Top Finds of 2009 / Heaven 57 Pickups

What better way to bring some character into a guitar than to wire it up with a new set of pickups? A new set of pups is not only capable of delivering great tone, but can also shape your guitar into the tone monster you've always wanted it to be. Coming at us from our Nordic friends across the sea is Lundgren Guitar Pickups, a Swedish based pickup company with a talented ear for great tone. Of all the fantastic pickup builders I came across last year Lundgren was by far one of my personal favorites. The mastermind behind Lundgren Guitar Pickups is non other than Johan Lundgren, a man on a mission to hand the world as many great tone tools as possible. After many years of playing the guitar, playing in bands, and studying guitar pickups, Johan decided to dive into the art of rewinding pickups. Then after years of trial and error, dissecting old pickups, and paying close attention to what makes a great pickup sound great, Johan finally mastered the rewind process. The next logical step was for Johan to build his own pickups, and so was born Lundgren Guitar Pickups. Today Johan and his company are responsible for some of the world's greatest sounding, greatest performing pickups. We had a chance to put a set of Lundgren Heaven 57 humbuckers into action. The outcome?... Well, it was absolute tone heaven.

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Lundgren Guitar Pickups

Jönköping, Sweden

Builder: Johan Lundgren

Years in the Game: 20

Heaven 57®

Humbucker

* Designed to 50's Specs

* Modeled after late 50's P.A.F.'s

* Wound with Plain Enamel Wire

* 5-40 Polescrew

* Wooden Spacer beneath the Bobbin

* Nickel/Silver Baseplate

* Alnico Magnet

* Heaven 57 also available in Aged Cover

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In only took about five minutes to decide Lundgren was one of my new favorite pickup companies. We took the set of Heaven 57's and swapped them into an Epiphone Dot we had laying around the studio. I also switched the stock ceramic capacitor for a .1uf polystyrene orange drop capacitor. Instantly the guitar was thrown back into the studio's rotation and sounding fantastic. The sound of the Heaven 57's vs the stock pickups was like a breath of fresh air, like playing a proper vintage Epiphone. The Lundgren pickups are that good, literally. The mission Johan had to dial these pickups into a late 50's P.A.F. sound is spot on the mark and without error. We had a chance to compare the pickups with a proper late 50's Les Paul Standard that was loaned to us and the similarities were uncanny. All of the woody, earthy, and chunky tone you would expect from a great set of vintage humbuckers can be found in the Heaven 57's. They added a classic vibe to the guitar that made it seem as if we were thrown back in time. The construction of the pickups is also very impressive, you will see just from holding them in your hands that they are built extremely well and will last you a life time. When hunting for pickups, at least for me this is true, I want to make sure it will be the one and only time I will be installing pickups into whichever guitar they are going into. Honestly it would be nice if all of us could afford to purchase our dream guitars, guitars with rockin' pickups and awesome specs. With the way things are going these days it just seems more logical to get a mid-priced decent guitar, then hunt down a great set of pickups to bring it up to par. I'll tell you this much, the set of Lundgren Heaven 57's definitely added a much needed boost of life into our Epiphone Dot.

