Sheptone Brian Kahanek Signature Set

Typical pickup features here. Alnico 5 Mags, choice of polished covers, raw nickel (a matte brushed aluminum look) or uncovered. 4 conductor for coil splitting, etc..

8.4 ~ 8.5K on the bridge, 8.1 ~ 8.2 on the neck

2009 Tokai LS150. Installed in both positions. They replaced the stock tokai (Gotoh) alnico 5 pickups.

I tried a pearly gates, gibson 57 classic and Tone Zone in the bridge and a 57 classic, Alnico II pro and Dimarzio Air Norton in the neck.

Aside from Brian, I don't know who else uses this particular set (as far as big name artists go) but Slash is using Shep's AB customs. There's a youtube video of him with zz top and john mayer using them.

It's a moderate output. Nothing like a ceramic or active pickup but more punch than the pickups I tried with the alnico II mags.

I primarily use a splawn nitro but also have a small Crate V3112T 30 watt tube combo with the tone tubby speaker as well as an old 100 watt carvin valvemaster. I've also used the guitar through our singer's mesa stiletto trident and rhythm player's bogner XTC. The guitar sounds incredible through them all. The sound is very clear, uncompressed and open sounding.

Without trying to sound too over zealous about them, they took an above average instrument that had an ordinary les paul tone into an above average instrument with a legendary tone. It really was a huge improvement. These gave my Tokai "THAT" tone... that tone that defined the instrument. The other pickups I tried really just didn't do it to the degree that these do. The Gibson 57's came close but didn't have as much of the openness and airy quality (particularly on the neck pickup)

I play every style except super brootalz metal. I was surprised at how well they handled the nitro wide open at full gain and boosted. They stay tight, clear and clean and leads (even on the neck pickup) are well defined and very articulate and missing a lot of the undesirable compresson or flub that I've heard from higher output pickups (Like the JB).

The tone is absolutely ridiculous. Cleans, blues, classic rock, modern rock and metal, they just kill.

If something happened to them, I'd probably hit shep up for a customized set. I know he's working with BK on a slightly hotter bridge pickup called the Red Headed Stepchild so I may see what that's about.

The ones I have are incredible though but I always hear things I want tweaked around. I've got numerous other guitars that I wouldn't mind putting sheptones in so when the time for that comes, I'll see what he can do. The different guitars have different tonal qualities that I know what I want from a pickup to best go with and compliment the tone be it needing a brighter pickup or a darker one, etc.

He's pretty good with communications and answering questions I had before I ordered them.

There's ultimately a premium price to pay for premium service and premium products. I know that there's a joe blow winding his own PAF's on every internet street corner shop these days so it's hard to tell who has the "best".. because they all have the best ones (naturally).

While I'd love to have the opportunity to sit down and hear with my own ears a pair of Sliders, Boggs, RS, Fralins, Holmes, etc PAF's.. the cost would be absurd so I took a shot in the dark based on the sound clips, customer testimonials from the various forums as well as the info on the sheptone website.

After dealing with him and hearing his pickups, I'm confident that I made a good choice and HIGHLY recommend them if you're after "THAT" les paul tone.

If you want to hear mine in action jump on you tube and search for fastredponycar and there will be videos with them.