Posted on December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Tūmatauenga

Tūmatauenga is the Signature Pickup of Lewis De Jong – Alien Weaponry

NZ$229. If you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$199.13

Ceramic 8 – Bridge 13.6 KOhms, 9.65H

The Tūmatauenga bridge pickup is the signature pickup of Lewis De Jong from the band Alien Weaponry.

This is no ordinary pickup, it’s specifically designed around Lewis’ requirements on stage and in the studio.

This pickup is aggressive and immediate, the bass is tight and punchy, mids powerful and clear with clear highs. It has power but also clarity to bring out the complex chords in Lewis’ playing.

Mr Glyn's Pickups Alien Weaponry signature pickup

These samples were recorded by Lewis using: a DBZ Bolero guitar, D’addario 11-56 Nickel Wounds tuned to drop C#, Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50 heads x2, Marshall MF280 4×12 with V30s x2, Shure Wireless/tuner, Ibanez Weeping Demon, Line 6 M5, Boss HM6, Radial ABY box (all off/bypassed for this demo), mics used – Sennheiser ES906, Audio i5

Alien Weaponry signature pickup. Mr Glyn's guitar pickups — Photo:Taylor Baron

The Story of the Tūmatauenga Pickup

I was contacted by Alien Weaponry in December 2021 on their way back from a US tour. They were wondering if it was possible to have a NZ pickup made for Lewis. I jumped at the chance.

I’d been working on a pickup for extreme metal for some time and thought this might be me chance to use it. I loaded a test guitar with this pickup and headed to Waipu to meet Lewis. The band are based about 2 1/2 hours from my home so it was a great opportunity to do everything in person.

We plugged my test guitar into Lewis’ Marshall at their rehearsal room and it was obvious from their reaction that this wasn’t the sound they wanted. Okay, so it was going to take some work.

I had a listen to the pickups he was using and we had a long chat about what he wanted. I took one of their pickups out of his No.2 guitar to take back to the workshop to analyse.

Back at the workshop I measured all the parameters of the pickup and made a plan. I didn’t want to clone his existing sound but I couldn’t go too far away from it. I wanted to increase the punch of the bass and add a little clarity to the mids. One thing that was important was that it still sounded like their last album – you can’t go out on tour with a completely different sound.

I made a couple of prototypes and the following week headed back to Waipu.

I had one of the prototypes in my LTD test guitar and although it wasn’t exactly right is was close. From now on all the testing would be in Lewis’ own guitars. Once you’re close you need to minimise the parameters. And that’s how it went, swapping pickups and testing until Lewis was happy.

Finally we had the sound but that wasn’t all, it needed to look right.

The design on the pickup

Tūmatauenga - signature guitar pickup for Lewis De Jong from the band Alien Weaponry

The design on the pickup came from the band – hereis what they say about it:

Mangopare (Hammerhead shark) is a kaitiaki (guardian) and tohu āriki (sacred chiefly symbol) of our family.

It is a traditional design motif that appears throughout Māoridom but is particularly treasured by my tribal group (Te Arawa) It stands for strength, courage and power.

Name of the pickup – Tūmatauenga (Māori god of war)

The name was decided to be Tūmatauenga (pronounced “2 ma toe enga”) the Māori god of war.

Tūmatauenga Alien Weaponry https://mrglynspickups.com/

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Posted on November 30, 2022November 30, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Jazz Bass

Single – “Jazz Bass” NZ$149 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$129.57

Pair – “Jazz Bass” NZ$285 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$247.83

Neck – 6.84 kOhms, Alnico V. Bridge – 7.45 kOhms, Alnico V

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Mr Glyn’s “Jazz Bass” pickups are inspired by the Fender Jazz pickups from the early 60’s. Low powered vintage tones suited to players looking for a clean, clear, springy tone. Positive, percussive bass response, woody mids and clear highs. Designed for players wanting a pure tone with either fingers or a pick.

All my Jazz pickup sets are RWRP so they are hum cancelling when both pickups are on.

I love Jazz basses, that off-set body looks so cool and the narrow neck makes it very easy to get around. Looks, playability and versatility make it hard to beat.

The Jazz bass has such a classic tone. The sound of a Jazz with both pickups on can be heard on so many recordings, it’s so distinctive. It’s the sound of two coils connected in parallel, like a Strat in positions 2 or 4. It’s that clear, scooped tone. The pair of coils in a Precision Bass are wired in series which gives it a bigger, more powerful sound with a lot more lower mids but the clarity of a Jass Bass can really stand out.

Over the years I’ve re-wound a lot of old Fender pickups. I like to make notes to record what I find in these old pickups, wire gauge, insulation types, d.c. resistance, magnetic gauss, dimensions. My notebook is getting pretty full. This is my constant reference when I’m designing a new pickup, that and my ears.

I’ve based these pickups on the best of the old Fenders I’ve come across over the years. Not all vintage pickups are great but when you see enough of the good ones patterns begin to form.

I still repair pickups and still add to my old notebook, always learning 😎.

Jazz Bass pickup set by Mr Glyn's Pickups — Mr Glyns Pickups Jazz Bass

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/https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Jazz Bass Cool

Posted on November 28, 2022November 29, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Precision Bass

Single – “Precision Bass” NZ$179 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$155.65

Alnico V – 10.9 kOhms

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Precision bass pickup my mr glyns pickups

The Precision Bass split pair is based on the Fenders of the early/mid 60’s. Full and clear with that distinctive mid range that sits well in any mix. It is the essence of bass. It has the woody, full tones we all love. As a stand alone or used with my Jazz Bass bridge pickup as part of a PJ set.

Arguably the most important instrument of all of Leo Fender’s creations the Precision bass changed music more than any other instrument. From Jame Jameson to Steve Harris, the P Bass is surprisingly versatile and has such a distinctive tone.

As with the early pickups this split pair is built to be hum cancelling – the two coils are electrically out of phase but also magnetically out of phase. Here’s an explanation: How Humbuckers Work

With fingers, with a pick and especially with flat wounds.

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For more P Bass fun: https://mrglynspickups.com/2021/04/06/bass-pickup-re-wind/

‘74 Precision Bass Pickup re-wind

Posted on October 21, 2022November 7, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Cool 90

Single – “Cool 90” P90 NZ$189 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$164.35

Pair – “Cool 90” P90 NZ$369 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$320.87

Neck- 6.4 KOhms, 5.45H, Alnico II. Bridge 7.25 KOhms, 6.42H, Alnico II

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The Cool 90 is a P90 based pickup available in both Dogear and Soapbar. Designed with Jazz and Blues players in mind it produces a clear, full, well balanced tone. Never harsh, always full and musical.

The bridge pickup has an organic sound with a lower mid push ideally suited to dynamic lead lines and tight rhythm playing.

The neck pickup is clear and chiming with enough clarity to always be heard in the mix. It has that lovely woody tone especially in an archtop.

Cool 90 Guitar Pickup from Mr Gyn's Pickups

For ‘full fat’ P90 tones have a look at our “Sassy” P90 pickup set.

Cool 90 alnoco 2 P90's available in dogear or soapbar

cool 90 Mr Glyn's pickups low powered P90 set

The Cool 90 Story

Like many of my pickups the Cool 90 started with a repair job. A customer sent be a faulty Gibson P90 out of a 1955 Les Paul Junior. Naturally, I took measurements and completely analyzed every detail of it. Unlike the information in the books (and internet) it had less windings and Alnico II magnets instead of Alnico V.

And what a great sounding pickup it was.

I decided to make my own version of it to compliment the ‘Sassy” P90 pickup I was already making. The Sassy has the classic “full fat” P90 tone, plenty of growl and cut through.

The idea behind the “Cool 90” was to make a lower powered version for the cleaner player. Still keeping the classic P90 character but with less grunt.

Cool 90 soapbar P90 set with alnico 2 magnets

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I also make a humbucker size P90 set – the “Black Sand” if you need some P90 goodness in your humbucker guitar, here’s a link to them: https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/black-sand-humbucker-sized-p90-neck/

For a full range of demo videos of Mr Glyn’s pickups go to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/featured

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Posted on October 14, 2022November 29, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Telecaster Bass

Single – “Telecaster Bass” NZ$149 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$129.57

Alnico V – 6.8 kOhms

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Telecaster bass, '51 bass pickup my Mr Glyn's Pickups

There is something so unbelievably cool about the Fender Telecaster Bass. The classic lines, that headstock, the pickguard, the association with great players and, of course, the tone. What ever it is we all love about this great instrument here’s a pickup to do it justice.

Whether you play with fingers or a pick this classic pickup will deliver. More present in the mix than the Precision split pair but with that distinctive punch and clarity.

I’ve based these pickups on the best of the old Fenders I’ve come across over the years. Not all vintage pickups are great but when you see enough of the good ones patterns begin to form.

I still repair pickups and still add to my old notebook, always learning 😎.

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Posted on October 12, 2022November 7, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

50’s wiring

I like to support my customers as much as I can so here is my drawing of Gibson 50’s wiring. Hopefully it will help you fit your new pickups.

The 50’s wiring is great for players wanting to retain some treble when the guitar volume is turned down.

The difference between the 50’s and modern wiring is in how the tone capacitor is connected to the volume pot. It’s a very simple modification if you have modern wiring and are curious.

I recommend this wiring for my Integrity humbuckers – https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/integrity-vintage-humbucker-2/

I’ve used my humbucker colour code.

There really is nothing wrong with modern wiring, having your tone darken as you turn down the volume can be very useful in some settings. So try both and see which suits you best.

It seems that all the cool kids and ‘experts’ on the internet are telling us it has to be 50’s or nothing but for anyone with a soldering iron it’s an easy mod and completely reversible so experiment for yourself. You may find you like 50’s for the neck pickup and modern for the bridge.

Here are some demos of my humbuckers https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdXLT6XwMykEOjfDKlY6fBikNmVCBQXB

Mr Glyns ‘Integrity’ vintage voiced humbucker

Inspired by the early Gibson PAF pickups the Integrity-vintage humbucker give the classic full, balanced tone we all love. Asymmetric coils give an open sounding mid range and the Alnico II magnet gives clarity and balance. A rich bottom end, characterful mids and sweet treble make this a pickup set for every situation – Jazz, Blues, Rock, it does it all.

Every pickup manufacturer makes a “Vintage” humbucker based on the Gibson PAF, of course they do – old Gibsons sound so good.

So how come they all sound so different? Well, the simple answer is that PAF’s were all different. I’ve been a full time luthier since 1995, whenever I come across an old humbucker I test the ohms and the gause and have a good listen. They’re all different. My conclusion is that pickup manufacturers have taken the PAF they like and based their own version on that. Old PAF’s vary so much so modern ones do as well.