There weren't many amps we paired these pickups up with that didn't produce an amazing sound. Everything from low-watt to high-watt amplifiers, and low to high volumes worked great with the Heaven 57's. Their classic Gibson P.A.F. tone gave them a natural aggression that drove clean tones into some of the most grit tearing rock tones I'd ever heard. Even better was driving an amp on the verge of overdrive and letting the pickups take care of the rest, this is where the pickups truly shined. Then matching them up with some of my favorite fuzz boxes? Oh yeah, absolute psychedelic/garage rock heaven. The first setup for us was a 100 watt Super Lead, and a TS808 for extra boost. We set the amp up straight up the middle and plugged into it's High Treble channel. I played through the neck pickup first without the TS808 engaged. The amp and pickups produced a sweet, warm, and rich sound that improved the guitar's dynamic range and enhanced the overall tone. To get a little grit out of the sound all I had to do was strengthen my pick attack. To get a completely sparkling clean tone from the neck pickup all I did was roll the guitar's volume back a tiny bit. Next I flipped into the Heaven 57 bridge pickup. Here I was able to get some stunning lead tones and growling rhythm sounds. The dynamic qualities that are in the neck pickup also translated to the bridge pickup. In the middle pickup position I got a perfect balance of punch and warmth. Taking the guitar's tone knob back about half way and kicking in the Tubescreamer created the most insane sounding overdrive sound. Think of Neil Young's tone blended with a bit of Stevie Ray's and that's what I got. Not too aggressive and just dirty enough to do some damage. In fact, this became my favorite Heaven 57 sound. Before switching amps we took the Super Lead and pumped it straight into a natural low overdrive. Like I mentioned earlier this is where the pickups really did their best work. I was stunned at how great our guitar was sounding. After flipping back and fourth from pickup to pickup I stepped on the TS808 and let everything fly. The distortion was open and whole, clear and not muddy, and in perfect harmony with the Dot's semi-hollow body design. With both amp and pedal cranked to their fullest we even got some edgy modern distortion tones that worked great for knocking out huge sounding power chords. One of the other amps we plugged into that really stood out to me was my modified 4x10 Deville. My Deville is the kind of amp that leaves no room for hiding, either something sounds good through it or it doesn't. Without any pedals, a tad bit reverb, and a evenly set tone stack, the pickups came off just lovely. The neck pickup was round and full, and bridge pickup crisp and clear. Playing both simple and complex chords sounded amazing. This is where you can tell a good pickup from a not so good one. A nice pickup will project every string evenly and clearly. A cheap pickup projects everything muddy and congested. Next the fuzz pedals came rushing in, both classics and newer stompboxes. All of them worked nicely with the pickups and never got out of control. When playing fuzz pedals you always want to make sure you have a pickup that can handle the job. We had no problem getting all the tones we wanted from the pedals. Even when we set really extreme fuzz setting the Heaven 57's were able to bring it back a notch by rolling back the guitar's volume. Just like you would expect from a vintage Les Paul or 335. In the end the Heaven 57's were able to cover many many different rock genres. Classic rock, blues, punk rock, alternative rock, country, hard rock, and even some jazz was possible with these bad boys. Now we have another guitar we can use in our recording sessions, gigs, and practices. I would highly recommend anyone looking for a authentic P.A.F. tone to seek out these pickups. Or if there's some other flavor you thirst for Lundgren I'm sure is capable of quenching it. There are a handful more different humbucker models, Strat, Tele, P90's, and even bass pickups. If you have a set you need rewound Lundgren can also take care of that for you. What does that say to you? I know what that tells me.... that these guys are on top of their game and very experienced in the pickup building process. We will try and report back on more from this awesome company and hopefully have some different models to introduce you to. For now if the 50's rock thing is what you crave, start here. You won't ever look back.

Aged Covers

also available for

Heaven 57 neck and bridge pickups

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For more info on Lundgren Guitar Pickups go to www.lundgren.se Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for more from this awesome pickup company. Lundgren also offers a wide variety of other pickup models and also does spectacular rewinds. Keep on rockin' and bringin' the noise!

J.S. Moore Pickups / The Road to Great Tone

J.S. Moore Pickups, the answer for anyone looking for a set of killer custom handwound guitar pickups. Need buckers? No problem. A set of Tele or Strat pups? You got it. How about some P90's? Coming right up. What about mini-buckers?.... you get the picture. Jon Moore the mastermind and man in charge at J.S. Moore Pickups has one thing on mind, to build you the best possible set of pickups man can offer. I had a chance to not one, but three different sets of Jon's pickups, and I have to tell you each model blew my mind! The keen ear for good tone Jon has is something that comes across clearly through each of his pickups. I wanted you guys to some really cool gear to check out this month so that going into the new year you would be armed and ready for the masses. J.S. Moore Pickups are a great place to start and a great way to have your axe sounding it's best. The quality, look, build, and sound of these pickups all lead up to one place... the road to great sounding music.

