Pickups. I've never felt 100% satisfied with any I've had in my guitars.

axisus

Pickups, they seem like a never ending roundabout of either disappointment or mild dissatisfaction for me. I don't think I'm ever that satisfied with most of the ones I've had. I'm the most satisfied I've been in ages right now in that I rather like the Kinman noiseless neck pickup in my Tele, although I don't like the matching bridge pickup or the middle switch position. I also rather like the Suhr V70s in my strat neck and middle, but the bridge is just too underpowered for my liking. I've tried a fair amount of other pickups in the bridge position but nothing satisfies me thus far. I don't think I've ever had any guitar where I thought that the pickups were 100% what I'm looking for. I'm a fussy bugger but swapping is an expensive hobby.

Funkfingers

The grass is always greener on the other side of the track.

Whatever one has, it is possible to imagine that there might be something better. 

I am also a fussy bugger but I adapt the way I play to what each instrument makes possible.

normula1

I pair my Kinman Tele neck with a Duncan Vintage stack in the bridge which is probably my favourite bridge pickup, but I agree I've yet to find 100%

octatonic

This is what I refer to as 'majoring in minor things'.
Ignore it and go and work on your playing.

Sassafras

Maybe electric guitar just isn't your thing.

riffpowers

Once you go down the pickup swapping route it’s easy to vanish down that rabbit hole. 

Keep em stock!

dindude

I used to change pickups all the time in my guitars but now 4 out of 5 of my electrics are stock, just my Strat has a changed bridge pickup for a little more oomph and that’s a lowly Seymour Duncan. For me now, I tend to work on the premise that the guitar as it comes is the voice of that instrument, and I either like it or I don’t. 

It’s weird because if you look at my amp and pedals I’m a boutique makers dream, but I’ve tried all the boutique pickup makers over time and none lasted more than some of the more down to earth Seymour Duncan’s and the like. 

Axe_meister

I guess this is where you need to spend a lot of money with somebody like bareknuckle and have custom pickups made and add in a whole lot of consulting time and rewind after rewind.
Or do you really know what you want if not you may be making the wrong choices.

monquixote

octatonic said:

This is what I refer to as 'majoring in minor things'.
Ignore it and go and work on your playing.

That was what I was going to say.

My Tele and PRS are stock my strat has a Billy corgan set in it but that was just because I wanted something shreddy.

I've swapped pickups for other similar pickups and by the time you've done it you've forgotten what the old ones sounded like.

octatonic

monquixote said:

octatonic said:

This is what I refer to as 'majoring in minor things'.
Ignore it and go and work on your playing.

That was what I was going to say.

My Tele and PRS are stock my strat has a Billy corgan set in it but that was just because I wanted something shreddy.

I've swapped pickups for other similar pickups and by the time you've done it you've forgotten what the old ones sounded like.

Yup- just play the damn thing.

I see this all the time, across different instruments and it seems to only really happen online.
Not a single musician that I know who isn't on the forums seems to be swapping pickups, or pedals or drum heads or clarinet reeds.
Most players seem to keep the same gear year in and year out and it seems to work.

I've gone through periods where I swapped out pickups but often you aren't making it better, you are just making it different.

Winny_Pooh

I've been nearer what I want with every pickup swap and I dont have any stock pickups left.

However, I'm not on a merry go round and when something easily does what I want it stays, usually bridge pickups:

ES330 - creamery A2, 9 years old.
Prs S2 - Mojo A5, 3 years old
Musicman - Fletcher unor A5, 4 yrs old
12 string tele - Fralin blues, 14 yrs old

Neck pickups do get more regular switching as clean tones can get very particular for each guitar.

richardhomer

I’m in the ‘keep them stock’ camp as well. If I don’t like the sound of a guitar, I don’t buy it.

Sassafras

Once you've played through overdrive, fuzz, phaser, flanger, tremolo, vibe, delay, I find most pickups sound strangely similar.

