Hi,
I've made some videos comparing various guitar pickups from different manufacturers.
Here is the link to youtube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/w...VL7Wu3pAcrNPb_qisfT6vJ

Wow!
This is awesome, Alisa, thanks for putting this together!
Love the comments & specs - it's great to have that info included.
 
Excellent job!
 

Thanks Jeff! Stay tuned for part 2. :)

Obviously, there was a LOT of work behind this!  Very impressive and revealing!  I'll share!
 
R

Are you actually changing the PU'S or are these just through SIM's? That's a lot of bloody work! 
I listened to the Bridge Crunch and It's seems the level never changes and the tone is very subtle  in difference. 
I would expect a bigger difference in output and tones.
 
I just yesterday re pupped my 2 main guitars as I was not happy. 
My G&L I put the original Single coils back after trying some Humbuckers ( they are soap bar type) It now sounds like a proper Tele again. The neck Pup is better for Blues again, smooth. The Humbuckers were from GFI and I guess I shouldn't have expected much at that price. It was too harsh and only good sound was using both together. I added the coil tap and that was even worse. 
 
And my Strat I removed a Dimarzio Tone Zone DP189  and put the Fender Custom Shop bridge PU back. So now all the PU match again and it sounds like a good strat should. The Dimarzio was OK on it's own but you couldn't use it with the middle at all. Lost the classic Quack. So I learned my lesson with both guitars, If I want a humbucker, buy a guitar that is made for them and with matching sets.   

Darn, I was hopin to see a pic of a guitar with a neck made of pickups.

Cactus Music
Are you actually changing the PU'S or are these just through SIM's? That's a lot of bloody work! 
I listened to the Bridge Crunch and It's seems the level never changes and the tone is very subtle  in difference. 
I would expect a bigger difference in output and tones.

Yes, I swapped pickguards with different pickup sets. All recorded on the same guitar with the same set of strings, same pick, etc.
Now be cause all pickups cannot be adjusted to the same level for obvious reasons and since we tend to think that louder is better,
1. I normalized all clips to the same pick value. What's left is different RMS values and frequency spectrum.
2. I reamped my recordings using the best all-tube preamp by Yerasov corporation.
3. The preamp's cab sim out is panned hard left, while DI with The Metal Factory Orange PPC412 IR is panned hard right.
Yes, the difference in sound is not huge, but all pickups certainly did feel differently.
However this test is meant to show what to expect from pickup upgrade. Output level differences are compensated by proper gain adjustment.  Then it's down to pickups harmonic content and dynamics.
In other words, for this test:
a) brighter pickups have more harmonics, and vice versa;
b) louder pickups have less dynamics, and vice versa.

I recommend adjusting gain so the RMS values are the same, not the peaks. Otherwise we'll be hearing something similar to comparing compressed and non-compressed recordings in the sense that they both have the same peaks but one will sound louder then the other. Keeping the RMS values the same will result in the two having the similar loudness.

fret_man
I recommend adjusting gain so the RMS values are the same, not the peaks. Otherwise we'll be hearing something similar to comparing compressed and non-compressed recordings in the sense that they both have the same peaks but one will sound louder then the other. Keeping the RMS values the same will result in the two having the similar loudness.

Thank you for your input, Paul. I disagree. Pickups are not plugins. Listener needs to know dynamic range of pickups in relation to each other. More compressed pickups are generally easier to play, but too compressed tend to sound dull, flat, and usually get lost in the mix.

It is difficult to "normalize" a set of data in general, and the fact is that pickups do output different RMS voltage levels. "On paper" I tend to gravitate to the high passive output with harmonic content so I am attenuating that signal through the chain (it is easier to remove than create).
 
Those "on paper" values are often what people make their purchase decisions from, since comparisons like this thread are almost impossible to come by, especially to this level of detail.
 
Huge kudos to the OP on her patience and persistence!