I like my own version to be clear sounding, have obvious string separation and definition and to keep clarity no matter how much gain. The mids must be strong and woody, this is not a “scooped” pickup. The clean sound needs to be chimey and clear with no mush; through a valve amp I want clarity. When I tickle it I want clean and vocal sounding when it clips. The bridge pickup needs to be well behaved with high gain and clear with enough cut through so the drummer knows you’re there. The neck smooth, clear and articulate. Warm but with none of the boom you get with a more powerful pickup.

I don’t want much do I.

My “Integrity”-vintage humbucker has an Alnico II magnet and I’ve used plain enamel insulated magnet wire with asymmetric coils to open up the mids. The very first pickup I ever made back in 1995 was a PAF style and I’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since. Like all my pickups I’ve used a number of test pilot players in its development as well as gigging it myself. It wasn’t until around 2015 that I settled on this particular design. I did a gig with a set in a PRS SE series only last weekend – sounded great to me.

The full and honest sound of the Integrity-vintage humbucker along with it’s timeless tone inspired the name “Integrity”. https://mrglynspickups.com/

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Posted on September 10, 2022November 17, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955

When I was contacted about repairing a Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955 I was naturally very keen.

P90’s are very interesting pickups. They have a single wide flat coil usually of around 10,000 turns of AWG 42 wire but the really fascinating aspect is the magnets. They have 2 bar magnets underneath the pickup (a PAF just has one) causing a much wider magnetic field than other single coil pickups.

To put it simply – P90’s hear more string than other pickups. Hearing more string gives a fuller, fatter sound and that distinctive woody P90 tone. Not everyone likes them but those of us that do absolutely love them.

I make my own version of the P90 called the ‘Sassy’. It’s a full fat version of the P90 with alnico 5 magnets with all the warmth and plenty of grunt that you find in the old Gibsons.

So I’m always interested to have a good look at a genuine vintage pickup especially from a Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955. I’m a big fan of the Juniors.

The pickup was sent to me because it wasn’t working and both the customer and myself suspected it might need a re-wind but I never jump to conclusions. It could be just a dry joint on one of the hookup wires – always worth checking.

As you can see the hook up wires look a bit scruffy so I re-solder and test, remove the wires and test, remove the tape and test – still nothing. The next step is to start removing a few layers of the winding wire just in case there’s a break. There was no obvious break. The problem was deeper inside the pickup – this one is a re-wind.

Now, I talked about magnets earlier, take a look at these two. Firstly they’re wonky. Some amazing Gibson vintage tonal secret or just being a bit sloppy in the factory? Probably the latter.

But for me the most interesting part is they’re rough cast alnico 2. For this era I was expecting Alnico 5.

Alnico 2 have a smoother, purer sound than the more powerful rougher sounding alnico 5’s.

So after I re-wound this lovely old pickup I started experimenting. I started winding P90’s with Alnico 2 magnets and from that was born a new pickup set in my range – the “Cool 90″.

It’s cleaner than the Sassy, less grunty but still full and fat sounding.

Ideas can come from anywhere. It reminds me of the quote from Picasso – “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working”

Here’s the ‘Sassy” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcspPYHKE_c

Posted on September 1, 2022November 7, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

The 5150 Show

Had a great time talking with Andrew and Chris from ‘It’s the 5150 Show’ on YouTube.

The 5150 Show is a fantastic channel with in depth discussions on classic albums, guitarists and all things guitar.

You should subscribe.

They’re invited me to have another chat with them in the near future and I’m really keen to take part again. They’re series ‘Rankin The Tracks’ gives great insight into some classic albums. I’ve been really enjoying hearing different views on well loved albums.

There are always new pickups in development as well as a steady supply of interesting old pickups at the workshop for repair. In my blog I try and keep you up to date on new pickups in development as well as writing detailed articles on interesting repairs. I do see quite a few vintage pickups and really enjoy sharing the details of their design and construction. It constantly amazes me how many people are interested in these cool little devices.

All pickup demos are uploaded on YouTube as well as some videos my customers send me. Check out my series Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker where I record conversations with other makers of guitar gear. It’s really interesting hearing how they approach their work. There are so many great makers out there.

I’d love you to follow my blog, subscribe to my YouTube, follow me on Instagram, ‘Friend’ me on Facebook – I try and update my social media regularly, reply to messages and I won’t spam you.

Mr Glyns Pickups is a small business which means I can communicate with my customers one to one. I’m always happy to discuss your requirements, answer questions and give advice. I want to know about the guitars my pickups are going in, send me pictures, send me recordings.

Feel free to get in touch either HERE or through social media:

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Posted on May 18, 2022November 14, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

The Cultured Guitarist Podcast

Had fun chatting with the guys at The Cultured Guitarist podcast. We had a pretty lively discussion and not just about pickups.

https://link.chtbl.com/The_Cultured_Guitarist

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Posted on May 12, 2022November 14, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

New Alien Weaponry pickup

COMING SOON!

Spent a couple of days with Alien Weaponry working on a signature pickup for Lewis and we’re just about there.

We’ve got the sound, and it’s BIG. This is not a pickup for the timid.

We just have some work to do on the look of the final pickup and it will be available to the public.

This is so exciting for me, working with an artist who really knows what he wants and is such a great player and they are lovely people to work with.

More news coming soon. https://alienweaponry.com/tour-dates.html

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Posted on March 16, 2022November 14, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Shipping Rates

Here’s a map showing our international Shipping Rates to the most popular countries.

Our shipping is charged in New Zealand dollars and we use DHL for all our international shipping. Our shipping is insured and tracked; we’ll let you know your tracking number once your pickup is posted.

We find DHL are the quickest and most reliable. We don’t want to leave our customers waiting for weeks on end to receive their pickups.

Shipping queries:

If you’re looking to buy from the UK, don’t see your country listed below, or you have a question about shipping, please contact us before you purchase by clicking the Contact form, or emailing us directly www.mrglynspickups@gmail.com

Shipping rates:

Here’s a short list of some of our most frequent shipping destinations:

New Zealand	NZD $10
Australia	NZD $30
United Kingdom (for UK purchases please Contact us)	NZD $35
USA	NZD $30
South Korea	NZD $40
India	NZD $40

And here’s the full list of our international shipping rates by country:

Country	Shipping	Country	Shipping
American Samoa	NZD $100	Liechtenstein	NZD $35
Andorra	NZD $35	Lithuania	NZD $35
Antigua & Barbuda	NZD $100	Luxembourg	NZD $35
Argentina	NZD $100	Macau	NZD $35
Australia	NZD $30	Malaysia	NZD $35
Austria	NZD $35	Maldives	NZD $100
Bahamas	NZD $100	Malta	NZD $35
Bahrain	NZD $100	Martinique	NZD $100
Bangladesh	NZD $40	Mexico	NZD $30
Barbados	NZD $100	Monaco	NZD $35
Belarus	NZD $100	Montserrat	NZD $100
Belgium	NZD $35	Nauru	NZD $40
Belize	NZD $100	Nepal	NZD $40
Bermuda	NZD $100	Netherlands	NZD $35
Bhutan	NZD $100	New Caledonia	NZD $40
Bolivia	NZD $100	Nicaragua	NZD $100
Brazil	NZD $100	Niue	NZD $40
Brunei Darussalam	NZD $35	Norway	NZD $35
Bulgaria	NZD $35	Pakistan	NZD $40
Cambodia	NZD $35	Palau	NZD $100
Canada	NZD $30	Panama	NZD $100
Cayman Islands	NZD $100	Papua New Guinea	NZD $40
Chile	NZD $100	Paraguay	NZD $100
China	NZD $35	Peru	NZD $100
Colombia	NZD $125	Philippines	NZD $35
Cook Islands	NZD $50	Poland	NZD $35
Costa Rica	NZD $35	Portugal	NZD $35
Croatia	NZD $30	Puerto Rico	NZD $100
Cuba	NZD $125	Romania	NZD $35
Cyprus	NZD $35	Russian Federation	NZD $100
Czech Republic	NZD $35	Saint Helena	NZD $100
Denmark	NZD $35	Saint Kitts-Nevis	NZD $100
Dominica	NZD $100	Saint Lucia	NZD $100
Dominican Republic	NZD $100	Samoa	NZD $40
Ecuador	NZD $100	San Marino	NZD $35
El Salvador	NZD $100	Seychelles	NZD $100
Estonia	NZD $35	Singapore	NZD $35
Faroe Islands	NZD $100	Slovakia	NZD $35
Fiji	NZD $35	Slovenia	NZD $35
Finland	NZD $35	Solomon Islands	NZD $40
France	NZD $35	South Africa	NZD $100
French Guiana	NZD $100	Spain	NZD $35
Germany	NZD $35	Sri Lanka	NZD $40
Gibraltar	NZD $35	Suriname	NZD $100
Greece	NZD $35	Sweden	NZD $35
Greenland	NZD $100	Switzerland	NZD $35
Grenada	NZD $100	Taiwan	NZD $40
Guadeloupe	NZD $100	Thailand	NZD $35
Guam	NZD $100	Timor Leste	NZD $100
Guatemala	NZD $100	Tonga	NZD $40
Haiti	NZD $100	Trinidad & Tobago	NZD $100
Honduras	NZD $100	Turkey	NZD $35
Hong Kong	NZD $35	Turks & Caicos Islands	NZD $100
Hungary	NZD $35	Tuvalu	NZD $40
Iceland	NZD $100	United Arab Emirates	NZD $100
India	NZD $40	United Kingdom	NZD $35
Indonesia	NZD $35	United States of America	NZD $30
Ireland	NZD $35	Uruguay	NZD $100
Israel	NZD $100	Vanuatu	NZD $40
Italy	NZD $35	Venezuela	NZD $100
Jamaica	NZD $100	Vietnam	NZD $35
Japan	NZD $40	Virgin Islands (British)	NZD $100
Kiribati	NZD $40	Virgin Islands (USA)	NZD $100
Korea, Republic of	NZD $35
Latvia	NZD $35

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

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Posted on February 13, 2022November 14, 2022 by mrglynspickups — 1 Comment

Eat My Packaging

I’ve just published a couple of videos on YouTube entitled ‘Eat My Packaging’. The idea is to demonstrate that our packaging is compostable and to have some fun at the same time.

I’d love other businesses to think about how they send their products and maybe make some changes.

If you think this is a good idea I’d love it if you could share it on your social media and maybe ask a business to do the same and post a video or pictures on #eatmypackaging

Here’s the short version:

And there’s a longer talky one:

No pickup makers were harmed in the making of this video.

Eat My Packaging is not something I recommend you try and do – you’ve got way more sense than that.

Mr Glyn’s Pickups is a small manufacturer operating from one of the more distant corners of the planet sending delicate products all over the World. If we can manage to use fully bio degradable packaging then there’s no reason why others can’t. You don’t need bubble wrap, you don’t need plastic bags.

