Leaderboard

Well, as I understand it, they are woven from old growth Egyptian cotton, with vintage NOS thread and sewed on manual sewing machines with foot treadles. If you wait, I understand that they are going to launch an artisan aged version for $120. The logo is meticulously scratched off and the cloth is hand ripped for that truly worn out look. A better deal is to attend a PSP and you get a nice limited edition shirt for about $20 with a nicely designed logo. I've got a dozen or so. Honestly, I don't know why the are asking $40. Seems high, but an Adidas or Hilfiger shirt runs about $35. Sports team logo T-shirts tend to run $35 to $40. The days of $10 shirts seem to be long gone.

It's funny, because I have all the electronic test equipment to measure pickup performance, from the magnetic field and strength, to the inductance, capacitance and resistance (LCR). I can even make Bode plots of the full frequency response with a signal generator and an exciter coil with my digital oscilloscope. Truth is, humbuckers in the Gibson "PAF" style are far more similar than they are different. What is different, is generally, quite easily measured. Pickup changing has become a thing, as it is pretty easy, and buying stuff is a lot faster gratification than practicing guitar. LOL 🤔

I believe you need to choose pickups based on the application used for the pickups. I also feel that HRWs are too "hot" and too "HiFi", based on what music I play (Blues, Classic Rock, Americana music). But HRWs are wonderful for Country or Jazz (where "Clean is King" with a lot of headroom). When I was going through my pseudo-jazz phase, I had a Sweet 16 and a Golden Eagle. In those jazz boxes the HRWs were the best humbuckers I ever heard... for clean jazz. I had a 555 that came with HRWs and the pickup were too hot & too HiFi. The HRWs in the 555 didn't give a smooth, round, bluesy breakup but more of a snappy clean tone (great for country, not so much for bluesy rock). Seth Lovers are a great all around pickup and closer to my default Throbak SLE-101 PAF pickups. The Throbaks are slightly rounder and have more mids. So if you have a 535/555 where you want a rounder, mid tone get Throbaks, if you want a slightly less powered pickup, less mids but still the characteristics of a good PAF then get Seth Lovers. Finally, many jazz players really like Schaller pickups because they offer are flatter & duller tone, and which is fine for clean jazz. AGAIN, don't trust general declarations you hear on the internet that say, "These pickups SUCK". Ask that poster what guitar where the stated pickups in and what kind of music did you play with those pickups/guitar combination. AGAIN, judge pickups like guitars, on a one to one comparison and what application you will use them for.

Heh. Well it's only 8 tubes, 4 matched pairs. But that is enough to last a while. Two of the pairs are matched, so I could use them in a 100 watter, but I'm not playing arena shows.

Actually, the HRWs were hailed as great, then yanked out because they were too "HiFi", or too shrill, too bright, too muddy, or too dull (take your choice... I've seen all those comments) only to be replaced by some SD or Throbak or Mojo, etc. Then those muddy, shrill, dull, HiFi pickups get put on Reverb for $500 a set because they're so great. Same with the Schaller pickups. People would often yank them and put in SD 59s or Seth Lovers. Once Heritage started to put in 59s and Seth Lovers, those crappy pickups were yanked out for somebody else's pickup. The same thing is happening with the 224 Parsons pickups. People yank them out because it's easy to do, then sell them for big $$$$, extolling the virtues of these great pickups. And if some random person winds a pickup and puts a Pat Pending sticker on it, it becomes a PAF and is hailed as a wonderful, detailed, vintage sounding pickup with amazing harmonic bloom and sustain for days! It's amazing what a little sticker does for the sound. .... or at least for a while. I'm not saying we're all gullible, but yeah, we can be!

Years ago, I saw Keith Richards and Ron Wood play together in Salt Lake City with the New Barbarians. They were both playing Mesa IIC amps and they sounded great. I was right up front so I could hear those amps really good!