The Pickups

Telecaster Sets 

Our Tele neck offerings include the Standard Plus, JL, Mid Tall, 50/60TN, and Killa.

  • Standard Plus is our most vintage-like Tele neck sound. It has beautiful warmth, clarity, depth and an overall great feel. Just a note, early Tele neck pickups can have a bad reputation for being too dark and muddy sounding. This is mostly due to the way that Fender wired them with the capacitor and resistor lending it to a B3 like sound. Removing these components opens it up to a beautiful neck pickup sound. 
  • JL is a lower wound Tele neck made for Julian Lage, which replicates the neck pickup in his original 1954 Tele. He is currently using the JL pickup in two of his Tele’s. The JL is a bit more scooped in the mids and has pronounced high and low frequencies. It works great from Blues to Jazz.
  • Mid Tall has more extended upper mids and clarity in those upper frequencies. It has a classic Tele sound with a blend of Strat mixed in. This extended range makes the Mid Tall a very versatile pickup which works well in all styles of music. 
  • 50/60TN has a wide range of musical colors due to its hybrid construction, which features materials used from the 50’s and 60’s eras. It has a great mix of both the Standard Plus and Mid Tall pickups.
  • Killa is an open top Tele neck pickup that emulates a broadcaster pickup. Originally made for Jedd Hughes.

Our Tele bridge offerings include era correct 52T, 50B, 60T, and custom design 50/60T and 50/60B. 

  • 52T is THE Blackguard sound, smokey, woody and wiry classic Tele sound. Has beautiful compression, bloom, and overall feel. Evenly balanced across the tonal spectrum. This pickup covers a wide range of classic Tele sounds. Think Vince Gill, Julian Lage, Steve Wariner, Brent Mason, Jimmy Olander.
  • 50B has beautiful dimensional harmonics surrounding the fundamental notes. It has a bit more harmonic content in the upper mids and top end vs the standard 52T Blackguard bridge. It has all the beautiful Blackguard era compression and bloom on the notes. This pickup reproduces the original classic Broadcaster character and bite. Think Roy Buchanan, Keith Richards and Mike Campbell sounds.
  • 60T has a more fundamental 60’s sound and feel. It has the classic authoritative late 50’s to mid-60’s sound and feel, yet still retains a beautiful bell-like and harmonically rich musical sound. The 60T is representative of the classic Bakersfield to R&B sounds. Think from Roy Nichols to Steve Cropper. 
  • 50/60T is a perfect blend of both the 52T and 60T in one pickup. It has a bit more fundamental sound and feel on the wound strings. Yet, it maintains beautiful compression, bloom, and pliability on the unwound strings. This pickup offers the “best of both worlds” of the 50’s and 60’s sound.
  • 50/60B is a custom version of the 50/60T featuring a blend of materials used in the 50B and 60T. While sharing similarities to the 50B broadcaster, it’s a very versatile pickup that has a little more of the harmonic hair on the note’s vs the 50/60T. 

Stratocaster Sets 

Our Strat offerings include vintage era correct 54S, 57S, 64S, sets as well as the custom 64FATS and 50/60s sets. 

  • The 54S are an accurate recreation of the first year Strat pickups. ‘54 to mid ‘55 Strat pickups used a different type of magnet, stagger and wind pattern than the later (post ‘55) versions. This set has nice compression, bloom and buoyancy on the notes, resulting in a rich harmonic note quality. This set has a great dynamic feel under your fingers. 
  • The 57S have the classic vintage mid to late 50’s tone. They are clear, cutting and vibrant sounding; with a sweet bell-like tone. Early Jimmy Vaughan, Anson Funderburgh to current Josh Smith and Kirk Fletcher sounds.
  • The 64S nail that classic early to mid-60’s Strat sound. They have deep rich harmonic bell like sound on the notes, with amazing clarity and note separation. This set covers so many of the classic Strat sounds we are so familiar with… from Hendrix, SRV, Gilmour, Mayer, Bramhall.. etc. 
  • The 64FATS are a slightly fatter wound version of the 64S set, which is found in some of the mid to late 60s Stratocaster vintage pickups. The extra winds lend to a punchier single note response with more overall mid-range compared to the 64 set.  
  • Our 50/60S are a perfect blend of the 54 and 64 sets combined in one. This is one of my most versatile and popular sets of pickups. They have a tight punchy sound on the E, A and D strings and a beautiful compression and bloom on the G, B and E strings. Sound great in any Strat wood combination because of the calibrated string and pickup balance. Has the Gravity and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room sound.

 P90 Set 

  • 50P are the classic 50’s style P90s. They have a clear single note sound with a beautiful swirling harmonic musical “hair” that envelopes the fundamental notes. Classic ‘50s P90s are some of the most musical, dynamic and fun to play pickups ever made, our 50P set delivers all the goods! They have that sweet classic sound and feel of the 50’s and early 60’s rock and roll. These are the standard in P90s. 

Please specify either Soapbar or Dogear style. Soapbar cover are available in black or bone. Dogear covers in black only. 

Humbucker Sets 

Our Humbucker sets include the LRP, Signature Bette, and Frisell sets. 

Our PAF nickel silver covers are historically correct. Specify covered (zebra) or uncovered and the desired color combination. Color combinations include zebra, all black, or all bone. 

  • LRP set was first produced for the 2012 Gibson Lee Roy Parnell Signature Les Paul. I worked with Lee Roy, vintage collectors and the Gibson custom shop to design a replica set of the PAF’s that were in Duane Allman’s original ‘57 Goldtop Les Paul. The LRP’s have the classic, clear, articulate and harmonically rich authentic sound of Duane’s original PAF’s. Lee Roy is very familiar with Duane’s Les Paul’s and how they sound. We worked closely on replicating that sound! 
  • Signature set is my own recipe in creating the ultimate Humbucker style pickup. I’ve always preferred PAFs that have a clear single coil like sound and feel. The Signature set produces slightly less mid-range content, so it won’t hit the preamp of your amp as much. The Signature set uses a unique recipe of materials to deliver the best of the best clear and articulate PAF sound and feel. 
  • Bette set is based on the patent era Humbuckers that were used in the early to late 60’s ES Gibson guitars. These are a bit more fundamental vs the other sets, which can work well in an ES335 style semi hollow guitar. The Bette’s have a beautiful musical timber on the notes, where you can hear the acoustic sound of the guitar.
  • Frisell set is lower output neck pickup combined with a Signature bridge pickup to match the neck. This custom set was  originally made for Bill Frisell’s two Collings guitars. The Frisell neck has superb clarity, balanced eq and note separation. It has been described as sounding like a giant vintage Strat neck pickup. This is a unique Humbucker set that sounds great in hollow, semi hollow and solid body guitars.

Deciding between the LRP and Signature sets… the LRPs have more of a traditional old PAF sound and deliver a stronger signal into the front end of the amp.
The Signature set has more mid-range content, more even frequency response, and lower output signal going into the amp. They combine the great classic Humbucker harmonic complexity in addition to the feel and clarity of single coils. 

 

Ellisonic Sets 

Our Ellisonic sets include the Ellisonic JL and Ellisonic P90s.

  • The Ellisonic JL set was developed for the Collings Julian Lage 470 JL guitar. The Ellisonic pickup has great clarity, note separation and an acoustic-like character and feel. You can hear hints of Dynasonic, P90 and Tele mixed all together in one pickup. The Ellisonic JL is sized to fit ONLY the Gretsch Dynasonic DuoJet mount. Various thickness shims are included with each set.
  • The Ellisonic P90s are the same exact pickup as the Ellisonic JL, but sized to fit Soapbar and Dogear P90 mounts.