Vintage Vibe Guitars HCC-Rider

This is a humbucker-sized blade-style single coil pickup. I use the ceramic magnet. Pete was really great about listening to what I wanted from the pickup and giving me advice about the specs. This is the neck pickup winding; the Impedence is 7.4 k ohms.

This went first into an Ibanez Artcore semi-hollowbody, but has since been moved into my Eastman T146 archtop. This review will be of the pickup in the Eastman. I use the pickup in the neck position.

I'm replacing the stock pickup, a Kent Armstrong humbucker. The humbucker was very nice, but I wanted a single coil pickup.

These pickups came to my attention through Jim Soloway's guitars. Jim uses these pickups in his guitars and the results are wonderful. Their inherend piano-like quality compliments the Swan's unique timbre perfectly. I wanted that same responsiveness to the timbre of my instrument, so these seemed like a good fit.

These pickups have a lot of power. They don't feel overwound or super high-output, but they do feel really Big.

I play this pickup through a '65 Blackface Fender Bassman head and a 1x15" cabinet. This adds a lot of girth on top of the pickup being strong-voiced.

The pickup is well balanced, with a very smooth upper midrange hump. The fundamental quality of the note is rich and complex, so I turn both tone controls on the amp, treble and bass, in order to eliminate any extraneous noise from the pickup or the amplifier. I can control how bright or dark the tone is with the tone control on the guitar, so that at full tone it resembles the acoustic timbre of the guitar, but can go all the way to heavily muted Metheny-esque sounds. There is a lot of expressive range inbetween; the pickup responds dramatically to small changes in tonal quality.

I use this guitar exclusively for Jazz. That still means a fairly broad range of sounds, but they all fall under one variety or other of Jazz. This pickup is a perfect fit for anyone looking to craft a unique sound. I have only heard this pickup in the bridge position through Soloway Guitars, but it works wonderfully there aswell.

This is certainly a pickup that I would replace. It is the best I have ever heard at what it does.

I am currently a Jazz Guitar student at a midwest music conservatory. I have been playing for about 7 years, seriously for the last 4. I also own a Danelectro 59 DC reissue from 2007, which I bought on a whim but has replaced all of my other solid and semi-hollow bodied guitars because of its versitility. I use the Dano for everything I can't play on the Eastman.

This is the most beautifully made pickup I've ever encountered. Pete is a real master at construction and delivers incredibly high-quality products.

I compared this pickup to a 1964 Gibson P-90 pickup from an Uncle's vintage ES-330. I found the P-90 perfect at one or two sounds, and the HCC-Rider perfect at five or six, albeit different, tones. It was certainly better made.

I've had this pickup for a year and a half, and its been in my Eastman for the last year. As soon as I heard it through the Eastman I stopped worrying about the tone of my guitar. Pete Biltoft took the time to listen to what I wanted and sent me his best estimation. I was completely blown away by the result. I won't buy pickups from anybody else.