We’ve heard a lot of people say that you can’t get vintage tone from new pickups. Everyday our pickups prove the nay-sayers wrong. Don’t take our word for it, just listen to what the Pro’s say….
Steve Ouimette is an extremely versatile and talented musician that cut his teeth in the San Francisco Music Scene. Steve later went on to be a major contributor for the Guitar Hero series. His credits range from the likes of Alice Cooper to Public Enemy. Steve dropped a set of our 1961 Punch P.A.F. set in his Yamaha Revstar that he now uses for recording sessions. Steve was “blown away” by the tonal improvement of his guitar. He told us “I’m blown away, just incredible pickups.They are just right. Grindy and with a perfect spectrum balance and great pick attack. Man, you make awesome pickups, I can't thank you enough.”
Steve likes them so much that he actually put the stuck the label on his guitar.
Vintage Tone - Modern Innovation.
When comparing our pickup to other pickups, the great players hear the difference right away. It seems the better the player, the more excited they get after hearing our pickups in their guitar.
Our painstaking design and testing process has yielded pickups that that sound great with tube amps, pedals, solid state amps, digital devices and even software.
Tonal Details:
These PAFs sound a little more “in your face” without losing the vintage sweetness.
Neck is clear & punchy but still has plenty of warmth but with zero mud.
Bridge Pickup is mean with plenty of cut. We make these pickups with plenty of Presence and Gonads without being even a little harsh. It’s a delicate balance that most pickup makers fail at miserably. It’s full and clear. It sounds great to drive your amp or if you want to step on a drive pedal. It is a very dynamic pickup.
These pickups have a lot of punch they also work great with the volume and tone pots to alter your desired tone.
Beyond Rock - Get Inspired
Formerly called the Rock P.A.F. Set, this amazing set is based on a really great set of 1961 PAF Humbuckers we stumbled across. They are the best vintage voiced Punchy PAF® pickups for Hard-Hitting, Dynamic & Warm tone that really Cuts. Just because your guitar is equipped with the best pickups for great Punchy, doesn't mean you are stuck playing 80’s Rock Licks. You can venture into the realm of other styles with these pickups with the greatest of ease. The Tone Specific Punchy PAF® Humbucker pickup set will sound great for just about any type of music, in addition to sounding great for Rock, Metal, Funk & Ska.
Huge Tone. Huge Sweet Spot.
Our pickups are designed to sound great in the guitar in which they are installed. Whether you like to put them closer to the strings our further away, your tone will remain dynamic, warm and touch-sensitive. These pickups let the sounds in your head shine through the speaker with sweet tone and singing sustain.
These pickups are designed to sound great in Solid-Body Guitars, Hollow and Semi-Hollow Guitars. They make a good guitar sound great and a great guitar sound amazing. More than a few top pro's have reported a huge improvement by dropping these into their vintage guitars.
Touch-Sensitive.
A set of pickups that capture every nuance of your playing style is rare find these days. Most pickups are made by big corporations in factories. Our pickups are made by guitar players for other guitar players. We care about your tone.
These pickups are designed to musically respond to you. They are directly between you and your amp and interact in a very musical way. You can produce an endless amount of tone by changing your pick-attack and picking location. Adjusting your volume and tone knobs opens up all kinds of doors in exploring the tonal pallet of these pickups. There is no need for coil-splitting or tricky wiring gimmicks when you have a set of pickups of this caliber.
Tight, Cutting & Hard Hitting - Punchy P.A.F. Tone.
Are your Humbucker Pickups lacking that great Punchy P.A.F. tone you desire? Are you still banging your head against the wall trying to get great tone of super high output humbuckers? Don't you think it's time to stop the insanity? Continuing to use the wrong pickups for your style can be extremely frustrating. This frustration can limit your ability to create the tones and the music you’ve been hearing in your head. We feel your pain. No need to worry, we’ve got you covered! Your search for your perfect Rock PAF® tone ends today.
Certified Organic.
Our Pickups are made by hand, one at a time, right here in the U.S.A. Our goal is to make the most Dynamic, Warm & Sweetest sounding pickups in the world.
Now every Guitarist can experience the joy of having vintage voiced pickups tailored for their preferred tonal style without breaking the bank. Unlike the rest of the herd of boutique winders that just wrap wire around a bobbin to achieve a certain Ohm reading, we've taken painstaking path to tonal perfection. We welcome you to join us on this path. If you are thinking about Great Punchy PAF Tones………….Think Tone Specific!
How to Buy/Pricing
Our P.A.F. Humbuckers Pickups start at $500 - Due to overwhelming demand, the current wait is 4 to 8 weeks. To order click the "Add to Cart" at the top of the page.
Our building process takes a little longer than most pickup winders and we have rigorous testing that is performed on all pickups before they ship. This includes sound test. The goal is to make pickups that will not only inspire you when you get them but also 20 or 30 years down the road. We want these to be the last pickups you get.
Players with good ears seem to hear the difference right away. In fact, just about every pro we've dealt with has ordered multiple sets altering hearing how these pickups transform the feel & the tone of their instrument. We are sure you will appreciate the attention to detail when you hear your new pickups.
Our pickups are Handwound one at a time. Using several unique processes and the finest modern materials available, we are able to create Vintage Sounding Pickups. We slightly tweak the voicing of these Vintage Style Pickups to nail a desired tone.
Magnets
All of our pickups are equipped with Alnico Magnets. We use different types of magnets for the various styles. For some designs we use more than one type of magnet. We have a special process that makes these modern Alnico's sound very vintage. During beta testing, many of the top Pro's we work with could not tell the difference between their vintage pickups and our freshly-wound gems.
