Tonerider & irongear - what's the deal?

OilCityPickups

thomasw88 said:

I think you'll be fine with Irongear or Tonerider, their pickups are very good.

I've had around 30 sets of pickups from all the big boys and cheapy makers.      my conclusion is that 'better'  is subjective.

You haven't had any of mine :-)  and I'm not a big boy (well perhaps in certain departments). :-))

Adam_MD

TheGuitarWeasel;439629" said:

thomasw88 said:

I think you'll be fine with Irongear or Tonerider, their pickups are very good.

I've had around 30 sets of pickups from all the big boys and cheapy makers.      my conclusion is that 'better'  is subjective.





You haven't had any of mine :-)  and I'm not a big boy (well perhaps in certain departments). :-))

Your mouth Ash? Oh your heart? Ah must be your feet

littlethoughts

The axes R us telecaster pickups are very good, I've heard positive things about their strat pups as well. Might be worth a look.

ThePrettyDamned

moz91;439238" said:

Thought all the oil city HBs on the classifieds were bridge? I'd go for one new but I'm really trying to spend as little as poss!!
Inclined more towards irongear than tonerider I think, although the rocksong sounds decent...
Rolling mill for les Paul, Blues engine for tele maybe...
So much choice!! (

I don't think there will be a vast difference between the bridge and neck version of the same pickup. I very much doubt one would sound bad in he wrong position maybe ask @theguitarweasel?

Because one of those will be an awesome pickup.

daveyh

I have Irongear Steel Twins, Dirty Torque/Blues Engine, Hot Slag and Tonerider Alnico IIs. All of them are excellent. The Steel Twins in particular were lauded by a producer/muso of my acquiaintance who refused to believe they were a budget pickup.

I think the crux of it is the much more expensive hand wound pickups are considered to be much better, usually by those who have paid for those much more expensive ones.

Adam_MD

The other advantage with going to Oil City, Mojo, Bulldog etc is that they will wind you anything you like and they know what they're talking about. You don't have to take an off the shelf model if something else might suit you better.
The first set of humbuckers I had from Ash were almost perfect, I wanted to try an Alnico ii in the neck (usually my favourite) but it just didn't sound right in this guitar. So I spoke to Ash told him why it wasn't working, he gave me some suggestions, I sent it back to have some changes made and got it back less than a week later. You can't do that with an off the shelf chinese manufacturer.
The other big advantage (for me anyway) is having covered pickups with zebra coils. Why? Because they sound better and look cooler. Does it matter if I'm the only one who knows

OilCityPickups

I think it's horses for courses ... I (and the other UK makers) can't buy the parts and raw materials to make pickups for the price the Far Eastern ones are made for ... so in general we don't try to beat them on price. 

True, if somebody doesn't like the sound of one of my own products ... I'll modify it or swap it till they do. They are guaranteed for life ... and you can pick up the phone and talk to me pretty much anytime. I believe most of the smaller UK makers are like that.

Irongears and Toneriders are brilliant value for money ... end of story. But they are not meant to be a bespoke product ... so it's unfair on both categories of product to compare them. 

underdog

Can I just say that I love the way @TheGuitarWeasel deals with being a business owner on this forum. Speaking as someone who doesn't know him and has never bought one of his pickups (yet) I just love the way he never has a bad word to say about a competitor, always reasonable and gives great explinations without a sales pitch.

thomasw88

TheGuitarWeasel said:

thomasw88 said:

I think you'll be fine with Irongear or Tonerider, their pickups are very good.

I've had around 30 sets of pickups from all the big boys and cheapy makers.      my conclusion is that 'better'  is subjective.

You haven't had any of mine :-)  and I'm not a big boy (well perhaps in certain departments). :-))

Actually I have one of your strat pickups in the neck of my levinson blade guitars. Your pick ups are very nice!

Loobs

I had a Blues Engine in the neck of a LP. It was great!

Dave_Mc

underdog said:

Can I just say that I love the way @TheGuitarWeasle deals with being a business owner on this forum. Speaking as someone who doesn't know him and has never bought one of his pickups (yet) I just love the way he never has a bad word to say about a competitor, always reasonable and gives great explinations without a sales pitch.

+1

blueskunk

Iv said it before but...... We damn lucky to have these winder dudes who make damn fine , high quality pickups at such good honest prices.

Has anyone tried Ashs Cow T Ron or Mark Mojos Gold Foils ? Iv had both and can testify to how good they are -check em out.

ThePrettyDamned

blueskunk;440333" said:

Iv said it before but...... We damn lucky to have these winder dudes who make damn fine , high quality pickups at such good honest prices.

Has anyone tried Ashs Cow T Ron or Mark Mojos Gold Foils ? Iv had both and can testify to how good they are -check em out.

The cow-t-ron is an astonishing pickup.

First humbucker I'd tried that sounded completely different to pretty much any other humbucker I'd tried before it! Really cool thing.

Flanging_Fred

The only thing I didn't like with my iron gear Rolling Mill & Dirty Torque were the hook up wires, they seem quite thin and flimsy to me. Saying that they've not actually caused a problem and the pickups sound good.

siremoon

My experience of Irongear is not as positive. 

I bought a couple for an epi LP project guitar I got cheap from eBay..  The tone was ok and an improvement on what was in there before but nothing special.  The build quality was somewhat lacking.  Both had problems with the thread of the mountings - badly cut including at some wacky angles and in one case not cut at all.  When advised of these issues, the much lauded customer service from the supplier consisted of the email equivalent of a shoulder shrug.  I had to recut them all myself.  Since then both have gone horribly microphonic.

Perhaps I was unlucky but for my next project I went to Oil City and suffice to say that I won't be going back to Irongear.

imalone

underdog said:

Can I just say that I love the way @TheGuitarWeasle deals with being a business owner on this forum. Speaking as someone who doesn't know him and has never bought one of his pickups (yet) I just love the way he never has a bad word to say about a competitor, always reasonable and gives great explinations without a sales pitch.

I think theguitarweasle is Ash's French cousin who runs Huile Cité Pickups.

underdog

imalone;440641" said:

underdog said:

Can I just say that I love the way @TheGuitarWeasle deals with being a business owner on this forum. Speaking as someone who doesn't know him and has never bought one of his pickups (yet) I just love the way he never has a bad word to say about a competitor, always reasonable and gives great explinations without a sales pitch.





I think theguitarweasle is Ash's French cousin who runs Huile Cité Pickups.

The one time my phone doesn't auto correct

jaymenon

underdog said:

Can I just say that I love the way @TheGuitarWeasel deals with being a business owner on this forum. Speaking as someone who doesn't know him and has never bought one of his pickups (yet) I just love the way he never has a bad word to say about a competitor, always reasonable and gives great explinations without a sales pitch.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Here is one maker who always displays decency, generosity and class in his posts, especially when they involve other makers' pickups.

Very informative posts (though I think he's sort of withdrawn a bit from the forum), and doesn't make any attempt to 'push' his own products. From what I can see, plenty of other members here with first-hand personal experience of his pickups rate them very highly indeed...

rossi

So far I put Tonerider in a tele ,a Dot (rocksongs ) ,a PRS SE P90  semihollow and a strat .All sounded fine and were an immediate upgrade..

Johnnyseven

I've tried Tonerider alnico 2 & 4 classics in the neck of a tele and the Irongear Tesla Shark & Blues Engine in the same position on the same guitars. I much preferred the Irongears. Seemed to have a lot more clarity and much nicer overall tone.