I’m going to use this video to encourage my suppliers to do the same. Too many of the parts we use arrive in plastic bags. We do our best to re-use these and some can be re-cycled. It isn’t perfect but we’re working on it.

The products we sell contain plastics and metals but our pickups are designed to last at least 50 years and after that are repairable. Again not perfect, but we’re doing our best.

If you think this is a good idea please share on all your social media, tell your friends and maybe challenge a business to #eatmypackaging

Mr Glyn’s Pickups are handmade in New Zealand https://mrglynspickups.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Next time I’ll try and make a cheese toastie 🙂

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Posted on January 27, 2022October 11, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

The Guitar Knobs Podcast

Had a great time chatting with the guys at The Guitar Knobs Podcast the other day. We talked about pickup design, methods of construction, materials and my favourite pedals.

251-INTERVIEW WITH MR. GLYNS PICKUPS

If you want to hear more, here’s a chat with The Australian Guitar Show from 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-t1MWB87hY&t=13s

MrGlyn’s Pickups is based at Muriwai Beach near Auckland, New Zealand. From low powered “vintage” to powerful rock monsters. We care about your tone.

My Story

My name is Glyn Evans. I have been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995.

I wound my first pickup under the guidance of legendary guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making/repair under him at City of Leeds College of Music in the North of England.

There’s something about the physics that really appealed to me. I went straight home, built my own winding machine, bought some wire and started experimenting.

Looking back I think that time was invaluable for developing an intuition for making pickups. Whenever I came across a result I didn’t understand I swatted up on the physics; there’s a lot to learn. I wrote all the experiments down in a notebook, I still have the notebook and I’m still adding to it. https://mrglynspickups.com/

In 2012 I had the idea for my own range of pickups. In 2020 MrGlyn’s Pickups website went live.

I’ve been lucky enough to know many professional players who’ve given their time and expertise to help me. Every pickup design I make has been tested both by me and some of these “test pilots”. They’ve been in and out of numerous guitars, recorded, gigged, analysed and altered more times than I can remember.

I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

The Guitar Knobs Podcast

Posted on December 22, 2021October 12, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Hamurana Guitars NZ

It’s always interesting to see where my pickups end up, in this case Hamurana Guitars NZ.

Hamurana Guitars featuring Mr Glyns Pickups — Hamurana Guitars

They make World class guitars combining looks, playability and tone. I’ve played a few – they are outstanding.

Hamurana have used my pickups in a few builds and it’s always great to see what he comes up with. This time he’s used a pair of my my Black Sand humbucker size P90’s.

You can get in touch with Hamurana Guitars and order your dream guitar here:

https://www.hamuranaguitarworks.co.nz/

Here’s more info on the Black Sand pickups:

The humbucker sized P90 is a great pickup – it sits tonally between a humbucker and and a strat type pickup. If your neck humbucker is a bit thick and woolly sounding for you, you want more clarity, or just want a different tone, then this one may be the answer. The physical size of this pickup is identical to that of a “normal” humbucker so it will pop straight in.

P90’s are different to other single coil pickups. They have a wide, flat coil similar to that of a Jazzmaster but the magnetic field is a very different shape. Fender single coil pickups have the coil wound around the magnet giving a focused, precise percussive sound. A P90 has 2 bar magnets underneath the coil; this broadens the magnetic window allowing the pickup to listen to a bit more string and thickens the sound. I chose Alnico V bar magnets for this model to help give some grit and power characteristic of a P90.

Of course, too much power and the pickup would sound too thick and bass heavy which is not its purpose. Too little power and it just won’t snarl.

Humbucker sized P90s are such a useful pickup. They sit tonally between a single coil and a humbucker (roughly speaking). and their physical size means they pop straight into any humbucker equipped guitar.

The development of my “Black Sand” pickup was a bit backwards. Usually I make a bridge pickup first and work from there but with this one the neck pickup came first. I had a customer ask for a neck pickup for an es335 to sound clearer than his existing Gibson humbucker. I sold a few neck pickups before thinking it would be a good idea to have a set. So I started work on the bridge pickup.

I wanted this bridge pickup to have clarity in the lower mids to stand out from humbuckers while having enough power to grit up nicely. I wanted it to be clean when tickled and to growl at you when you dig in. P90’s are all about dynamics. It had to match the existing neck pickup or work well as a stand alone in a HSS situation.

Of all the pickups in my range this one came together the quickest. There were only 4 or 5 prototypes and I was happy. Experience and intuition combined with a notebook where I’ve written down details of every experimental pickup I’ve made since 1995.

There were a load of prototypes in and out of a Les Paul, Tele Delux and PRS, through different amps and in the hands of different players. I never trust just my own ears with my pickups. I like to get opinions and suggestions from a few players before making any final decisions. I listen to what players say and I adjust prototypes accordingly, but at the end of the day the final decision is mine. I’m always aware of the phrase “a camel is a horse designed by committee”.

It took a while to get this one right. A pickup would sound great at workshop volume, them I’d play it in a band situation and it would be too boomy, too much like a humbucker. So I’d have a think and make another. In the end persistence paid off.

The pickups I finally settled on went into my Les Paul and off to a gig for the ultimate test, and that’s where they’re staying.

The neck “Black Sand” is a great match for either my “Integrity” or “Cloud Nine” bridge humbuckers or as a set with its equivalent “Black Sand” bridge humbucker sized P90.

I agonised over what to call this pickup set. I wanted a name that would reflect the apparent contradiction in P90’s. From the perspective of a humbucker player they are clear and chiming. From the viewpoint of a single coil player they are powerful and gritty. They’re one thing while looking like another. I wanted a oxymoron to reflect this contradiction, one that might include the unique magnetic structure that gives the P90 its character. So I went for a run along Muriwai beach to think. And there it was staring me in the face (literally). Muriwai has black volcanic sand due to its iron content and it’s magnetic. So I’ve called this set “Black Sand”.

I’m very happy with this pickup – hopefully you will be too.

Hamurana Guitars

Posted on November 12, 2021October 13, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

‘Mini’ – mini humbucker

Single NZ$199 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$173.04

Pair NZ$379 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$329.57

AlnicoV – Bridge 7.25 KOhms, AlnicoV – Neck 6.6 KOhms

Head to the store…

The ‘Mini’ is inspired by the Gibson mini humbuckers of the 70’s used in the Les Paul Deluxe.

The ‘Mini’ is a clean clear sounding mini humbucker with the warmth and clarity from an alnico II magnet combined with low winding strength. This gives them a full, smooth, chiming bass, clear mids and an almost jangly treble, present but never harsh.

Great for jazz, funk, blues, pop or any genre that requires a clean, low powered humbucker set.

Mini humbuckers are great pickups, lower in power than their full size sisters their clarity comes from less windings around a smaller bobbin. The smaller size of the pickup means they ‘hear’ less of the string length than a full size humbucker. The result is a clearer tone with less of the lower mid range push that you get from a PAF.

The neck pickup has a clear voice ideal for funk or jazz. The neck and bridge pickups together have a perfect balance when used together, ideal for clean rhythm playing. The bridge pickup alone has a cheeky ‘cut through’ quality pushing you to the front of any mix.

Although he Les Paul Deluxe was a short lived guitar in the Gibson range the mini humbucker has lived on. It is a very popular pickup in custom guitars particularly the neck pickup and is a great match for Mr Glyn’s ‘Cruel Mistress’ telecaster bridge pickup.

If you’re looking for a pickup that is clearer than a PAF, has a less prominent lower mid spike with an even balanced tone then the mini humbucker could be the pickup for you.

The Mini has a more powerful sister – the Minx https://mrglynspickups.com/2021/11/11/minx-mini-humbucker/

Head to the store…

mini humbucker https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on November 11, 2021October 7, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Minx – mini humbucker

Single NZ$199 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$173.04

Pair NZ$379 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$329.57

AlnicoV – Bridge 10.5 KOhms, AlnicoV – Neck 6.6KOhms

Head to the store…

Minx hot mini humbucker MrGlyn’s Pickups

If you love your mini humbucker guitar but want a bit more power than standard Deluxe style pickups the ‘Minx’ mini humbucker is the pickup for you.

The Minx has plenty of that mini humbucker clarity and tonality but with more power and more grit.

The ‘Minx’ is a clean clear sounding mini humbucker but with more power than the vintage Gibson’s. There is warmth and clarity but with more powerful windings than the ‘Mini’ along with an alnicoV magnet they will push your amp harder.

With narrower coils than a PAF mini humbuckers ‘hear’ a narrower part of the string resulting in cleaner highs, a less pushy lower mid range and a distinctive clear bass that’s never woofy or wooly.

The neck pickup has the same coils as the ‘Mini’ but with an alnicoV magnet they have a fatter power and make a great match to the Minx bridge pickup.

The bridge pickup has a characterful mid range with a bite and fullness that is lacking in most mini humbuckers. You wouldn’t describe this pickup as polite and it will certainly put you towards the front of any mix.

Minx hot mini humbucker set MrGlyn’s Pickups

Great for the blues or rock player after dynamics – tickle it and it’s clean but when you dig in there’s enough power to push the front end of your amp into break up when you ask it to.

If you’re looking for a pickup that is clearer than a PAF, has a less prominent lower mid spike with an even balanced tone then the mini humbucker could be the pickup for you.

For a lower powered mini humbucker take a look at the ‘Mini’ https://mrglynspickups.com/2021/11/12/mini-humbucker/

Head to the store …

Have a look at Mr Glyns Pickups on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on October 6, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

The Australian Guitar Show

Delighted to have been asked on #theaustralianguitarshow to talk pickups and stuff with Ricki Wood. Join us live on Instagram next Tuesday 9:30pm NZ time.

Posted on September 22, 2021December 5, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“TheTron”

Single “TheTron” – NZ$229. If you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$199.13

Pair “TheTron” – NZ$440. If you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$382.61

Alnico V – Bridge 5.32 KOhms, 1.96H .Neck – 4.36KOhms, 0.88H

Head to store…

TheTron pickup set is based around the legendary Gretsch pickups Of the 50’s and 60’s. To say TheTron has character is an understatement. TheTron is full and rounded with a well balanced mid range but with that distinctive ‘Clank’ that separates it from other pickups. The neck pickup is clear and fat and the bridge stands out from the mix without ever sounding harsh.

Here’s a taster video of Brett Kingman with a set of Trons.

Here’s the full demo from Brett:

Over the years I’ve repaired a fair few old Gretsch pickups and noticed the best sounding ones are at the upper range for ohms. I’ve taken that design and tweaked it until I got the fullness I was looking for but without loosing clarity or clank.

