March 26, 2024 • 51 mins
Welcome to the Southern Pacific realm of guitar making where passion, innovation, and craftsmanship converge. In this episode of the Aotearoa Guitar Show, we speak with Glyn Evans, the adept hands behind Mr. Glyn's Pickups, for a captivating journey into the intricate art of guitar pickups, their restoration, and the vibrant guitar scene in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Glyn makes some of the most amazing and innovative guitar pickups in his shop on Te Ika-a-Māui North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Enjoy as he takes us on a ride describing how he builds and repairs pickups, tests them with players, and gets a little sad about the guitar that got away.
More shows already recorded and in editing mode, come along for the ride!
Please like, subscribe and leave a review for more Aotearoa New Zealand Guitar Show content!
Mr Glyn's Pickups - https://mrglynspickups.com
Mr Glyn's Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MrGlynsPickups
Blackstratblues (mentioned in the show) - https://www.youtube.com/@blackstratblues
Whether you are a seasoned musician, just beginning to explore the fascinating world of guitar sounds, or just interested in some of the music culture in Aotearoa, this episode promises to be a fun and enjoyable experience. It echoes the belief that a good sound, whether on a stage or in a studio, begins with the guitarist and their love for the craft.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
Kia ora! Nau mai, haere mai to the Aotearoa Guitar Show, where we catalog,
explore, interview, and discuss all things guitars in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This is a show that will be highlighting and exploring the guitar players,
makers, builders, and breakers of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I hope you'll join me on this journey as we talk to some interesting people,
(00:33):
learn the historical facts and fictions about the guitar playing in New Zealand,
and learn about some new bands and new music.
In this episode, I'll be speaking with Glenn Evans of Mr. Glenn's Pickups.
So without further ado, let's talk to Mr. Glenn.
Hey, how are you, Glenn?
Good. Hey, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. No, you know what?
(00:54):
I just was like 10 minutes early and I've sat down and I played the guitar.
How often does that happen? Yeah, can't get much better than that. How's Moodywide today?
Oh, beautiful, beautiful day. Yeah, the lovely day on the
beach this morning with the dog and yeah and it's
just really nice yeah so i just wanted to chat with
(01:14):
you today ask you a few questions see where that leads us to and
yeah go ahead and kick it off i you are
an immigrant as i assume from your website
as as am i you're from wales originally i
am yep fantastic i mean i've been here i've been
here 18 and a bit years and to
be honest i think i was always a kiwi i didn't quite
(01:37):
i don't think i ever quite fitted in you know
i was the guy wearing shorts and jangles when it wasn't quite appropriate
to so yeah totally understand can
relate as well hey so tell me sorry i'm i'm gonna interview you now tell me
tell me about this podcast what's the plan what's what's what's it all about
yeah absolutely i think that there is and you've been doing some of this yourself
(01:59):
as well as i've I think there's a lot of talent here in the country,
both on the actual playing side as well as the building side,
that is just not that well known in the world.
So I'm trying to catalog a lot of that.
I intend to talk to many players as well as historical figures as well who may
(02:22):
not be playing anymore, but they have played in the past and recorded and or built in the past.
I'm trying to track down...
Whoever might be the Janssen expert for one as well.
So I have a 620 that needs to be restored sitting down here.
And there's a lot of people that are very, very into those amps.
I see one in the background there for yourself. Yeah.
(02:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So and I think if I can swing it, I might try to talk to Clary,
who's actually super local to me, I found out.
So I was going to reach out and have a chat there.
So yeah, just kind of a cataloging and
a way to kind of put some some of this out to the
world from from what i've seen so far here in new zealand which has
been amazing the community is just huge and great
(03:05):
so yeah yeah we all know each other yeah
it seems that way because i yeah
i mean clary's been through that a couple of times yeah the first time he really
needed to and the second time he didn't really need to because he'd already
done it a few years previously but um lovely lovely bloke and they're really
for the for the nuts and bolts to the insides of them, there's not really a greater authority.
(03:30):
Nice. Talk to Simon Gottlieb as well. Yes. Simon Gottlieb. On my list. Yep.
Your other guy, I suppose. Yep. For the ins and outs and nuts and bolts,
I'm not sure about the history. Okay.
Because he's a young fellow like me. But yeah, but Clary was,
yeah, Clary knows all those people who were involved in making them.
(03:50):
Oh, that's great. That's perfect.
There's a real philosophy for repairers. I repaired guitars for 25 years.
And there's an instinct that a lot of us have or had of keeping that as original as possible.
You know, don't change stuff. but sometimes the
(04:10):
customer wants you to change stuff so that's fine
it's their guitar you know you just you've got you've got
to work that one out and it's hard because you often see
vintage stuff that was that's that
was especially stuff that stuff that guitars from
the early 70s so stuff that was about 15 years old in
the 80s you know it was its
(04:31):
lowest value point yes you know you'll get stuff oh
it's got a brass nut now it's got this is your someone's ragged
it out for a super distortion and and but yeah
and i don't i mean i don't look at
that and go oh isn't that a terrible thing because that
was that customer's decision at the time right but yeah i
don't know i'd you know personally i'd rather see something that's been modified with
(04:54):
the different points in its history yeah than something that's
never been played yeah i i and i.
