anyone heard of Q-tuner pickups?

[MF_Kitten]

this is a fairly unknown product that iīm curious about... itīs a company from the netherlands called Q-Tuner... they make Neodymium magnet-pickups, made in a very peculiar way...

hereīs a demo: http://www.q-tuner.com/demo/guitar.mp3

pretty cool stuff, when iīm getting a new neck pickup for my 7 string, it will probably be one of those...

they look like this: http://www.neophyzix.com/gallery/Q-t.../IMG_4759b.jpg

also, you can fine-tune the sound of each single string very precisely, to get the perfect tone you want...

their website: http://www.q-tuner.com/index.shtml

[Dee]

Yeah, I have heard of Qtuner pickups, in fact if you search the forums you'll see my threads. The problem is Erno's reluctance to put any decent sound clips on his website. I have spoken to him several times about how so many people are interested in his pickups but he won't get any sales because people don't know what they are getting. Taking a risk on a pair of humbuckers at $300 a pop isn't gonna happen. It'd be kinda like buying an expensive painting without seeing pictures of it first. What the guy needs to do is get a reasonably good guitar player to demo his product using a distorted sound. It's all very well having samples of bass and clean guitar, but very few people want to hear those, so as I said, no sales.

One last thing -- I don't think his humbuckers are F-spaced, so I don't know how good they'd be for Ibanez guitars. Lastly, they are only 2 conductor wiring, not 4. How do they split? Who knows, it's just another Qtuner mystery. They would look wonderful in my RG550 Road Flare, but I can't take the risk.

[jim777]

I don't think they split, per se, as they are supposed to be noiseless in the first place. They might be a bit warmer with 2 coils than one, but I don't believe there is that big difference in sound that you'd get with a regular set of single/humbucker. They do have a "distorted" clip on there now, but it's such ridiculous wonkery it's difficult to guess how someone actually playing (and not trying to sound like a video game) would sound.

[Dee]

Thanks for the heads up, Jim. It's been a while since I checked the site. You're right about the ridiculous wonkery. Everything I hate about guitarists, all rolled up into one file! Great! This really doesn't sell the pickups to me at all. It has completely put me off, to be honest, the guitar is so soulless, tone-wise and playing-wise. My RG550 and V-Amp Pro sound better, I'll stick with what I've got.

[RSVampire]

I don't think they need to be F spaced because of all the pole pieces they have.

and that distortion clip is exactly what jim said... ridiculous wonkery!

[Dee]

F-spaced or not, I won't be buying any. The wonkery put me off for life!

[vibetronic]

Actually, I thought it sounded pretty cool...but then I would because I wrote & recorded it

Sorry you guys didn't like it; Erno asked me to record a shreddy piece with squeaks/squeals etc, so that's what I did - I love that sort of stuff. I'm very proud of it, but it obviously won't be to everyone's taste, and will inevitably attract criticism. The demo has also attracted plenty of positive feedback, so it's not all bad

Erno isn't bothered about selling loads of pickups - that's not what he's about at ALL. He just wants to get people recording new and exciting music, and he's very passionate about it.

The pickups ARE fantastic. They are very powerful, clean & clear sounding, and pack a hell of a punch. I replaced the Evolutions in my Jem with these and I shan't be going back. The pickups are arranged with switching as those in a Les Paul would be - bridge, bridge & neck, neck.

As for the piece, well that's just the way I play and write, maybe a bit more intense than normal as it's a short piece. I can't really say much more than that, except this is the way I've always played and Erno asked me to do the job on the basis of what he'd heard of my playing. I think it would probably be virtually impossible to record something everyone liked ! If I had to do it again, I'd do it exactly the same

I would disagree on the point about it being 'soulless' - but then I disagree with this sort of statement whenever it's made in reference to someone's playing. No-one knows how much feel/soul is going into a piece apart from the person playing it...but then that is just my opinion

I've been posting similar 'wonkery' in hundreds of songs on the web for fun for years now, and you have to take the rough with the smooth. I've been lucky enough to meet loads of cool people, make some very good friends and get work from doing this, so I'm happy to take the knocks.

Dee, you go ahead and stick with your gear if you think it sounds better. I can't possibly comment on that as I've never heard you (or anyone else on this thread for that matter) play. All I can say is that these are great pickups, and you'll be missing out.

Any of you are more than welcome to try them out if you ever find yourself up in the Gloucestershire area of the UK - I promise I won't play a note

cheers

Ben

[Dee]

Knocks well taken, Ben. I can only admire your attitude and I apologize if you were offended in any way. But no, sorry man, that type of stuff really doesn't do anything for me at all. That's no knock on your actual technique or anything, btw. Unfortunately I'm just not convinced by the sound I heard, it left me cold. The kind of tone I can relate to would be Guthrie Govan's Suhr & Cornford setup, Allan Holdsworth, Richie Kotzen's single coils on steroids, etc. Maybe I was just expecting too much, but those are the kind of tones that appeal to me. Organic. I know the Q's are very "hifi" sounding, but as I said, very cold to my old ears.

Nice of you to offer to let anyone try them out. I'm not anywhere close to you but that's cool of you all the same.

[RSVampire]

vibetronic,

it's nothing against your playing, it's very clean and technically proficient. But when you test pickups you don't record that type of music.

it'd be like testing a car and showing the general public how good it is by how fast it can go over a speed bump, or how many bird poops it takes to cover the paint.

again, like Dee said. No offense (at least from Dee and I) on your playing but it just isn't the type of environment when showing how good pickups are.

[Roland]

Hey vibetronic!

I've only got two requests for you (which I think sum up what the rest of us all want to hear); could you record one clean soulful sample, utilising as warm as possible of a sound you can muster out of them? Then I'm wondering whether you could record one VERY gain-heavy riffing sample to show us how they react when heavily distorted and palm-muted?
I'd be very interested to hear them in these two contexts.

[vibetronic]

yo

no offence taken !

I will be recording more stuff and will give you a shout when it's up. I shall be recording some with a 'warmer' tone etc too.

I use an effects box to record, from which I only use the distorted sound & no effects, as I happen to like the distortion from it a lot. I use that same sound through my amp for overdrive, so that would be the same whatever I did on this piece.

However, for the next piece, which is cleaner tones and not all-out shred, I'll be mic'ing up my amp. This'll hopefully give you guys the sounds you want, or a better idea of what the pickups sound like anyway.

As for the type of music I recorded - well, that was the sort of thing I was asked to record by the man who makes these pickups - so if it's ok by him, then it's ok by me It's not really for anyone to say what's right & what's wrong as such.

For example, if I built a pickup for metal, I would want someone to record nothing but screaming shred with it. I have a friend who also likes metal, but he'd want to hear something completely different, with more tasteful phrasing etc., instead of all out shred. So there you go

[nightfiend14]

hey vibe, I liked the demo. I like crazy stuff so keep it up man.

[MF_Kitten]

i didnīt care for the clean demos, showed too littl of the pickupīs character... i did like the distorted demo though, because it does show how nice and articulate it is, even though one may not like the material thatīs being played, but thatīs a matter of taste...

i only have one complaint, and that is i want more! :P i wanna hear everything that this pickup can do!