New Pickup Day: Dragonfire Gatebucker Review

As a musician I am always on a quest for tone.  I am fascinated by sound, and they way it can be expressed.  A few months ago I wrote a blog post about a set of pickups I bought at the Orlando Guitar Expo.  They were a set of Seymour Duncan 59 neck/Pearly Gates Plus bridge pickups.    I installed this set of pickups into an Epiphone Les Paul of mine.  The sound was amazing.  

Here's the link to that blog post.

Installing The Spoils Of Rock! 

The sound of the Pearly Gates set got me to thinking.  I looked up specs, EQ, and anything could find about the pickup set.  One thing caught my eye.  The price.  Back when I started getting interested in playing guitar, circa 1998, one Pearly Gates pickup cost $50.  Nowadays, that same pickup costs $120.  A set costs $240.  

So this lead me to more thinking.  Do any other pickup makers make a Pearly Gates clone?  After being in this business for a while I had many contacts.  I looked through a lot of pickup makers, but no one offered anything even remotely close to a Pearly Gates clone.  That is, except one.  

I was looking at the Dragonfire Guitars website.  Yes, the company that looks like it's website was designed in 1997, and hasn't changed since.  I can't lie, it needs an update.  But in their offerings of pickups was something called a "Gate Bucker."

Here's the link:

https://www.dragonfireguitars.com/Gate-Buckers-Alnico-2-A2-AII-Vintage-Humbucker-Pickups-12097.htm

They were selling the Gate Buckers set for a grand total of $60.  Not $60 a piece, but both pickups for a total of $60.  At first I passed on the deal.  I thought, "How good can they be if they are even cheaper than GFS pickups?"  

Also was the fact was the guitar I was going to put them in was an Epiphone Les Paul that had the new wiring system in it.  That's the one with the quick connect system.  It's not hard to wire it up, it's just time consuming.  And if I hated them, then it would be a pain to rewire it all again.  

So I looked some more around the net.  I still couldn't find anything close to the Pearly Gates set.  I ended up searching Reverb, www.reverb.com and the Gate Bucker set came up.  It got me to thinking... yet again.  I thought, well, I'm going to just have to give this set a shot.  

So I went ahead and ordered a set.  The company was great to deal with, and worked quickly to ship me the pickups.  As soon as I received the pickups I installed them.

Here they are.

Again they look like any other pickups, but something surprised me when I flipped them over.  Take a look.

Do you notice it?  These pickups actually have nickel/silver baseplates.  They may have not cost a lot, but they surely weren't cheaply made.  

So I started installing them right away.  Like I mentioned earlier I would have to deal with Epiphone's quick connect system.  That meant cutting the 5 wire connector  Next, I had to make sure I matched up the correct wires.  Dragonfire and Epiphone use different color codes.  After that I had to wire up five wires for each pickup.  

One of the best things I bought was a variety pack of heat shrink wire tubing.  That way I could cleanly connect the wires, and then use a larger heat shrink tube to hold all the smaller ones together.  Here are the photos so you can understand what I'm talking about.

  

As you see each pickup has five wires that I connected.  

It occurs to me now that I didn't take any photos of my blue Les Paul.  It is amazingly beautiful.  But in this photo you can see the edge of it.  Also in the photo are the pickups laid out.  At this stage I am going to put the large tubing over the end of the pickup wire.

Not too shabby, huh?  The important part is that it worked the first time.  Of course, I made sure to check my connections before any of the tubing went over any part of the wires.  

But now it was time for the sound check.  How would a cloned pickup that cost 1/4 of it's subject sound?  Would it sound only a quarter as good?  One thing that worried me was that the Gate Bucker had matched coils.  The Pearly Gates coils aren't exactly matched up.  That's one way it gets it bite among other things.  

So I plugged it in and was surprised.  The bridge Gate Bucker matched up really closely to a Pearly Gates pickup.  On a Pearly Gates bridge pickup the top three strings (E, B, G) are really bright, and almost separate themselves from the bottom three strings.  The bottom three strings (D, A, E) are bluely and a touch loose.  But overall, all the strings had a bite to them.  

I know it's tough to say a pickup's bottom is loose but still has bite, but I have to stand by that opinion.  I will say that the Gate Bucker doesn't have as much bite as the pickup it's based on, but I think I know why.  Like a lot of overseas made pickups, the Gate Bucker is filled with wax.  I am in favor of light wax potting, but the overseas made pickups are just soaked in wax.  

When soaking a pickup in wax it's innevitently going to kill off the highs and the bite.  I know some boutique pickup winders won't wax pot a pickup.  If they are requested to do so. they lightly pot the pickup so only the outer windings are wax potted.  This leaves the inner windings untouched.  