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Monterey

Strat® Single Coil Pickups

*Wound to mid 1960's specs

*Approx. 5.8k w/plain enamel wire

*60's Stagger Alnico 5 rod magnets

*Also available-

in a Duece set

w/Alnico 2 magnets

and w/RWRP middle pickup

In the last couple years since I've taken up the job to do my own guitar mods the one area I can never get bored of experimenting with is pickup swapping. The reason for this new found love is pickup builders like Jonathan Moore. The passion and hard work that goes into building a pickup like this can really be heard instantly, and will do for your overall tone what you wouldn't imagine. I put the set of Monterey pickup into my guitar players Strat without telling him and it didn't take 2 minutes for him to figure out that I had done something to his guitar, he was absolutely stoked. In fact now that I think about it those pickups are still in his guitar! We did some serious demoing of these pickups and put them through just about every amp, pedal, and setting we could manage. I wanted to go for a straight-up dirty blues tone first so I setup a Tubescreamer through a Blackface (Twin Rev) and got to stepping. I plugged into the Twin's Normal channel, set it Bright, and rolled every knob to 7. The amp was pretty loud, at the point just where the speakers start to hand you grit'n'rumble. The first thing that stood out to me about these pickups was how accurate the picking response was, every chuck, strum, dig, and brush of my guitar pick came through evenly and balanced. All of the natural woody tone from the guitar came through much clearer and stronger. There's nothing more I love than a set of pickups that can bring out your guitar's acoustical sound. The overdrive I was getting from just the amp and Monterey's was smokin! To clean up the tone 100% all I had to do was roll the guitar's volume knob back about 3-4 clicks, I did this and didn't loose any of the Monterey's character nor did any of the amp's size change. Next I threw in the TS-808 set straight up the middle, and next thing you know a mountain of rich'n'thick grit came screaming out from my amp, a sound Stevie Ray would've been proud to rock out to. Each string growled evenly and beautifully, the low strings delivered a world of tight lows and mid-range honk, and the high strings sounded off glassy and piano-like. I stacked the TS-808 with a distortion pedal to see how well the pickups would handle higher distortion levels, and just like I imagined they would they came through like champs. My lead runs were smooth yet aggressive, picking was bright'n'balanced, and both simple and complex chords came through strong'n'clear. With the Monterey's you get all of the punch, bounce, and pop you would expect from a great set of Strat pickups. Before swapping in the J.S. Moore's the guitar's tone was much darker and a bit dull to be quite honest, definitely no match for these pro quality, custom wound monsters. We figured Jon named these pickups Monterey's for a good reason, so we busted out the Super Lead, my wah, and one of my favorite fuzz boxes. I set the Marshall's tone pretty strong, having it deliver a tight, warm tube overdrive, and used the fuzz box to drive it into madness. Without the fuzz the pickups latched on the amp's tone perfectly, giving me a pure 100% authentic classic rock tone. I could hear the likes of Zeppelin, Sabbath, The Who, Deep Purple, Santana, and the man himself Jimi coming through clearly from my amp. I was able to get and control all the sustain I wanted, and create a mountain of feedback so evil it was scary! I didn't think the sound would get any better and then I added in the wah and fuzz pedal. The pickups howled, wailed, and soared the air like a wicked ball of energy and vibration. Every push of the tremolo bar was razor sharp, and each dive bomb felt like it gulped the air around down with it. We got so excited while demoing these pickups that it ended up turning into a jam session. I jumped on the drums, yes I play the drums too, and my buddy turned up the guitar. We got lost in a psychedelic trip of wild noise and splendid melodies. What else can I say about these bad boys? The Monterey's combined with the new pots and rewire job I did on my buddy's guitar was like plugging into a new guitar, a new guitar with the voice of a vintage favorite. Now to try and get those pickups back from my buddy!

