Rübezahl Tonabnehmer - let's upgrade my Harley Benton SC550
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- The Harley Benton SC550 is a killer guitar and it deserves a couple of great, handmade pickups. Chris from Rübezahl was up to the task and together we went on a journey to make this guitar into a very serious instrument.
Here are links...
www.ruebezahl-t...
www.sgtspurguit...
Here are links to Thomann...
Harley Benton SC550 Paradise Amber Flame
www.thomann.de/...
Engl RockMaster Head
www.thomann.de/...
Gear from this video at Sweetwater:
Here is tons of stuff I use in my videos...
imp.i114863.ne...
Current LIMITED TIME deals:
imp.i114863.ne... 
Видеоклипы
After watching a lot of guys on RUclips my conclusion has been the player and the amp/effects have by far the most effect. The only case I'd replace pickups is if I was gonna install something like P-Rails that truly give you a bunch of different options and tones (ie add versatility beyond 2 humbuckers). Just my 2 cents.
those damn Prails are intriguing me deeply.........
The fact that you can buy a good guitar for 249 euros shows that some brands are making quite a profit.
profit? ask about costs...
No, it doesn't. The costs to make that good guitar are far less than the costs to make a higher grade one. I'll admit that the HB looks quite stunning- but how many of you know that the wonderful flame on that guitar is a photograph laminated to the top. Do you what the real thing costs? And quite frankly, it doesn't matter. A company sells their product for the price a consumer is willing to pay for it. If you think that the Harley Benton is as good as a real Les Paul, I'm happy for you. Some people's personal taste would be contrary to yours. That's just how the world works. You should never consider buying from a company based on how much profit they are going to make on you. You should buy a product based on what it is worth to you.
That is extremely poor economic advice. You should always be wise to the amount of profit a company is making off of you.
What does that matter to you? You should be wise to how much you can afford, and what you're willing to pay. How much money is made is inconsequential. It will only be priced to where they are able to sell it at. With that said none of this means you shouldn't do a little research to find out how low they are willing to go. That's how a free market works. Do you work for free? Why should they? Do you value your time? You should. If there is no money in it for them, they will cease to exist. Not only that, but I would worry about any product that is made by someone who doesn't make a profit. That is a sure way to buy something lacking in quality and that may need to be replaced sooner. And then what value does it have to you? To me, being a cheapskate is what I call bad economic advice.
grajmahal -Also innovation costs. HB have almost zero cost for R&D, since they are reverse engineering someone else’s costly design. Imagine if HB type companies were all we had? We would have no new innovation what so ever. I’d rather buy an original Gibson and have them swing and miss sometimes, but hit quite a bit, than buy a sweatshop copy guitar to give money to the owners of said sweatshop using company.
Love this dudes personality
I honestly preferred the Wilkinson pick ups . I felt that they had more air and we're more "alive".
Seconded. Of the 6 back-to-back tests I only prefered the Rübezahl clean in the bridge. Personal taste, but for me the upgrade is not worth the money. Suppose you could always swap out just the bridge pickup too.
I was the same and felt the best improvement was the change of strings before he changed the pickups.
Wilkinson Pickups are pretty good at that point I guess its more matter of taste. Some pickups not so much I found the pickups in my Squier Jag awful compared to my Curtis Novak but that is for a specific sound of 60s Jaguar, humbuckers go from underwound 70s pickups through PAF through hot rodded through ceramic metal machines.
I totally agree. Wilkinsons are much more Bright sounding and less muffled, especially on neck pickup
yep, absolutely. me too
The stock pick-ups sound awesome, good incentive to whoever might get a Harley-Benton, great vid! I definitely like the new pick-ups.
I've got Wilkinson pups in my Tokai. Sounds awesome. No need to change them! People get to hung about upgrading. There's just not enough differences. For the money
Agreed. 22 years ago I upgraded pickups in my Epiphone because they were microphonic back then. But we really don’t have that problem in 2019.
Depends on what you like and style you play. I had stock pickups on my jackson ps-1. They sounded fine. When I changed to some decent dimarzios I was blown away! For heavy metal and around that style is perfect. For anything from jazz, rock and cleaner stuff my Stratocaster all the way
These are the best guitar videos on the web. I just ordered one and if you want to upgrade it go ahead. It's just like a hot rod. Nothing wrong with customizing.
