Vintage Vibe Guitars custom Tri-Sonic

These are a trio of single coil pickups designed to replace Burns Tri-Sonics. They are somwhat larger than standard strat pickups. The bridge unit is 10k ohms. The middle and neck pickups are wound to 8.2k ohms. The middle unit is reversed in polarity to be hum canceling when used in combination with one of the others. These pickups have two wires plus a ground to enable all possible wiring combinations. The pickups have screw adjustible pole pieces. The magnets are ceramic 8s, but Alnico-Vs are also available, and easily interchangeable. This set was custom made for me according to specs that I provided, with great input from Pete Biltoft of Vintage Vibe Guitars.

I installed these pickups in a Brian May style guitar. The guitar previously had authentic Burns Tri-Sonics pickups. I loved how the intrument played but the sound was not exactly what I wanted. This guitar has a two octave set neck and a flat top solid body, somewhat like a double cutaway Les Paul special. There are 6 two position switches: Three to select the pickups, and three to reverse phase. The guitar has one knob each for volume and tone. This is a very nice and well crafted instrument, with a clear and ringing unplugged sound. These pickups are considerably deeper than the stock Burns models, fortunately my guitar has a sufficiently deep cavity to accomodate them.

I requested that these pickups be voiced as close to Vintage Vibe P-90 pickups as possible. Pete did not dissapoint. The clean tones are bright and rich. The guitar's phase switching capabilities allow for a broad sonic palate. I love the sound of the neck and bridge pickup together best of all. These pickups are pretty hot and easily drive my tube amps into distortion. This is where these things really come into their own; singing sustain and grit galore!
personally, I favor P-90s over humbuckers every time. The harmonic richness is superior, the highs are crisp and the sound is extremely focused. Vintage Vibe pickups operate silently, even when hum cancelling combinations are not selected. All this having been said, If you bought your Brian May model to sound just like Brian, stick with the Burns pickups. If you want something more versatile and toneful, give Pete at Vintage Vibe a ring.

After stumbling across Vintage Vibe Guitars on the internet, I have now bought a total of 7 pickups from them. I plan to buy more. I cannot say enough positive things about these products and their maker, Pete Biltoft. This man wants to hand make pickups just the way players request them. He works with you to be sure you get exactly what you need. Customer service like this is unheard of anywhere else. If I could, I would change all of my guitars over to Vintage Vibe pickups. The prices are extremely reasonable. I had these pickups custom made for less money than many other off-the -shelf aftermarket models. I must say Vintage Vibe pickups are the best, truly a "boutique" product.