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V-59

Humbuckers

*Wound from 59' Double White PAF Specs

*Neck/8.3k - Bridge/7.8k or 7.6k

*Unpotted for more air and dymanics

*Also available in

Double White

Double Black

Cream

What the PAF pickup has done and continues to do for our music is absolutely stunning! This is the pickups I think of when someone says Rock and Roll. It is the life blood of many of the most famous guitar licks, and a tool used by just about every rock icon out there. If you've ever had a chance to rock out to a vintage, authentic, proper set of PAF's you know there's nothing like it. The sound they produce has an earthy tone that only they can produce. They can make any level of player sound like a Rock God, and have you dreaming of the rock and roll lifestyle. In the last few years there have been more and more pickup builders taking their shot at this classic rock tool. There are a few cats out there that have been able to get pretty damn close to the original PAF sound, and then there's those few that take it there and beyond. With the V-59's you don't get pretty close, you get spot-on. J.S. Moore has his hand in the future of rock and roll with these awesome pickups. From the moment you plug them in you feel what tone is really about. When I was a kid I was lucky and blessed to have Jackson Browne as my mentor and good friend, oh the gear I got to see and play. Many times he'd lend me guitars, amps, or set me up with recording time in his amazing studio. On many occasions Jackson would invite me to his studio to get some lessons on how music was formed, this isn't what he said he was having me over for but looking back it's all so clear. It was back then and in those sessions that I got to hear the first classic Les Paul's, along with an arsenal of other killer gear of course. I will never forget what that old school PAF sound would do for a session, it was remarkable. The V-59's were able to take me back to those awesome memories and bring back a taste of yesterday's good ol' rock and roll. The first thing I thought of when I swapped the V-59's into my guitar was "Wow! I've got to lay down some tracks." When doing a rhythm track there is no better pickup for the job, and these pickups proved that to a T. With humbuckers there is no room for mistakes, they are the one pickup that lets it all hang out whether playing soft or hard, clean or through distortion. The voice of the PAF is one of the if not the strongest of all the pickups, I've played buckers so powerful before they've been able to drive fuzz out of an amp on their own. It's obvious these J.S. Moore pickups come from one place and one place only... the love of tone. You don't create a pair of pickups this killer sounding unless you got the passion and the drive to do so. Like I said earlier, every set/model of Jon's pickups that I tried sounded stunning. The first test drive with the V-59's that I took was through a low watt amp. Once I plugged in it didn't take much to have these amp grunting and a snorting. To get the fattest sound possible without having to use a pedal I plugged into my 15/7 watt amp head and 2x10 cab. First I set the amp for it's full 15 watts and slammed every knob just a few clicks before full blast. Oh it was just beautiful. Think Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, and Santana playing an SG. Everything I could've wanted from these pickups was right there coming from my hands. I had a perfect amount dirt, a solid level, and balanced eq. With the amp's mids rolled up all the way, bass at noon, and highs at noon I got some killer punk rock tones that filled the air with careless attitude. I started rocking out my favorite Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Minor Threat riffs. It brought me right back to my early punk days, it was even able to pull some of my old forgotten punk songs out from me. It doesn't end there though, the great thing about these pickups is that they can do a subtle overdrive tone as well, it's all about where you place your guitar's volume and how much gain you have pumping through your amp. The lighter I would touch the strings the less grit that pickups produced. The V-59's respond and play well with your guitar's tone knob too, some pickups will get muddy right away if you even go near the tone pot, not here. You can lay back on the tone and get some sweet woman tones in an instant. With the combination of the guitar's volume and tone knobs alone I was able to dial-in an army of different classic rock tones. The neck pickup did just about every style of rhythm sound I wanted it to, and the bridge hit every accent in my lead riffs. Next I flipped the amp head into 7 watts and boy did the golden tones come'a knockin. It was lovely the low volume rock tones I was able to get, once mic'd you would never be able to tell the sounds were coming from such a low powered amp. The V-59's compressed and pushed the amp like it had never been pushed before, I could feel the speakers loving every chord strummed and lick struck. Before I knew it hours had gone by, I was stucj in one of those vortex's that only a great piece of gear can do to you. These pickups are really something special, everything from quality on down to the design. For those of you on a replica building mission or anyone on the hunt for an upgrade these are the pickups for the job. It almost makes me want to hunt down a project guitar and build myself a 50's style Les Paul. Oh and before I forget Les Paul's aren't the only guitars these pickups sound great in, no sir. I spent an entire day rewiring and swapping the V-59's into a semi hollow body guitar. If you've ever had to do a semi hollow body pickup job you know how much of a pain it can, but the prize I got in the end was well worth the work. While I was rocking out to the Studio Les Paul I had first put the pickups into I was imagining how great they would sound in my Dot. Really it was more of the same only a different flavor of it. The semi hollow body produced more airy, woofy tones with the V-59's, but they were usable, gig worthy, and recording friendly tones nontheless. I set the same amount of overdrive for this guitar to hear the difference, and the chords sounded just as immaculate as they did through a solid body. Last I took out some of my fuzz boxes, plugged in, and next thing you know another hour went by. I was stuck in an amazing collection of classic and modern fuzz tones. The louder I would turn up a box the more control the pickups would hand me, usually this is the opposite when playing at loud levels but for some reason that wasn't an issue here. This tells me one thing, attention to detail. Jon is by far one of the most talented pickups builders I have ever come across. Each one of the pickups he builds oozes with character and life. I see no way you can go wrong with J.S. Moore's. Can you dig that?

