Hand made Croatian pickups anyone? (Q Pickups)

equalsql

Q Pickups:
I found this interesting range on eBay.. Lots of good reviews too. 
Looks promising for anyone on a budget.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/q_pickups/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

flying_pie

My word. There's a 25k Alnico V Tele bridge pickup for around £40. I'm almost tempted to buy that purely out of curiosity 

vale

they look pretty tasty. cool 'heavy industrial' vibe i quite like. are the reviews you are talking about just the ebay ones, or have they been covered by any mags or sites here? i'd like to hear more.

on a random aside, i think that side of europe is going to become very important over the next decade or two. the smaller & smarter 'little players' freed up with the post wall balkanisation of the east are now coming of age & (from all reports i hear) buzzing with potential.

literally the most brilliant person i know under 30 has made her home in sofia, bulgaria, after doing a huge europe wide tour in her mid-20s. she could have gone anywhere (well qualified) & chose there.
she desribes sofia as 'everything she thought life would be like in the uk when she was in her teens, but totally failed to deliver once she actually got into it (shitty jobs, unaffordable housing, general class-locked & inward-looking attitude of place).
the only downside she ever reports is that she's a veggie & they are a bit meaty.

so if you are young & not settled here yet, maybe put that side of europe on your to-do list.

ps. not wanting to get into a full-on big brexit sh*t-slinging contest, just saying that if you are young & struggling here, it's there. maybe check it out.

equalsql

Only eBay reviews at the moment @vale, but the builder seems to be taking a lot of effort to be vintage correct. Check out the Firebird pickups for instance.

telehack

He makes a "Gilmour" Esquire pickup which I thought looked interesting, but alas no clips. A few soundclips would go a long way towards selling his stuff.

vale

equalsql said:

Only eBay reviews at the moment @vale, but the builder seems to be taking a lot of effort to be vintage correct. Check out the Firebird pickups for instance.

i have to say i am never entirely sure what to make of ebay reviews or amazon reviews, as they are potentially open to manipulation when the numbers are low. reviewmeta & sites like that can help decode genuine from hyped. i am just not sure.

maybe that leaves makers at the mercy of whichever magazine or established outlet want to review them ('wants to review' too often coming with strings, in form of discounts, etc). unfair as little makers can't compete with big makers in offering discounts for review space.
but hopefully responsible broadminded mag/outles will balance out their 'sponsored reviews' with unsponsored ones, and these might get a look in.

i agree re the look and specs. cool vintage workshop vibe to them. & pricing seems amazing if spec & performance add up.

Flink_Poyd

http://www.qpickups.com/

equalsql

So... I took a punt and decided to buy some vintage correct pick-ups for my recently acquired 2013 Gibson Firebird V.
I found the modern Gibson pickups to be too powerful.. i.e tons of grunt for driving the amp hard but not in the least subtle.

The picks-ups took about just over a week to arrive in a very simple brown padded envelope. Nothing fancy at all in terms of presentation, just as basic as it comes, each pup within the envelope in its own padded envelope and and a third envelope containing the cover screws and springs. So initially I was a touch underwhelmed.. especially compared to the presentation of the OX4 pickups I purchased recently  for my Tokai LS160. The pups however looked very well constructed and I could see the maple spacers installed as per the original Gibson specs so things looked promising.

Thanks to me breaking my shoulder, installation was put on hold for about a month.. but once my right arm was working at some sort of basic level I could no longer put off installing the pickups.
Installation was a breeze, my only criticism  if any, being that the cable lengths are down to the wire for fitting in a Firebird, there is no extra should you be looking to install in a customised guitar. The cable is of the traditional screened cloth push-back insulation type, so no need to strip the end and no fear of the insulation melting when soldering.

The DCR of the pickups is much lower than the Gibson original: 7K for the bridge and 6.2K for the neck.

So what do they sound like?

