In the last week I have received 2 emails with customer feedback with YouTube demos attached showing how Mr Glyn’s Pickups are working for them. Customer Feedback is always gratefully received.
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If you like their YouTube channels don’t forget to Subscribe.
Reg in Christchurch NZ
Firstly, Reg in Christchurch NZ with a set of Cruel Mistress Telecaster pickups:
Customer Feedback from Tasmania
Then Antonio from Tasmania who has a Cloud Nine bridge pickup.
Here is the email he sent me along with the links to his YouTube:
Hi mate.
Just wanted to give you some feedback on the cloud nine i recently installed.
Firstly, thanks for the amazingly fast service.
Secondly the pickup sounds fantastic, especially alongside the dimarzio hs4s that were already installed on the guitar. I got the cloud nine to replace the paf pro which was only standard spacing but needed to be f spaced. I absolutely love the paf pro, but im so glad i went with the cloud nine.
Even in coil cut mode it sounds fantastic.
Anyways i wanted to send you a couple of links to videos i made with the finished guitar.
The cold chisel one i used the humbucker in full mode on the second solo.
As for the Europe cover, all the rhythm guitars were recorded in coil cut mode including the parts of the solo when i switch to the bridge. Because the hs pickups are such low output pups, the cloud nine in coil cut mode is a perfect output match.
Im definitely going to give more of your pickups a go.
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.
The full and honest sound of the Integrity-vintage humbucker along with it’s timeless tone inspired the name “Integrity”. https://mrglynspickups.com/
The Attitude 7 string humbucker is designed for the modern metal/fusion player. A 7 string humbucker set with clarity, articulation, dynamics with just the right compression. The low B has plenty of punch with none of the flub associated with 7 strings.
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The Attitude 7 string humbucker story
In 2020 I was 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, a 7 string humbucker.
I wanted a tight bottom end, singing highs and a balanced midrange with that slight compression to smooth the dynamics.
I decided to start with a 7 string humbucker 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 humbucker 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.
Graham Young
Graham Young
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”. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/07/29/attitude-humbucker/
The Attitude is available as a 6 or 7 string humbucker, for neck and bridge positions.
The Cloud Nine-hot humbucker is a versatile ROCK pickup with plenty of mids, no shortage of power and with enough clarity to help you stand out in the mix. A great pickup set for the Blues/Rock player but also well suited to heavier sounds , think Randy Rhodes or EVH. It with push the front end of an amp but will also clean up especially with a treble bleed.
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Cloud Nine in a Super Strat
Design
There are many factors determining the performance of a pickup. The Cloud Nine bridge pickup has asymmetrically wound coils. It not only has a different number of winds on each coil but they’re wound with a different number of turns per layer. Each of the two coils has a slightly different mid range response, This gives not only plenty of mids but a real mid range clarity. It means the pickup sits well in a mix.
The alnico 5 magnet that powers both neck and bridge are specially made for me to my spec.
The neck pickup is also asymmetrically wound for the same reasons. It’s wound to be fairly hot for neck pickup standards but with the alnico 5 magnet there is still high end clarity. It’s a big fat but clear neck pickup sound. This is a great fat lead tone rather than a funky rhythm pickup.
Cloud Nine bridge , Black Sand neck
Leon Todd visited the workshop in Feb 2024, I subsequently sent him a pickup set I thought might suit him.
Here is the result:
In a PRS SE
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Out of the blue I received an email from a customer in Tasmania who had recently bought a Cloud Nine-hot humbucker bridge pickup. He sent me a link to these clips. In The Final Countdown the rhythm guitars are the Cloud Nine coil tapped.
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In a Les Paul
It’s worth mentioning how many Les Paul players use the Cloud Nine. It may be the scale length or particular dynamics of a Les Paul but these pickups just sing in a LP.
In a mix
Check out Wellington band Curlys Jewels using Cloud Nine’s in a Les Paul.
Description
Here are descriptions of both bridge and neck pickups and my thinking behind the designs.
Cloud Nine-hot humbucker Story
I am at heart a man of ROCK.
Since the advent of the DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup players have been able to get some power out of their pickups, enough to really push an amp.
The neck pickup needed to be clear and present but with enough power for some of those sweet lead lines.
I wanted the bridge pickup to have power to scream with the best of them while retaining enough clarity to have definition. When I play a 7th chord I want to hear it as a 7th and not sound mushy like a John Deere tractor at full throttle.
It’s a real danger with hot pickups that they lose character and tone. I needed a crunchy rhythm with strong mids and an over the top lead sound. I want to get squawking pinched harmonics whenever I please. Not only that but I need it it to clean up nicely and react well to a treble bleed circuit. A humbucker for every situation, for players not afraid of a bit of gain.
Not much to ask, eh!
I got through a lot of wire and magnets experimenting over the years to get this set right. I suppose I worked on it for about 5 years, different magnets, winds, wire thickness, insulation, winds per layer – there are a lot of factors. Whenever I felt I was close I used them at a gig to hear how they sat in the band. Pickups can sound quite different next to a drummer or in a mix. I tweaked and adjusted…
Eventually I was happy with the design and I was lucky enough to have legendary Kiwi band ‘Head Like A Hole’ help out with road testing. I knew if they came back from tour happy then I was on to a winner. They did.
It was a long process getting this pickup design just right but its a process I only have to go through once. When the design is finalized that’s it. Part of my desire to get it perfect is the knowledge that I’ll be using this design for the rest of my life.
When you get it right it feels so good, a sensitive pickup rich in harmonics is so much fun so I called it the “Cloud Nine” which how I felt at the end of it all.
This is the pickup set I gig with myself in my covers band now. I have them in both an Epiphone Sheraton and also in my Flying V. With this set up it works for everything from The Smiths to Metallica and all points in between. I don’t feel the need to swap guitar – these pickups work for everything. I have done literally hundreds of gigs with the Cloud Nine in countless venues, it always performs.
Matt Carson on stage with zebra Cloud Nine’s
The Cloud Nine set comes with 4 conductor wire as standard to give you all the switching options you could ever need. I recommend series/parallel switching with this set. The bridge pickup is available in both 52mm and 49.2 mm spacing. If you need any help deciding which spacing is right for your guitar please get in touch via email, I’m always happy to help.
Here are some of the cover options available for the Cloud Nine humbucker set; I’m happy to age the covers; please just add a comment at the time of your order.