For more info on J.S. Moore Pickups you can go to www.tonefordays.com or click the direct link in our sidebar. I am on a hunt to bring you guys more from this awesome pickup company so please keep your eyes peeled. Rock lives!!!! J.S. Moore Pickups!!!

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Nov Monthly Pick/TV Jones Pickups

If there's one pickup company that's not afraid to think outside the box I would have to say it's TV Jones. If you look at what most pickup builders are producing these days it's traditional single coil and humbucking pickups. Thomas V. Jones (aka TV Jones) has decided to take it in another direction, and for good reason too. Ever since I first started playing the guitar I have been fascinated with Gretsch Guitars. Why is this do you ask? I'll tell you why, the tone. And where does that tone come from? I'll tell you where, the mighty mighty Filter'Tron pickup. As good as classic Filter'Tron pickups sound through a clean tone they did lack a bit of power, but this is no longer an issue. For years now Tom has been modifying, hot-rodding, and perfecting the sound of these amazing pickups, making them stronger, more defined, and evenly balanced. For many of us, me included, the Filter'Tron tone has been a kind of secret weapon, and now that TV Jones has stepped it up the possibilities are endless. If there's a particular vintage tone you dig or have been searching for chances are TV Jones has a pickup that's perfect for you. It doesn't end with pickups either, TV Jones also builds their own guitars, guitars I have drooled over many, many times. We had a chance to light up our amps with two of Tom's pickups designs, the Power'Tron and his new P90's. Quickly these pickups have become favorites in our studio, and time and time again they continue to surprise us. Tom's pickups have given us a new arsenal of go-to tones that we're proud to use on our recording sessions. I can only imagine what the rest of the line is capable of...

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TV Jones/Power'Tron

EM1 (English Mount)

