Product: Van Zandt Trubucker+
Price Paid: USD 110.00
Submitted
10/15/2006
at
08:27pm
by
Ben
Email: bennybwise at yahoo<dot>com
Features
:
Passive Humbucker w/ an alnico 4 magnet; I'm guessing around 8.5-9Kohms... I think
Instrument
:
-I used to have this in an a Garz custom acoustic/electric hybrid, and I've had it sitting around the house for about a year until I repalced my stock gibson 498R and 498T in my L.P. Custom with this and a Trubucker.
-Bridge position
-Trubucker(neck)
-Not really sure whos using it
-Reason for change... the stock Gibsons were a little brittle in the high end and overally pretty sterile sounding
Sound
:
9
-The output is pretty much the same as your standard PAF... maybe a little hotter.
-a voodoo modded 6505 combo with keeley, MXR and BBE effects
-I used to think it was a little muddy, but I realized that I just had it in a very warm sounding guitar(has an acoustic bridge). It has a warm smokiness to it that is great in my Les Paul Custom, but was a little to much for my chambered body hybrid. I like getting my gain from my amp and having a pickup that's warm, responsive and has a broad frequency range without that harsh mid-spike of high gain pickups. This is a great pickup, but it's not a pickup for everyone. I've got a Custom Shop Duncan EVH, some Suhr DSVs and a DSH+, and they're all awesome at what they do. Tonally, this pickup is somehere between ZZ Top and early Van Halen ( not as soft a bass response as the EVH and not quite as well balanced(imho)but well enough with great harmonic overtones similar to that ZZ Top sound). Hard to describe really, but it does that smokey blues thing very well... and can deffinitely hold it's own in a high gain amp too. I would really recomend this pickup for a L.P. player looking for a blues sound thats just a little on the smokey side with a little more gain and chunk... a good choice when a Fralin is just a little too pretty sounding.
Overall Rating
:
9
If it were lost or stolen, I'm not sure if I'd get another one. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to try. I'll deffinitely never sell it though; I'm told that Van Zandt is switching over to alnico 5s due to availability problems of alnico 4s, which is a real shame, because this a really unique pickup that does what it does very well. As for the ultimate pickup, there is no one pickup for THAT sound, thats why I've got about 4 or 5 favorite pickups, but if you want that smokey bar room blues thing going on, put one of these in an old L.P. and enjoy. I'll give it a 9, because I don't think I've ever heard a 10... and yes that includes my EVH.
