A fatal mistake for the very often novice guitarist, who for years I have heard in stores, was to make the decision to change the pickups to an often cheap or not particularly high-end instrument.
Attention, I'm talking about ONLY changing the pickups.
Leaving the factory electronics section which, especially on cheap instruments always leaves a lot to be desired, the Pick-Up does not make the best of its possibilities, making the expense made, sometimes quite high, almost useless, not making perceive a significant plus .
Obviously, in addition to perceiving a significant sound plus, with the circuit of our instrument or “Wiring” for English speakers, there are many possible sound possibilities that can make our instrument even more versatile.
But how can we users understand each other in this stormy sea?
We turned to Fabio Gobbi, an authority in this field, the guitars of many artists of the highest level have passed under his hands, from Marco Sfogli to Poggipollini, who will be able to tell us a little about his point of view regarding works of this type.
Let's see what advice it can give us. . .
AC - How important is good electronics in an instrument?
Facebook - Let's say that it is essential first of all to have a clean signal without dispersions and that reflects the nature of the pickup that generates it, without undergoing alterations during its path between the various components up to the output jack.
AC - How do you structure the shielding of an instrument for your works?
Facebook - Simply trying to create a good "cage" of the electrical compartment, which if it is in view I take particular care, but which in this case has more aesthetic value than qualitative. The main things to do in order not to have buzz problems (except of course for single-coil pickups, in which you can improve them, but do not reset their natural buzz given by their construction characteristics) is to make a good positioning of the masses between the various components, often made poorly and a bit haphazardly, thus generating ground loops that create problems, especially in recording.
AC - How can you understand that an electronic component is well made or not?
Facebook - Let's say that you can already see aesthetically if a potentiometer, for example, is sturdy, if construction materials of a certain type / quality have been used, if the axial pin has lateral play, if the contact base is made of "plasticaccia".
Then, of course, once connected, feel that it has no dead spots in rotation, that the opening / closing dynamics are as progressive as possible.
Same thing goes for selectors and other components. For pickups, of course except for well-known brands, you have to trust your ears to understand if it can be a good pickup or not.
If it is silent, if it doesn't whistle too much, becoming unmanageable at high volumes, if the sound is well balanced and there are not too many differences in EQ between high and low etc etc.
AC - How can a user understand that the electronic section of his instrument is having problems?
Facebook - Most of the time the problems that arise are: output jacks, selectors and potentiometers that croak when operating them, or a pickup that starts to trigger whistles or play at a much lower volume than normal or in a bad way.
AC - Are there any brands that you prefer as electronic components?
Facebook - Mainly I prefer electronic spare parts Dimarzio, Switchcraft e Bourns.
Regarding the capacitors there is plenty of choice, but basically I use Sprague Orange Drop, then it also depends on the type of use and instrument on which they are to be mounted and what you want to achieve.
As a humbucker, from a life I prefer Dimarzio, Bill Lawrence e EMG, while like single coil, Van Zandt e Peter Florance are my reference, as well as Fender SCN designed by Bill Lawrence.
As Italian handcrafted pickups (not from mass production) at the moment I am using the ZEAD Pickups on various of my instruments, which I consider to be really of a high constructive and sound level, in addition to the fact that they are extremely customizable on request, even aesthetically.