First up to bat is the TV Jones Power'Tron, sent to us in the EM1 mounting style and swapped into a Les Paul Studio. This pickup may look like an old favorite but I assure you this is an entire new breed of Filter'Tron pickup. With the Power'tron you get all of the warmth and twang of the original only imagine it stronger and clearer. Something else you'll notice right away is the difference in output, these will definitely put some hair on your amp's chest. The output of the Power'Tron is more than enough needed to send your amp into a howling, great sounding, natural overdrive. The tight midrange, sparkling highs, and rich lows create an even projection of harmonics, overtones, and undertones. This makes for one of the sweetest tones you will ever hear come from your amp. To my ears the tone is much like the cross between a vintage humbucker and highend P90. You get all the size of a bucker, with the clarity & punch of a P90. With the EM-1 (English Mount) setup swapping the Power'Tron's into our Studio Les Paul was easy as cake and super quick. We wanted to put the pickups to work right away so we plugged into our buddy's JTM45 reissue and went to town. Before I go on let me just say a set of Power'Tron's and a proper Marshall make for one amazing sound, a definite winning combo. Getting a solid, crunchy rhythm tone with these pickups was super simple. I set it to the neck pickup, plugged straight into the JTM's 1rst channel, set all the knobs to about 8, and cranked the volume to about 7. Everything I wanted was there, the tight lows, midrange honk, and bright, clear highs. Mellowing out the sound was as easy as rolling back the volume knob, and you don't lose any of the pickups character either, the sound stays focused and intact all the way through. This was a big big plus for me being that I'm the type of player that relies on much of his sound by working the guitar's controls. You don't know how many pickups I've played that supposedly hold their own when rolled back, most of them either get too muddy or just go all to hell. You get non of that here. Next was a real treat and something I had to jot down. I switched to the middle pickup position, jumped the amp's channels, dialed mids and lows to 8, highs to 5, and every other knob to noon. Next thing you know, BAM! I got one of the most amazing high gain tones I have ever dialed in, I mean an absolute work of art. The personality of each pickup when blended with one another really works well to create an even overall tone. The sound was heavy and aggressive but nowhere near that sharp metal realm, some how it dished out all the balls and attitude of a heavy rock sound but maintained the warm, milky tone of a classic rock vibe. While in this killer high gain tone we switched to the lead pickup, this is where I sat back and let my parter take over, i'm not much of a lead guy. A few words came to mind while listening to my buddy play, sustain, violin, buttery, and EVH. Being more of a rhythm player means I've always gravitated towards the meat & potato players, this doesn't I don't dig my fair share of axe slingers. These pups are most definitely capable of producing many of the famous lead tones of our time. I classify the Power'Tron's in that elite group of pickup that work with you. You won't find yourself having to tame or spend hours trying to dial these pickups in. Want just a tad of grit in your chords? Simple, just strum lightly and listen to the sound bounce with a perfect mixture of clean and dirty strings. You can literally dig in with your fingers and control the attitude of a note, it's lovely! The last dirty test I put these through was a stompbox setup. I pulled out my favorite overdrive, distortion, and fuzz box. One thing I noticed while playing through each pedal was how well the pickups preserved my tone. Through the overdriver the Power'Tron's did exactly what I wanted, which was give me back what I put in. Distortion and fuzz pedals through these pickups was the same only much more of everything. Even in wild fuzz setting you can hear the lows, mids, and highs very clearly. I was able to get some new flavors out of my stompboxes with these pickups. Last I set the pickups up against a nice warm clean tone, which meant pulling out my modified Hot Rod Deville. It's kind of tuff to explain what the tone sounded like if you don't listen to it yourself, these pickups really do produce a special, signature clean tone all it's own. Without much tweaking of the amp's knobs I was able to dial-in every kind of clean I wanted. This tells me Tom really spent a lot of time working in the response of these pickups. Whenever you come across a tone this killer it leaves you without words. The clean tones possible with the Power'Tron's were by far my favorite and the new signature clean tone I use on all my bands recording sessions. As responsive and transparent as these pickups are I would love to listen to them through many more different guitars. There is a endless collection of tones you can get through these badboys, tones you will also be proud to use on your sessions. Whether you have an old Gretsch that needs a bit of a pushin' or a guitar that needs some character the Power'Tron's are perfect. Jump in with both feet you won't be sorry!

