[TheMissing]

Originally Posted by darren

I don't know many people who would put a $350 pickup in a $500 guitar.

In fact, i don't think i know anyone who would spend $350 on a single pickup, period!

Rondo is not out to compete with Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, etc. They're in a totally different segment of the market, and they seem to be filling the niche quite nicely. I think some of us need to adjust our expectations accordingly.

^^^

Originally Posted by Metal Ken

Thats your prerogative though, you could have the stock pickups re-wound or hit up the duncan custom shop and come out ahead, especially if you can install them yourself, which isn't hard. Just break out your soldering iron. Its an hour or two of work tops if you have to rewire the whole guitar (unlikely) and totally not worth spending 80$ on.

So then I have to buy the soldering iron and the unit that runs that, and that will cost too. Plus if I fuck it up I will have to pay repair on both the pickup and a new installment. That doesn't sound like a guitar for everybody.
Whats the point in building a guitar that's only worth buying if you have a small guitar repair unit at home ?

Originally Posted by darren

I don't know many people who would put a $350 pickup in a $500 guitar.

In fact, i don't think i know anyone who would spend $350 on a single pickup, period!

Rondo is not out to compete with Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, etc. They're in a totally different segment of the market, and they seem to be filling the niche quite nicely. I think some of us need to adjust our expectations accordingly.

There are a lot of people who have lundgrens on this site.

[TemjinStrife]

Keep the $650 neck-thru with EMG/Hipshot. We like it, have decided on it, and have expressed interest in buying it.

Plus, with such high-quality components out of the box, with any luck, the only things that might have to be replaced by people looking for a real pro axe are the tuners and possibly the nut... and frankly I myself wouldn't bother unless the tuners are real junk, which I highly, highly doubt.

BTW, guys: this is why custom shops hate guitarists. We can never decide on one set of specs.

EDIT: Desecrated, a soldering iron is $30 at Radio Shack. Look up some tutorials... and it's very hard to actually damage said pickup with a soldering iron because all you are dealing with is some long lead wires. Plus, your techs charge $80 for a pickup install? What a ripoff. The local store does it (assuming no coil-tap or other tiny wire soldering) for around $20-30.

Basically, practice with some blank wire... but a single pickup/single volume/jack setup is perhaps six solder joints at the most. And how is this any different from any other guitar where the stock pickups are not up to your expectations?

Originally Posted by TemjinStrife

Keep the $650 neck-thru with EMG/Hipshot. We like it, have decided on it, and have expressed interest in buying it.

Plus, with such high-quality components out of the box, with any luck, the only things that might have to be replaced by people looking for a real pro axe are the tuners and possibly the nut... and frankly I myself wouldn't bother unless the tuners are real junk, which I highly, highly doubt.

BTW, guys: this is why custom shops hate guitarists. We can never decide on one set of specs.

EDIT: Desecrated, a soldering iron is $30 at Radio Shack. Look up some tutorials... and it's very hard to actually damage said pickup with a soldering iron because all you are dealing with is some long lead wires. Plus, your techs charge $80 for a pickup install? What a ripoff. The local store does it (assuming no coil-tap or other tiny wire soldering) for around $20-30.

Basically, practice with some blank wire... but a single pickup/single volume/jack setup is perhaps six solder joints at the most. And how is this any different from any other guitar where the stock pickups are not up to your expectations?

The cheapest soldering iron I was able to find was 99 us dollars over here. Not everyone has the luxury of the american market

"And how is this any different from any other guitar where the stock pickups are not up to your expectations?"

Since their is a little bit more variety with non 8-string guitars you can almost always find a guitar that lives up to your expectations. But if the idea is to make an affordable 8-string, going with something that don't have to be moded might be a good idea.

But this is just my personal thoughts, I'm just voicing some concerns I have, I'm not really arguing or trying to prove a point, just thinking about the subject from different directions.

[Niels]

I think some are forgetting the point of this whole guitar.
And that´s an 8-string guitar for bottom prices...

And darren is right, Rondo isn't Ibanez guys, they're aiming for people who wouldn't want
to buy something for a thousand dollars without trying it.
I know... 'try it at a guitardealer...' well, most guitar dealers dont have 8-string guitars
in-stock...

Bolt-on, simple finish, standard nut and a cheap bass pup would suit me fine...

Originally Posted by Niels

I think some are forgetting the point of this whole guitar.
And that´s an 8-string guitar for bottom prices...

And darren is right, Rondo isn't Ibanez guys, they're aiming for people who wouldn't want
to buy something for a thousand dollars without trying it.
I know... 'try it at a guitardealer...' well, most guitar dealers dont have 8-string guitars
in-stock...

Bolt-on, simple finish, standard nut and a cheap bass pup would suit me fine...

Their is going to be guitar for a bottom price later on, right now we are discussing the pro model of the cheap line :lol

If we just wanted the cheapest possible guitar we could have done a plywood body with spraypaint, but since we choose a 5piece neck-through I'm assuming that we are going for a little better then just "the cheapest possible".

[bostjan]

Originally Posted by Desecrated

The cheapest soldering iron I was able to find was 99 us dollars over here. Not everyone has the luxury of the american market

"And how is this any different from any other guitar where the stock pickups are not up to your expectations?"

Since their is a little bit more variety with non 8-string guitars you can almost always find a guitar that lives up to your expectations. But if the idea is to make an affordable 8-string, going with something that don't have to be moded might be a good idea.

But this is just my personal thoughts, I'm just voicing some concerns I have, I'm not really arguing or trying to prove a point, just thinking about the subject from different directions.

$99 for the cheapest soldering iron?!@

I bought a pretty decent one for $25. My first soldering iron was $7.95

I wish there was an easier way to fit different sized pups in each guitar. That'd make things really easy.

Help! I'm being attacked!

[darren]

Originally Posted by Desecrated

There are a lot of people who have lundgrens on this site.

... and at retail (from Conklin) they cost $400 for a pair, not $350 each.

Originally Posted by darren

... and at retail (from Conklin) they cost $400 for a pair, not $350 each.

On the lundgren.se site they cost 195 euro each which is 308 us dollar.

I guess we where both wrong.

[dpm]

How about those pickups Halo was using? They're Korean made, I think. The issue with developing a passive pickup in adapted standard humbucker dimensionsis that someone somewhere has to come up with dies for injection molding the bobbins etc.