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Mojo and other third parties will provide you with better pickups for a lot less.
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
The only way to tell is to compare pickups in YOUR guitar when it arrives. Handwound does not guarantee better at all and that's the problem in deciding on "what pickup" .... you won't know until you hear it.
Best of luck with your decision.
do you like the sound they make
do you have to care that much (as they all make a good sound anyway)
are you better off putting your time and energy into playing better rather than the fine fine details of tonal nirvana
I've changed the pickups in both of my CS Fenders and it has improved them both unquestionably but I made sure the instrument was right before I bought it.
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
Crossing the turns of wire at extreme/random angles ... as done in hand scatter winding ... reduces the distributed capacitance of a pickup. Higher capacitance filters out high frequencies. So scatter wound pickups have more high frequencies. This can actually be a good or a bad thing depending on what you want from a pickup. Scatter wound is not automatically better.
For example some humbuckers can sound harsh and unpleasant if scatter wound ... and indeed some low wind single coils can sound 'ice pick' like.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
I cannot think of any published theories claiming that, say, an evenly wound single coil sounds one way and that a coil that bulges in the middle sounds another way. Sometimes, a single coil ends up with more copper wire towards one fibreboard plate than the other. Again, nobody out there is claiming to be able to pick out one coil profile over another.
More likely, a particular pickup pleases its owner. On removing the plastic cover, the coil is discovered to have been wound a particular way. Pickup owner seeks more pickups wound in the same manner.
Exactly. There is no *science bit*.
PEDANTRY CORNER
Unless some home hobby builder is using an old Mouli grater to rotate the bobbin, there is no such thing as a hand wound pickup. They are machine wound and hand guided.
Stand by for a piece specifically written about this very subject. It causes huge controversy within the pickup making community ...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Seymour Duncan Inc. makes a big deal out of owning one of the old Gibson factory Leesona winding machines. In and of itself, ownership signifies nothing. Nada. Zilch.
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
However, from everything I've read its the *tension* of the wire that can make a big difference. Depending on the machine and the degree of handwork needed to feed the wire into the bobbin, this may have a minor effect if you use a similar or identical machine to that used to create a PAF. But a lot of that could be cobblers/theoretical nonsense.
All 50s Gibson PAFs were machine wound by the way ... and the genuine article is not renown for being ice pick like. :-)
To nail my colours to the mast ... some of my pickups are hand wound (guided) and some are machine wound. Neither process is better, they just produce different results. I simply do not subscribe to the 'hand winding is always best' mantra, and prefer to fit the winding method to the intended tone of the pickup.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Between the various dealers in the UK there is often enough good stock around to find a nice guitar - In trying many different models, you'll find they are all the same, with variations - Some with more subtle differences than others - I've just had arrived 4 x 64 Strats - all identical spec - Are they all the same regarding feel and tone ? - Nearly but subtle differences - Same pick-ups etc, so the only variation is the wood - weight is only a couple of lbs either way - Slight different pitch when you tap them
My point is that you can request the neck shape you want, the pick-ups, the frets etc etc - I guarantee you won't get a bad guitar, but will it be the one that matches your dream ? - And if it doesn't then nothing you can do about it
If you found a nice guitar in one store, and based your custom ordered guitar on that one guitar, but say a variation in colour etc, it won't be the same as what you have tried - It will be close but not the same - The more C/Shop models you try, the more you'll realise many are similar but they are all different - You just don't know which you are getting until it arrives
Most of the UK dealers will gladly assist on a custom order, but if it was me I'd buy what I can get my hands on now as I know what the finished article is - And if it is the one that ticks the boxes then it doesn't matter what the pick-ups are, spec wise, but you know your ears like 'em
My off the shelf CS Tele has been with me a few years and I'd never change it.