Henning, this was a very thoughtful and informative video. You know I love Harley Benton's. I feel they are undervalued. I remember a realtor told me once a house is only as valuable as what the customer is willing to pay. I feel that many people would pay a lot more for HB's if they had the big "G" or big "F" label on them. They are an incredible value. Wilkinson pickups are fantastic. I have them in my TE 40 TBK, love them. In my opinion, the SC550 is already worth more than many of the big "G's" LP's. So, you already have great value. Why not put in another 200 Euros. It's still a great guitar and a great value. I like some of the Wilkinson and some of the sounds from Chris's pickups. So now this an incredible guitar with incredible pickups. I did feel, slightly, like the Harley Benton was violated when you opened it up. It is, no matter how you slice it a beautiful machine. The real question is, would you be able to tell the difference, between the two, in a mixed track? I doubt it. Thanks for all you do!
I bought my first HB 6 months ago this made me want it I got it an I love it no tuning issues action is great best money I ever spent .
I have a Solderless Wire Harness in my strat (Obsidian Wire). Plug and play now bro. Put whatever pickups you want when you want. Seymour Duncan has the Liberator series which is also solderless. I've even seen them race on who can install pickups the fastest, just a few minutes, done.
they have no products for Les Pauls
oh...just searched it..you are the freaking henning pauly
dude..respect! seriously your songs are killing it
Every time i hear one of these guitars they sound great
I have to say that I can barely tell any difference between the pickups. Barely subtle, more negligible. I have this same guitar, and I think it's my best sounding Les Paul style guitar, & that's compared to Gibsons, Customshop Epiphones, & various highly modified copies that I own, 9 LPs in all. I think the Wilkinson pups stand up & even surpass some of my LPs that have Gibson, Dimarzio, Duncon and Guitarheads pups. So my opinion is, NO changing the pickups to high end boutique pups that cost as much as the guitar does NOT make it better. Maybe better wiring and capacitor upgrades could make a slight differance? This guitar is awesome as is, as you rightly stated before
I´ve got an HB L450 HB from 2014 with a Rübezahl Jucke Box Set. My experiances are similar to yours. Rübezahl makes the little important distance which takes the HB from a good Guitar to a remakable Guitar. Good Job Chris! Good Video Henning!
I got one of these off of ebay for 200 bucks. The guy had swapped the bridge pickup with a bare knuckle boot camp something or the other.
All I can tell you is that the bridge is way nicer than the neck, I'm serious about getting the neck swapped out for something better.
Even if I spent another 150 on this thing, it's like 350 total for solid playing guitar with Pro pickups
Seems fair to me
my brain just exploded
pls, this goes to everyone, lets make this guy viral
5:02 obviously , he lives near a church. Am i the only hearing bells? 😂 ( by the way u rock, u will make me buy this guitar at the end.. 🤘 so nice looking instrument.😍🎸 )
I dont hear a huge difference in PU sound/quality, but unlike a lot of commenters I think the 2nd set sounds at least as good as the Wilks did.
The only slight change I did hear was that the 2nd set had a slightly thicker distorted sound.
Like you said in the video "It was subtle"... Yes it was.
Thanks
Stock pickups sounds great, more clearness...honestly, I want to purchase this guitar and I was looking for pickups replacements, but more reviews I watch more I realize I don't have to change anything
I have the Roswell pickups in the one that I play. I really like the pickups. The bridge on in particular is nice and sizzly. I may but a Tonerider Alnico II in the neck. For $45 you can’t go wrong and they sound gorgeous.
I also have the roswell one, and I swapped the neck pickup with a tonerider alnico 2, i swapped em back immediately. The roswell sounds way better
"I lie awake thinking of Quake." THAT alone gets a thumbs up! good vid too.
Hello HP, thanks for demos and comments. If I may, I ve been really disappointed with the Rotosound strings, compared to EB or D'add. So probably, quality of these new pick ups deserves better strings, to show bigger tone difference from Wilks ones
The new pickups are definitely higher output - they sound hotter with distortion but they don't sound as good in clean mode. The Wilkinsons sound much more "bell like" in clean mode. All in all it would depend what sound your after. I believe you could use an "amp immulator" software to take the Wilkinsons to the next level in distortion mode.
