Boutique Guitar Pickups

I can't imagine someone sitting at a desk and winding mile after mile of wire to create a single pickup for a guitar - by hand! But people do that it is those people who are really contributing to the great guitar tones that are available to us today. I have just started diving into the whole world of boutique guitar pickups, and I am beginning to see that there definitely is a reason to sometimes pull out the stock pickups in your guitar and replace them with something hand wound by a boutique maker.

There are a surprising number of different guitar pickups available from different boutique guitar pickup makers. Humbuckers, single coils, mini humbuckers and p-90 style pickups are all made as well.

One thing that I noticed on a lot of the manufacturers websites is a lot of recorded audio with samples of what type of tones come out of their guitars that are equipped with their pickups. When you are shopping for new pickups, it is good to check out all the different audios that you can find and choose the sound you like the best. Chances are, you will even find audios that are using the same guitar that you have with the pickups to give you an even better idea on what they sound like.

A lot of people are intimidated with changing out their picks as well and they really shouldn't be. When you pop your guitar apart you will see that there are only a few solder points for each pickup. It's not as complicated as you would think. Just need a steady hand and a soldering iron. If you are not sure still, just go to your local guitar shop and get them to do it. It's relatively inexpensive. My advice though is to learn to do it yourself -- it's a great thing to know.

When you are choosing pickups you will also sometimes have the option of active and passive pickups. Active basically means that they have to be powered by a battery. So, if you are adding active pickups to what was previously a passive pickup equipped guitar, be prepared to have to find a place for a 9 volt battery.

If you are looking for some of the best boutique guitar pickups, my opinion is that these makers are some of the top ones -- Mastertone, Jim Wagner, John Suhr, James Tyler. These are probably my favorites. Look them up and you may agree as well.