FAQ

All my pickups are hand scatter-wound one at a time, using the highest quality parts sourced from around the world. All the components are thoroughly tested and picked for the best quality and tonal benefits, so it's common for a single pickup to use components from a number of different sources to make sure they are the best they can possibly be. If a part is not good enough for me to use in my own personal pickups it won't get used for yours.

Like all good pickups they respond well to picking dynamics and the use of the volume and tone controls, cleaning up beautifully when the volume is rolled off.

All DCR values are taken as an average over a number of pickups, and there may well be small variances in any pickup you order due to the following:

  - The reading is affected by temperature of the pickup at the time the reading is taken.
  - As each pickup is individually hand-wound, there will always be small variations in tension across the wind which will have a minor impact on the DCR reading.

Vintage Style Cloth Push-Back: Normally found on Fender style single-coils like Telecaster, Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jaguar. Most often found in a two-wire configuration (black for ground, white for hot), a third yellow wire can also be found on some pickups that have a metal cover or baseplate (for example Telecaster or Jaguar pickups). The third wire is useful to have when purchasing a single pickup, as it allows you to easily flip the phase of the pickup if your installing it with another manufacturer's pickup that has a non-traditional phase, while keeping the cover or baseplate grounded.

Braided 2 Conductor: Traditionally found on vintage Gibson style pickups like Humbuckers, P90s, Mini-Humbuckers and Firebirds, and original 70s Wide Range Humbuckers. The outer braided shield is the ground and the inner cloth coated wire is the hot.

Insulated 2 Conductor: Often used for modern Gibson style pickups, particularly where the hook-up wires have to pass close by the pickup selector switch (for example with Teles, Strats and some PRS models) and braided 2 conductor wire would run the risk of shorting out against one of the selector poles. Also allows for easier phase-flipping as it has a seperate cover/baseplate ground wire.

Insulated 4 Conductor: Used with dual coil Humbucker style pickups to allow splitting the output of each coil or switching between running the coils in series or parallel. I generally advise against using this for Wide Range Humbuckers for coil splitting, due to the stagger that is on the fixed pole pieces - If you only have one coil engaged, then there'll be an imbalance in the sound where the three visible pole pieces are set higher than the three hidden under the cover.

For two conductor single-coil cloth-covered wiring, the white wire is the hot, the black wire is the ground. When there is a third yellow wire, as on my Telecaster pickups, this wire is the cover/baseplate ground.

For braided two conductor wiring, the inner, cloth-covered wire is the hot, the outer metal braiding is the ground.

For insulated two conductor wiring, the white wire is the hot, the black is the ground and the uncovered wire is the the cover/baseplate ground where applicable.

For four conductor wiring on humbuckers, I use the same wiring scheme as you would find on Seymour Duncan pickups:

    Black: North/slug coil start (Hot)

    White: North/slug coil finish (Series link)

    Red: South/screw coil finish (Series link)

    Green: South/screw coil start (Ground)

I generally prefer to not wax pot my pickups to achieve a more open and detailed sound, and also allow a touch of the acoustic sound of your guitar to "season" your tone.

While I construct my pickups to reduce the chance of unwanted microphonics, I understand that in high volume/high gain situations wax potting can be desirable, so I can pot them at the time of purchase if requested, or will happily pot them for you for free within 30 days of purchase if you decide you'd prefer them to be potted after trying them out (AU$25 per pickup after the 30 days has expired).

I use a paraffin/beeswax mix to pot my pickups and offer two options for potting them:

Light Wax Potting: This is just a quick dip to allow the wax to get in between the main components, for example between the bobbins and the baseplate or cover (where most microphonic squealing occurs), but not into the coil windings. This reduces the chances of microphonic squealing at higher volumes, but still retains some of the good microphonics that give you a more open and responsive sound.

Full Wax Potting: This is a good long soak to allow the wax to penetrate further into the coil itself. It will futher reduce the chances of microphonic squealing at very high volumes, but will "deaden" the sound a small amount and reduce some of the harmonic content of the pickup tone.

I wind my pickups to match the phase of the most common pickups - Gibson, Fender, SD, etc. So, if you are purchasing a single pickup it should work fine with most other makes of pickup. However, there are always exceptions to the rule and it's generally a good idea to pick a hook-up wiring option that will allow to you easily flip the phase if you are ordering a single pickup, just in case the other pickup has the opposite phase.

More information on phase >

While I do sometimes keep a small number of pickups on hand, I generally hand-wind each pickup one at a time to order. This does mean the lead time for orders is usually 2-4 weeks, depending on current workload and component stocks. Please get in touch for an accurate estimate.

All pickups are covered by a two year warranty against component and manufacturing defects. Accidental or deliberate damage, normal wear and tear, modification or repairs not carried out by myself will all incur a repair charge. Postage costs for the return of any pickup for repair must be covered by the customer.

All prices on the website are listed without shipping costs, and I use Australia Post to ship all my pickups.

Shpping costs are calculated at checkout.