electric guitar pickups Archives

Posted on April 19, 2023December 22, 2023 by mrglynspickups — 1 Comment

The Duchess Tele set

Single The Duchess Tele – NZ$129 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas it’s GST free; $NZ112.17

Pair The Duchess Tele – NZ$249 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas they’re GST free; $NZ216.52

Alnico 5; Bridge 7.28KOhms, Neck 7.1KOhms

The Duchess Tele set is for the Telecaster player in need of that distinctive smooth Tele twang but with none of the ice pick cut. The neck pickup is warm and balanced with a full clarity and string separation. This a medium powered set that sits nicely in my range between the Silver Lady and Cruel Mistress.

The Duchess Tele set will do just about everything from ‘vintage’ Tele twang to a platform for pedals.

The Duchess’ beginnings

The idea for this pickup started in 2021. I had some work at Roundhead recording studios in Auckland looking after the guitars of an American recording artist. During the process, the producer and engineer (working from the US) decided to send over their favorite ‘magic’ telecaster because they wanted that sound on the record.

The guitar arrived and it was an original ’61 Fender Esquire Custom, sunburst, double bound and just beautiful.

Although it was an Esquire it had a neck pickup that they told me had been added later. After taking the pick guard off it looked more like the neck pickup had been fitted in the factory so maybe it was a custom order.

My job was to check over this guitar and set it up for the recording.

Fender Esquire '61. Mr Glyn's Duchess pickup set

I plugged it in and loved the sound immediately, now I understood why they’d shipped it over from the US for this session. So, I got my test meters out to analyze every aspect of the pickup. It was rather unusual for a Fender pickup of that time so maybe it had been re-wound at some stage. That didn’t matter, it sounded great, so I set out to make a Telecaster set in that style but with my own spin.

I made quite a few prototypes and did all the usual testing but didn’t quite get around to releasing the pickup.

The Duchess Tele is finally born

Then in 2022 I had the idea for my Pandora 3-way pickup. I used the design for The Duchess bridge pickup as the middle position for the Pandora. I knew all along the Pandora was never going to be for everyone but was pleasantly surprised when the idea caught on.

An order for a Pandora came in from an old friend of mine in the UK. He’s called Darren Driver and he’s in a well-established Springsteen tribute band – The Boss and the Beeston Street Band

Darren had been a customer of mine when I had a guitar shop in Leeds in the late 90’s. He was a Telecaster player back then. It’s always good to re-connect with people.

A couple of months later Darren got in touch saying how the mid position of the Pandora was his ideal Telecaster sound. Well, that was all it took. I got into the workshop and made a matching neck pickup for the Duchess. That week’s band practice I tested the set next to the drummer and was still really happy with it. So, I sent a set off to Yorkshire.

Darren said he was happy to make a demo of the pickups once he had got them into him number one Telecaster. That’s him in the video above.

And so The Duchess Tele set was born.

The Duchess – Tele set is great with either 250KOhm or 500KOhm volume pots. It’s really up to you – 500K will give more high-end Tele twang while the 250K will sound warmer. It really is a great pickup set either way.

I have made a couple of short videos to explain my thinking behind these two pickups:

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Silver Lady tele set Mr Glyns Pickups — Integrity -vintage humbucker

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updated 17 May 2023

The Duchess – Tele set

Posted on April 11, 2023November 21, 2023 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Hofner Pickup – an interesting repair

I came across a blog I wrote in 2010 about a repair on an old Hofner pickup, thought you might be interested:

I had a visit from Paul Crowther the other day (always a pleasure to see him). He’s rather a legend for amongst other things his ‘Hotcake’ overdrive pedals and the ‘Prunes and Custard’ (my favorite for theremin).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emlyn_Crowther

He wanted to know if my coil winding machine was up and running – he had an interesting pickup for me to wind.

Its an old Hofner pickup which I guess is from the 50’s. The guitar has 3 of them and this one has a break in the windings so needs to be re-wound.
This would normally be a straight forward job except for the design of this pickup.

This is the inside of it. The windings (around the outside) are not wrapped around a bobbin. They are just sitting in the pickup and have been wrapped in tape to protect them. In the middle you can see the magnets sitting in a hard putty. There are incidentally only 5 magnets.
So the problem Paul left me with was how to wrap about 5000 turns of extremely thin wire into a coil and therefore make a pickup.
After a long brainstorming session with Sheena we came up with a plan.

Very tricky re-wind, Hofner pickup

We figured that the wire had to be wound around a bobbin and then somehow the bobbin removed.

So I made this bobbin. The sides are plastic from a Strat pickguard (white) and the centre has been carved from candle wax.

The bobbin bolts together and is attached to another plastic plate which in turn fits to the winding machine.
The idea is to wind the pickup on this and then warm the completed coil up and melt the wax. The wax should seep into the coil thus potting it as well. Then the sides can be unbolted and voila a copy of the original coil.

Winding the coil wasn’t any different from any other pickup – so now for the tricky bit.

I warm the coil ever so gently with a heat gun. I put my free hand next to the work to judge the temperature – if it gets too hot the plastic will melt and I’ll be starting again.

When I see some wax oozing out I ever so gently remove the top plate.

With the wax exposed I can apply more heat and watch it flow into the coil and as it cools becomes solid.

Then I wrap tape around it to hold everything in place. I cannot emphasize enough how fiddly this is. There are a few stray wires and if any of them break I’m starting again.

It may not be much to look at but its taken hours of quiet patience. The slight curve is to match the shape of the pickup casing. I’ve tested it and I’m pleased with it at 5.5Kohms.
In the background you can see the magnetic lugs – I had to dig them out of the putty.

I put the whole thing back together using ‘friendly plastic’ instead of putty then fill the casing with wax, solder the back on and its finished.

Its been quite a task fixing this old Hofner pickup but I’m happy with the result.

It was so satisfying breathing new life into this old Hofner pickup, it should be good for another 50 years.

Glyn

Hofner Pickup – an interesting repair

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Integrity alnico 2 vintage voiced humbucker — Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955

updated July 2023

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Posted on October 21, 2022April 1, 2024 by mrglynspickups — 1 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.

Demo

Here’s a demo of the Cool 90 sent to me by one of my customers. Go check out his band – The Bull Kelp Surfers

The Cool 90 Story

Like many of my pickups the this one 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 was to make a lower powered version for the cleaner player. Still keeping the classic P90 character but with less grunt.

I experimented and tested and eventually came up with this design.

Cool 90 P90 dogear Alnico 2 by MrGlyns Pickups

Cool 90 soapbar P90 set with alnico 2 magnets

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P90 by Mr Glyns Pickups — Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955

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 August 23, 2022December 22, 2023 by mrglynspickups — Leave a comment

Larry and the Trons

Larry and the Trons is a short video by Brett Kingman to demonstrate Mr Glyn’s Pickups TheTron pickup set in a Telecaster Cabronita.

I sent him a set of TheTron pickups to make a demo and this is the 4th video he’s made – he must like them.

I designed TheTron pickup set with Gretsch guitars in mind and in particular the lightly overdriven sound of early Malcolm Young. It’s great when a player takes your design and makes you re-think it.

Since Brett fitted his set into a Telecaster Cabronita I’ve changed the spec of these pickups and now offer them in 52mm and 49.2mm spacing to match Fender style bridges. I do try and listen to players whenever I can.

Larry and the Trons

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.

Here’s TheTron’s home page for more info and demos https://mrglynspickups.com/2021/09/22/thetron/

Mr Glyns TheTron pickup set. Larry and the Trons

Larry and the Trons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga0qYdh565s

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TheTron filtertron Mr Glyns pickups — TheTron – filtertron style

Gretsch Filtertron repair - Mr Glyns Pickups — TheTron – filtertron style

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Posted on March 29, 2020December 14, 2023 by mrglynspickups — 1 Comment

Integrity-vintage humbucker

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

Integrity-vintage humbucker 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 II – Bridge 8.02 KOhms, 6.43H. Neck 7.41 KOhms, 5.57H

Buy Integrity set

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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 rough cast 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.

Here is Nik Dobbin show off an Integrity set in an all mahogany PRS Santana SE II from the early 2000’s.

Integrity-vintage humbucker requirements

I have designed 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 a rough cast Alnico II magnet and I’ve used plain enamel insulated magnet wire with asymmetric coils to open up the mids, jusy like the originals.

The very first pickup I ever made back in 1995 was a PAF style and I’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since.

Studying the intricacies of this pickup design have given me a huge respect for Seth Lover the designer of the original Gibson PAF. Its hard to imagine the guitar world without it. Would Gibson be such a popular band without his contribution? Its hard to say.

Like all my pickups I’ve used a number of test pilot players in its development as well as gigging it myself. A huge thanks to all the players and engineers involved in the development.

These pickups were played in studios and on stages in the hands of numerous players long before I gave them a name or built this website.

I t wasn’t until around 2015 that I finally settled on this particular design. It had been a very long road for the Integrity humbucker set and I’m delighted to be offering them to you.

A Pickup in 4 Flavours

This pickup is available in 4 flavours to cover the various applications of this versatile pickup. You can select your option at the checkout.

The idea behind the 4 flavours is to simplify things for you. Rather than have 4 separate pickups with a similar vibe I’ve put them all under the umbrella of ‘Integrity’.

The Standard wind –

This is the one I feel is the best balance between output and tone. All the demos are of this version. After my years of experimenting this is the version I like the best and use myself.

5% Underwound –

This has 5% less windings than the standard pickup. Less wire means less power but it also reduces the bass and gives a little more high end sparkle. If you want a low powered very clean humbucker this is for you. This one is all about clarity. Especially suited to archtop guitars.

5% Overwound –

More windings mean a little more power but more significantly an increase in bass. Ideal for players wanting a classic rock tone or in HSS Strats.

10% Overwound –

An increase in power and bass from the standard pickup. Still very much the PAF vibe but with a bit more. This is a great rock pickup with the dynamic range to clean up nicely but with the power to push you amp. Suited to players using dirtier sounds from classic rock to Slash to early Van Halen.

The Integrity comes with 4 conductor wire to give you all the switching options. I very lightly wax pot the Integrity to reduce microphonic feedback but to retain some of the microphonic character of the originals.

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

Integrity-vintage humbucker by Mr Glyns Pickups

Buy Integrity set

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Integrity-vintage humbucker

Testimonials

I put the integrity pick ups into my Jim Root Jazzmaster last week.
I gigged with the guitar on Sat night and am so happy.
They have the versatility that I’m looking for.
Thanks

Bought a set of Mr Glyn’s Integrity humbuckers and they are awesome! These pickups do everything from clean to blues rock to screaming distorted rock tones. So great to just roll off the volume, have it clean up but still stay loud and defined. My guitar is now super versatile and sounds great! Thanks

https://keningtonmusic.com/

Integrity-vintage humbucker

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