Most of my pickups are made in collaboration with a professional player, but not TheTron. I started playing guitar at the age of 16 when I first heard Malcolm Young – a Filtertron through an almost clean valve amp. I didn’t feel I needed another set of ears for this one, I knew exactly what I wanted.

I needed this pickup set to be crystal clear with a clean amplifier but to come into its own when pushing an amp to clip. The neck pickup needed to be clear, full and chiming in both a big archtop and in the neck position of a Telecaster. The bridge pickup needed to have no shortage of character, a clean almost jangly tone when played gently but with enough go in it to push the front end of a valve amp to clip when you dig in.

TheTron is the perfect pickup as a Gretsch upgrade, for the modern player wanting something other than Gibson style humbuckers, rockabilly players after that traditional tone, jazz players or, like me, Malcolm Young fans. There’s so much you can to with The Tron.

For the modern player with one foot in the past.

This sound sample is using an Epiphone Sheraton straight in to an early 70’s Jansen Bassman 50 through a Celestion G12T-100 speaker recorded through an SM57 straight into Audacity. Clean, no eq nothing added. There are 2 riffs, neck pickup, both pickups then bridge for each riff.

And as for the name “TheTron”? – I think you have to be a Kiwi…

Head to store…

Mr Glyns Pickups

For the full range of pickups https://mrglynspickups.com/

Take a listen to all the demos https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on August 28, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#11 Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker – Tim Stark, Manson Guitars

In Ep#11 Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker I get to catch up with an old mate. Tim Stark is head luthier at Manson Guitars in the UK.

Back in the late 90’s I used to teach guitar making and repair at a college in the UK and Tim was one of my students. He’s a smart guy and has gone way further than I ever did. He went on to work for Manson Guitars and has made some of the most interesting custom guitars there are.

https://www.mansonguitarworks.com/

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https://mrglynspickups.com/

About Mr Glyn

My name is Glyn Evans. I have been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995.

I wound my first pickup under the guidance of legendary guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making/repair under him at City of Leeds College of Music in the North of England. There’s something about the physics that really appealed to me. I went straight home, built my own winding machine, bought some wire and started experimenting.

In those pre-internet days there just wasn’t any information available on how to make good pickups.

I made pickup after pickup, I wound and I listened. I made notes of every variation both good and bad so I could learn what was happening.

I love hearing my pickups played live or on recordings; it feels good to have played a very small part in that sound. My day to day work has always been in guitar repair so I’ve been privileged to be able to study first hand some of the great vintage (and modern) pickups.

I have re-wound and repaired countless faulty pickups to either restore them to their original state or to improve them. This is how you learn and I think I will always be learning.

In 2012 I had the idea for my own range of pickups. In 2020 MrGlyn’s Pickups website went live. I’ve been lucky enough to know many professional players who’ve given their time and expertise to help me.

Every pickup design I make has been tested both by me and some of these “test pilots”. They’ve been in and out of numerous guitars, recorded, gigged, analysed and altered more times than I can remember.

I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

Mr Glyns Pickups

Meets Your Maker Manson Guitars, Meets Your Maker Manson Guitars

Posted on August 20, 2021June 29, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“Clear View” humbucker

Single NZ$199 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$173.04

Pair NZ$379 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$329.57

Cover NZ$20 ($17.39) extra each pickup

Alnico V, Bridge 3.58KOhms, 2.43H, Neck 1.96KOhms, 1.16H

Head to the store…

The “Clear View” humbucker is something different. It’s a humbucker for players that don’t like humbuckers.

This pickup set is all about pure clarity. There are no pushy lower mids that make your clean sound a mush. The highs are clean and clear but not harsh, the bottom end is clear but with none of that humbucker woof.

If single coils are too harsh and unforgiving, conventional humbuckers too powerful and muddy then here’s the solution. The “Clear View” humbucker is low powered and balanced, designed for the textural player, great with reverbs and modulation, sits its the mix without getting in the way.

If you want a low powered ‘Vintage’ humbucker with all the character of a PAF get a MrGlyn’s ‘Integrity’ humbucker. If humbuckers sound too thick and you crave extra clarity then the ‘Clear View’ is for you.

And, of course, it’s hum cancelling.

This is not a pickup born to rock, it’s more than that.

Here’s a short video, clean with no effects, to show the clarity and balance of the “clear View” Pickups.

The Clear View Story

It started with a phone call from luthier Ramsay Phillips.

I’ve got huge respect for Ramsay, he’s worked all over the world and has a great client list (including Steve Vai). He knows guitars, knows tone and he’s a thinker. So when he calls to talk about a new pickup idea I listen.

He was interested in having a humbucker for people that didn’t like humbuckers (his phrase). A pickup with clear tone and low powered but not like a PAF, clearer than that. He wanted a midrange more like a single coil than a traditional humbucker. At first I thought my ‘Black Sand’ humbucker size P90 would suit him but as he talked I realised he didn’t want the grit of a P90. He’s very well practiced at describing sound so I felt I understood what he meant. He assured me he had customers asking about such a pickup.

He wasn’t in a rush which meant I could have a good ponder over what he’d said before making anything.

Then one morning about a week later I was out on the beach with the dogs. There was quite a big swell (the sea is never calm at Muriwai) and I was listening to the sea. I was trying to figure out which frequencies in that sound I would need to remove to make Ramsay’s pickup. By the time I got home there was a plan.

I made a set of pickups, sent them to him and a few days later he called to say they were spot on. It isn’t usually that easy.

Clear View humbucker Mr Glyns Pickups — Clear View humbucker

Humbucker options Mr Glyns Pickups — Humbucker options

Head to the store…

Guitar Pickups, cute robot — Mr Glyns Pickups Roboguy

/https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on August 11, 2021October 11, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Yamaha SA30 pickup

This Yamaha SA30 pickup came to me for repair the other day and I decided to take some photos and share my thoughts on it with you.

The Yamaha SA30 is becoming a bit of a legend and getting rather sought after. Gone are the days you could pick one up cheap – the word is out. Thank you internet 🥴.

If you don’t know about them here’s some info: https://tymguitars.com.au/blogs/blog/1966-yamaha-sa-30t

This pickup was sent to me with an intermittent fault. It would work if you tapped it but stop a minute later. That pointed towards it being an internal wiring fault rather than a broken coil, I needed to investigate.

With the cover off you can see the hook up wires – these were my number one suspects. Sure enough, there was a dry joint where one of them was soldered to the connectors on the base plate. Just to make sure I re- soldered all the joints and the pickup is fixed.

But that’s not the interesting part – look at those bobbins. They’re different sizes. They each measure in the 4.5 K Ohms range but they’re clearly wound with different gauge wire on each coil. These pickups are renowned for their clarity – so what’s going on?

The smaller coil on the left must be wound with thinner gauge wire and less of it than the one on the right. Thinner wire have a greater resistance for the same length.

The coil on the right looks like a conventional humbucker coil like an overwound PAF but the coil on the left would have a less full sound. It will have less bottom and lower mids and a lot less power. But that’s just the windings.

Turn the pickup over and you can see a ceramic bar magnet but it’s how it connects to the poles that’s interesting. The bigger coil has a larger piece of steel coupling the poles to the magnet than the smaller coil. Measuring the strength of the magnetic field on the top of the poles the smaller coil is about 20% weaker. So this again gives the big coil an overwound PAF sound and the smaller coil still thinner.

So with the Yamaha SA30 pickup they’ve created that clarity by having one coil doing most of the work – 4.5k Ohms with a ceramic magnet has a bit more grunt than one half of a PAF. But the other coil on it’s own would have more of a weedy gold foil type sound. Then they’ve been combined in series as a humbucker. Smart stuff eh!

Feel free to contact me for pickup repairs or for a chat about my range of new pickups. mrglynspickups@gmail.com

And here’s a great site for all things Yamaha SA, heaps of information here https://www.thesupposedstringmeister.net/?page_id=644

https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on July 6, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

How do Humbuckers Work?

So How do Humbuckers Work? By a clever quirk of physics humbuckers manage to cancel out the hum they pick up. So how do they do it? Here’s a simple explanation with some help from Sammy the dog. https://mrglynspickups.com/

Mr Glyn’s pickups are hand made in New Zealand.

I make a few flavors of humbucker:

The Integrity

A full, clear sounding Alnico II pickups in the style of the best of the early PAF’s. Balance and clarity – a humbucker for every situation. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/integrity-vintage-humbucker-2/

The Cloud Nine

A mid to hot, pickup made specifically for blues/rock players who want to push the front end of their amps. Plenty of grunt, plenty of mids and enough cut through for you to stand out in the mix.https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/cloud-nine-hot-humbuck

The Attitude

A pickup for the modern metal or fusion player. Articulate and balanced, smooth and clear. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/07/29/attitude-humbucker/

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My name is Glyn Evans.

I have been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995. I wound my first pickup under the guidance of legendary guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making/repair under him at City of Leeds College of Music in the North of England.

There’s something about the physics that really appealed to me. I went straight home, built my own winding machine, bought some wire and started experimenting.

I wrote all the experiments down in a notebook, I still have the notebook and I’m still adding to it.

I love hearing my pickups played live or on recordings; it feels good to have played a very small part in that sound.

My day to day work has always been in guitar repair so I’ve been privileged to be able to study first hand some of the great vintage (and modern) pickups. I have re-wound and repaired countless faulty pickups to either restore them to their original state or to improve them. This is how you learn and I think I will always be learning.

I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

How do Humbuckers Work

Mr Glyn's Pickups Roboguy — Mr Glyn’s Pickups Logo – Roboguy

Posted on June 27, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Fender Lead I Pickup

I’ve been repairing a few pickups recently and I thought I’d share this one with you. It’s a Fender Lead I Pickup that was sent to me by guitar repairer Jeff Baker from Oamaru.

The Fender Lead I was one of those obscure models that never really caught on and the pickup reflects that. It’s a little unusual and that’s what makes it interesting.

It even looks different with those square topped bobbins.

Not only is it unusual looking from the top but turn it over and it shows what it’s really all about. Those are 12 big adjustable poles screwed into substantial steel blocks and coupled to a powerful ceramic magnet.

This is clearly not a typical Fender pickup, this was designed to ROCK.

So what were Fender thinking? Well, this was 1979, the DiMarzio Super Distortion had been around for 5 years and was becoming very successful. Fender had nothing to compete with it. Looking at the spec of the Lead I pickup it is remarkably similar to the Super Distortion. Fender were making a Superstrat and it wasn’t even the 80’s yet.

Back to the repair – it came to me because it wasn’t working and typical for faulty humbuckers one coil was showing ‘open circuit’ on the test meter. In these cases I can use the good coil as a reference to what the faulty coil should be. It had a dc resistance of 7.61 KOhms. Wiki told me the final dc resistance of the whole pickup is approx. 13KOhms so that gave me a pretty good indication of how I should wind it. That’s a powerful set of coils to go with that magnet.

