Pickups on Higher Priced Instruments?

[Nephilim]

Just a random question. With brands such as Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio, when you buy them on their own or when they come in lower priced guitars, you find they never sound as good as you think they will (obviously better than stock INF, IBZ, etc. pickups). And the reason for this is - as you probably know - because they're machine wound due to being mass produced. This is obviously why they can't hold a torch to BKP. But the question I want to know is: On higher end guitars, such as the expensive Jackson, ESPs, etc. are they still machine wound, or are they custom order since the guitars are expensive? The reason I ask this is because you get people like Matt Tuck from BFMV playing Jackson RR1 guitars (now EMG, I'm on about earlier stuff) with stock pickups, and people like Synyster Gates from Avenged who used to play guitars with Invaders, in before his endorsment (I know his higher priced guitars a custom order Seymours, now) and these people achieved a very good tone. Almost as if they had the BKP quality pickups which were handwired by Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio respectably, not the cr@p ones you by which are handwired. So back to my original question: Are these higher end guitars got pickups which are Custom Ordered?

Long essay, but hey, I'm curious :)

[FELINEGUITARS]

There are several answers to this question :

Higher priced guitars will have the same factory made - machine wound pickups that you can buy  from a shop
Pickup makers do cut a pretty serious deal (price wise) for big guitar manufacturers based on supplying BIG quantities, as it gets massive exposure for the brand and guarantees a certain amount of work for the pickup factory no matter what the trading conditions are like on the high street.

The same applies with the pickups supplied for mid and lower priced instruments

Some have pondered if these pickup companies farm out the actual winding of the coil assemblies to countries where labour is cheaper.
I don't actually know if that is the case, and if I did know (and it was a secret) I couldn't possibly say.

Actual artists may turn to the custom shop to have pickups wound to suit the perculiarities of a particular guitar.
With Seymour these will still be machine wound if they are humbuckers because Seymour feels that is how the classic (and best in his opinion) pickups were wound.
The wind will also be symmetrical on both coils.
But he may do an altered wind to suit a guitar that needs less of a certain frequency or suchlike.

I spoke to George Lynch over this and he said that he goes to the Duncan factory and they might do a tweaked version of the pickup for him to make a certain guitar sound better.

But high end & signature model guitars that you or I could buy will have STOCK pickup winds in them as specified rather than a special wind.

It may be different if you went directly to a custom shop and ordered something so specific , but chances are that big companies custom shops will usually just offer stock designs (machine wound - unless they also offer a hand wound pickup like BKP)

Of course going to one of the custom guitar makers like the ones you see on here means that you can get BKPs as standard.

[Twinfan]

On higher end guitars, such as the expensive Jackson, ESPs, etc. are they still machine wound, or are they custom order since the guitars are expensive? ... people achieved a very good tone. Almost as if they had the BKP quality pickups which were handwired by Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio respectably

In my opinion, the difference is in the guitars themselves.  They have the best woods and resonate freely.  A bog stock Duncan JB in an Epiphone bolt on neck Les Paul will not sound as nice as the exact same pickup in a '59 reissue Gibson.

Pickups are part of a MUCH larger equation...

[Telerocker]

On higher end guitars, such as the expensive Jackson, ESPs, etc. are they still machine wound, or are they custom order since the guitars are expensive? ... people achieved a very good tone. Almost as if they had the BKP quality pickups which were handwired by Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio respectably

In my opinion, the difference is in the guitars themselves.  They have the best woods and resonate freely.  A bog stock Duncan JB in an Epiphone bolt on neck Les Paul will not sound as nice as the exact same pickup in a '59 reissue Gibson.

Pickups are part of a MUCH larger equation...

+1

[kevinr]

I have heard some really great sounds coming from machine wound pickups (we all have and may not know it) I still have guitars with them and they sound fine, different, however still good they both have their place.

[Transcend]

also you are talking proffesional tones here.

Both live & studio are incredibly altered and mixed and wont sound anything like you will get

[Nephilim]

Well, you learn something new everyday, lol. Thanks for the info, everyone :)