Stunning... just incredible. The bridge pickup is sharp and aggressive without being too bright and the neck pup is incredibly warm and articulate. The middle position is just sublime with both pickups working together beautifully. I am so feckin impressed I cannot tell you. Even my wife, who is immune to my guitar antics walked in whilst I was playing today and commented on how 'full and smooth' the Firebird sounded. She's never done that before!

IMHO these are fabulous pickups at an amazing price. I don't want to distract from our legion of great UK pickups makers, but if you are after full vintage spec pups at a great price, with no frills, then I can recommend these QPickups without reservation.

thebreeze

They’ll beat the English ones.  They gain strength in the second half of the gig.

interstellar

just ordered a Firebird pickup

Megii

Another Croatian pickup maker:

http://www.edispickups.com/ - I have a set of his vintage spec strat pickups on the way, similar prices to the Q pickups chap.

rossi

Rapidly thinking all pickups are great if you turn a few knobs .

flying_pie

rossi said:

Rapidly thinking all pickups are great if you turn a few knobs .

I came to the conclusion a while back that there are a plethora of great pickup makers and these days we're spoiled for choice 

equalsql

rossi said:

Rapidly thinking all pickups are great if you turn a few knobs .

And therein lies the dilemma... 

Fullmoon1971

I have a set of his firebird pickups in my 2017 Firebird T, a set of his PAF Alikes and also his Nocaster esquire A3 bridge pickup in a couple of builds. I've just a set of the Keith Richards setup. I would recommend his pickups to anyone. All the ones I've tried have been top notch but his firebird units are out of this world, took my 2017 T from sounding almost SG-ish to that crystal clear sound everyone thinks of with firebirds.

some pictures of the construction of his firebird units.

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/76319442@N04/26349279287/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76319442@N04/26349279877/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76319442@N04/26349276697/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76319442@N04/26349272997/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76319442@N04/26349270147/in/dateposted-public/

MattNovak

I just ordered and paid for a hot (20k!!) Tele bridge pickup... only to be refunded as they no longer ship to the UK from Croatia.

Dammit.  

zedhex

I have a 'Q pickups' bridge pickup on my parts caster tele. It sounds okay, but I've never been all that impressed by it. I'm thinking of pulling it out and putting in a spare Stratocaster bridge pickup I have lying around

equalsql

MattNovak said:

I just ordered and paid for a hot (20k!!) Tele bridge pickup... only to be refunded as they no longer ship to the UK from Croatia.

Dammit.  

Did they give a reason? Just wondering if it's due to the Covid situation at the moment.

earwighoney

equalsql said:

MattNovak said:

I just ordered and paid for a hot (20k!!) Tele bridge pickup... only to be refunded as they no longer ship to the UK from Croatia.

Dammit.  

Did they give a reason? Just wondering if it's due to the Covid situation at the moment.

https://www.facebook.com/qpickups/posts/1901026730031279

Due to pandemic restrictions and reduced number of flights our postal service is not able to ship to the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and some other countries. Here is the link from Croatia post with the list of countries that we can ship to at the moment:https://www.posta.hr/default.aspx?id=8304

equalsql

earwighoney said:

equalsql said:

MattNovak said:

I just ordered and paid for a hot (20k!!) Tele bridge pickup... only to be refunded as they no longer ship to the UK from Croatia.

Dammit.  

Did they give a reason? Just wondering if it's due to the Covid situation at the moment.

https://www.facebook.com/qpickups/posts/1901026730031279

Due to pandemic restrictions and reduced number of flights our postal service is not able to ship to the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and some other countries. Here is the link from Croatia post with the list of countries that we can ship to at the moment:

https://www.posta.hr/default.aspx?id=8304

Thanks for that info.. looks like I'm gonna have to put my pick-up order on hold

rze99

Last year I ordered a Nocaster style Tele bridge from Q for my Eaquier build. Absolutely lovely. First class pickup and service. Buy with confidence.