So my final grade for the bridge Gate Bucker pickup is an "A."  I have to admit I was shocked.  I didn't think an overseas made pickup could sound so close to a Seymour Duncan pickup.  So now onto the neck pickup. 

The neck Gate Bucker was what I would call a Blues Machine.  It had rounded off treble, but was very nicely balanced.  I would say it's not for everyone.  And by that, I mean, those would turn their gain up to "dentist drill" setting.  But if you love rock n' roll, and want a neck pickup that has tone that will express how your soul feels the Gate Bucker neck pickup is for you.  Again, I would give it an "A."

I am thankful that I took a chance with the Gate Buckers.  I may have to write Dragonfire Guitars and tell them just how wonderful their pickups are.  That, and to completely update their website.  Seriously, they really need to do something about that.  

But I will say, I am going to keep the Gate Buckers in my favorite blue Les Paul.  I think they are without a doubt my sound.  Well, at least until my search for tone takes me elsewhere.  

The Bass! Part 4,

Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-there-are-no-such-things-as.html

Part 2:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-part-2.html
Part 3:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-part-3-punk-rock-bass.html

So I had been waiting on the bridge to arrive, and it finally did. 

While it was not an exact replacement of the old one, the saddles lined up just fine.  And in the end, that's what's important.

I then had to deal with the pickguard not lining up exactly.  However, the use of a long screw took care of a, now, tiny problem.

As you can see, it worked out pretty good.  It holds rather nicely.

However then came a problem I did not forsee.  This happens with older guitar or bass necks.  With no tension on it, the neck is straight.  But with the strings at full tension the heal kicks up.  So I am torn between having insanely high action, or the frets not being playable from the 12th fret up. 

Now, the normal way to correct this is to yank out the frets below the 12th fret, shave the fingerboard, and replace the frets.  However, the fingerboard is maple, and if I shave it I will have to re-finish it.  Right now, I don't have time for that.  I have to make the bass somewhat playable for the next gig. 

Once we cross that bridge, I will go back and start work on it.  I might be able to shave the frets down, and make it playable.  But I'll deal with that when I get there. 

I knew I would be a pain to put this thing together, but I didn't think it would be "THIS" much of a pain.  I did a lot more work on this thing than I had planned to. 

But here's the result.  Not too bad.

The Bass! Part 3, Punk Rock Bass

Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-there-are-no-such-things-as.html

Part 2:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-part-2.html

So I have been having problems with the wiring.  Seriously, I've been working something like a week on it.  But instead of making a long story out of it, I'll just say this.  It seems one of the volume pots was bad, and not sending enough signal through to the tone pot.  That's why I couldn't get the tone pot to work.

I do want to say now that the volume is LOUD!!!  Now that I have a proper working volume pot, it's surprising just how loud these Dragonfire active pickups are.  I can't wait to get strings on this bass.

And simply put, I yanked out everything, and started with all new parts.

So after getting all the electronics working, I made holes for all the screws, and fitted the pickguard and output jack. 

Even though I don't have the bridge yet, I used my straight edge to get a proper angle on how I should shim the neck.  I used a rather thick piece of wood, and shimmed it.  It came out exactly how I wanted.  I may have to adjust it further once I get the bridge in, but it's a good start.

So onto the pictures!!!

So the bass looks very worn and punk rock to me.  It was a great bass to get some practice in on a few things.  More to come when I get the bridge in the mail, and get the bass finally set up.

The Bass! Part 2

Here's part 1.  It might make more sense to read it first.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bass-there-are-no-such-things-as.html

So I am trying to get this bass up and running.  It's not as simple as putting parts together.  There are so many things I'm having to adjust, sand, cut, and rig, just to get it to somewhat work together.

First up, let me show some pictures so everyone knows what I am talking about.

Let's go over what I'm talking about.

1.  I had to cut some foam to put under the pickups.  I then had to drill the screw holes even longer so the screws could go in.
2.  I had to adjust the pickguard even more to get those P-Bass pickups to fit in.  It was a lot of sanding and such.  Just a lot of what I have been doing.
3.  I just did away with the pots that came with the Dragonfire pickups.  I have a whole box of EMG pots, so I used them.  They are mini-pots so I can use them without having to route out part of the body.
4.  Speaking of routing...  I routed the body so the pickups would fit better.  I also routed the pickguard so I can fit it in the truss rod hex adjuster. 

Frankly, it's just a lot of nipping things in the bud here and there.  Again, universal parts are not universal! 

Up next is wiring the active pickups.  This is kind of funny, but Dragonfire didn't include a wiring diagram.  Usually I can do these without looking at a diagram, but I haven't done an active set in a while.  So I downloaded the EMG diagram.  Since these pickups are supposed to be a copy of them, I decided to just go right to the source. 

After that, I will get the neck on there, and wait for the bridge to come in the mail.  That, of course, means more blogging.  Keep posted.