Do you have a pickup collection?

[Kmaz]

Meaning an assortment of pickups you own that aren't currently in a guitar.

Mine:

Fender CS 54'S Strat set
GFS "Jimi" set
Fender Am Std Strat set (late 80's)
Cream coloured Duncan humbucker from 1984 (not sure what it is)
Gibson Burstbuckers set from my '05 R8
Fender Texas Tele set from an MIJ '62 Custom

[JJ321]

The only pickups that I have that aren't in a guitar are a pair of Tom Andersons, an H1- and an H3 that I keep meaning to put up for sale since I don't have my LP any more, but never get around to it.

[Tone_Terrific]

Growing and sometimes it is just expensive clutter.
I have rediscovered those cheap ceramic single coils, though. Some are really very good sounding pups but I don't know what brand they are. You can't tell what is good until you try, either.

[Travst]

My pickup collection is primarily composed of inferior pickups that I remove from guitars that play well but have weak electronics. Epiphones would be a prime example.

[OldSchool]

Can I ask.......are you planning to put them into guitars? Pups are cool......but they kinda have to be in a guitar to show their worth. To me anyways.....

[Kmaz]

That possibility is always there...

[Mike9]

I have a double wide shelf stacked with just pickups - from the sublime to the ridiculous.

[Rock Johnson]

Originally Posted by Travst

My pickup collection is primarily composed of inferior pickups that I remove from guitars that play well but have weak electronics. Epiphones would be a prime example.

Same here. You never know what pickup will sound good in what guitar. The same pup can be rubbish in one guitar and brilliant in another.

[snarkle]

Originally Posted by geekocaster

yes and i have a bad habit of building guitars around my spare parts.

I feel your pain...I just did this with a set of Seymour Duncan "Brian May" Trisonic copies AND a set of Duncan lipsticks, both sets bought from the Emporium. I'm very pleased with the resulting instruments.

I feel a slightly altered Telecaster in my future...I've got a late ’60s bridge assembly kicking around, which would probably pair well with one of the two ’50s DeArmond 2Ks I got from my repair guy. Then, just for something completely different, there are two sets of Alembic Activators (S/S/S and S/S/H). And a really hot P-90 style from a trashed mid-’40s Gibson lap steel, and a Teisco goldfoil for an eventual Coodercaster, and...

Still looking for a DeArmond goldfoil to replace the dead one on Ms. Snarkle's Harmony Bobkat, though...tried running an ad in the Emporium but got no results. Anyone?

[Jahn]

Yep, a rare earth fishman soundhole one from my acoustic days, currently lost in my folks house. Hmm, the stock 57 classics from my r8 and the p90s that were in the junior. That's it! The guy I bought my original firebird pickup from was impressive, he had every funky pickup you can imagine, Billy gibbons once came to this guy for a gold foil dearmond. Fun stuff.

[just_one_more]

I have a bunch. All the originals for the guitars I currently own that have had them swapped out and a bunch of others. Like has been said many times already, you just don't know what will sound good with which piece of wood. When I was younger and played with gain on 10 and used my volume knob as an on/off switch only, pickups did not really matter as much. Now that I play the volume knob and surf in and out of overdrive, the difference in pickups really stands out so I like to try differnt ones until I find the right combo for that piece of wood.

[musicofanatic5]

I have a drawer full of p.u.s accumulated through the years: some "monkey-on-a-stick" types, DeArmonds and others; a few fifties H-44 p.u.s; two C.C. p.u.s, one for mandolin, one gtr; a Supro lap steel "strings through" p.u.; and some other random this and that. Being sensitive about the term "collection" and it's literal definition, I would not refer to this "bunch o' stuff" as a collection.

These are all accumulated with the intention of putting them into service in someway or another in the future.

[Kmaz]

I was just being funny in using the term "collection." I just meant, simply, what we have accumulated along the way.

[Tomo]

Something maybe.

Tomo

[stevieboy]

I have some, I think I might have a sale--so I can buy some more!

Off the top of my head, I have a Barden tele neck pickup, a Fralin humbucker set 8k/9k, and a Lollar Special T set, besides the usual assorted pickups that I took out and don't really think of as having much value. Actually, I'm not a huge pickup swapper, and am less inclined to switch pickups from the stock ones as time goes on, but have accumulated these over the years. With the nicer sets, I had them in guitars that I wound up selling with the original pickups put back in.

I also have a Harmonic Design Z90 bridge pickup that I'm going to eventually use somewhere somehow. I got it in set and am using the neck pickup in a partscaster.