LOVE the new pickups. A lot more character, bite and depth. It's subjective, and all depends on what you like to hear out of a guitar, but to me they are 100x better than the Wilkinsons. Great job!
Interesting. I like to pimp my guitars, too. My experiences are that the difference is very obvious. Here I am surprised how good the stock PU sound. Still, as a guitar player, the Rübezahl PU are more coherent. Nothing that might matter in a band context (rehearsal), but as a guitar player... And don't underestimate what i.e. S.Duncans would do to alter / change the sound. Cheers everyone!
hp, as well as the whole video is truly informative and entertaining, I do love the "video games" song. great measured by lyrics and music!!
Enjoy the video of the guitar, but especially loved the cameo of the albino ferret at the end!
a capacitor upgrade will also improve the sound of the guitar. bad ones stifle the pickups.
Great job, Sir! You won´t believe it, but I prefer the wilkinson sound, lol
A set of dimarzio 36th anniversary pafs is perfect for sound of this kind of guitar and for not breaking the bank.....
Apples and oranges, basically. Chris from Rübezahl Tonabnehmer can do many styles pickups, and since you didn't give him any reference he made what he thought a vintage-y LP style guitar should have: relatively warm and full sounding humbuckers. The Wilk's are higher output and more midrange, so obviously they will shine a bit more when rocking out like you did here...
I own both Wilkinson and Rübezahl pickups, and, while both are good, they're vastly different. Reason: I order pickups with Chris made to my preference and specifically for a particular guitar. Something Wilkinson won't (AFAIK) do.
In short - not a very fair comparison.
PS: I do love Harley Benton's instruments!! I own various, and they're absolutely amazing value for money... 😀👍
Those are damn good p/u's IMO. I'd say they are wound slightly more on the modern side of a vintage PAF sound while the Alnico II magnets pull that sound signature back into firm vintage sounding territory giving one a small taste of both for a very interesting meld of both worlds that flat out works in this HB guitar. The note definition is wonderful and complex chord overtones maintain clarity in high gain settings. I would say these custom p/u's have elevated the HB from good to almost great. 90% of the way there as far my hearing is concerned.
An entertaining and fascinating video. From my perspective, I can understand the logic in upgrading the electronics and wiring in a cheap but well-liked guitar for durability/reliability reasons. But if I'd basically doubled the cost of my guitar by swapping pick ups and gained only negligible improvement in performance - and that 'improvement' is subjective anyway - I think I'd be a bit miffed. ;) The other way to look at it of course, is to be amazed at the high standard of the stock Wilkinson pick ups Harley Benton install in the first place! A massive difference in price, but to my ears, only a subtle difference in sound. I think if I get one of these I'll leave it as it is. A video as fun as it was informative, anyway, so thanks.
on my speakers the upgrade was well worth it. Pickups seem more open, covers more spectrum of where the guitar should sit in a mix. The Wilkinsons seem more narrow, low-mid heavy.
the stock guitar sounds indeed fenomenal for the price, I have a few gibsons custom shop limited edition peter green model it's a great super guitar, and I own a chinese les paul with upgraded pickups and honestly it sounds just as good, and I play it a lot more also, I gig with it, rehearce with it, you don't want to lose the real deal
Its sounded killer after the new pups. You could hear the push and more sustain.
So, from what i hear, through my cellphone speaker honestly, the Ruebezahl PUs sound an little bit more wide ranged and more powerfull.Like it.Cool review thanks for the work you put in there👍
I play the large triangle Clayton's now for about 2 years. I think they are fantastic, and resist wearing and notching better than Dunlops
so alnico 2 are the magnets slash prefers. most lps on the market come with alnico 5. the resistance you quoted 8ish k is very vintage. resistance is caused by the number of winds. more winds more resistance. low resistance low winds low winds low output. high resistance (15ish = more winds = more output. so just hearing alinco 2 8k i think vintage paf with alnico 2 magnet. very warm throaty vintage tone is what i would expect hearing those specs. to the ear not looking at the numbers...they are surprisingly open as the pickups of this family tend to sound warm not dark...but darker. they also have a "cocked wah" feel sometimes. sort of an open vowel kind of thing. nice job to the builder for balancing that out with a nice open voice. brings the guitar alive. peace out.
I would prefer Wilkinson since the new pickups tend to be a little bit more muddy. I don't think is an upgrade. I have the same guitar model in front of me and you just convinced me not to change the pickups. Thank you for your test!
