Pickups for all electric builds are now wound in house and bring a new level of craftsmanship, personality and creativity to the guitars available. The designs cover a broad range of tastes and musical styles. The pickups have all been designed to be musical and responsive, with an emphasis on small scale, quality production. Humbuckers are built on engraved nickel silver base plates with a range of magnet, bobbin and cover options available. Single coil flatwork and humbucker sized P90 bobbins are also custom made in house, to repeatable and exact specifications. A limited number of build spaces are available each month for those that wish to buy pickups, so please get in touch to reserve a space.

The VSOP is a well balanced, dynamic and responsive pickup set. One of the first sets developed as an option for the humbucker loaded guitars I build. Originally conceived with vintage flavours in mind, the set exceeds expectations and excels in many styles from pop to hard rock. String definition and separation with overdriven and clean tones is excellent with just the right balance of presence, definition and warmth. Typically the VSOP pickups are loaded with alnico V rough cast magnets for punch and slight mid cut. Alnico II, III, IV,  VIII and unorientated alnico V are also available to add other flavours. Favourites are alnico V or unorientated alnico V in the bridge with an alnico IV magnet in the neck.

This set is available in 50mm or 52mm pole spacing, in various bobbin colours, with or without covers. Four conductor hook-up wire as standard.

Typical DCR: 8.5k bridge, 7.3k neck

The Skylark is voiced primarily as a well balanced bridge humbucker in a HSS configured guitar. The coils are wound with a small amount of asymmetry  but increased turn spacing.  Though the pickup doesn’t appear to be hot by specification, its openness and harmonic content make it sit very well with the dynamics of a neck and middle single coil with great output balance when combined with the Cool Dog single coils. Typically the Skylark is assembled with an alnico V rough cast or unorientated alnico V magnet. Other magnet options are available if required. The Skylark has been designed with coil splitting in mind and as such, a partial split wiring method is recommended to maintain better output balance with neighbouring single coils.

This set is available in 50mm or 52mm pole spacing, in various bobbin colours, with or without covers. Four conductor hook-up wire as standard.

Typical DCR: 8.1k bridge

The Dualist gets its name from its construction method; two coils side by side but wound with differing wire gauges. The result of this coil mismatch produces a harmonically rich pickup with grit and bite that often isn’t available from similar medium output pickups. The slug coil is over-wound with a finer gauge wire. This is the coil that is retained using standard coil splitting methods giving a more dynamic split tonality. By default, the Dualist is built around a rough cast alnico V magnet to help keep things tight and punchy in the low end and crunchy higher up. The pickup offers great articulation and cleans up nicely with the volume control. As a partner to the Dualist bridge designed humbuckerer, the VSOP wound to bridge specification is recommended for the neck with an alnico V magnet.

Available in 52mm or 50mm pole spacing, in various bobbin colours, with or without covers. Four conductor hook-up wire as standard.

Typical DCR: 11.7k bridge

The Coda sits at the higher end of the output scale is voiced primarily as a higher output rock and metal orientated pickup. The coils are wound with finer 43awg, allowing more wire to be wound on the bobbins and to increase the inductance. A degree of asymmetry  between the windings helps retain some of the bite and that can be lost with a hotter pickup. The pickup sounds full with a good amount of punch for thumping rhythm lines. When paired with an alnico II magnet classic 80’s rock tones are easily on hand with plenty of dynamics and harmonic content. For a tighter sound, without shrill trebles an alnico VIII magnet is recommended. I often pair this with a bridge wound VSOP in the neck position.

This set is available in 50mm or 52mm pole spacing, in various bobbin colours, with or without covers. Four conductor hook-up wire as standard.

Typical DCR: 15.2k bridge

The Cool Dogs are wound on custom made bobbins, machined and assembled in the workshop. Typically wound on alnico V pole pieces, the Cool Dogs approach the output of a mid 60’s pickup. The pickups are tight and punchy with a pleasing treble that cuts through musically. When driven, all the tones you would expect to find are at your fingertips, good separation and dynamics with a lovely wood character  and snappiness to please. The pole stagger is designed for a slightly flatter, modern conical radius fingerboard. The sets are designed with a reverse wound, reverse polarity middle pickup for hum cancelling operation in positions two and four.

This set is available in 52mm pole spacing, in various cover colours.

Typical DCR: 6.5k bridge, 6.0k middle and neck.

The Rascal humbucker sized P90 set hass been designed to get as close as possible to a traditional soapbar pickup. The bobbins are made in the workshop, and specifically designed to enable a coil shape that approaches that found on a traditional soapbar. A difficult thing to achieve in a humbucker footprint. The Rascals are typically built with dual alnico V magnets in the bridge and a pair of alnico IV magnets in the neck. Great character throughout the range, grit, punch and a little attitude without being piercingly bright. The neck pickup offers a great woody character. Beautifully dynamic and great tones are available, a great fun pickup set that brings a smile to the face. By default the set has a reverse wound, reverse polarity neck pickup with respect to the bridge.

This set is available in 50mm pole spacing, naked or with various covers.

Typical DCR: 8.1k bridge, 7.0k neck.