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TV Jones/P90

The P90 pickup is by far one of my all around favorite pickups, it makes for a great studio tool, sounds great on stage, and is capable of a parade of tones. When I first heard TV Jones was going to be building their own P90 my first reaction was "I cannot wait!". Just like I imagined these pickups are off the hook and made beautifully. Everything I love in a P90 lives in and comes flying out of Tom's P90's. If you've ever played a proper set of P90's you know how special a tone they're capable of, it's a tone many cats have used, and a sound that is easily noticeable from the rest of it's pickup cousins. The mash-up for these pickups was a Epiphone copy of a 56' Les Paul Goldtop (the perfect candidate for a good honest run-through), a Fender Hot Rod, and a low watt amp head I use a lot in the studio (my secret weapon). I grabbed a couple of my favorite cables, plugged in, and never have I gotten such instant gratification as I did with these pickups. The change in the sound was unbelievably noticeable, most of the time it takes me a bit to warm up to a pickup, not here it didn't. Again like Tom's other models the frequency projection of these pickups is super even and tight. You get plenty of sparkle, the perfect amount of bass, a midrange that's out of this world, and enough balls to make your amp scream. As far as the Les Paul goes these pickups matched it perfectly, the dark sound of the guitar with the bright'n'smooth sound of the pickups made for a great combo. I can honestly say I was able to hear the Les Paul's true voice for the first time. I noticed it didn't take as much to get the guitar to start crunching, the harder I hit the strings the more break-up I got. It jumped that Epi into a whole new class of guitar, a guitar I might just start gigging with. This is what a good boutique pickup should do you for you. Many times I hear friends complain how they go out and buy a set of pickups only to come home to the same thing. It is apparent Tom has done his homework. It doesn't end there though, there was something a bit different about this P90's, yes they had all the traditional P90 characteristics, and they played and looked great. But there was more, these P90's are unlike any others I've ever played. You'll notice as you start turning things up that the pickups also own a sonic attitude all it's own. It was as if Tom blended a Filter'Tron and classic P90 into one pickup. At first I couldn't put my finger on it, then I remembered the Power'Tron demo I had done a few days earlier. If I had to put the TV Jones pickups into one word I'd have to say "HUGE". They are very sensitive to the touch but can be easily controlled with your tone and volume knob. It really didn't take much to get these pickups to start growling, which means you can set your amp loud and depending on your touch control it with your guitar. Rocking out to the P90's through the Deville was a blast, but I have always dug playing P90's through low watt amps. Next I set up my 15/7 watt head, plugged it into a 2x12 cab with alnico speakers, and started jamming. In the full 15 watts I didn't have to turn it up much to get a good chunky overdrive. With the guitar's volume knob at about 50% I got good balanced combination of clean and dirty. Every time I flipped the volume knob up a bit things got more intense, much more saturated, and richer. The notes just jump out of the amp and hold in the air without sounding brittle or piercing. My favorite things for sure would have to be how great the mids sound in these pickups, they're not too strong, not too punchy, and give you the right amount ooohmff. This was true of all settings, in low, high, and extreme high gain settings. Last I played the pickups through a simple booster, I wanted to see how well they played with others. I was able to get more tones than I knew what to do with, and this was with a simple one knob 15db booster. I was able to get the tightest sustain by simply cranking the clean boost through an already dirty tone. The sound was very natural and user friendly (another big plus for me). After playing through the booster I noticed these pickups took to all pedals this well, like a kid in a candy store. Distortion pedals became warmer, fuzz pedals became screaming banshees, and though modulation, delay, compression and wah pedals the original tone stayed transparent. If you're a pedal freak like me you will absolutely fall in love with these P90's. Before I forget there's another little trick these pickups are capable of, something I'm not even sure Tom is aware of. In the middle position, through a clean Fender tone, with some of the guitar's tone shaved off, you're able to get some decent Strat sounds. This makes for a great set of gigging or recording pickups, lord knows I could use more guitars that are capable of giving more. The TV Jones P90's not only met every expectation I had, but also went far and beyond. I see these pickups going nowhere, they will certainly live in this guitar for a long long time...unless I end up selling the guitar, then I'll have to swap them out and keep them for another suitor.

For more info on TV Jones's Pickups please go to www.tvjones.com or click the direct link in our sidebar. Stay tuned for more news and updates from TV Jones and more reviews to come in the near future. This is hands down some of the most solid gear we have come across here at AWC, we highly suggest you get your hands on some. Dig it!

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Klein Pickups/Bringing back the art of tone.

The musician, how he strives to find that special tone that lives within him. He sits patiently experimenting with endless combinations of settings and levels, hoping to strike gold. Some access their dream tone though skill, some with a fine ear, and others simply by chance. With all the wonderful gear available today I'd say it's almost impossible not to sound good. Some cats rely on their pedals, some their amps, and then there's that other breed of musician, the type that goes in and gets his hands dirty. These are the cats that have their sound howling at the moon, the ones you'd swear had to have sold their souls to the devil in order to sound so damn good. Under a fine light you come to see that the devil has nothing to do with it, what you do find are people like Chris Klein, and the passion that lives within that will only settle for pure, uncut tone. We're talking pickups here friends, pickups that'll have your axe singing like it's never sung before. It is important that we educate ourselves in every area of the tone spectrum, by dissecting our favorite tunes, artists, and eras we come to find the sound that fits us best. There is no better feeling than learning how to take control of our tone, and equally as good is discovering the new skills we acquire along the way, like a kid and a new toy. Well I happen to be that kid at the moment, these last few months have been my jump into the world of pickup swapping, and it's opened up an endless world of beautiful tones. When I came across Klein Pickups I had to pause and listen, my guitar was saying "We can stop here." For those of us who need more than the mass produced factory pickup this is the place to be, you'll come to discover your guitars true voice.

Model: Esquire

Output: 7.6k

Magnet Type: Alnico 3

When I first spoke with Chris about which pickups to try out I thought why not an Esquire model, I was very curious to hear his take on this timeless legend. When I saw the work put into the pickup I could tell they were built by a skilled hand, when I heard what the pickup sounded like I knew that passion and spot on research went into bringing it to life. The Klein Esquire pickup holds true all the sound of the classic pre-CBS Fender tone, imagine all the same characteristics with more richness and clarity. Coupled with a vintage Tele bridge and 3 brass saddles this pickup will deliver all the sustain, power, and size you'll ever need in a bridge pickup. It's wound with Alnico 3 Flush mount magnets and Enamel wire which stay true to early esquire specs. A hint of well balanced compression helps hold the tone in place and keeps it from becoming shrill and overpowering. Through clean settings it gives off a lucid chime and sparkle only a true to heart classic Esquire could produce. Overdrive and light distortion settings is where this pickup really sings, and my favorite were driving it through fuzz boxes. It grabs notes and releases them with ease, making guitar solos easy to manipulate into whichever shape or form fits your style best. This most certainly isn't just another bum replacement, I can bet once this puppy is swapped in it'll stay there. There's a reason why cats like Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, and Jeff Beck used Esquires in their music, the signature tone. For those true seekers of the vintage sound this pickup is the perfect place to start and a great way to regain one of the cornerstones of rock and roll. When all is said and done, I have to say I am extremely impressed with this pickup and would stand it up to any original.

Model: Early 50's

Output: 7.7k

Magnet Type: Alnico 3

Ah yes, the early 50's, when I think early 50's I think of one thing...the Tele. All the wonderful funk, country, and blues tones we know and love so well has made it's comeback in the Klein Early 50's pickup. Think of all that a good neck pickup can do for your sound and you have the Klein Early 50's Tele model. The shape of the tone and well balanced EQ makes for a versatile collection of great sounding guitar sounds and layers. After installing the pickup my guitar's tone knob came to life, my pick attack was spot on, and overall response of my amp's EQ was muc clearer. Rolling back the volume and tone knob through a good fuzz box produced some killer sounding classic rock rhythm and solo tones, think Sabbath and Cream...all day baby. My guitar was transformed into a screaming rhythm machine, full of weight, bite and growl. Clean settings with these pickups sound fantastic, a touch of compression and you have all the spank you'll ever need. Chris really went all out when he decided to build his version of a early 50's Tele neck pickup, playing and listening to the pickup you can feel it's genuine and vintage tone, an art loved but not lost. For those of you cats sporting standard Telecasters, building your own guitars and looking for an upgrade or mod, Klein's Early 50's and Esquire pickup models make for perfect replacements. We used a standard Tele to swap the pickups into and the projection afterwards was like day and night, it ups it all, your amp's tone, the delivery of your stompboxes, anything you throw at these pickups sound great through them. I've always been a huge fan of using rhythm pickups for lead licks, there's no better way at getting a chunky lead tone than by using a good neck pickup. One of the best things about rocking a set of Klein Pickups is that they're all hand wound and built from vintage specs, like vintage pickups this gives each pickup it's own distinct sound and character. What more can I say? You can't go wrong with these badboys, the sound is right, the price is right, and your axe will love you for it.

For more info on Klein Pickups go to www.kleinpickups.com or click the logo in our links. Also stay tunes for pickup demos of the Klein Esquire and Early 50's, and our interview with Chris Klein.