Hint after 40 yrs of playing I find that if your pups sound a little muddy and not quite enough gain all you need to do is change the volume pots to 1 mega ohm resistors. L.p. are 500k volume pots so increasing the resistance to ground allows more signal to the amp .pups are more chimy clean and more aggressive when distorted with a little more cut. Imports have short shafts pots.gibson take a longer shaft due to the thicker maple cap..if you don't believe me call Torres engineering in cali for more info. He's known as the tube guru in cali
Depends if you prefer warm or bright, BUT, you can change the tone by huge amount by ditching the oversized capacitor and using the vintage schematic with a MUCH lower value cap on both pickups.
Rübezahl? Das ist son Typ aus Legenden die man sich hier in der Lausitz erzählt. Seltsam diesen Namen mal in einem anderen Kontext zu hören.
Neue Tonabnehmer sind ja immer ein Glücksspiel, ich bin schon mit teuren PU's reingefallen. Nach dutzenden Umbauten für mich und Bekannte im laufe der Jahre sind mir eigentlich nur die Fender TexMex Singlecoils und der Tesla Opus-1 Humbucker im Kopf geblieben. Auch Bare-Knuckles haben ihren eigenen Sound. Die meisten anderen klangen eher 0815 und haben den Sound kaum verändert. So gehts mir nach dem Video auch mit den Rübezahl. Die sind bestimmt gut aber persönlich wäre mir der kleine Unterschied keine 100+ Euro wert. Besonders da ich kein Profi-Musiker bin.
Übrigens: Mit den Nickel-Rotosounds war ich nur semi zufrieden. Mit Singlecoils super da der Sound etwas ausgeglichener wird, mit Humbuckern grauenhaft weil kaum noch Höhen rauskommen. Gehts dir oder anderen genau so?
pickups are voiced for specific guitars.
I think they sound freaking awesome! I had a preconceived idea that Wilkinson's sucked. nope
I gotta say, I have been thoroughly enjoying your demo videos! You convinced me to buy a Harley Benton. I am waiting on the arrival of a Ricky six clone. Already have a Strat, 4 Les Pauls, an Ibanez 80's shred axe, a Gibson Explorer and Firebird. So this RB 600 CS will fit in nicely. Also gonna orders some pedals from Thomann. And I am infatuated with the XT-22!
I actually preferred the stock pickups. They had a brighter, more clear tone. The new pickups sounded a bit muddy and over-saturated with distortion.
Well interesting to see an upgrade on this Harley and for me personally the most instant improvement that was easily recognisable was when you just changed the strings. I felt that those strings you put on suited that Harley way better than the D'Addario's ever did. As for spending the 200 bucks on the upgrade I would say forget it. The difference was far to less to justify it at all. The best improvement for my ears was the Strings. To be honest if I wanted to spend 450 bucks on a guitar I would get an Ibanez and not an Harley in the first place, and your money in my opinion would be better spent.
DAS ist für mich ein ECHTER Vergleich. Unterschiedliche pickups auf der SELBEN Gitarre.Die meisten anderen Vergleiche fünden mit verschiedenen pickups auf verschiedenen Klampfen statt. Aber davon mal abgesehen ist es auch immer Geschmacksache. Ich liebe meine Roswell pickups. Punkt.
Pickups DONT HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE. I pulled burstbuckers out of my LP studio and put in a set of teSLASHarks (notice the capital letters). Better than Duncan's to my ear. I plan to get the guitar you are working on. but pups stay
in the clean sound comparison, I couldn't really hear too much difference, but the distortion sound difference was huge, the Rubezal pickups had much better note clarity in my opinion
Well if i wasnt convinced enough about never ever start fucking with the tech in a gitar or anything else... i am now sure with absolute certainty that i should never ever do that seeing you mess with it.
The Rubezahl sounds nicer in some settings, but is it worth it.... dont think so.
