buying a pickup: suggestions please

noodlenot · December 2010

this christmas i´m offering myself a pickup for my GJ guitar, the options are (as i´m shure you all know):

stimer st48
peche a la mouche
krivo djangobucker

apart from the krivo being an humbucker design, and half the price of the others (

), i´m wondering if anyone has had experience with two (or more) of these and can give me some shopping advice, namely regarding build quality, ergonomics, noise level and dynamics.
regarding tone, i reckon the difference should be in the lines of the single coil vs. humbucker turf, and everybody has his own interpretation of what a tone needs to have, but if someone wants to add something, i´d be much appreciated.

thanks in advance,
Miguel.

noodlenot · December 2010

anybody?

Shawn · December 2010

Well, I can only comment on the Stimer ST48, since I haven't had a chance to try the other two. If your looking for the late Django (late 40's, early 50's) sound then you won't get better value for your money, of course, being some $350 it's quite pricey. I ended up selling an old Fender Stratocaster and using part of the money to buy the pickup, but looking back I would have chosen a cheaper option. The sound is very vintage, and has a sort of metallic/acoustic property that is hard to describe until you actually hear it, and for being single coil it's surprisingly very quiet. You will also have to fiddle around with your amp to find a setting that is appropriate for the pickup, as I quickly found out that having too much treble is not necessarily the best thing with this particular pickup. One thing you might want to keep in mind though is that the darn thing slips off the guitar easily, and having some sort of putty to keep it on is an absolute must...or duct tape if you so desire

.

I'll also venture to guess that the other two pickups you listed, being humbuckers, are fairly quiet and will offer a smoother sound...something between a Stimer and a standard Archtop pickup...but I'm saying that never having tried them.

Shawn

crookedpinky · December 2010

I haven't tried the other two but I use a Stimer through a Bugera V5 tube amp. A couple of things to note about the Stimer - while it can definitely deliver the Django sound through a decent tube amp it is extremely fussy about the strings used with it.

When I first put the stimer on a guitar the high e and b strings were loud the G string almost non existent and the low E to D were acceptable but lower in output that the high e and b. As there are no pole pieces you cant make any adjustments. I tried variety of G strings - including a plain G - but that was too loud. Eventually I decided to fit the Stimer to a guitar semi permanently and use a set of plain old Ernie Balls - the string balance is almost perfect, the sound is close enough but the guitar can't be used acoustically. That's not a great loss as it was never a great acoustic sound in the first place ( it's a Dell Arte Pigalle in case you're wondering ).

I took my Stimer apart to see what was inside the casing - not much more than a single coil pickup more akin to a p90 than say a strat single coil. I know that I've read elsewhere that the re-issue timers were designed to address the G string problem but mine certainly doesn't exhibit an improvement over the older versions in that way.

Years ago I played with a French guy and he had one of those cheap and nasty Chinese soundhole pickups that he had attached to whatever gypsy guitar he had - he reckoned it sounded exactly like a Stimer. I dont know how right he was but I do remember it was a great sound.

If it was n't for the import duty I'd be buying one of the Krivo humbucker p/ups - they sound great and I love the fact that you can adjust the polepieces

Alan

Steveareno · December 2010

I'm interested in a magnetic sound hole pick up too. One thing I DON'T want is noise (buzzing, 60 cycle hum, etc). Went away from tube amps for my electric guitars due to excessive buzzing. Just really don't like ambient noise. Find it really irritating. In that sense I assume the humbucker Krivo is the best choice. Miller pick ups look nice. Are the Stimers and Millers noisy? Funnily enough my Bigtone is nice and quiet, but fairly low gain. Like the tone though. No muss, no fuss, no batteries, low feedback, just plug an play.
Swang on,

Shawn · December 2010

Oh, one other thing, to add to what Alan said...

If you choose to go with the Stimer I would suggest investing in an Equalizer (if you don't already have one) so that you can control and balance the sound. Luckily, my Stimer doesn't seem to have the problems with the G string that a lot of people complain about. Hooking up the Equalizer still made a world of difference though, as you can either add to the low end, take away from the high end, or any other combination that suits you.

PS- I play through a Fender Princeton Chorus Amp if that makes any difference.

Ken Bloom · December 2010

I have a Krivo and I love it. The one thing I was worried about is having the bass overshadow the treble. With this pickup I get the same response electrically that I'm used to acoustically. I have the humbucker with adjustable poles and it's quiet and troublefree. No hassles. Great sound.

crookedpinky · December 2010

Funnily enough I get no hum, buzz or any other noise from the Stimer - unlike my Strat.

The otehr thing I did was to replace the black knob on the Stimer with a chicken head knob set so that the point of the knob faces the bridge, parallel to the strings when it's on full - that way I can use a knuckle to knock back on the volume.

Might try it through a small Graphic pedal to see what happens.....

I've listened to teh sound clips of the Krivos and I think they have a slightly more acoustic sound than the Stimer but I'm prretty sure you coudl get it to delievr that dirty Django sound as well..........I'm talking myself int obuying one now...................

MichaelHorowitz · December 2010

The peche a la mouche pickup is the best in terms of string balance and hum suppression. It has way more shielding than the other options and is very quiet and balanced, even when playing around fluorescent lights. Tone is nice too, but I would say that if you're super into the vintage 40s Django tone the Stimer is closer.