"Beautiful Sounding Pickups! Don't waste your time buying vintage pickups for thousands of dollars. Just buy these & You will be right there with'em."
— Dani Robinson (Billy Cox Experience)Virgil Arlo - Vintage Pickups
For decades, the name Virgil Arlo has defined vintage tone for professional guitarists. Since 2013, the ToneSpec team has proudly helped deliver these remarkable pickups to guitarists that refuse to settle for less than the best. What started as customer service, bobbin construction and finishing work slowly morphed into a full-blown partnership. Team ToneSpec is proud to continue this proud legacy, meticulously building each set by hand. These tone machines are voiced to uncompromising standards that make Virgil Arlo pickups legendary among professional guitarists. Every coil is hand-built, then hand-wound. Every magnet is charged...by hand, the old school way. Every step honors the time-tested techniques that make Virgil Arlo pickups feel so alive. Virgil Arlo Pickups are legendary and we are proud to make these amazing pickups available to guitarists who demand the best.
"I went to a Session right after getting my Arlo's installed. My Guitar sounded so good, the Engineer asked 'what are you doing different'. I told him, I just got a set of Virgil Arlo Pickups. I love the tone of these pickups."
— Pat Buchanan (Legendary Nashville Pro)"Mr. Arlo makes Incredible Pickups! Over the years, I've played a lot of different pickups & the Virgil Arlo's are the best. The best by far!"
— Mike Gallaher (Joe Cocker / Leon Russell)Legacy of Tone
The original Virgil Arlo designs, built by hand and tested in multiple environments, ensuring flawless performance for decades to come. Each pickup is wound by hand using variable tension and tested for musical response. The touch sensitivity, compression, and bloom are beyond what any pickup that came before or after is capable of. This is why so many pros remove the vintage pickups from their guitars in favor of Virgil Arlo.
Proprietary Techniques
Virgil Arlo Pickups set the industry standard for vintage tone. It's not by luck or because he has an interesting name. It's all about the details... each set is built using proprietary techniques and ear-based voicing. Since 2015 they've utilized ToneSpec’s proprietary Infinite Bridge Technology, which delivers the fattest bridge tones you can get, that still cut the mix with a clear, warm, and complex tone. The tone is Vintage-Correct and the consistency is Pro-Level. Ask anyone that has played them and they'll tell you they are the best pickups ever made.
Built for Players, Not Collectors
Virgil Arlo Pickups were never meant to be museum pieces, but collectors have helped inflate the prices of some of the earlier sets — which is why you'll commonly see sets made prior to 2019 sell for $2,000 to $3,000. These pickups are meant to be played, recorded, and pushed... not hoarded by collectors or sold at inflated prices by profiteers on the secondary market. Whether you choose the ʼ52 Tele, ʼ54 Strat, or ʼ59 PAF, you’re holding a direct link to the feel and tone of the vintage era, with modern reliability and a best-in-class lifetime warranty.
