G'day everyone,
Just thought I'd give you some feedback on a set of Tonerider pickups I installed recently. Following my previous posts about the high prices of American pickups and the so-called hand wound varieties I just thought I'd take the time out and share this with you.
Although a friend of mine impressed me with the Tonerider Pure Vintage pickups in his Mexican Strat I was a bit apprehensive since the prices looked too good to be true. I eventually ordered the Classic Blues set through the online store in Cape Town, received the pickups 2 days later and installed them one Saturday afternoon into my 'practice' Japanese Strat. Well, I gotta tell you, I have been so impressed with these babies that I haven't played any of my other guitars for weeks now. The packaging was excellent, the quality and feel of the product is excellent, the wiring diagrams, screws and nylon (rubber springy things) bushes are very good, the magnets won't cut your hands to shreds, I love the grey vintage look of the pickups under the cover and the fact that they feature the authentic vintage colour-coded wiring. You can actually see and feel that they've been wax potted too so it's not just a marketing ploy.
The sound - as a calibrated set (with Alnico 5 magnets) the volume across the three pickups is excellent and I can flick madly through the toggle switch without any one overpowering the other two. The neck pickup is very well balanced with the others and not too soft at all. I initially assumed (wrongly) that the Classic Blues set would be a nod to players like Stevie Ray and would be "harsher" sounding but it isn't like that at all. These pups are even creamier sounding than the Pure Vintage set my friend Pete has in his guitar. I had a look at the website and noticed that they had slightly less output, similar to early 50's Strats. That explains why! Initially I had the pickups set close to the strings (like I do with my humbuckers) and although the sound was good, it wasn't great, like the ones on my Eric Johnson Strat. As soon as I moved them about 2mm further away from the strings however everything changed and the sound just "clicked".
The sound then? (in the manner of Jeremy Clarkson)
Bridge alone - clear, chimey, clear big lows - A great Strat tone!
Bridge & middle - I cannot help thinking "Sultans of Swing". Clear highs, a definite quack, nice upper mids
Middle alone - a sound similar to Robert Cray or Clapton - nice quack, good clearly defined mids, good definition, great for soloing AND rhythm playing
Middle & neck - I've never liked this sound on ANY Strat and think its a watered down version of position 2's sound. No opinions here except that it's a nice mellow sound like Stevie Ray on Tin Pan Alley (kinda)
Neck alone - My favorite sound! Big bottom, evenly defined mids and smooth rich highs. I love this sound with overdrive - it just sings and has great sustain.
So, to come back to my original post of a few weeks ago - I still believe that most pickups are overpriced and over-marketed and these Tonerider pups have certainly proved it again!
Well, that's my first "pickup review" in a nutshell. I hope I didn't bore you and if you want to know anything else just ask.
Rich
(PS: here's the link to the Classic Blues pickups on the Tonerider site in Cape Town
http://www.tonerider.co.za/classicblues.html)
