IronGear pickups

BillDL · June 2022

I've had a couple of hot slags once. It was a long time ago and I was young and energetic. These days I don't think I could keep up with one, let alone two

mikeyrob73 · June 2022

if its a good set of VFM pickups your looking for i can recommend the Old Timers from @Alegree ;
i just bought a set of the P90s and they are excellent

bertie · June 2022

lysander said:

Has anyone got experience of the rolling overwound ?

yes, dreadful. Very harsh and quite sterile, completely lacking in any dynamics. Did not like having the volume rolled back took it straight out and sold it

I guess they'd be fine if you were playing nothing but 100% cranked till it bleeds metal power chords, anything else - forget it

Had two Iron Gears, - there other was a tele pickup, both been dire

joetele · June 2022

Mostly good experience with Irongears - the Alchemist P90s in my JM are wonderful and have helped make it my all time favourite guitar. The Steel Foundry overwounds I put in my Tele were fantastic - better than the Player Tele pickups for my money. I had a Tesla Shark and a Metal....something? in my Mustang but I couldn't get on with them - they've been replaced by some unidentified humbuckers I got from @Slimbert and they've really made the guitar.

I also installed a HSS set of Irongears in my brother in law's Pacifica and they're really nice stratty pickups.

So overall I think the Irongears are very good for the money. For £35ish each you really can't go wrong.

roberty · June 2022

mikeyrob73 said:

if its a good set of VFM pickups your looking for i can recommend the Old Timers from @Alegree ;
i just bought a set of the P90s and they are excellent

The Old Timers seem to be priced at what Iron Gear and Tonerider used to be

I just noticed they have a JB/Jazz ish set in the Old Timer range (Speedster). I've learnt that magnet, DCR and wire gauge only tell part of the story. The wind type, wire type and coil offset have a big impact too. Some HBs have deeper coils. You can't predict what a pickup will sound like by its specs, but you can make some basic assumptions (eg 16k is not going to be a traditional sound)

Stevepage · June 2022

I quite like the overwound rolling mill. But then I’m some one who plays with a lot of distortion. I did think it sounded like a Duncan JB

Dave_Mc · June 2022

bertie said:

lysander said:

Has anyone got experience of the rolling overwound ?

yes, dreadful. Very harsh and quite sterile, completely lacking in any dynamics. Did not like having the volume rolled back took it straight out and sold it

I guess they'd be fine if you were playing nothing but 100% cranked till it bleeds metal power chords, anything else - forget it

Had two Iron Gears, - there other was a tele pickup, both been dire

I wouldn't go so far as to say dire, but I did think they were a bit bland (I had the smoke stack II tapped Strat pickups). Not super-keen on Toneriders (I had the alnico II classic bridge humbucker and alnico II blues neck single coil) either, also a bit bland, though I think I thought they were a bit better than Irongear (possibly the scatterwound thing, which I think I prefer).

If you're willing to go with an up-and-coming (or maybe "just about to give up"

) UK winder on Ebay for example, you can often get really nice handwound/handmade in the UK stuff for not much more than Irongear or Tonerider, which seems a much better plan to me.

rossi · June 2022

It might help in future if all answers came with the type of music they play .I play clean and overdrivey blues,jazz .a bit of rock ,even country all mainly finger style with light strings and this affects what pickups I like and use and comment on .

roberty · June 2022

rossi said:

It might help in future if all answers came with the type of music they play .I play clean and overdrivey blues,jazz .a bit of rock ,even country all mainly finger style with light strings and this affects what pickups I like and use and comment on .

Yeah it makes all the difference. "Airy" and "articulate" pickups get absolutely obliterated in my signal chain. I do have some guitars with those kinds of pickups for more delicate styles though

Dave_Mc · June 2022

rossi said:

It might help in future if all answers came with the type of music they play .I play clean and overdrivey blues,jazz .a bit of rock ,even country all mainly finger style with light strings and this affects what pickups I like and use and comment on .

I play a bit of everything. I probably do veer more towards higher gain stuff, though.

YellowLedBetterMan · June 2022

I play jangly indie stuff for the most part and have found all 3 sets of Irongears I've tried to favour more the rock and blues levels of gain.

They're not bad, just not my cup of tea.

Acev · June 2022

I have a set of Rolling mill over wound and Texas loco in my JET JS-400, sounds pretty good, new guitar+pickups came to around 250 -ish GBP, sound wise it is better than any new guitar in this price range.

roberty · June 2022

Fair play @Acev you'd never know that was a budget guitar

roberty · June 2022

I put a set of iron gears in my Les Paul Custom before rehearsal tonight, rolling mill neck and hot slag bridge. For what we do it's the best that particular guitar has sounded. I've tried all sorts of pickups in there and have come to the conclusion that machine wound factory jobbies are the best for some things. The sound I'm going for is very mid focussed with high gain fuzz, but it's fast and not sludgy so it needs to be articulate

I actually had them sitting in the drawer for a few years. I took the chrome covers off and cleaned the wax off and taped them up. I've got some worn gold screws to put in so they match the guitar better

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