A bit of maths, plenty of experience and some intuition and I had a plan for winding it. Detailed information just isn’t available for this kind of job.

I stripped the bobbin and wound the coil.

I potted it very lightly because these bobbins are made of butyrate that has a lower melting point than most modern ABS bobbins – I didn’t want it to deform with the heat, I wasn’t going to be able to get another bobbin.

Here you can see the chunky pole pieces, they’ll guide a fair bit of that ceramic magnet’s strength up to the strings.

If you have a faulty pickup or are interested in my range of handmade pickups have a look at the website.

Here’s some more great info on the Fender Lead series: https://chrisandricktalkguitars.com/fenders-lead-series-cbs-era-gems/

https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Posted on June 24, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Telecaster Bridge Pickup Repair

I had this Fender Telecaster bridge pickup repair in the other day and thought I’d show you it. It’s from an ’87/8 Fender Telecaster USA Standard.

Tele bridge pickups are the essence of Rock’n’Roll. For those of us that love our Teles there’s just nothing like it. So how come they sound so different from Strat bridge pickups? The magnets are usually the same, the windings are about the same so what makes Telecasters so distinctive?

There are 2 factors:

1) The Tele has a steel baseplate. This base plate increases the pickup’s inductance (by about 7%) giving it a bit more power. It also changes the shape of the magnetic field a little, broadening the magnetic window so the pickup ‘hears’ a bit more of the string. I use this principle on my ‘Tui’ Strat pickups. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/tui-hot-strat-set/

2)The pickup is mounted to the steel bridge plate. Put a Tele bridge pickup in a Strat and you’re only half way to a true Tele sound. It really does make a big difference.

So, back to the repair – this pickup was completely dead showing ‘open circuit’ on the test meter. As with every one of these repair jobs I start by checking for dry solder joints – always worth ago. The solder joints were fine so time to look further.

As you can see from the picture there’s a lot of corrosion on the pole pieces. My suspicion is the corrosion has spread to the inside of the pickup and caused a break in the windings. I need to get in there and investigate.

90’s Telecaster Standard bridge pickup. Mr Glyn’s pickups.

Once the windings are cut out it’s pretty obvious the corrosion has caused the problem. Fender pickups are wound directly on to the pole pieces so a bit of rust and they’ve had it.

Tele bridge pickup repair . MrGlyn’s Pickups New Zealand

I clean the rust off and treat it with an anti rust product . Then I glue the poles to the fibreboard using superglue to make them secure.

1997 Tele bridge pickup . MrGlyn’s Pickups .

After that it’s a few coats of shellac to seal everything and finally I wrap the pole pieces with tape. I know it seems a bit extreme but I want to keep the windings from touching the pole pieces so this doesn’t happen again. The tape is so thin it won’t make any difference to the sound.

It’s all about preventing this problem from occurring again.

Then finally I re-wind the pickup to the original spec.

Pickup rewind Telecaster . Mr Glyn pickups

After the pickup is wax potted and the protective string replaced and waxed the Telecaster Bridge Pickup Repair is done and it’s ready to go back to its owner.

Telecaster bridge pickup. Mr Glyns Pickups

It’s really satisfying saving old pickups.

If you have a pickup problem get in touch – mrglynspickups@gmail.com

For new pickups visit the website, I make 2 flavours of Telecaster sets.

https://mrglynspickups.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Mr Glyn’s Pickups is based near Auckland, New Zealand. We manufacture a full range of electric guitar pickups for every situation.

Posted on June 19, 2021October 14, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“Sassy” P90

Single – “Sassy” P90 NZ$189 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$164.35

Pair – “Sassy” P90 NZ$369 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$320.87

Alnico V, Neck- 6.7 KOhms, 4.42H, Bridge 7.55 KOhms, 5.23H

Head to the store…

The Mr Glyn’s “Sassy” P90 is a pickup set influenced by the Gibson P90’s of the late 50’s. The “Sassy” have a distinctive woody aggressive tone, full of character. The highs are smooth yet punchy, there’s a chiming bottom end and a very obvious mid range that pushes through the mix. If you tickle the strings they’re clean and clear but dig in and there’s no shortage of power to drive the front end of your amp.

I’ve grown to love P90’s over the years, it’s the sound of those early Gibson Les Paul Juniors. It’s a pickup that needs no extras, just straight into a good amp. They’re happy to power pedals but there’s a fullness and balance that seems to need nothing else.

I wanted the “Sassy” P90 set to live up to its name and have the dynamic range that I love about P90’s. The wide flat coil of a P90 gives a richer, less percussive tone than other single coil pickups and this is where the full tone comes from. I’ve sat both neck and bridge pickups on top of a pair of Alnico V magnets to give the power this pickup needs and help add that bit of grit when played hard.

I’ve made the neck pickup smooth and fat but with clarity and chime enough for jazz. The bridge pickup has the dynamics, pushy mids and aggressive highs when pushed but cleans up when you ask it to.

This is a pickup set that would be happy in almost any situation, blues, rock, punk, reggae… If it’s a full bodied, dynamic P90 you’re after look no further.

The Sassy is available in Dogear and Soapbar.

I’ve named this set the “Sassy” P90 set to reflect these pickup’s attitude, they’re bold, spicy, disrespectful and a bit cheeky.

"Sassy" P90 Mr Glyns Pickups — Sassy dogear cream

I also make a humbucker size P90 set – the “Black Sand” if you need some P90 goodness in your humbucker guitar, here’s a link to them:

/https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/black-sand-humbucker-sized-p90-neck/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Head to the store…

Posted on June 16, 2021October 12, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Gibson T-Top repair

I’ve been repairing a few broken old pickups recently so thought I’d share some pictures and thoughts on this classic old Gibson T-Top.

The T-Top is a fairly common pickup on my workbench. Not because there’s and common fault with them but simply there were so many made and they’re all getting quite old now.

The “T-Top” simply refers to the molding on the top of the bobbin. They were Gibson’s standard humbucker from 67/8 until around 1980 replacing the legendary PAF.

Mr Glyns Pickups Gibson t top — Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups

There were a few subtle changes from the PAF but enough to make a difference.

Although the bobbins look different the important dimensions were unchanged and they are still made of butyrate making it impractical to wax pot them. Butyrate distorts with heat.

The wire is poly insulated instead of the plain enamel used on PAF’s. Pretty much all T-Tops have a dc resistance of around 7.5 KOhms, neck and bridge the same. The coils are wound symmetrically and are unpotted so beware of squealing with high gain.

The magnets varied, often Alnico III, V or even Ceramic so not all T Tops sound the same.

T Top repair — Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups

This one came to me with a dead coil in need of a re-wind. the magnet is a rough cast Alnico V and from the good coil the finished dc reading I was after was 7.4 KOhms.

Gibson Humbucker — Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups

After the re-wind I gave it some new cloth tape so it looked the part and it was ready to ROCK.

T Top Humbucker — Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups

Gibson T Top humbucker — Processed with Focos

Get in touch if you have any old pickups in need of repair. Although most of my day is spent making new pickups I do enjoy repairing classic old pickups.

www.mrglynspickups.com

Posted on June 7, 2021October 12, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“Silver Lady” Telecaster Pickups

I make two flavors of Telecaster Pickups. Here’s the low powered “Silver Lady in the hands of Jason Herbert.

To hear the “Cruel Mistress” Tele set and lots more demos go to my YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

Telecasters are brutally honest guitars. There’s no hiding behind fat mushy tones – if you can do it on a Tele then you really can do it.

I wanted to make a Telecaster Pickups set that would reflect the clear honest tone of an old Tele. It’s a delicate balance to get enough treble and for the top end to have sufficient warmth to be usable, but with no hint of woof or boom in the bottom. The bottom needs to be full and clear with no hint of muddiness. The bridge needs a twang but it has to be a warm twang without being over harsh. I’ve used Alnico III magnets with a vintage style wind on both these pickups

Through my repair work I’ve re-wound a lot of old Tele pickups. This is invaluable experience for designing my own version. I enlisted the help of a couple of experienced Telecaster players as test pilots. I really needed plenty of opinions and testing through a variety of amplifiers to get this one right.

I’m really happy with the warm classic tone of this set, clear and chiming with just the right twang. So I have given them a classic name – “Silver Lady”.

https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/silver-lady-vintage-telecaster/

MrGlyn’s Pickups Silver Lady Telecaster Bridge pickup — MrGlyn’s Pickups – Silver Lady

CRUEL MISTRESS

There is nothing like the high end snarl of a good Tele bridge pickup. However, Tele Pickups are complicated. It’s a sound that needs to be just right – too much treble and it can sound grating and obnoxious, too little and it just isn’t a Tele. The treble needs warmth while still cutting through a mix like a zombie banjo.

With the “Cruel Mistress” -hot Tele wanted to make a pickup with a bit more power to drive an amp harder while keeping the Tele character. My biggest concern was not losing what a Tele is all about. In my repair work I come across quite a few replacement Tele pickups that just don’t sound like Teles. Bridge pickups need grit and the neck a chimey clarity and together they should be full and open and matched well enough to create almost a reverb sound with the switch in the middle position.

The “Cruel Mistress” -hot Tele uses AlnicoV magnets to help with the attack and AWG43 wire to help with the snarl.

The neck pickup on a Tele needs to be smooth and warm and have a great balance with the bridge pickup so that the middle position rings with an almost reverb-like tone. The difficulty with Telecaster neck pickups is there just isn’t much space under that cover. As a result it can be a hard pickup to get right and there were a lot of experiments and disappointments on the way. Eventually I came on a design that has enough bottom end to sound full but not so much to sound boomy. And the final pickup was a great match to the bridge.

I had help from the ears of a couple of my regular customers who were generous enough to let me load their guitars with prototypes. The whole process takes time and only after many road tests and versions did I fix on a design. As a result, each of my designs have been developed over many years of subtle changes and road tests. Having help like this means my pickups are trialed through many different amps and playing styles. The neck/bridge balance as well as dynamics/compression need to be tested in as many situations as possible to find a pickup that will work for most players.

So if you need some grit and aggression from your Tele this is the set for you.

Posted on May 3, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Where to try Mr Glyn’s Pickups

I’m delighted to announce that The Guitar Gallery in downtown Auckland is not only stocking Mr Glyn’s Pickups but has demo guitars loaded with them for you to try Mr Glyn’s Pickups.

