now, and has left that guitar behind, so I'll still occasionally fiddle around with it. As to the sound I want, I generally prefer clean, but have been known to play around and distort the classical, just for the fun of it. Interesting sound, and not horrible sounding in moderation. Depends on what song I'm playing.

Thanks, guys, for all your help. I think I have a little more handle on what they're referring to now.