Anderson H3+

Pretty simple stuff. The coil splitting on these things is ridiculously good. I want to discuss a few things that people tend to say about these pickups...

1.TA pickups are dark - True and untrue. They aren't muddy, bassy, or flubby if that's what you think. They actually adapt really well to most guitars. Some models are "darker" than others. The H3+ is one of them. If you don't know what "dark" means then I don't know how to explain. We're not talking about EQ here. The character of the pickup is just slightly dark. Not dark as in bassy, dark as in "dim the lights there's a shadow lurking in the corner." Sound stupid? Put this pickup in a Les Paul and find out what I mean.

2.TA pickups are hi-fi - Most people think that Hi-fi means sterile and refined. These pickups aren't really either. There is a reason why people call these Hi-fi though, just not for the reason you would think. TA humbuckers have a sort of "studio" tone to them. NOT like actives! They can be rude if you need them to. They sound great for classic rock and really nasty dirty sounds. But there's no denying that this pickup has a somewhat polite character. I could go on about this all day, but you need to play them or else you will never understand quite what I mean.

3.The H3+ is really hot - True, but not the hot you are used to. Most high gain pickups like Dimarzio and EMG do not sound like this. The H3+ is really organic and woody. (which is funny since I just said they were hi-fi) But I swear to you that all three of those adjectives are true to the core. The H3+ will send a clean amp into dirt, but it will be the most organic and sweet dirt you've heard from a pickup this hot.

I have this and an H1- in a Les Paul classic. Billy Howerdel setup.

It is NOT muddy or bassy. It's very very balanced. Slightly dark. I get a very specific tone with these pickups in this guitar but they work for just about every genre out there. In case you are wondering, they nail the APC tone in spades. But don't be fooled, I play everything with this guitar. Blues, classic rock, heavy metal, pop, you name it.

I already discussed this in a lot of detail. The H3+ is a really balanced pickup tonally. Sort of dark but not a bassy dark.

I called Anderson guitarworks to inquire about pickups. Tom himself picked up the phone. Super cool guy. He was very concerned about the darkness of this pickup in an LP. I assured him it would be okay with me if it was a little dark. Turns out it wasn't nearly as dark as I thought. It really lent itself the the guitar's character.

At this point I don't have much else to say. Try this pickup! If you are on the fence, get off. Try it. You will never know till you hear it.

It is all covered below. Love the extra large poles. Can work with a tremelo without having to adjust for the spacing. They are passive.

I am trying to copy a Tom Anderson so I put them in a Fender FMT FSR U.S. Made Tele with 2 Humbuckers. Added push/pull pots. This is in the bridge position. I put an H1- in the neck.

I replaced the Fender Tele Enforcer Humbuckers - they were muddy.

Output is hot but just right. I run it through Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Tube Amp as well as a Vox Valvetronix 30 Watt. I can't tell you how perfect these pickups are. They can make a glassy strat sound even as a humbucker. They are evenly balanced when the coils are split and sound just like a strat pickup. Perfectly balanced - can go as low as you want but never over the top.

I play rock, blues and even metal with these pups. Perfect for every type of music. Not sure they have enough quack for country.

The humbuckers I have include Duncan Jazz, Custom/Custom, JB and Pearly Gates as well as Fender Enforcers. These are the best bridge pickups out there. I will always use Tom Anderson

This is a humbucking, passive pickup. I haven't the first clue as to the specifications, but it's a hotter pickup with a ceramic magnet. Now, before you start forming some stereotypical type of classification based on the magnet type, you should throw all of that out the window. This pickup is WAY different from a high output Duncan or Dimarzio that a lot of people use.

I've been using the H3+ in the bridge of Gibson Les Pauls and a PRS Singlecuts for the last 4 years.

I'm not going to sit here and name all of the amps that I've owned. I've owned almost everything under the sun. This pickup's tone is big, fat, round and smooth. A lot of people might classify it as being dark sounding, but that isn't the case in the least bit. You either need to disconnect your tone pot or swap out your tone and volume pots and this thing will start breathing fire.

I like using two 500K pots for volume and tone with these bad boys in Les Pauls. The stock 300K by itself will work just fine as well. I also use a 500K volume pot with no tone pot in my PRS and it gets super tight and very aggressive.