The shop is at 95 Queen Street (Opposite Fort Street) but it isn’t easy to find so I made this short video.

https://theguitargallery.co.nz/https://theguitargallery.co.nz/

https://mrglynspickups.com/

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About MrGlyn’s Pickups

MrGlyn’s Pickups is based near Auckland, New Zealand. My name is Glyn Evans. I have been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995. I wound my first pickup under the guidance of legendary guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making/repair under him at City of Leeds College of Music in the North of England. There’s something about the physics that really appealed to me. I went straight home, built my own winding machine, bought some wire and started experimenting.In those pre-internet days there just wasn’t any information available on how to make good pickups. I made pickup after pickup, I wound and I listened. I made notes of every variation both good and bad so I could learn what was happening. Looking back I think that time was invaluable for developing an intuition for making pickups. Whenever I came across a result I didn’t understand I swatted up on the physics; there’s a lot to learn. I wrote all the experiments down in a notebook, I still have the notebook and I’m still adding to it. I love hearing my pickups played live or on recordings; it feels good to have played a very small part in that sound. My day to day work has always been in guitar repair so I’ve been privileged to be able to study first hand some of the great vintage (and modern) pickups. I have re-wound and repaired countless faulty pickups to either restore them to their original state or to improve them. This is how you learn and I think I will always be learning. In 2012 I had the idea for my own range of pickups. In 2020 MrGlyn’s Pickups website went live. I’ve been lucky enough to know many professional players who’ve given their time and expertise to help me. Every pickup design I make has been tested both by me and some of these “test pilots”. They’ve been in and out of numerous guitars, recorded, gigged, analysed and altered more times than I can remember. I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

Posted on April 24, 2021June 19, 2022 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“Tui” hot Strat pickups getting a workout

Thanks to https://www.thejamunit.com/ for showing us what the “Tui” hot Strat pickups can do.

I’ve wound a lot of Strat pickups since I started in 1995. I started off re-winding cheap pickups and then moved on to repairing old dead Fender pickups. Every experiment was written down in a notebook with tone comments. Back when I started there wasn’t much information available so there was a lot of reverse engineering and a lot of trying things out. That learning time was invaluable to developing instinct for how to change the sound of a pickup. I’ve still got the note book and I’m still adding to it.

In, I think, 2014 a customer of mine approached me wanting a set of Strat pickups. He’s a great blues player and had recently moved from using a Les Paul to a Strat. He described the sound he was after and it seemed to me it was the same as I’d been after myself so I put some time in to designing a pickup set for him.

The “Tui”- hot Strat pickups needed to be most definitely a Strat sound – I hear plenty of Strat replacement pickups that are fine but just not Strat-ish. Secondly I wanted a bit more power, just a bit, enough to make a good old valve amp clip a bit easier than a “vintage” pickup would. And there needed to be dynamics – tickle it and it’s clean, dig in and it grits up. As I was making the original version of this set for a player used to humbuckers I wanted to reduce the ”ping” of the attack. I’ve added steel base plated as standard to this set. This changes the shape of the magnetic field, broadening the harmonic window. They add a wee bit of power, a wee bit of bass and reduce that pesky ping.

The neck pickup needed to have “that” Strat sound with fullness and clarity. It’s the ‘go to’ sound for most Strat players. The middle pickup needed to have some ‘quack’ to it with its own distinctive personality. The bridge pickup shouldn’t be too thin, it needs to have plenty of highs but not too much of that ‘ping’ or it’s almost useless. Then there are the other sounds – positions 2 and 4, mistakenly referred to as ‘out of phase’. They are really just 2 pickups in parallel. It’s hard to predict what those sounds will be, there was a lot of experimenting.

So I consulted my old note book and wound a lot of pickups and fitted them in a few test Strats. I’ve been lucky enough to have some great players as repair customers and so I was able to get quite a few opinions.

Eventually I was happy and I fitted a set for my ex Les Paul customer and he loved them straight away. A few months later he contacted me to say he was still loving them. I love it when players do that.

I’ve fitted resulting sets into a lot of instruments and it turns out that not only blues players like them, they seem to work for everyone. I shouldn’t be surprised, the Stratocaster is such a versatile guitar, of course they do.

Posted on April 19, 2021July 26, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#10 Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker – Rod Capper Guitars

In this episode I talk to Rod Capper and get to completely re-think some of the things I thought I knew about guitar construction. Rod’s years of experimentation have brought him to some interesting conclusions.

Rod Capper has been making classical guitars near Auckland for 35 years. I was interested in discussing the conflict between tradition and innovation in the classical guitar making world. I got way more than I bargained for. Rod’s constant experimentation has led him to some interesting conclusions and caused me to re-think my view of how guitars work. http://www.capperguitars.com/

Hi all, some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them. Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help. After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea. I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website. Some of these makers you may not even have heard of. It’s a very simple format, just recording a Skype conversation. There is some editing mainly cutting out my own waffle but I do try and keep edits to a minimum. I am not a professional presenter I’m just an ordinary bloke working with what I’ve got and this is way out of my comfort zone but I hope you’ll find the content interesting. I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”. In episode #1 I’m talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first. If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded. Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help. Thanks, Glyn. https://mrglynspickups.com/ https://mrglynspickups.com/

Posted on April 16, 2021October 12, 2022 by mrglynspickups — 1 Comment

‘78 Musicman Stingray Bass pickup re-wind

The Musicman Stingray bass is for me one of the top 3 basses ever – the Precision, the Jazz and the Stingray cover pretty much everything between them. A big part of what makes the Stingray so good is the Musicman Stingray Bass pickup.

It has such a distinctive sound. Once you’re tuned into it you can hear it on so many recordings.

This pickup is from 1978 (they started in 1976) and was sent to me from a customer in Christchurch. I thought I’d show you around inside it – these are really interesting pickups.

The Musicman Stingray Bass pickup is by the look of it a big fat humbucker but there’s more to it.

The magnets are big alnicoV’s, 3/8” diameter and 5/8” deep so a lot of the power and grunt comes from them. The 2 coils are wound with awg 42 wire and are around 4KOhms each (they vary). The poles on each coil have opposite polarity and the coils are wired out of phase electrically so they act as a humbucker. The really interesting part is the coils are wired in parallel, not in series like most humbuckers.

The sound of 2 coils in parallel is the sound of a Jazz bass with both pickups on or a Strat on switch position 2 or 4. It’s a very distinctive, clear tone with a very clear midrange and chimney bass.

So the distinctive Stingray sound comprises of fairly low powered coils in parallel to give plenty of clarity but with exceptionally fat magnets to give bass and grunty mids.

I haven’t mentioned the active circuit the signal goes through yet but that’s another story.

Music Man Stingray bass pickup, cover off — ‘78 Musicman Stingray Bass pickup

As you can see, under the cover it looks very similar to ‘Fender’ pickups.

One coil was open circuit so I cut the windings out. There was tape wrapped around the magnets to protect the coil. I left that in. I love the way they staggered the pole pieces but kept the magnets the same size.

Music Man Stingray bass pickup repair — pickup re-wind

The original winding wire is insulated with red poly. Unfortunately I only had Poly insulation in the natural colour – that’s my coil on the right.

And there she is, all ready to go back in to the bass. https://mrglynspickups.com/

If anyone has a faulty pickup just give me a call 021912678 or email mrglynspickups@gmail.com

Take a look at my YouTube series “Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker” where I have chat with manufacturers of musical gear from around New Zealand https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on April 6, 2021July 26, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

‘74 Precision Bass Pickup re-wind

I’ve been doing quite a few bass pickup re-wind jobs recently.

If your pickup has stopped working or suddenly started sounding thin and quiet it may well need re-winding.

This old Fender pickup was completely dead, now it lives again.

Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.

In the early days back in the 1990’s I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.

Back then there were a lot of 60’s and 70’s quality pickups around to practice on, they weren’t as valuable or sought after as they are now. Because of that I got to see how pickups were put together in the old days, the construction, the potting material…

There wasn’t much information available so experimentation was the only way to learn. I made so many bad pickups back then but made a note of every single one, how I’d wound it and what the result was. By using that method I got closer and closer to what I wanted. I also made a note of all the re-winds I did and the original spec if I could get it. I’m still writing in that note book to this day and it’s becoming a fantastic reference tool when I receive an unusual pickup repair from a customer.

I still really enjoy re-winding pickups, I think I have a strong instinct to fix things. I would much rather repair a faulty old pickup than sell a customer a new one. Sometimes, of course, the customer wants a different sound that the old pickup can’t give them and a new pickup is the way to go.

Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

www.mrglynspickups.com

Bass Pickup re-wind

Posted on March 31, 2021April 29, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#9 Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker – Red Witch Pedals

Red Witch Pedals

This was a real treat for me, getting to have a chat with Ben Fulton from Red Witch Pedals https://redwitchpedals.com/ . He’s a Kiwi legend and has designed some of the most imaginative pedals out there. I’m amazed at his constant evolution and pushing the boundaries. He talks about the past, his current designs and a few hints about future designs in the pipeline. I urge you to have a listen to his sound samples, better still try his pedals, you won’t be disappointed.

Here’s what the Red Witch Pedals website says about Ben:

Ben Fulton has never killed a man.

Not even once.

Not even just a little bit, down some dark back alley, in the middle of the night, when no one else was around and all evidence of the crime was suitably bleached and limed away.

Not even ever.

Honest.

Ben Fulton has designed a range of effects pedals that a whole lot of extremely good musicians use and love on a daily basis – in the arenas, studios and bedrooms of the world.

This would have been a difficult feat if he had killed someone because he inevitably would have let it slip “Oh yes, the other day, you know, the day after I killed that guy….”

And the game would have been up.

Very hard to design world-class effects pedals in prison.

Very hard indeed.

People like Andy Summers and Reeves Gabrels are pleased that Ben ended up designing marvellous guitar pedals instead of going to prison.

Though we’re sure some of the guys in prison are sad that it worked out like this.

He’s got quite pretty hair.

Ben Fulton’s Mum is relieved that he hasn’t killed anyone and quietly proud that he has designed these rather lovely effects pedals.

We are too.

https://mrglynspickups.com/https://mrglynspickups.com/

Posted on March 23, 2021April 29, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

New Development- Extreme Metal Pickup

I started designing an Extreme Metal Pickup back in August with the help of Raj Singarajah from Dynamic Rage Studio in Auckland, well, today we finalized the design.

It’s been a long journey but I’m delighted. I heard the final prototype in the studio this afternoon and it does everything I wanted it to.

Raj has put in so much work and catalogued the audio for each stage.

It’s still going to be a little while before there are any production models though.

I’m having magnets made, I need to get poles made, I’ve redesigned the base plate so I need to get those made, I need to get bobbins made, there are some other parts I’ve added to shape the magnetic field, they need to be made. All that stuff will me made in NZ except the magnets.

In the end there will be 6 and 7 string models as well as a slanted version for multiscale.

So folks, keep watching this space, the Extreme Metal Pickup it is on the way.

https://www.facebook.com/DynamicRage

Here’s Raj with one of the early prototypes.

About MrGlyn’s Pickups

MrGlyn’s Pickups is based near Auckland, New Zealand.

