Local Music Gear Feature Story
Written By: Jac Harrison
The way I look at things; there are only two contributing factors controlling the pickup's voice enabling it to deliver what we refer to as “vintage/classic” tone, quality of build and time. When Leo and Les were winding pickups “back-in-the-day”, they only used the best quality materials they could get and wound each pickup by hand vs today where we have machines manned by children in Indonesia farting out “perfect” pickups that lack human imperfection. In my opinion, human imperfection is one of the factors that gives your tone depth and mojo. I have had the chance to play some of the most desirable vintage guitars in the world and some of the worst. Just like today’s masterpieces, it all comes down to the original quality of the build and not how old it is. In 30 years from now a poorly made pickup will still sound like crap -- just old crap.
Every pickup manufacturer today has their own twist on things giving
us guitar players more options than ever before. One thing you can count on 90% of the time when buying a vintage/classic tone style pickup is the quality of build. Most of the vintage/classic tone style pickups are either handmade or are made with human supervision by a person who knows what they are doing. There and four different categories when shopping vintage/classic pickups.
- New old stock: basically stuff no one wanted when it was new, but now they do.
- Vintage reproduction to factory specification: This is an exact replica of your stock pickup.
- Could and should have been: These are pickups that are made the same way as the reproduction pickups, but have been hot rodded in away they could and should have been offered from the factory as a custom shop upgrade.
- Modern Vintage: Vintage voiced pickups but with modern amenities such as hum canceling technology for single coils and four conductor for humbuckers, giving the player more tonal versatility.
All are very useful and have their applications based on the players needs. For me, new old stock and vintage reproduction and boring. As a self-proclaimed guitarded person, I'm always looking to get a little more out of my guitar.
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| (Left) "could and should have been" category (Right) "modern vintage" category |
To start, we will look at what I refer to as the "could and should have been". The pickups I thought were the best example of the tone I was looking to capture for this category were the MojoTone knockout Strat neck and MojoTone Classic alnico 2 bridge humbucker with braided wire. They both offer an almost true vintage reproduction tone, but with a few tweaks in the correct direction -- giving them more of a vintage custom shop tone.
In The Neck: The MojoTone knockout Strat neck has that broken in American Strat tone, but with an almost p-90ish mid-range growl. When I rolled the volume knob to seven, she lost some of her bite making her less p-90ish and more American Strat, but when wide open she sang like a hot, smooth and round Strat neck with a mean bite that was just a beautiful rock to rock/blues tone with a little OD. The adjustable pole pieces really helped when dialing in the exact string-to-string attack since my Chili has a 14" fingerboard radius opposed to a stock Fender 9.5". The best way to describe this pickup is if a 50 year old p-90 did "the nasty" with a 25 year old single coil -- this would be the product of their entertainment.
When it comes to pickups that should have come from the factory as a custom shop upgrade, this one is way up at the top of my "why didn't they offer this" list. The only drawback is single coil hum. This pickup has very little and if hum does not bother you, this pickup is a game changer.
Buy this pickup -HERE-
In The Bridge:
The MojoTone Classic alnico 2 bridge humbucker has a fat bottom end with bell like highs that cuts through the mix. This is by far the most accurate reproduction I have found to date of what most people associate with what they expect to hear when playing a vintage Les Paul. It takes years for a standard PAF to have the tonal characteristics that this pickup does. She is smooth, round, harmonically rich and creamy. When it comes to getting a pickup with that "stink" on it -- this is it.
Buy this pickup -HERE-
Wired:
This Guitar was wired 1950's/vintage style on a 3-way toggle with (2) CTS 500K pots -- 1 volume 1 tone control with a Mojotone .47 mustard tone cap.
Extras:
100k/.01uf treble bleed circuit on volume pot
Momentary kill switch
FU-Tone PMS - Pickup mounting system on the bridge pickup
With a true vintage setup there are always some limitations and headaches that the modern player does not need to deal with anymore. To start -- single coil hum is thing of the past and humbuckers can be tapped, split and ran in parallel vs series with a 4-conductor setup giving the guitarist the tonal versatility of multiple guitars, all in one. This is not new news, but what is -- is the the tonal spectrum you can get from these pickups. Up until a few years ago if you wanted a silent single coil or a 4-conductor humbucker, you were sacrificing tone for versatility. With some recent advancement that is no longer the case. Yes there are some tonal differences between a vintage reproduction and a modern pickup, but you can easily dial in your tone with your amp. Where most modern pickups fall short is with their dynamic response in relation to the players touch. Most players will never notice and if you play with any distortion or a compressor, it is a non issue.
The pickups I thought were the best example of the tone I was looking to capture for the "modern vintage" category were the Zexcoil Vintage Single 5+ hum canceling neck and the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates 4-conductor for the bridge. I needed this guitar to have the same sound as the other guitar in this editorial, but silent (no-hum) with the versatility to run the bridge in parallel and series on a push/pull pot.
The Zexcoil Vintage Single 5+ is hands down the best zero hum Strat neck "single coil sounding" pickup I have heard to date. With that said; this is not a single coil, but six coils that are voiced to give the player the tone we associate with a vintage American Strat. The slanted pole piece keep the string within the magnetic field during bends preventing loss of volume mid note, making your bends sustain for as long as you can hold the note. Out of all of the modern style hum canceling pickups, Zexcoil is the only one that I found to date that has the dynamic response that reacts to the players touch that we normally loose with traditional silent single/dummy coil pickups. Tonally this pickup offers that true vintage/classic sound, just without the hum.
Buy this pickup -HERE-
In The Bridge:The Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates 4-conductor is the standard when looking for a modern alnico 2 humbucker that captures that unmistakable broken in PAF tone that Billy Gibbons made famous from his guitar Pearl Gates (hints the name of the pickup). Unlike traditional pickup construction, this was mapped by Seymour Duncan to sound, feel and play like the pickup it was modeled after, almost like a replacement pickup just for Billy's guitar. When it comes to alnico 2 humbuckers, this is the most aggressive I have played to date. She has a firm bottom with tight mids, a round top end, and with the 4-conductor versatility I was able to get a warm Strat bridge/middle in phase sound with a pull-of-a-pot. For the modern player, this pickup will take you from blues to metal without a problem.
Buy this pickup -HERE-
Wired:
This Guitar was wired modern style on a 3-way toggle with (1) CTS 500K pot, (1) CTS 500K pot push/pull -- a volume for each pickup without a tone control.
Extras:
100k/.01uf treble bleed circuit on each volume pot
Momentary kill switch
FU-Tone PMS - Pickup mounting system on the bridge pickup
Momentary kill switch
FU-Tone PMS - Pickup mounting system on the bridge pickup
After using both guitars for about a month in conditions ranging from in a controlled studio environment to a gig in the rain, I can honestly say that both setups are unique in their own way and deliver amazing tone. Pickups are a great way to give your old guitar new life and make your new guitar sound old -- so take that pawn shop find, bedroom beauty, closet case or wall-hanger and give her a new voice!
Posted 05/2014
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