Product: Wolfetone Custom Vintage Humbucker
Price Paid: US $62
Submitted
06/26/2002
at
06:43pm
by
Dietrich Sachs
Features
:
Pickup features: Humbucker Passive
Impedence or other specs: Bridge is heavy at 13k Neck is closer to 11k. Bridge is ceramic; neck is alnico 5
Instrument
:
Model of guitar or bass: Paul Reed Smith EG, heavily modified.
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Harmonic Design Z90s
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change: I had a sound in my head and I wanted to hear it in real life. Too much to ask?
Sound
:
No Opinion
Perceived output level: Typical Humbucker output. Bridge is noticeably hotter than neck by 5 ticks.
Tone: Vintage
Sonic evaluation: 99 Fender 3 channel twin with Svetlana Power tubes and Tesla JJEcc83 preamp tubes (Denis Rozon at Tonebone pedals turned me on to these). Tone controls at 8 across the board, presence maxed.
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I like very clean Jazz to typical 70's rock distortion. Not a metalhead. I pretty much said as much and he made the pickups to order. Pretty even frequency response with a great smooth treble and plenty of bass. Bass in bridge pickup is a little spongy (for metal) at full volume but turn volume down slightly and it cleans up pretty well.
Overall Rating
:
10
Comments: These are fine pickups. Wolfe winds output slightly high but not superhigh like the Lawrence xl500s. He actually guides the winds by hand and I think it makes a big difference. I actually sat there and watched him make these pickups.
Here's how it worked out: basically, he asked me to send clips of what I wanted, so I chose some recordings that I thought were good, and emailed mp3 clips. I stressed getting a vintage vibe with even frequency response. He pretty much delivered exactly what I wanted. It's that great sound where there's just a hint of ambiguity between the harmonic overtones and the place you hit at the fret. Both pickups are great played clean, chimey cean and just perfect. Gain sounds are great: no high frequency loss. Clapton and Gary Moore Gibson. Not shrill either.
I should also mention that I have modified this PRS so that the bridge has old strat style stamped steel saddles. Bridge setup and components make a huge difference. But these pickups sounded pretty decent even with crappy Graphtech saddles (which I used to recommend. live and learn). One of the benefits of buying Wolfe's pickups is that he's willing to bend: he's willing to make changes, switch out magnets and so forth, until the customer is satisfied.
Price was very reasonable. I also had some tele pickups wound which were great, still working on that guitar. This one is done, I will never change anything else.