IronGear Steam Hammer

A pair of Steam Hammer passive humbuckers

I replaced the stock pickups on a Richwood Artist Series Tree of Life (limited edition) Les Paul clone, both neck and bridge. The old pickups were generic, tho' I believe they are similar to the pickups used by Epiphone on their top end Gibson clones. My reasom for changing was simple, although the old pickups were hot enough, they tended to sound a bit muddy at times.

When Iron Gear describe these as hot, they are not kidding, they are as hot as any I've heard or tried. Used with either my Vox AD15VT, or Toneworks AX1500G, the sound is amazing, perhaps a bit harsh for some, they struggle to do subtle that's for sure. The definition is unreal, even when heavily distorted, each string rings thro' clearly and is beautifully balanced across the whole treble/mid/bass range. I've lost a bit of bottom end compared to the old pickups, but the sheer character of the Steam Hammers more than makes up for that.

What can I say about value for money? At the price they are an absolute steal. They've turned a already great guitar into something very special for little cost. I can't say as I'd heard of this pickup brand before, but found their site and the reviews here, and took a chance on buying a set. Pickup wise, these are by some distance the best purchase I've ever made.
Highly, highly recommended.

Following on from the last revue i did for the neck pick up i installed a few months ago,i installed a matching bridge pick up and as promised,here,s my revue of it.
Overall sound is great and strong with loads of power and sustain and is a good complement for the neck p/u. My only gripe is it lacks a little top end, thats not to say i dont like it or anything, far from it, i love it but i,ve been comparing it with a duncan jb and it,s not quite as topie but still cuts well enough for me, i spose it,s down to personal choice and i can be a little critical at times.

Strat bridge p/u ..iron gear now installed in both positions
needed more power and sustain mainly in the neck position but wanted a good matching set

output is 15k which is more than enough in my opinion.
I use a marshall vs265 and sometimes a zoom 4040 and play blues rock
this pick up gives a good honest growl just where you need it without any effort

i,m more than satisfied with the set and will be buying more that,s for sure before the price goes up
Please dont take my word for anything that i,ve said here it,s just that i,ve been playing a very long tome and i do think i know a little about these things but like ive said before...for the price..you cant go wrong
so try em yourself....cheap as chips

hope ive covered everything and thanks

These pickup is high output (15K), and have tons of bite and crunch in them, and are clear enough to play chords mud-free with lots of distortion. the cleans are surprisingly good for a high-output pickup. I'm guessing thats because of the Alnico V, the only thing I can say about the cleans are that they can be a tad harsh if you have your guitar volume on full, even playing through a clean channel. but you you roll the volume down to around 3/4s' the full volume, it gives a lovely clean tone. I still prefer my neck single for my cleans though. NOTE: I have it in a strat, so I have no tone knob for the bridge pickup, Rolling off the tone may help the cleans some.

It has a nice bottom end and mid range to it, which I really like, the top end is not lacking at all though, which may be in part because of my strat's alder body. its an amazing pickup for early metal and 80's metal. its voiced similar to a Super distortion, but a wee bit brighter, still dark though, and a bit more crunch to it.

pros:
-Great for any type of metal, hard rock and some heavy blues tones.
-Really Crunchy
-Really Clear
-Only cost me $50 CAD (including shipping from the UK)

cons:
-Cleans can be harsh at times

hints for use: None really, it gives a good tone all the time, but if you want really pristine cleans out of it, roll the volume down a quarter or so. it helps them warm up.

Hi..i,ve just installed an Iron Gear Staem Hammer passive humbucker neck pick up into a strat copy i have. The strat itself isnt particularly great but i do love the neck and it has a floyd rose installed too which is as stable as a rock, anyway .. i saw these pick ups advetised on e bay and thought they were just another cheap set which you must admit, you get a lot of on e bay so i thought i,de drop the guy a line to check em out and i have to say he [Keith] was very helpful and after a little persuation , i bought one for the neck position of the strat.
I was comnpletly blown away...so smooth so reponsive and a hell of a good sustain. I put it on my meter and it reads 14.6 so as you can imagine..it,s powerfull...they may be cheap but not a cheap sound

i needed a little more sustain in the neck positin of my start which had a fairly good set on but needed more balls.. they were dimarzio pick up from hell at the bridge and a paf at the neck

output is very high 14.6 and very responsive good all round tone...silky smooth with loads of sustain...you can check out a few sound clips i sent to the web site ...i,ve only used this through my pc at the moment and i will be playing it throgh a marshall vs265 for giging ...i,ll be buying another one of these for the bridge position and when i do, i,ll post up another revue
http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_013.htm

By the way, my name is Nev Jones..i,ve been playing some 37 years and i consider myself to be well qualified to know what,s what with pick ups..i would buy this again and more cos i now know how good it is i have about 26 guitars in total..i say about cos i,m always getting more...well...it,s a man thing they wouldnt understand would they.
My main guitars are a Tokai lp...great guitar duncan jb in the bridge but now...may change that..i,ll have to wait n see what the Iron Gear bridge pup sounds like..the other is an Ibanez 548 ash bodied super strat with dimarzios on...good sound but again could do with a beef up
Hope i,ve covered everything but dont take my word for it..check em out for yourself and have a listen to the sound clips i sent

Passive Humbucker. Bridge:15K Ohm, Neck:14K Ohm

I installed a pair of these pups in an Ibanez RG550, bridge & neck positions to replace the stock pickups. I was looking for something to give me a bit more balls to really drive the amp and chose the Steam Hammers after listening to the sound clips on the IronGear web site.

IronGear make big claims for these being powerful pickups, but, as they're relatively inexpensive, I was prepared to accept the possibility that they may be exaggerating. BUT, they're bloody stunning! They're as hot as any pickup I've ever tried before, but they sound really sweet as well. Excellent tonal balance with high output pickups is a rare thing in my experience. Full marks here. BTW: I'm using the guitar straight into a Marshall 50w valve 2 x 12 combo.

I'm really impressed with these pickups - I'd definitely buy them again - in fact I'm already eyeing up another guitar for upgrade. I've been playing for about 18 years and I've used most of the big name pickups at some time or other. I reckon these are as good as any, and better than many. I bought these after reading a few discussions on various forums where people were raving about them. I think they're only available over the internet at the moment (irongear.co.uk) but I'm not sure.