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The Stack

Single-coil pickups have a definitely different sound than humbuckers. But they are also noisier. When you play a Stratocaster* guitar in the recording studio, you can either live with the noise, or carve a bigger hole in the guitar and put in a humbucker.

I never liked carving up vintage guitars, so I've develped a noise-cancelling pickup that duplicates the complex and distinctive harmonics of the Stratocaster, without the noise, by stacking two coils around one row of staggered magnets.

It fits right into the existing pickup hole in the guitar with no alterations. Now I can take my Strat into the studio without engineers getting on my back. I make Stacks for Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Jazz Bass guitars. I make hotter versions for stagework.

The Invader

I made this pickup for the rock and roll player with an aggressive attack. The Invader has a big magnetic field, but the hollow center of the screws diffuses the field into an arc equally strong throughout the width and length and height of the field to minimize string pull. It has an awesome punch, a totally new sound, and a great sustain.

The Quarter Pounder

Quarter Pounders are about my most popular pickups today. The wider and stronger magnetic field generated by quarter-inch-thick pole pieces increases the output while letting me use a special coil winding that doesn't sacrifice the high end. This is my Quarter Pound Jazz Bass; it expands the frequency response and gives you a fat, full, punchy sound with an active mid-range. (See the chart for a full list of my Quarter Pounders.)

The Mini-Humbucker

The pickups on the old Gibson Firebird and Les Paul Deluxe guitars were smaller than other humbucking pickups, and because the coils were smaller, with less resistance than full-sized coils, they had a clarity of tone that approached the sound of a single-coil pickup while still being a humbucker.

I make vintage and custom replacements, and also this SM-3, which is a departure from the old design: each coil has a high-carbon steel blade coupled to a bottom-loaded magnet. The result is a pure tone with considerable sustain and without muddiness.