Wire
All of our pickups are made with coated magnet Wire that are of Vintage Specs. The style of pickup and desired tone will dictate which type of wire is used.
Potting
All of our pickups are potted to avoid unwanted feedback or the hated squeal. We use several different vintage based potting methods. The style of pickup and desired tone will dictate which type of potting materials and potting methods we use. Some pickups that really need to breathe are very lightly potted, while other in other pickups we employ different methods to help achieve certain tone and functionalities.
Bobbins, Covers & Other Materials
We use vintage style bobbins and metal cover materials as well as other materials. Vintage pickups sound great for a reason and we try to recreate our pickups to be as historically correct as possible. We have made various improvements in an effort to eliminate the dreaded pickup failure assoiciated with the pickups from the vintage era.
Ohm Readings
We don't disclose Ohm reading for several reasons. The most important reason is that an Ohm reading will tell you very little about the tone of the pickup. The tone of a pickup is partially determined by the collective materials along with the various techniques employed by the builder of the pickup.
The other reason we don't disclose Ohm reading is due to the fact that over time, and even from batch to batch, the composition of materials can slightly change. We buy large quantities of everything but when we open a new batch of anything, we have to go back to the drawing board. The tweaks are typically very minor. The important thing is the tone stays the same as the result of our constant attention to tone. Any pickup winder that has rigid specs on a pickup design is very likely to make pickups that sound different from one another even though they have the same name and basic measured specs. We go the extra mile to ensure the tone of our pickups is consistent from batch to batch and year to year.
The Difference - Amazing Tone
When comparing our pickup to other pickups, the great players hear the difference right away. It seems the better the player, the more excited they get after hearing our pickups in their guitar.
A lot of companies offer more models than you can imagine. We think it is counter-productive to have more than handful of different flavors for each type of pickup. At some point some of the models are going to start sounding the same. Our pickup designs all sound different and are voiced in a way to help solve real-world musical problems.
If you are trying to sell a million sets of pickups a year, then it probably makes sense to have dozens models. Our focus is on making musical pickups that will agree with your musical vision for many years to come.
Some players have an idea of what their guitar needs to sound it’s best, others need a little help in deciding. To help you make an informed decision we’ve posted video’s that show the different models pickups being played by the same guitarist using one amp. This will help you hear the differences between the models.
Tonal Perfection is the Goal.
If you are like most Guitarists, then your Pickup Drawer is probably full. This is due to many failed attempts over the years to nail your desired tone. At some point in time, you probably came to the uneasy realization that “Close enough would have to be good enough”. Not having the perfect pickups for your style can be extremely frustrating. This frustration can limit your ability to create the tones and the music you’ve been hearing in your head.
Here at Tone Specific Guitar Pickups we feel your pain. We too have spent much of our lives chasing tones. In our quest for perfect tone our Pickup Drawers filled up too. Many of our friends had the same issue too. Fed up with over-hyped guitar pickups, we decided to take matters into our own hands.
The Art of Tone Perfected
We took the time to learn and master the art of handwinding fantastic guitar pickups. This included working with top Professional Guitarists along with legendary pickup winders and legendary amp builders. To get it just right we had to really understand each part of the chain of tone and how each part interacted with the other parts. Taking this extra step enabled us to create pickups that sound great with vintage tube amps, modern tube amps, pedals, solid state amps, digital devices and even software.
During the learning process, we dumped our pickup drawers and started to reverse-engineering everything. There were some original vintage electric guitar pickups from the 50’s and 60’s as well as dozens of sets from the most prolific boutique winders. We learned the secrets of the stellar vintage guitar pickups and how to replicate them down to every tonal detail and nuance.
Tone over Hype.
During our research, the boutique pickups for the most part fell way short of the hype. Fearful of repeating the same mistakes of other winders, we took the time to find out why some of those pickups were so lifeless. There are few boutique winders doing some very special work, but those pickups can cost $500-$600 or even more. That’s a little expensive. Especially if you aspire to have a stable of toneful guitars.
Our challenge was to build a more affordable line of incredible sounding Handwound Electric Guitar Pickups made right here in the USA. These Hand Wound Guitar Pickups would at least need to be on par with the best guitar pickups ever made and dialed in to a Specific Tone. Now that’s a noble idea! An idea that sounds great on paper, but how do you get there? The answers were found in our study of the original vintage pickups from the 50’s & 60’s. Contrary to popular belief, not all of the Vintage Guitar Pickups were great, but there were a few very special examples. We dissected these special pickups and unlocked their secrets. We put this knowledge to use in every set we make.
After we identified what made certain guitar pickups great, we had to figure out how to replicate this greatness. It was a very difficult process that took years to master. Sometimes it seemed like a road without an end. Our conviction never softened and we continued to push forward. After we figured out how to make guitar pickups tonally equal to the best pickups vintage pickups, our work still wasn’t finished….
Dialed-In Tone
Now the guitar pickups had to be dialed to nail Specific Tones. Some of the tonal answers were easy because of the special designs we uncovered in our study of vintage pickups. Most tonal solutions were quite elusive and required a serious amount of trial and error. In the end, with the help of our friends and Beta testers, we got there!
Now every Guitarist can experience the joy of having vintage voiced pickups tailored for their preferred tonal style without breaking the bank. Unlike the rest of the herd of boutique winders that just wrap wire around a bobbin to achieve a certain Ohm reading, we've taken painstaking path to tonal perfection. We welcome you to join us on this path. If you are thinking about tone………….Think Tone Specific!
