The solderless connector setup includes a circuit board loaded with all the favourite USA grade electronics (Switchcraft jack, Switchcraft switch, CTS potentiometers, Orange drop capacitor). This circuit board simply drops into your Gibson style control layout, then you plug in the connectors we've added to the end of the pickup leads into the circuit board. The humbucker setup comes with default 500k potentiometers, 3 way toggle switch and 0.022uf capacitors.
These are available in both import (long shaft pots, short frame switch), USA (long shaft pots, long frame switch), or right angle (short shaft pots, right angle toggle switch) formats. (ONLY) Gibson Les Pauls will use USA. Epiphones and other import models will use the import format. SGs and similar will use the right angle format. Import models Les Pauls typically use short shaft potentiometers, but we've found through experimentation that due to the nature of the way that the pots are seated at different heights in the cavity, short shaft pots will not work effectively. Long shaft pots are used by shimming the shaft to the correct length with the second nut inside the cavity.
No soldering is required at all, making the installation job take about 10 minutes in total!
Neck position -
The neck pickup metal and hard rock has been waiting for.
This pickup is like nothing you've ever used, seen, or heard before. Completely tearing down the design of a traditional humbucker, we've recreated a neck humbucker which delivers the aggression, clarity, snap and output that a typical neck humbucker just cannot deliver.
Wound with huge coils of 41 AWG wire (but still fits any humbucker mount), this pickup is wound with thick wire, giving a bright and clear treble response and wound with enough turns to keep up with the output with any bridge pickup you can throw at it. Tonally it sounds about half way between a Telecaster bridge and P90, giving you a slightly fatter Tele bridge tone - definitely not a tone that's ever been found in the neck position before! Now when you drop tune and play with huge levels of gain, you have two usable pickups in your guitar.
The bass is thick and punchy, with such aggression that it can play riffs that any other neck humbucker would turn into mud which would rival a Glastonbury festival. Roll off some volume/gain and it's got a great vintage P90 neck tone with a certain snap that is very uncharacteristic of humbuckers. Because it's wound with such a great volume of wire it's got an absolutely beautiful split tone too - not weak and weedy like most split humbuckers (especially in the neck position)
Bridge position -
Possibly the hottest passive pickup in existence. Utilising extremely overwound coils of thick 43 AWG wire with a massive ceramic block magnet, this pickup will beat a preamp into submission with little effort. Absolutely perfect for single channel amps where a wide variety of tones are available with the volume control.
This pickup is blisteringly hot, but because of the coil design, it's not dark or muddy at all. The thick wire, ceramic magnet and asymmetrical winds give so much treble response that would normally be lost in this level of winding, making this pickup remarkably versatile. Splitting to the hotter coil gives as much output as a Tele bridge - no weak P90 tones to be found here! The asymmetrical winds open up the mid range, keeping it from being overly congested and overbearing, as well as giving the pickup a 3D quality with a superb level of clarity.
This pickup is phenomenal in standard and drop D tuning. The EQ of the pickup resembles that of a hotter PAF, making it one of the only pickups that is capable of colossal gain without a ridiculous mid hump that is commonly found in pickups of this output level. Match it with a vintage style amp and it'll deliver all the gain you could possibly want without compromising your tone with solid state clipping pedals.
Specifications (neck/bridge):
Resistance (Ohms): 7.4k/17.5k
Magnet: custom alnico 5/custom ceramic
Spacing: blades make this suitable for any spacing
Lead wire: 4 conductor + shield
Base plate: short legged nickel silver
Wax potted
Supplied with mounting screws and springs.