Tonerider Pickups

[musketeer58]

Hi all.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year and hope you all had a great festive season.

On the subject of Tone Rider pickups, I just wanted to ask if anyone has got them and if so, what is your opinion of them. I saw a couple of YouTube videos of a guy demonstrating their "Pure Vintage" and "Surfari" pickups and to my ears they sound quite good. I thought that the Surfaris sounded a bit brighter than the pure vintage but I suppose it comes down to personal preference so, if you have got them and you wouldn`t mind taking a moment to share your thoughts it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks and regards.

Adrian

[rogerbayliss]

I have the Surfaris on a self built strat, they are excellent. Had a pure vintage bridge pickup 9n another strat and that was also very good. The Surfaris are Alnico 3 and pure vintage Alnico 5 I believe. Great price too.

[musketeer58]

How`s it going Roger.

I was leaning towards the Surfaris, they sound just that little bit brighter to me but now I`m going to do some research on the capacitors. Some people are saying the 0.022 are the best choice and others are saying 0.047, there are others but these two seem to be the most popular but from what I`ve read so far, I think it just comes down to personal choice. The problem is that it`s not easy to just swap one for the other, maybe it could be done at the next string change, it wouldn`t be too difficult to whip the pick guard off and swap it over anyway, I`ll look into it a bit further. Many thanks for the reply.

Regards

Adrian

[dnelson]

Jan 6, 2024 9:41:11 GMT musketeer58 said:

How`s it going Roger.

I was leaning towards the Surfaris, they sound just that little bit brighter to me but now I`m going to do some research on the capacitors. Some people are saying the 0.022 are the best choice and others are saying 0.047, there are others but these two seem to be the most popular but from what I`ve read so far, I think it just comes down to personal choice. The problem is that it`s not easy to just swap one for the other, maybe it could be done at the next string change, it wouldn`t be too difficult to whip the pick guard off and swap it over anyway, I`ll look into it a bit further. Many thanks for the reply.

Regards

Adrian

I've got the Surfaris in my main Strat. They're a fine choice IMHO, of the various pickups I've tried, they've brought me closest to the sound I'm looking for.

You're right about capacitors being a personal choice. I'd suggest taking a little extra time/effort to audition various cap values using a test harness: wire two thin leads to the points where the cap is normally connected, run them out the bottom of your pickguard, attach alligator clips to the ends. That way you can easily clip in various caps & hear what they're like.

For me, it was an eye-opening experience. I'll say that before I found the right cap value for me, I never liked using the tone control: always felt it ruined my sound.

I got a whole range of polyester cap values & started trying them. My personal results & opinions...

0.022: shaves of some of the high end, but too subtle for some of the darker tones I wanted (like Sleepwalk).

0.047 (& higher): cuts too much mid-range, leaving a muddy tone. Not for me.

0.033: figured this would be a good middle ground between too much tone cut & not enough. But in practice: hated it, my least favourite value. To my ear it cuts down into the mids, but leaves a mid-range hump that gives an unpleasant, boxy sound.

At that point I figured I wasn't going to find a good value, almost gave up, but figured I'd try the others for the sake of it...

When I tried 0.039, it was like the heavens opened: just the right amount of cut, and to my ears, darkened the guitar tone while somehow keeping its tonal integrity (if that makes sense). Fantastic.

Of course YMMV, and a purist probably wouldn't want to run a non-"standard" cap value. Still I recommend auditioning caps, at least you'll get a better appreciation of the options.

--Dave

[rogerbayliss]

I run my surfari's on a G&L style wiring which allows cutting bass as well as treble which I found useful. I got the circuit harness off the well known auction site a few years back.

[John Brown]

I have the vintage Tonerider pickups on a Strat I customised and they are the bees knees for a great price

[dnelson]

Jan 10, 2024 13:51:17 GMT rogerbayliss said:

I run my surfari's on a G&L style wiring which allows cutting bass as well as treble which I found useful. I got the circuit harness off the well known auction site a few years back.

Me too! It's an underrated circuit IMHO, incredibly useful having a knob to roll of some low-end.

[Roger...]

For me, Toneriders every time. I have had the vintage ones on three of my Strats for a long time. Also have the bass ones on my PJ bass.

Great qualty, great price, and great sound (my preference). I have tried various pickups over the years (Fender Fat 50's and all sorts) but these are the ones that do it for me.

[ed]

Would these be of interest?

ironstone-guitar-pickups.co.uk/

[musketeer58]

How`s it going gentlemen.

Dave: I saw a YouTube video of somebody comparing capacitors in a similar way to what you suggested, this guy not only compared capacitors of different values but also different types as well. The differences to me were very subtle however, it`s difficult to judge from an online video the only way to do it properly is to do it yourself so, I think I`ll round up some capacitors and give it a crack thanks for the advice.

Dave & Roger: I looked up G&L wiring but couldn`t find out much about it but I`ve got the blender mod on my other Strat and I like it because it`s great to be able to blend in the other pickups and also to be able to use it as a standard setup.

John and Roger: Yes, I like the vintage pickups as well as the surfaris they both sound great, I was leaning towards the Surfaris but I`m still not sure but I`ll need to make my mind up.

Ed: Thanks for your suggestion re: the Ironstone pickups, I`ve got a set of Ironstone Golds on my other Strat and I`m more than happy with them they sound great but I`ve recently acquired another Strat and I`d like to try something different so, I thought I`d give the Toneriders a try.

Many thanks for your input Gentlemen, its very much appreciated.

Regards

Adrian

[bernardj]

hi Dave

I agree, .o39 is an excellent choice which maintains great musicality for correction and does not act as an “uncontrollable damper”.

with CS54 microphones it's easy to control the "highlighting" which sometimes bothers us for that sound


Bernard from France...with google trad