My name is Glyn Evans. I have been a full time pickup winder and luthier since 1995. I wound my first pickup under the guidance of legendary guitar repairer Ted Lee while studying guitar making/repair under him at City of Leeds College of Music in the North of England. There’s something about the physics that really appealed to me. I went straight home, built my own winding machine, bought some wire and started experimenting.

In those pre-internet days there just wasn’t any information available on how to make good pickups. I made pickup after pickup, I wound and I listened. I made notes of every variation both good and bad so I could learn what was happening. Looking back I think that time was invaluable for developing an intuition for making pickups. Whenever I came across a result I didn’t understand I swatted up on the physics; there’s a lot to learn. I wrote all the experiments down in a notebook, I still have the notebook and I’m still adding to it.

I love hearing my pickups played live or on recordings; it feels good to have played a very small part in that sound.

In 2012 I had the idea for my own range of pickups. In 2020 MrGlyn’s Pickups website went live. https://mrglynspickups.com/

I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

Posted on March 22, 2021April 24, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Bellbird vintage Strat pickup set

Another amazing video from Andy Marra using MrGlyn’s “Bellbird” vintage Strat pickup set.

The Stratocaster has been around since 1954 and the legend continues. Reading the internet (!?) tells me there have been good and bad years or decades, guitars to avoid and ones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve been repairing guitars since 1995 so I’ve played a lot of old Strats and analysed a lot of old pickups. Vintage pickups aren’t all great but the good ones are fantastic.

I’ve based my vintage Strat pickup set on the best of the old pickups I’ve had the pleasure of playing through . So I use AWG42 heavy formvar insulated wire – there’s something about the thickness of that insulation that just works with an old Strat pickup.

I’ve aimed for that old quacking chime that makes Strats wonderfully percussive but with a singing quality that’s so musical. Warm and clear with beautiful almost reverb-like clean tones – that’s what I want out of an old Strat. The neck needs to be fat, round and clear, the middle pickup needs to quack and the bridge a cut through twang without thinness. The all important ‘in between’ sounds in positions 2 and 4 must be balanced and characterful. Nothing says Strat more than these sounds.

The Bellbird set has been designed mainly for clean tones but they’re certainly not afraid to perform with a bit of gain. As part of a HSS set they’re great with one of my ‘Integrity’ humbuckers in the bridge position.

I agonised for months over names for my Strat pickup sets then during a camping trip to Tauwharanui Regional Park I heard my first Bellbird and realised that was the sound I had been looking for when I was designing this set. The comparison in tone between the Bellbird and the more common Tui seemed exactly what I had in my head when designing my Strat pickups. Bellbirds don’t just go tweet, there’s a depth and warmth in the tone. It’s so hard to describe sound and the difference between pickups but I think the difference between the Bellbird and the Tui sum up the difference between my vintage and hot Strat pickups. So I called them the Bellbird and the Tui.

Posted on March 17, 2021July 26, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Gold Foil Pickup re-wind

A Gold Foil Pickup is not for everyone or for every situation. They are low powered with no shortage of high end.

This Gold Foil Pickup came to me with the coil reading ‘open circuit’ on the meter so it was likely it would need re-winding. It’s a Tokai from the 1960’s

You never know what you’ll find inside these.

Under all that gold and chrome there is a very scruffy little coil wound directly around a ceramic magnet. There isn’t a bobbin which makes it rather tricky to work with.

I never just re-wind a pickup without testing all the connections first just in case it was just a dry joint. This time it paid off, one of the connections had failed. The repair turned out to be fairly simple.

Pickup Repairs

Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.

In the early days back in the 1990’s I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.

Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678).

https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on March 14, 2021July 26, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

MrGlyn’s Bellbird vintage Strat Pickup

Here is Andy Marra sounding fantastic with his MrGlyn’s ‘Bellbird’ vintage Strat Pickup set.

I’ve based my vintage Strat Pickup set on the best of the old pickups I’ve had the pleasure of playing through . So I use AWG42 heavy formvar insulated wire – there’s something about the thickness of that insulation that just works with an old Strat pickup.

Posted on March 11, 2021July 7, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep.8 ‘Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker’

In this episode of Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker I talk with Trevor Binford, he’s the real deal. As well as a top class guitar maker he runs a school of guitar making in Auckland NZ.

I wanted to find out how he got to where he is and where he learned his craft. Turns out we’re very lucky to have him here in New Zealand.

Hi all,

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them. Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help.

After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea. I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website.

Some of these makers you may not even have heard of.

It’s a very simple format, just recording a Skype conversation. There is some editing mainly cutting out my own waffle but I do try and keep edits to a minimum. I am not a professional presenter I’m just an ordinary bloke working with what I’ve got and this is way out of my comfort zone but I hope you’ll find the content interesting.

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

In episode 1 I’m talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first. If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded. Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help.

Thanks,

Glyn

https://mrglynspickups.com/

Mr Glyns Roboguy Logo

Posted on March 9, 2021June 22, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Andy Marra ‘Bellbird’ Strat Pickup Demo

Thanks to Andy Marra for this “Bellbird” Strat Pickup Demo

I’ve based my Vintage Strat set on the best of the old pickups I’ve had the pleasure of playing through . So I use AWG42 heavy formvar insulated wire – there’s something about the thickness of that insulation that just works with an old Strat pickup.

Thanks to Andy Marra for this “Bellbird” Strat Pickup Demo

Posted on March 8, 2021August 6, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

‘63 Jazzmaster pickup re-wind

'63 Jazzmaster Pickup - Mr Glyns Pickups

I recently had this ‘63 Jazzmaster pickup in for a re-wind and thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about what gives them such a unique sound.

What gives a Jazzmaster that smooth, full ring? The simple answer is ‘coil geometry’.

As you can see it’s a very thin pickup. That means that less of the winding is close to the magnet.

A Strat is a much taller pickup, the windings are closer to the magnets and so has a more immediate, snappy tone. You could say a Strat is more efficient.

The gauge of wire and number of turns is very similar to a Strat but this geometry makes all the difference. The further away from the magnet a winding gets the less treble and the less response.

And to accommodate enough wire in such a thin pickup it needs to be wide.

Pickup Repairs

Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.

In the early days back in the 1990’s I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.

Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678). www.mrglynspickups.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Jazzmaster pickup re-wind

Posted on March 2, 2021June 23, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Mr Glyn’s Merchandise now available!

Mr Glyn’s Merchandise is now available.

https://mrglynspickups.com/merchandise/

Time to upgrade your wardrobe as well as your pickups .

Mr Glyn's Merchandise now available! — MrGlyn’s Pickups

A huge range of cool stuff available through the website.

https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

About MrGlyn’s Pickups

MrGlyn’s Pickups is based near Auckland, New Zealand.

I love hearing my pickups played live or on recordings; it feels good to have played a very small part in that sound.

In 2012 I had the idea for my own range of pickups. In 2020 MrGlyn’s Pickups website went live.

I am really happy with the results, I hope you will be too.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xAemail: mrglynspickups@gmail.comphone: +6421912678

Mr Glyn’s Merchandise

Posted on February 28, 2021May 2, 2021 by mrglynspickups — 2 Comments

Fender ‘Wide Range’ humbucker

I had a 1975 Wide Range’ humbucker in for a rewind the other day and took the chance to take some pictures. I thought I’d explain why these are different from ‘normal’ humbuckers and show you what its innards look like.

The main difference is with the magnets. A tradition ‘Gibson ‘ style humbucker has a single bar magnet underneath the coils with the pole pieces ‘conducting’ this magnetic flux up through the coils towards the strings.

The Wide Range is much more similar to a Fender pickup (like a Strat) with the poles being individual magnets, 12 of them. This produces a more trebly, percussive, clearer tone than a traditional humbucker. To offset this high end Wide Ranges have overwound coils. The more wire you put on a coil the more bass you get so Wide Ranges are wound to around 10.6KOhms where as a traditional humbucker is closer to 8KOhms. This adds bass and balances out the tone from the magnets giving a balanced, full, clear tone. To give space for these extra windings the pickup was made physically bigger.

Interesting eh.

Oh, and the magnets have a different chemical composition, but that’s another story.

Pickup Repairs

Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.

In the early days back in the 1990’s I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.

Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678) https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on February 20, 2021April 24, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Integrity vintage humbucker humbucker Demo

A huge thanks to Nik Dobbin for his demo of MrGlyn’s Integrity vintage humbucker.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5kRjSuKq3Mw&fbclid=IwAR1TlbX7dz7W5I68zfX54TiCr6YSMQSpPqJg82OJSk6dItbrhkmjyWsYfqM

Every pickup manufacturer makes a “Vintage” humbucker based on the Gibson PAF, of course they do – old Gibsons sound so good.

I don’t want much do I.

My Integrity vintage humbucker has an Alnico II magnet and I’ve used plain enamel insulated magnet wire with asymmetric coils to open up the mids. The very first pickup I ever made back in 1995 was a PAF style and I’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since. Like all my pickups I’ve used a number of test pilot players in its development as well as gigging it myself. It wasn’t until around 2015 that I settled on this particular design. I did a gig with a set in a PRS SE series only last weekend – sounded great to me.

The full and honest sound of this pickup along with it’s timeless tone inspired the name “Integrity”.

Is pickup was originally called the “Blue Sky”.

Integrity vintage humbucker cover options

Posted on February 14, 2021May 4, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#7 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker

Just published Ep#7 of “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker” with Kiran from FirehorseFX in Hamilton. We talk about his range of pedals, how he develops them and what cool stuff is in the pipeline including a Mu-Tron Phaser that’s got my GAS going. I even have one of his pedals on my own board.

Hi all,

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”.

In episode #1 I’m talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first. If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded.

Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help.

Thanks,

Glyn

www.mrglynspickups.com

Posted on February 13, 2021May 6, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

7 String “Attitude” ready for shipping

This 7 String pickup is on its way to a customer in Sweden.

For a while I’ve been working on extending my range of humbucking pickups for rock players. The Cloud Nine will do just about anything but I wanted to offer a more specific pickup for modern rock/metal.

I decided to start with a 7 string which is a slightly unorthodox way of going about it but I was concerned with getting the bottom end right. If there was any sogginess in the bottom end a 7 string would show it up more than a 6 string.

7 string pickups are not like others. The low bass string reacts so differently, there’s a lot of string deflection and low harmonics. My mission was to tame this bass and keep it tight but not to sacrifice the sound quality of the treble strings. The treble still needed to be sweet and singing. The mids needed to be balanced and noticeable. I didn’t want this pickup scooped; the mids had to stand out from the mix when needed to.

So in October 2019 I got back in touch with my old mate Graham Young in Yorkshire. He’s an amazing player and really knows his gear.

