Does Upgrading Your Pickups Or Components Really Make A Difference?
Why Should I Upgrade?
After a long journey of finding your 'best' axe, you've tried what feels like hundreds of guitars, and have finally found one that feels at home in your hands, as comfortable as can be and a joy to play. But what if it doesn't sound the way that you want through your trusted amplifier? What if you do not get the response that you need, or are unable to dial in your perfect tone? Do you have to start your search over from the beginning?
Of course not!
One of the fastest and most surefire ways to enhance your guitar’s tone and response is by upgrading the electronics. The majority of electric guitars are built with mass-produced pickups, and the most cost-effective wire, potentiometers, switches and capacitors that the manufacturer can supply. Upgrading these parts can make a drastic difference in the way your amplified guitar sounds and feels, and can even change your opinion of a guitar that may seem like a lost cause.
Pickups
Your guitar pickups are the first step in the electromagnetic chain that leads to your tone, [Technically, the strings are part of that chain, but you probably already have your favorite set(s) of those.] Because pickups are at the beginning, they are pretty much the first thing that translates what you do with your fingers to the sound that comes out of your amplifier.
Many stock guitar pickups are made with less-expensive, and often lower-quality, ceramic magnets. These can lead to ‘muddy' or ‘woolly’ sound, especially when using distortion, and can often cause in a reduction of clarity. Replacing those with well-made pickups can not only increase that clarity, but they also allow you to choose a hotter, clearer or more vintage tone depending on your ear and your needs. Hotter pickups will push more signal into the front-end of an amplifier for a quicker 'break-up’ or crunch, while vintage-style pickups will lean more toward warmth and dynamic range. Either can breathe new life into a ho-hum guitar.
Replacing pickups is also a great time to try something new. Even the best single-coil pickups can amplify 60-cycle hum - that annoying buzz that players have been fighting since the earliest days of electric guitars. If you are swapping out Strat®, Tele® or P-90 pickups, it is definitely worth looking into noise-cancelling designs like our world-famous Quiet Coil™ series.
Potentiometers
Budget potentiometers can make even a great set of pickups frustrating to play. Because they are not built to tight tolerances, their electrical resistance can be unpredictably far higher or lower than advertised, which can directly affect your resulting tone. Higher-quality potentiometers like our Vintage Taper CTS selection have tolerances within 7% of what is marked, for peace of mind in knowing that you are getting what you expect.
Also, lower-cost linear potentiometers can seem to make the sound drop out before you have turned the knob all the way. Better audio- or vintage- taper potentiometers use a logarithmic formula for their ‘curve’, which helps with smoother adjustment and full use of the control.
In the worst cases, cheaply made potentiometers will be more susceptible to wear and debris, often leading to scratchy static crackle on turning. Choosing higher quality can lead to many more years of effortless, issue-free use.
Capacitors
The tone capacitor(s) in your guitar can also be a source of unpleasantness. Less-expensive capacitors will tend to have looser tolerances for inexact interaction with your pickups. They can also be poorly built, inducing hum that would otherwise be absent. The least-predictable examples can even experience capacitor ‘drift’, where the resistance value changes over time - even if you are not using them. Higher-quality capacitors like our Dijon series are built within 10% tolerance, and perform far more consistently than their poorly-made counterparts.
Wire
“Bad” guitar wire will be stiff and fragile with poor insulation, and cheaper alloys can create weak or ‘dry’ solder joints. Good guitar wire is flexible, durable, easy to solder and properly shielded, which means that it will not only be user-friendly and transmit your signal more consistently, but will also reduce the amount of external interference transmitted through your signal chain.
Switches and Jacks
Low-end switches and jacks are typically made from cheaper metal that can wear or break more quickly, causing poor connections at the switch(es), or loose and inconsistent grip on the cable. Better switches and jacks are designed for long-term regular use, and should never give you any reason to worry.
Where do I start?
The best place to start is usually where you have already identified a problem. If your pots are scratchy and hard to control, you should examine replacing those components. If your pickups lack clarity and dynamics no matter where the electronics are set, you will want to think about replacing them.
On the other hand, many players prefer to start fresh by replacing the pickups and all of the components at the same time. In those cases, we highly recommend checking out our selection of pre-wired premium guitar harnesses to make the process as simple and hassle-free as possible.
The choice is up to you, so get out there, find your sound and love your tone!