This pickup is far from being harsh. It isn't super compressed sounding. It can overdrive the front end of your amp if you hit the strings hard, but you can adjust your attack and it's still clean. It's not scorching hot where you don't have a clean tone. That is a big misconception that I see all the time when people mention this pickup. All I ask is what amp were you playing?

Anyway, sustain and tone are just wonderful.

I've been using these with an Anderson H1- in the neck or a Dimarzio PAF Pro in the neck. I like the H1- combination better. I also use Bare Knuckle pickups for a different vibe. I will put it to you like this: I was constantly tweaking my guitars every time you turned around to look at me before I bought my first H3+. After I made my first purchase, the only constant is these things staying in my guitars. I love how they sound, I love the feel of my guitars when they're in the bridge position and I love everything that they are capable of doing. I play all types of music and I've used all types of amplifiers. I would still be searching for pickups if this pickup didn't exist. I'm glad I ran into it. I've saved a lot of money that could have went down the drain.

Humbucking, passive, mounted directly to the wood.

I put together a custom Warmoth Telecaster using Anderson H3+ for the bridge and H1+ for the neck. I contacted Tom Anderson himself, explaining the intent and composition of the guitar, and he guided me to using this combination. The specs on the guitar are as follows-

Warmoth premium 1-piece Mahogany body
5A Quilted maple top
Light-brown dye w/vintage tint gloss
Schaller 457 fixed bridge
Push-push volume knob (coil-splitting)
deleted treble knob
Wenge unfinished neck/Ziricote fretboard
6105 Stainless Frets, graphite nut
Schaller locking tuners
shielded rear control cavity

To the point, this guitar is a no-compromises instrument designed to be very versatile and clear-sounding. It was paired with Andersons because the natural high frequencies from the guitar and the darker tone from the pickups balance to provide a very controllable, round tone.

The H3+ is not the first pickup I've used by far. But it is the first great pickup that made me understand that sometimes hot is too hot. This is a sizzling-hot pickup, but don't think along the lines of a 'advertised hot' Dimarzio or EMG. The H3+ flat-out sounds phenomenal, and can handle ANY level of gain from any source. It will just compress the gain to a point where you can always control it. Imagine you could pick any top-notch rock album and only hear the guitar track. Use the latest TOOL album for example, or even Wes Borland's rhythm sound (seriously). You get that kind of pro tone instantly, but with much more headroom to push. Harmonics are there if that's your thing, but I prefer sometimes to split the pickup and keep the volume full-on. I'm a big Jerry Cantrell fan, as he is well-rounded and talented yet always up to something unique. I can nail his voicings with the right Bogner. But if I played through a Mesa, I'd still sound like a much better Mesa. Basically, everything you plug into sounds more hi-fi and proper. It's as if the H3+ is just a hi-quality microphone, not a pickup. Transparency is the word. You're not sucked-into sounding like 'that guy'. You can back the volume down and let your hands work for you. Matter of fact, you can leave your amp on the gain channel and just work your tone out with the volume, especially with the H1+ in the neck(think super-hot SRV). Can't say enough about the versatility. Overall, I have the confidence that no matter who I play infront of, they will compliment my tone. With the right axe and a quality amp, you'll have professional tone, guaranteed. There's just no excuses left to use! :)

I've been playing for 10 years, played well over 100 touring gigs, cut a few albums, and opened for big-time acts. I used to have a $5K rig with stereo-outs and the whole shebang, but now I now play at home just for fun and have a career like the rest of the world. I like everything from Al Di Meola to Meshuggah, so I know what you can realistically ask one guitar or one pickup to do.
As I've matured into playing more various types of music, I'd actually go for the regular Anderson H3 in the bridge next time. Just a little less gain to let my hands say more. I never thought I'd complain about a pickup being too hot. It's not a flaw in the pickup- I just bought the really hot one! :) No other popular pickup I've tried holds a candle to Andersons. They should be manditory for everyone to put in their guitars. Granted, you have those wierd pickups like the ones Satch uses that are very user-specific, and that's different. But I'd rather use my hands and pick to make my own tone instead of letting the pickups dictate what I choose to play. You can pile on effects or use none, and you will laugh at the guitar's ability to stay in control. Pick any high-end, high-gain amp, like a Diezel, and you will never be 'owned' by the amp. The pickup just bares-down and makes sense of all the gain. Serious saturation. But, you can easily put the gain at 12:00 and work it all night long. I don't even think about 'that' sound anymore. I now have my own. You'd be a fool not to try an Anderson H3-H1 combo of any rating below '+'.

