I want to replace my guitar pickups. How do I choose what to replace my factory humbuckers with?
As the old saying goes, if you don’t know what your destination is, you’ll never know if you reach it. There are lots of reasons to replace pickups – the old ones are broken or faulty, you need higher output, you want to explore timbre and tone alternatives. You’ve got humbuckers already and you don’t say they’re broken, so i assume you’re looking at another set of humbuckers (rather than a set of single coils) to get a particular sound or something different/hotter than the stock ones. There are lots of reputable options – some relatively inexpensive, and some boutique choices that will cost a bit more. Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio are reputable and widely available brands that have been in the replacement pickup business for decades – they’ll offer you a dizzying set of choices, from absolute stock replacements to purpose-built models that will totally transform your tone. Of course, whether or not that ends up to be a good thing will revolve around what tone you’re searching for, whe
