IronGear Steel Twin

Bridge is a stacked twin coil humbucker; neck is an overwound single-coil.

The Steel Twin pickups are a matched set, neck and bridge, designed to fit a standard Tele layout.

I fitted them to a guitar I built from scratch, so they weren't "replacements" as such. However, I do have three other Teles (two clones as well as the real thing) that I can compare them with.

Output levels are impressive, especially the neck pickup. The tone from this pup is well-balanced, leaning slightly towards the bass end, but with no lack of definition in the highs and plenty of mid-range to avoid that "hole in the middle" sound that some cheap pickups seem to have.

The bridge pup is a bit of an enigma... It's a four wire unit, and I chose to coil-tap it. I'm not convinced that the internal layout is quite right for the way I've wired it. In single coil mode, it's a little lacking in punch. I have a feeling that this is because the "hot" coil is on the bottom of the pickup, rather than the top. By "hot", I mean the positive (red) output lead seemed the natural choice to connect to one end of the coil-tap, the black lead goes to earth and the remaining leads (green and white, which are soldered together as supplied) go to the coil tap. I'm going to alter the switching next time I have this guitar apart to see whether that makes a difference.

All that said, in double-coil mode, the bridge pickup is a revelation. It has bags of power available to frighten the neighbours with! The tone is raunchy, plenty of highs that can peal paint, but enough bottom end to stop it getting too "screechy". If only it had the same sort of presence in single-coil...

To be fair, I'm comparing it to the Seymour Duncan I have in my all-time favourite Tele. Again, this is a home-build. The pups in that are both twin-coil, but they're side-by-side coils rather than stacked.

I've run this pair of pickups through a variety of gear, from a Roland Cube-30 to an Orange AD200B (I'm really a bass player). I favour a hi-gain distortion sound, and run the guitar through a chorus and echo on its way to the amp. I've also tried it through a borrowed Mesa Boogie. These pickups definitely like being cranked through big valves! I found I simply couldn't get the punch I wanted through the Cube, no matter what combinations of amp model and gain I dialled in.

If it was destroyed or stolen, would I buy it again? Hmm... I'd probably go for a different layout. The Steel Twin neck pickup would be on my shopping list, but I'd route the body for a full-size twin-coil humbucker and go for either a Steam Hammer or Hot Slag (again, both from Irongear) in the bridge position.

What I love about them is the construction. They're beautifully made. I also love the price. The packaging is superb, and the diagrams are clear.

I don't actually "hate" anything about them. I'm disappointed about the sound of the bridge pickup in single coil operation, but I'm willing to mess with my wiring to see whether that can be improved.

I've been playing bass guitar for almost forty years. I had a mid-life crisis in February of this year and decided it was time to learn about the other two strings and started teaching myself to play six-string guitar. As part of this growing hobby, I also started building my own Tele clones, for no other reason than I like Teles :-) This home-building has given me the opportunity to try several different combinations of pickups in different positions. The Irongears are definitely up there with the best, but I'm going to stick with side-by-side humbuckers in the future. They're certainly good value for money at under ??60 for the pair. And the supplier, Axetec, have got to be one of the friendliest and most helpful companies I've dealt with in years.