I had a squire Tele with a Bigsby, I was gonna change the bridge neck and pickups. I changed the neck to an American Standard, not much difference in sound, I changed the bridge to a Mastery & OMG I didn't have to change the pickups. The bridge totally changed the sound, & it's now one of my go to guitars.
where can we get that killer song "i like my video games" cause its melting my brains and i want it sooo bad! great vid by the way, big fan
Thanks man... it is on the album CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE from "Henning Pauly"... you can get it in the big package of 13 albums at www.therecordlabel.net
The wilkinson's sounded a bit sterile for me (a lot better than what I see on the normal budget guitars though) with the Rübezahl sounding a lot more natural, definitely worth the upgrade and let's face it higher quality pots and caps make the guitar more enjoyable and give you a bit more peace of mind when playing live, I can't really see a downside to that, great video as always Henning :)
yea the original pups were warmer and had more bite and airy on the bridge PickUps plus the neck ones sounded better with that smooth tone that makes scales sound tight and flowing. neck pick ups have that gary moore and thin lizzy tone . Id change the pots and the tuners because im a guy who always bumps them and with them sticking out like that there bound to hit something lol.
I got this SC-550 HB guitar with Roswell pickups and now I was able to get hold of some Gibson 2014 pickups. I was wondering if these Gibson pickups would be a nice upgrade for the HB SC-550. What do You think?
Yep soldering skills required especially when it comes to soldering the ground wire to the back of the pots. With an ail scratch a small hex pattern of lines onto the back of the pot, tin the lead wire ground (1/4inch) and add a bit of flux to the lead and the small part that you scored on the back of the pot. Heat up to the right temp ( at least a 30W iron) to get a nice shiny bead on the back then let cool immediately. Lead should be giving you a solid ground now with a solid gr of the circuit. There are also online easy to follow wiring diagrams for any type of pick up wiring combo you can imagine. I suggest you practice your soldering skills on junked pots. For attaching fine leads to pot lugs I always tin about 3/8 ths of an inch of stripped wire and bend that lead in half so it goes halfway through the lug then wrap it around itself with the pot lug firmly in place. Heat both lug and lead and then once the tinned lead starts to melt add some more solder at that point wait 2 seconds then pull iron off. Should be a solid shiny connection that will last for years.
I did this to a Chibson and put original Gibson 490T and R and PRS pots and it totally lit up
Likin' the stock pickups better. Just a bit more versatile. The sgt-----yaddy yadda pups sound a bit too over wound. Still understandably, mmv. Respect.
I recently bought the SC550 with the Roswell AlNiCo 5 LAF's (I also have very expensive Guitars, and know the difference), The LAF's are a bit subdued, and I might change them out, so thanks for the input, brother! As you say, in stock form, the HB SC-550 is an amazing buy as is! Thinking I'll go with some DiMarzio PAF's. Maybe even try the Fishman Fluence. Just a better buy, for that money, IMO.
Dude, you have to shorten you're vid's. Too much fluff! Like as in 80% too much. Life is short. Lol. Be well!
I got a really good Harvey Benton custom DC for £148. It came with Grover machine heads, tuneomatic bridge, Graphite nut, d'adario strings and i liked the Wilkinson Alnico vintage humbuckers (but will probably change them in a year or 2). Most importantly the body and neck was worth the money. I only see myself changing the humbuckers and obviously strings in the future.
And maybe electronics or at least capacitor/pots
fahd s is that the ax model which looks like a Santana model
The new pick-ups definitely got that chunky defined Les Paul sound on the bridge setting. I immediately though Black Dog. I think the new pick-ups sound thicker and more detailed but also a bit too dark on the other setting. The Benton is amazing for the price, but honestly I don't think it has true LP character.
I suppose the main difference is in the feeling when you play, in terms of sound the amp and the rest of your gear have a lot to say. So, let's search for a guitar with good feeling and as cheap as possible haha. This one looks pretty good, dude. Good video.
My personal opinion.is that the stock pick up's sound great, But if I were to change them. I would put in a set of JB 59's. I put a set of them in my ESP/LTD EC1000 Gold top, They are Killer Pickup's. Nice Demo brother ! Tad.
Mid and bridge positions felt the most difference, and for ME, only mid position was worth the change. Bridge sounded different, but not better, which is the reason to spend money.
I'd say change only the bridge pickup if you want to make a more evident difference between neck, mid and bridge positions.
Got rid of the Wilkinsons that came with my SC450+ almost immediately and replaced them with Alnico V pups (a WSC on the neck and a dimarzio paf pro on bridge), love the sound.
I don't think that Wilkinson pups are bad, but I don't think they are good either. and personally I don't like the sound of ceramic pickups.
with that said... the Wilkinsons sound way better than the rübezahl.
and that makes you wonder a lot!
The Wilkinsons are a bit muddier sounding, the others have more dirt yet more warmth and clarity, it feels like comparing digital distortion versus tube distortion, but the clean sounds were fine on Wilkinson
I find the wilkinson more melodic and the rübezahl more snarly and vintage. Personally I won't replace them but if you are into that gibson PAF vintage sound, I guess the rübezahl will make great pickups.
€122.34 Harley Benton SC-400 SBK Vintage Series B-Stock shipped to San Francisco ( thats $150 01 American) Thank You for Helping me Make Up My Mind!
Dude you should totally do a Live Stream using Wirecast :)
On a PC with a good sound card and good headphones, there is a huge tonal difference with the new pickups, open, dynamic, woody, however whether the cost is justified....who knows, the Wilkinson’s are nice pickups
I absolutely HAVE TO hear that Laboga you got going on back there. Dave's such a killer amp/cable builder. Any way you could bust a demo out with that guy?
Das Top der Gitarre ist der Knaller!!! An awesome bang for the buck!!! Daumen Hoch Henning!!!
Rotosound strings FTW Sound great, feel great and they're made in the UK!
I bought a sc-custom ocean flame a couple weeks ago and noticed right out of the box wearing marks and some stains on the back of the guitar, reached out to Thomann and got a: for the price tag You should expect this "cosmetic issues" answer. I think I´ll get BS answers unless I become a RUclipsr. Still the guitar sounds great, the customer services needs to do better.
Guter Vergleich bei dem die Stock-PU's nicht wirklich abfallen, sehr schönes Video.
Doch eine Frage bleibt: Was geschieht nun mit den Wilkinson PU's?
Da gibts doch sicher bald ein Gewinnspiel oder? ;-)
Warte mal... Eine Zahnbürste + Griffbrett? Darauf bin ich noch nicht gekommen! Und wieder ein hilfreicher Tipp von dir, Henning. Genauso toll wie der Trick mit dem Tuch für's Saitenreinigen! : )
haha... Zahnbürste mache ich schon ewig...aber auch etwas Reiniger drauf... Dunlop oder so...
+EytschPi42
Klar doch! Nützt sonst nix.
khz means its a hotter output , for example my seymour duncan invaders have 23 khz for the bridge pu , and i forget about 16 or 19 for the neck (i forget im old), more khz more attack bigger more aggressive distorted sounds .
and less dynamics.
Just can't run an experiment and change two variables and expect to get accurate results on a single variable. It is too bad that the soldering went south and the pots were destroyed and replaced with likely better/different anyway, electronics. This is to myself and likely many folks the main change/upgrade that we would like to possibly try ourselves to see if we can make this already great and affordable guitar even better. Wilkinson makes good pickups. I have them in my SC-Custom and TE-70. The new PUP's sounded hotter to me and broke up the sound a little easier, or is it the totally different pots? We know that the stock Harley Benton pots are small, smaller than most guitars.... just.... ugh, frustrating. I think a similar difference might have been achieved with just a switch in the electronics, to full size pot's...? Great idea, not so great results. TY anyway Henning for doing the great things we want and doing most of them very well, just not so much this time.
Hey Henning,like your vids! You should try Steward MacDonalds Parsons street hbuckers,built to the same spec as the original PAFs-non wax potted,scatter wound,wooden spacers,mine is 8.1k resistance with an alnico 2 magnet in the bridge position.I put it in an Epiphone LP Custom and its lovely!.Its bright and really articulate while sounding raw at the same time(when driven).It costs around 60 euros plus shipping(from USA) but well worth it!
those alnico 2 pups are real close to Seymour Duncan Slash sig. pups as well as GFS alnico 2 classics and iron gear teSLASHarks. I'm speaking about the output specs. all 4 sets are all about 7.8 neck 8.2 bridge. I'm not sure if that makes them sound very similar but I would think it would.
Christmas is almost here and who can you think of that you would want to give this guitar to for a gift!
H The wilkinson sound pretty good as they are. The guitar has a definite quality to it. I like it. i just got hold of a vintage lawsuit Lp Hondo 2 from Japan 1973.. Its just getting a cleanup at the moment as it looked its age. But the thing weighs a ton and to me a heavy guitar has a feeling like, yea this is a pro axe. Whats the weight like on the HBLp ? Dude is that you singing the video game song ? lol you have a pretty good voice. Sounds a bit Axely if you ask me. A LOT BETTER SOUND HENNING..THEY BE FAT PICKUPS !!!! U ADDED reverb to the Rübezahl... so its muffled the sound comparison... Sill i can tell there a better pickup.
If you are looking for incredible quality pickups at great prices check out Tonerider and Irongear pickups in the UK. I have used them extensively and rate them equal to many so called high end pups.
If u had the same amp settings the Wilkinsons are far better. The German pups should sound like Duncan SLASH Estranged or Sweet Child tone. Output is close. Both Alnico II. Wilkinsons had no distortion when you were trying to play clean. The German ones did. Not creamy sweet. Like I found the Wilkinsons to be. And, if it wasn't a product of the drive pedal u were using, I absolutely would not take the Wilkinson bridge pup out
kilo ohms same as output. they are nearly identical to Duncan's, teSLASHarks and Guitar Fetish alnico II classics in output. they are mainly for Classic Rock Slash in particular
i bet the pots caps and wire job is what made it better i did not hear a night and day difference i bet a good nut and tuners with the wires pots and caps would have been a better and cheaper upgrade the pickups were to close to call for 154.99
great video, still to much swearing, IMO but it did show how good the Wilkinson pick ups actually are for the money. they're about £40 for a set. it would be interesting to know what the pot values are (probably 500k) and the caps. in most cases 0. 047uf. That's a good upgrade or mod, changing pots to 300k or putting a 750k resistor to join lugs 1 and 3 or changing capacitors to 0.022uf or 0.015uf. allows more treble through when rolling tone all the way off. each to their own on that one, but changing pot values can change tone 😃 thanks for making these videos.
I also find the use of the F word too much. I am no Saint but I had this playing with my kids around. Not good. But hey I guess we can always watch some other channels without so much swearing. Shame.
There's more bass in the new pickups. The neck is a bit boomy sounding to me. The Wilkinson pickups are pretty bright and the new pickups are closer to a normal EQ. It wasn't much of an upgrade, IMO.
Chris's sound like a old Gibson PAF Great sound!! Wilkinson sounded more compressed. Great vid!
i prefer the Rubezahl pickups over stock, subjective i guess.. but the guitar sounds awesome with the new pups :D
Just to let you know, the affiliate links on the IN DEPTH review on the SC550 aren't working anymore. On this video they still are.
Gotta go with the Wilkinsons .The others are far to middy and break up too easily imo. I'm not saying that another make might make an improvement but as tested I'd stay with the Wilkinsons and save a lot of money.
In clean tones, the Wilks stand miles ahead. The hand made pups distort even in clean. I suppose they're overwound.
Wow!! Great upgrade!! And Excellent sound! :)
it sounded different...put those pups in a studio LP and it will sound different..maybe better to some people..maybe not...same thing with an epi.. I don't know if it make a lot of sense to change the pickups unless you had some laying around...the pots and caps..yes...and tuners...other than that..I thought the wilks sounded as good...especially factoring in the cost...
What? No Wonderwall back to back?
nope... i should have done it
so which is your favourite Harley guitar ?! soundwise and estetically? / rick
I'm not taking any sides on this, I however regret to say that the testing method was deeply flawed. Stings mellow a hell of a lot after the first day or two on the guitar and then slowly degrade after that. Your video where we had to try and identify which was the inexpensive, medium priced and expensive guitar (if I am remembering the scenario correctly) had the same problem.
On the other hand, it does effectively demonstrate that brand new strings make a huge improvement to your guitar's sound (far bigger than upgrading your pickups will), so it is advisable to change them regularly (which admittedly I do not do because I'm lazy). As with any audio equipment, your sound is only as good as your weakest component and because strings degrade so rapidly, they quickly become the weak link in the audio chain..
By the way. I am subbed and have been following the channel for a long time, so please take this as constructive criticism and not as me moaning.
The difference, well not necessarily an improvement (IMHO) is very suttle and can probably easily achieved with a slight tone weak to your gear. Good video though. If anything, it demonstrates the sound quality of the Harley Benton.
It has more personality now. The magnets and winding suit the guitar more than the Wilkinsons.
Unfortunately an excellent but now out of date comparison as the stock are now Roswells.