Pickup Manufacturers

Seymour Duncan

A number of my guitars have a range of Seymour Duncan pickups in them and I find them all to sound great.

I have found the audio samples that are on the site to be helpful in deciding between similarly specced pickups

DiMarzio

I have a full set of DiMarzio pickups in my main Strat and a DiMarzio neck pickup in my Samick.

The pickups sound great and the UK distributors MIRep Ltd were really helpful when I rang them asking for advice, wiring diagrams etc.

Kent Armstrong

Aaron Armstrong hand crafted a new pickup for my Aria bass and it sounds fantastic. The price was about the same as one of the mass-produced and Aaron took the time to make sure he understood exactly what qualities I wanted from the pickup as well as making sure that I understood the wiring options that were available

If you need a custom pickup, they're definitely worth checking out.

Instrument Manufacturers

Fender

OK, I admit it ... I love Fender Stratocasters!!. There, I said it! There’s just something about playing a Strat; the sound, the feel and the vibe that’s just right for my build and height. Sure, there are a few things that you need to work around and you need to follow Fender’s guidelines on trem setup to make sure that you stay in tune all the time, but I still wouldn’t be without at least one Strat

PRS

I don’t own a full-spec PRS, only a Santana SE. Having said that, the quality and sound of the ‘economy’ model that I do own are superb, let alone for the cost of the instrument.

It is my intention that I will, one day, own a full-spec PRS. In the words of the great Wayne .. “It shall be mine, oh yes, it shall be mine”

Yamaha

The Yamaha fretless bass that I own is one of the economy models, but the build quality far outweighs the cost of the instrument. Several of my friends have ‘cheap’ Yamaha guitars as backups for their main guitar when they are gigging.