Neil

Never changed a pick up.

No need, my standard stuff is perfectly adequate.

pluckbuddy

I had a similar experience pickup swapping on telecasters. Despite trying many sets, I couldn't get a combination of three sounds on the selector switch that I liked. Using a vintage style set, the neck pickup was too weak and the bridge too bright on the plain strings. The b string was much louder than the top e. But when I replaced either pickup to address these issues then I lost that great middle position sound I had with the first set. 

In the end I just accepted that I couldn't make them sound as good other people do and moved onto something else which, for now, works better for me. I guess the telecaster is my favourite guitar that cannot get on with.

Fez

I have a Seymour Duncan Full shred in a HSS strat which replaced the stock Fender one but I am not sure it made a massive difference. The Bare knuckle Holy Diver I got off Mctoot was a definite improvement on the stock Epi Les Paul. I think in lower priced guitars there is sometimes benefit in upgrading pick ups but higher priced guitars usually have decent pickups as stock. 

@octatonic I love that expression "majoring in minor" 

TTBZ

I've faffed around with so many pickups in my SG that I think I now just have to accept I just don't like SGs much (though I think I am going to try a bridge P90 as a "one last chance" sort of thing). So far the stock 490R/498T have actually been the best overall match for the guitar (who'd have thought it eh) - I'd just put them back in if I hadn't sold them. They can be a bit muddy in a Les Paul which is where the internet wisdom of them being crap comes from I think.

Generally I think Gibson pickups are pretty good but I do think it's worth upgrading pickups in a cheaper guitar, the stock cheapo ones are often muddy and dull sounding. Also the stock pickups might not be quite right for what you're playing - probably wouldn't want to play metal with some low output A2 PAFs as it'll sound a bit soft. They do make a difference but I think once you get to a certain level you hit diminishing returns pretty quickly. I don't think I'd buy Bare Knuckles new any more, but Oil City and Alegree are well priced and the same level of quality.

lovestrat74

monquixote said:

I've swapped pickups for other similar pickups and by the time you've done it you've forgotten what the old ones sounded like.

This ^^^

However I must say that the Mojo esquire in my Tele is fantastic, so you can find pickups to suit.

Oh and I agree, I never found a Strat bridge that I liked. Maybe I should have got a pedal board to sort that one out  

Moe_Zambeek

My ‘90 SG came with HB-R and HB-L pickups. The best thing I ever did for that guitar was change the pickups to some SD antiquities. The HB pickups are terrible.

I put a TV Jones classic + in a Gretsch jet to replace the fender ceramic Filter’tron and it perked that guitar up and added a bit of beef while enhancing the Gretschiness. 

I have a plan to change a pickup from a P90 to a T-Armond on another guitar to bring out some extra treble.

But I only have 3 guitars and generally only use bridge pickups for the most part so some tweaking is fine IMO, and I don’t really care about the other positions.

Sassafras

If you keep going through pickups and none of them sound suitable, maybe the guitar isn't right for you.

PonchoGreg

I find there's really two good cases for upgrading pickups:

- on a cheap (say sub-£500) guitar, as that's where you'll see a big difference between handwound stuff and the cheap own-brand pickups these tend to use.
- you want to radically alter the output/response (turn an LP into a metal machine, a modern strat into a vintage style, etc)

The rest is really diminishing returns. Yes it might sound a bit clearer / more defined, etc but it's marginal gains at best.

I'm saying that being fully guilty of changing pickups in pretty ever long-termer I've had, regardless of quality... But usually it's a one-off, I'll get a set of nice handwounds and stick to it. Took me a couple tries on the bridge of my SG though.

And it's also because I do the overwhelming majority of my playing alone, through headphones where it's easier to notice. I very much doubt I would bother if playing with a band, as long as the pickups are good quality and do broadly what you want them to do money would be better spent on a different pedal I reckon. Don't think any audience will gush over my unpotted, handwound pickup with carefully selected A2 magnet...