Back in 1998 I wound a 6 string humbucker for Graham. In those days I had a guitar shop and repair business in Leeds in the North of England and he wanted a bridge pickup to suit his style for a parts caster.

Years passed and he became a 7 string player, so when I decided to develop a 7 string pickup Graham was the person I asked to be test pilot. We’d very loosely kept in touch over the years and it turned out he was still using the 6 string pickup I’d made for him back in the 90’s.

We had a chat via messenger and it turned out he’d tried a lot of pickups but none quite did it for him. So I listened to his thoughts, came up with a design and went away and made a prototype.

The first one wasn’t quite right, so he sent it back and I changed a few things and returned it. I don’t know how many adjustments I made but that pickup accumulated quite a few air miles between NZ and the UK over the next few months.

Every time we got closer, every adjustment less than the one before. When you get that close you know you’ve got a good pickup. I was at the point when I felt we really had something great but I just needed that confirmation.

Then Covid 19 happened, the mail got too unreliable to send stuff overseas with any confidence of it arriving and the process was put on hold.

At the end of June 2020 I got a call from Gabe Dovaston in Papamoa. He’d done some demos for me with some of my other pickups and was asking if I did a 7 string, just in case, for an Ibanez of his. Well, this seemed like a chance to test my new pickup on fresh ears. I made a copy of the last one I’d sent Graham, the one I was happy with, and got it off in the post. I sat back and waited. It only took a few days and I got a very happy call, he loved it and he’d already made a demo that he’d put on YouTube.

Great news, but what was I going to call it? The pickup was already on YouTube, it wasn’t on my website yet and it didn’t even have a name!

I got on Facebook and asked people to come up with a name; there were so many excellent suggestions but nothing quite did it. In the end this pickup that had taken so much work to develop, traveled so far and refused to go away I called the “Attitude”.

The Attitude is available in 6 and 7 string, for neck and bridge positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSRfmSbRacw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSRfmSbRacw

Posted on February 7, 2021May 7, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

‘68 Telecaster Bridge Pickup Repair

This old Telecaster Pickup Repair came to me for a re-wind but as you can just see from the picture the problem turned out to be outside the coil.
You can just see the broken wire on the left. That blob of solder is a clue too, this pickup has been messed with.
It’s very common for a pickup to come to me for a full re-wind but it turns out to have a smaller problem.

This one is a fiddly Telecaster Pickup Repair because the broken end is the inner winding but I managed to fix it.

Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.

In the early days back in the 1990’s I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.

Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on February 3, 2021April 29, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

“Ep#6 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”-Pepers Pedals

Hi all,
just published “Ep#6 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”with Tony Pepers from Pepers Pedals in Dunedin.

Please help promote NZ made guitar gear by sharing, subscribing and telling your mates.

Pepers Pedals is creating quite a name, not only in New Zealand but in the U.S. The “Dirty Tree Boost” is pushing the front end on amps all over the world while the “Russian Doom Machine” must be the ultimate in fuzz. In this episode I have a chat with Tony about his beginnings, the designs, how he builds his pedals. https://peperspedals.bigcartel.com/

https://mrglynspickups.com/

I hope you all enjoy it and subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Posted on January 28, 2021May 7, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#5 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker

Just posted Ep#5 of “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker” on Youtube. In this one I talk with Russ from Mattsen Guitars about his handmade Resonator guitars. If you have any interest in Resonators, Slide guitar or guitar construction this one is for you.

Please Subscribe and/or Share.

Hi all,

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them.

Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help. After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea. I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website.

Some of these makers you may not even have heard of.

I called the series MrGlyn Meets Your Maker.

If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded. Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help. Thanks, Glyn. https://mrglynspickups.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on January 27, 2021April 22, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Fender Strat ‘62 re-issue from 1982

I’ve been doing a fair few re-winds recently, saving old pickups. This nice old bridge pickup had stopped working. It’s a Fender Strat ‘62 re-issue from 1982. You can see the corrosion around the pole pieces. This corrosion had spread through the pole and caused a break in the windings. I see this all the time with Fender pickups so this is a routine job for me, I must have re-wound hundreds of old Fender pickups.

Once I’d stripped the wire off and cleaned the rust away I lacquered the inside of the pickup and then wrapped a very thin tape around the poles to protect the new windings.

It was just a case of winding it with AWG42 plain enamel wire to the original spec, wax potting and testing it.

The Strat ‘62 re-issue was a great vintage voiced pickup and the guitars were pretty good too.

I get to repair a lot of vintage pickups in the course of my work. If you’re interested in a new Mr Glyn’s Strat Pickup take a look at the Bellbird vintage voiced pickup for Strat. If you like a bit more power then maybe the Tui is for you. It’s an over wound Strat pickup with a steel baseplate to give you a touch more grit in your Strat tone. You can find a full description, demos and sound samples on my website.

“Bellbird”- vintage Strat set

You can contact me on mrglynspickups@gmail.com

You can just make out the year stamped on the back

https://mrglynspickups.com/mr-glyns-pickup-store/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Posted on January 14, 2021May 4, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

HSS demo “Integrity” and “Tui”

Just posted this HSS demo on YouTube, some fantastic playing by Warren Mendonsa from Blackstratblues https://music.blackstratblues.com/ . I urge you all to go and listen to his album “When It’s Time”.

The “Tui”

The “Tui”- hot Strat needed to be most definitely a Strat sound – I hear plenty of Strat replacement pickups that are fine but just not Strat-ish. Secondly I wanted a bit more power, just a bit, enough to make a good old valve amp clip a bit easier than a “vintage” pickup would. And there needed to be dynamics – tickle it and it’s clean, dig in and it grits up. As I was making the original version of this set for a player used to humbuckers I wanted to reduce the ”ping” of the attack. I’ve added steel base plated as standard to this set. This changes the shape of the magnetic field, broadening the harmonic window. They add a wee bit of power, a wee bit of bass and reduce that pesky ping.

Further experiments have shown they balance really well as part of a HSS set with either my Integrity or Cloud Nine humbuckers in the bridge position. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/tui-hot-strat-set/

“Integrity” Humbucker

Every pickup manufacturer makes a “Vintage” humbucker based on the Gibson PAF, of course they do – old Gibsons sound so good.

I don’t want much do I.

My “Vintage” Humbucker has an Alnico II magnet and I’ve used plain enamel insulated magnet wire with asymmetric coils to open up the mids. The very first pickup I ever made back in 1995 was a PAF style and I’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since. Like all my pickups I’ve used a number of test pilot players in its development as well as gigging it myself. It wasn’t until around 2015 that I settled on this particular design. I did a gig with a set in a PRS SE series only last weekend – sounded great to me.

The full and honest sound of this pickup along with it’s timeless tone inspired the name “Integrity”. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/blue-sky-vintage-humbucker/

Posted on January 12, 2021July 2, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#4 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker – Big Noise Amplification

Big Noise Amplification

Just posted Ep#4 of MrGlyn Meets Your Maker withBig Noise Amplification. It would be great if you could help support Kiwi made musical gear by subscribing or sharing.

Stephan Gilberg makes a huge range of guitar pedals from his workshop in Nelson NZ.

In this episode he talks about pedal design, the inspiration behind his creations and what drives him.

If you’re at all interested in unique guitar sounds, expanding on the traditional palette or just want something funky on the floor then this episode is for you. https://bignoiseamplification.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BigNoise-Amplification-310448832757786

Mr Glyn’s Pickups – NEW

Posted on January 2, 2021May 7, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Ep#3 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker – Benavides Guitars

In Episode #3 of ‘MrGlyn Meets Your Maker’ I talk to David Benavides of Benavides Guitars in Ahipara. I first played one of his handmade guitars about 5 years ago and immediately gave him a call I was so impressed. If you are an aspiring guitar maker, have an interest in guitar construction or are in the market for “the” acoustic guitar it’s well worth listening to what Dave has to say. Follow the link to find out more about Benavides Guitars.

http://www.benavidesguitars.com/

https://mrglynspickups.com/

Hi all,

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them.

Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help. After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea.

I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website. Some of these makers you may not even have heard of.

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”.

My aim is to promote my fellow makers of musical gear and have a rather nice time into the bargain.

I do hope you enjoy it, I’ve certainly had fun making them

Glyn

Posted on December 24, 2020 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Merry Christmas

Thanks to all our customers for your support this year.

Posted on December 22, 2020May 7, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

MrGlyn Meets Your Maker episode #2 – McPherson Stompboxes

In Eposode #2 of “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker” I talk to Waylon from McPherson Stompboxes in his workshop in Papamoa.

I wanted to know how he designs and builds his pedals, his philosophy and how he makes his World class Kiwi made gear.

These pedals are works of art both inside and out – seems a shame to step on them.

Follow the link to find out more about McPherson Stompboxes.

https://mcphersonmusic.site/

Hi all,

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them.

Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help. After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea.

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”.

My aim is to promote my fellow makers of musical gear and have a rather nice time into the bargain.

I do hope you enjoy it, I’ve certainly had fun making them

Glyn

Posted on December 17, 2020May 17, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker

Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker is a YouTube series where electric guitar pickup maker Glyn Evans talks to other makers of music gear in New Zealand.

The Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker series started on YouTube in December 2020 and is intended to promote the music industry in New Zealand. Here’s the motivation behind the series.

Hi all,

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them.

Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help.

After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea.

I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better.

I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website. Some of these makers you may not even have heard of.

It’s a very simple format, just recording a Skype conversation. There is some editing mainly cutting out my own waffle but I do try and keep edits to a minimum.

I am not a professional presenter I’m just an ordinary bloke working with what I’ve got and this is way out of my comfort zone but I hope you’ll find the content interesting.

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”.

In episode #1 I’m talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first.

If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded.

Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help.

Thanks,

Glyn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mIeamJ8eT0&t=14s

Thanks to everyone who have taken part.

Posted on December 3, 2020June 23, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Cruel Mistress Tele pickups demo

I’m delighted with this demo of my Cruel Mistress Tele pickups from Brett Kingman in Aussie.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcDggiRTQyFec5KAVHsC2xA

Cruel Mistress Tele pickups by Mr Glyn — Cruel Mistress Tele Pickups

The “Cruel Mistress” -hot Tele uses AlnicoV magnets to help with the attack and AWG43 wire to help with the snarl.

So if you need some grit and aggression from your Tele this is the set for you. https://mrglynspickups.com/https://mrglynspickups.com/

Posted on December 1, 2020June 23, 2021 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Bellbird Strat Pickups a funky demo

Thanks to Jason Herbert for this Strat Pickups funky demo of my Bellbird Pickups. He used all 5 positions in this 1 minute clip.

I’ve based my Vintage Strat set on the best of the old pickups I’ve had the pleasure of playing through . So I use AWG42 heavy formvar insulated wire – there’s s