BLASPHEMY! New pickups in my Mille

[LK155]

38 Special Pickups:

Fellow by the name of Mark Atkinson out of Oakville, Ontario (a half hour west of Toronto) is a full-time guitar tech specializing in fretwork, repairs, and restorations. He also winds his own pickups.

The kind of guy who doesn't advertise. He has a modest presence on Facebook, but doesn't have a website. The kind of guy who keeps hand-written notes about exactly where in the winding process he wants to introduce a bit of randomness the machine wouldn't normally allow. All in the name of tone. The kind of guy who doesn't charge an arm and a leg for his best pickups.

I had the opportunity to hear a pair of his 38 Special pickups recently and was very impressed with their clarity. No mud here. For a week I borrowed the Ibanez AR420 in which they were installed, and really came to like the sound.

Apparently, these pickups are wound with 38 gauge wire, which I gather is a little lighter than usual. Hence the name. They only measure about 2 ohms.

But clean and clear? Wow.

Decided to pull the trigger and have a set of them installed in one of my guitars. And the Mille H155 was the perfect recipient. It originally had Seth Lovers. My H535 also has Seths, and to my ears,

they always sounded better than in the Mille. So off to Oakville went the Mille. 24 hours later I have it back with the 38 Specials installed, and 500K pots all around.

Here's a very quick sound sample, using the baby Quilter head into a 2x12, 'Surf' voice, tone controls flat:

[Vanschoyck]

I don't know about blasphemy but that makes a really nice sounding guitar, a very pretty sound.

[schundog]

Sound great, Lyle. And Blasphemy?! Nah. it's not like Seth Lovers are Heritage exclusives, and lots of guys swap pickups, even on Historic Reissue Gibson Les Pauls (Now THAT I don't understand!!) Are these new pickups P-90s in Humbucker sized enclosures? They look a lot like the Phat Cat pickups, what with the adjustment screws in the middle of the pickup cover. Whatever the case, enjoy your new tones.

[FredZepp]

Clarity that just jumps out of the speaker....

[golferwave]

They sound fantastic ... well done!

[Steiner]

Very nice. It sounds like things are thawing out up there.

[LK155]

Ah, yup. Ice went out of Georgian Bay last week.

[Kuz]

Awesome!!! As everyone here knows I am all about, "buy the chassis and the rest is fair game to change". Lyle, sounds like these made a big improvement. Terry McInturff says, "Pickups are only microphones for the wooden chassis and some like Shure SM57s and some like Neumann u87s". He also told me about how Barbara Streisand will only sing through one model Neumann mic because she knows that only that mic captures her own individual voice the best. Pickups are like that so why not search for the best "mic" for your guitar no matter who made it?

 

BTW, wouldn't 38 gauge wire be bigger and thus heavier than the 42 gauge wire normally used?

[LK155]

 

 

BTW, wouldn't 38 gauge wire be bigger and thus heavier than the 42 gauge wire normally used?

 

 

Good question.

If 'gauge' means thousands of an inch, 38/1000" is going to be smaller than 42/1000"

That was my assumption, but maybe it means something different.

Come to think of it, 10 gauge household electrical wire is bigger than 14 gauge, so I've probably got it backwards.

[Millennium Maestro]

P90 is a excellent pickup in a millennium! 38 gauge is a heavier wire which will also reduce resistance in the windings.

Can't wait to see you at PSP, I just heard you and Kuz groaning.....

[LK155]

Sound great, Lyle. And Blasphemy?! Nah. it's not like Seth Lovers are Heritage exclusives, and lots of guys swap pickups, even on Historic Reissue Gibson Les Pauls (Now THAT I don't understand!!) Are these new pickups P-90s in Humbucker sized enclosures? They look a lot like the Phat Cat pickups, what with the adjustment screws in the middle of the pickup cover. Whatever the case, enjoy your new tones.

 

Sorry for the delay in answering. They're single coils.