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Has anyone ever yanked perfectly good sounding pickups from a guitar in favor of replacing them with more distinctive sounding pickups?

Your thoughts?

I've gone through a few various GFS sets just trying out different things. Great way to get an idea of something else you might like, without spending a lot of dough.

Define cheapo... I love 60's cheeseball japanese pickups and love the idea of putting them in "normal" instruments... prob is rings and guards..

I got three "white single coil pickups" - that's literally how they were labeled.... for 5 bucks. They did not sound like shit. I was dissapoint.
I think I still have them laying around somewhere.....

Ah, I think I misunderstood. Personally, I'm all for trying new thingsI added an old 60's pickup to one of my basses, instead of replacing what was there entirely, and I love it. Pulled it from a beat up kay bass body I got for $25 or something. Just keep in mind, you might have to mod the instrument, depending on the pup...

I bought a Godin Detour uber cheap from e[ast]bay a couple years ago, really just on the quality of the brand and thatep I wanted a fixed bridge electric around. I normally don't like conventional humbuckers and intended to yank them and put something different in. When it arrived and I plugged in, that idea went out the window. Maybe it could sound better, but I'm completely jazzed at how great it sounds as is.

Not against replacing pickups at all, but it's always worth listening to the guitar as it is before deciding something else will be better.

Jero wrote:Ah, I think I misunderstood. Personally, I'm all for trying new thingsI added an old 60's pickup to one of my basses, instead of replacing what was there entirely, and I love it. Pulled it from a beat up kay bass body I got for $25 or something. Just keep in mind, you might have to mod the instrument, depending on the pup...

This what swimming pool routs are all about. It's sad that Bootsy is the only bassist that ever does that shit and that guitar companies that even made guitars to have swappable guards with different electronics never really did much with them.. I AM LOOK AT YOU MUSICMAN AND G&L! My The Thang mk1 is like this... under the various pieces of pickguard is all hallow so I can put anything I want in the thang.

Oh, no, Jero, I wasn't thinking about doing it to any of my guitars. Most of my guitars already have old microphonic pickups in them. Yeah, I love some of the old Kay pickups.

I was just thinking about it because I saw Arbouretum and the guitar player was playing a Martin EM-18 that he had taken the stock pickups out of and replaced with lipstick humbuckers. I thought he was getting a really nice sound, but I'm kinda partial to odder pickup choices.