Pickup features: HB, passive.
Impedence or other specs: Best to get it from mfr website.

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Jazzmaster '64
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Seymour Duncan JB
Other pickups on guitar: Tom Anderson H1
Artists using this pickup: don't know
You musical style(s): Prog Rock, Bluesy Jazz
Reason for pickup change: Liked the warmth and character of the H1 in the neck position. In comparison, the JB was pretty hot but fairly sterile... really only served for scorching leadwork.

Perceived output level: Seems to be a little more than the JB but the sound character is different making an "ear appraisal" of the output a little tricky. Hotter than the H1 but balances well with it.
Tone: Tone is considerably darker than the H1 and even a little darker than the JB. Not my most favorite balance for clean but man oh man this pickup screams in od/distort modes, just unbelievable.
Sonic evaluation: Jazzmaster w/Andersons>GNX3>Carvin X100B with Fender Deluxe 90 for stereo. Also use a natural ash Strat with Joe Bardens, a Yamaha sg style w/Bill Lawrence's and a Dillion.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Prog Rock, Bluesy Jazz - originals and covers of Steely Dan etc. The H3+ is a great lead pickup - the harmonics are outstanding - and it balances well with the H1; I really like them together and out-of-phase (quack).

Comments: It's excellent for blues and big-sustain leads. If it disappeared I might consider getting a less hot Anderson, maybe an H2, trading off some output for warmth, but this will work just fine, thanks.
Matching pickup to wood takes some trial and error for best result and no one pickup covers everything so I use different makes on different guitars. Over the years my favorites are Lawrence, Barden and now Anderson, because they give outstanding note definition and nuance... even with gain set way up none of these get muddy.

Pickup features: Passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: EMG 60
Other pickups on guitar: Anderson H1+, replaced other EMG 60
Artists using this pickup: Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle
You musical style(s): Industrial, Progressive Rock
Reason for pickup change: EMGs suck. Plain and simple. They are the most sterile, lifeless pickups on the face of the planet. A pickup should affect your sound, but not determine exactly what it will sound like before and after it hits the amp. The sound is exactly the same between a driven Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a TSL 100 Marshall. That blows, and so do EMG's.

Perceived output level: Extremely hot. Only the HN3+ is hotter. This is the hottest pickup that I've ever played with, yet it is the cleanest, quietest humbucker that I've ever heard.
Tone: Completely balanced. What incredible tone. To die for.
Sonic evaluation: I work with one of the guys who worked with Tom Anderson himself when they were both at Schecter years ago. He said that Anderson pickups are basically a Schecter design, or the design that was happening twenty years ago. Schecter sucks now, but then the instruments were incredible sounding and incredibly expensive.
This pickup is the most interesting pickup that I've heard so far. Everything else out there is cookie-cutter crap, except vintage Gibson PAF's. This pickup is INCREDIBLY HOT and sounds totally different in my Les Paul than any stock pickup.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great match with any style. I like having my volume knob on seven, then being able to just roll it up for a gain boost. It cleans up really well, too. Hell, this thing even made my POD sound totally different. The Dual Rectifier sounds LIKE a Dual Rectifier now....

Comments: Buy this pickup. Andersons are cheap, well built and incredible sounding. If you want a different sound, but want GOOD tone, try this pickup. You WON'T be dissapointed....

Pickup features: Passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: EMG 60
Other pickups on guitar: Anderson H1+, replaced other EMG 60
Artists using this pickup: Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle
You musical style(s): Industrial, Progressive Rock
Reason for pickup change: EMGs suck. Plain and simple. They are the most sterile, lifeless pickups on the face of the planet. A pickup should affect your sound, but not determine exactly what it will sound like before and after it hits the amp. The sound is exactly the same between a driven Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a TSL 100 Marshall. That blows, and so do EMG's.

Perceived output level: Extremely hot. Only the HN3+ is hotter. This is the hottest pickup that I've ever played with, yet it is the cleanest, quietest humbucker that I
Tone:
Sonic evaluation:
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: