Irongear Pickups - Blues Engine?

    Morning All,


    Has anyone had any experience with the Irongear Blues Engine pickup? http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_016.htm


    I'm selling my Seymour Black Winters as they are just too harsh and high output for my taste. My previous set were Alnico II pro's by Tonerider, which were really nice and warm, but missing the 'woody' nature and clarity that these Blues Engine/PAF/Alnico IV pickups appear to offer.


    They are a great price here in the UK, and I'm hoping for a warm tone with clarity, and open 'airy' top end rather than the harsh compressed nature of the Seymours. I'll be using them in D-standard / C# tuning for post-rock/drone/doom and classic metal and hope they'd be a good match for the mahogany body/cap and ebony f/board on my ESP/LTD EC-1000.


    If anyone has any experience or info, please let me know!


    Cheers,


    -Tonerider

    Hi Tonerider,


    I've had two sets of Irongear pickups and one of those was indeed a Blues Engine.


    They are decent pickups (IMO similar quality to the non-custom shop SD's) but whether they'll make you happy or not is really a lottery. In one guitar, they did what I wanted. In the other (a Burny LP copy) they were good but frankly no better than the ones I took out and that was the one where I stuck the Blues Engine in there.


    If you're willing to pay more, I'd highly recommend Bulldog Pickups http://www.ekmpowershop6.com/e…ickups/humbuckers-8-c.asp


    The bad news is that it'll cost you £90 as opposed to costing you around £35-£40 for the Irongear. What you get for your money is a chat with a very decent guy who really knows his stuff and cares about getting it right. You tell him what pickup you have and tell him all about the guitar. You tell him what you like / don't like about the current one and what you're wanting to achieve and he'll then wind you something appropriate. If it's not right, you send it back and he tweaks. I've had two sets from him and a friend has had a couple. Never had to send any back so I can't comment on how well that works but basically it's a custom service.


    Not saying the Irongears are bad - they are great for the money. It's just that, with any 'off the shelf' pickup, you're in a bit of a lottery as the wood surrounding it plus your ears all make a difference to how happy you'll be. I think having the experienced human being on the other end of things takes the guesswork out of it :)


    Gary

    No worries,


    Hoping they might be shipped today - so will let you know as soon as installed. REALLY looking forward to trying the Alnico IV magnets - gone for vintage paf with zebra coils, gold screws and normal slugs to fit in with the matt black / gold h/w finish of my EC-1000.


    Hayden has been very helpful and knowledgeable when running through all my questions, and is tweaking the neck pu a little to go with the fact it's a 24 fret guitar so the difference between pu's is smaller.


    I'm glad I decided to stump up the extra £ for what is essentially custom pickups - so will report back as soon as installed and up and running!

    Gary,


    Just got them installed on Sunday - and my initial response is 'wow' - very clear, articulate and with no horrid eq issues stemming from the pu as I found with the Tonerider and Seymour pu's.


    Middle position is the first time I've really like the combo and slight 'vowel' quality it can bring - dynamics are great. Just re-evaluating my favourite profiles and going to do some clips/demos.

    I've got the Iron Gear Dirty Torque and Blues Engine pair in two guitars and their Tesla Sharks in a LP Custom. They certainly sound decent enough to my ears, a bit clearer and brighter than most PAF alikes IMO. Coil splits on all of them and even the single coil sounds are good. For the price I think they're excellent.

    Quote from Tonerider

    Gary,


    Just got them installed on Sunday - and my initial response is 'wow' - very clear, articulate and with no horrid eq issues stemming from the pu as I found with the Tonerider and Seymour pu's.


    Middle position is the first time I've really like the combo and slight 'vowel' quality it can bring - dynamics are great. Just re-evaluating my favourite profiles and going to do some clips/demos.


    Really glad they're working out for you :) As mentioned before, any pickup change is a gamble - the only thing you can say is that the sound will likely change but being confident of 'for better or for worse?' is a combination of many things.


    The humbucker set that he did me gave such a vast increase in clarity it was scary. The thing I noticed most was that the subtle ringing of the guitar came through. For sure, once the drummer comes in you don't hear such things ;) But when you just play an Am chord and let it die away? A good valve amp (tube amp) plus a nice guitar should have lots of lovely subtle things going on in the high end. The Kemper fortunately brings all of this out and pickups can either help to show this off or can mask it. My previous set in that guitar (Duncans) made it sound almost as if the wood was 'dead'.


    Enjoy