Think if it's it's almost better when
you get it along with a bill of lading
right like here are the things that have have been changed at certain times
and the other thing that i like to see is when something comes with all
of its original parts and a little baggie that's that's
(05:15):
actually nice too because you know there there's still
the opportunity to measure those and see if they are you
know bound for the landfill or if they're actually something
worth keeping around for another project or something along those lines so
yeah sure yeah sure so so hey
i've i had a look at your youtube channel last night and
i really liked it i mean there's there's well
(05:38):
you got 31 followers now you had 30 would be 30 before i when i got there or
subscribers i should say yes really cool it's like that algorithm needs to discover
you i really like i really like i really like the stuff and i just what i watched
all three i thought you know usually i would just have a little quick looking
glance and go oh yeah that's what,
but actually they're really it's really cool stuff yeah thanks yeah i
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mean i'm on my own learning journey and i'm trying to share that as
i as i go through it so it's that's kind of a passion i'm a constant and forever
tinker and autodidact as well so it's why not why not share some of that with
with the rest of the world so that's yeah that's been my my kind of drive behind
that so thank you i greatly appreciate that but isn't youtube great for that
(06:21):
because people you you know,
you've got a curious mind and you can't stop learning stuff. Exactly.
Isn't that a great way to get an outlet for that, I suppose?
It really is. It really is. And it's nice hearing some feedback from folks and
hearing about other people that have run into some of the similar problems,
like with the SM57 and the fakes.
(06:42):
That one has done amazingly well as far as views go, because I think a lot of
people are like, is this a real microphone from the real manufacturer?
And so they start looking and it's nice that
they can find that and figure out whether or not they have it or not
so yeah it's been great yeah yeah thank
you first thing i did was a drop down the workshop graphic 57 and
(07:03):
give it give the end a twiddle yep yeah i knew
i knew it i knew it went i knew it twiddled i knew it
yeah i just had to go yeah i have
a day job co-worker who did the exact same thing he was
like now i have like five microphones i have to go check so so
thanks a lot lot but also thanks a lot so uh yeah
yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah it's been it's been a lot of fun i'm enjoying putting
(07:26):
it together we got the stack more to go some fun stuff like creative ways to
repair tolex is is on the the map as well so uh oh yeah i know someone you've
got anyone to talk to about that? No.
Well what's his name just moved down south repairs does recovering
amps his name suddenly has gone
(07:48):
but i'll i'll send it to you later yeah that'd be great that'd
be fantastic appreciate it yeah yeah like i said
i've got a long list of people to chat with which is
great that's that's going to be a lot of fun i
think so getting getting to know some of these folks and and
hearing what they're about and how they're getting on here
so i if you have
(08:09):
some time there i'll showed some questions at you
so so you you build pickups but you
also do restores and rebuilds of pickups or
just oh pickup yes yes yes okay so
if you have not yet but only only pickups it you know
i used to do everything but now i've just i'm just doing
just in pickups and so i don't cut guitars and nobody
(08:29):
can make me that's fantastic
yeah it's good to know that that you're focused solely on
pickups now um yeah yeah i have one of
your cloud nines in in one of my guitars and love love
it it's in the neck and just sounds so sweet
it's just like the perfect pickup but has the growl when i when i bring that
(08:50):
volume knob up as well which which is yeah it's just it's so much better than
any of the other pickups that i've had in there so it's great yeah so i'm gonna
And I guess that building new is probably more straightforward than repairing.
But I'm assuming that repairing or restoring pickups has its own fun challenge to it.
(09:12):
Can you tell me a little bit about what that looks like compared to building new?
Yeah. I mean, it just depends on what's there. Often you don't have to rewind them.
Often it's where, because we're talking about wire that's, I mean, it's stupidly small.
All i mean it's i've got a video on youtube where i'm standing down by the sea
yeah it's an island island one and a half kilometers away and that's how much
(09:36):
wire is in a strap pickup so you can imagine how thin it must be to fit you
know to fit in the space the size of your finger,
one half case so it's it's yeah so it
can break you know you go and funnily enough i've
just i've just had a done a couple of repairs this morning
and they were humbuckers where the wire
from the the winding goes to another thin little little wire
(09:58):
not thicker but it's still quite thin and then that goes out
and that's where that winding was joining that
other wire had just broken one of them had been handled a bit roughly you know
i see people picking pickups up like they were house bricks and and like gotta
be you've got it you've got to treat it like it was a baby mouse you know yeah
so easy to um but is there a word for a baby mouse probably.
(10:26):
Shoot off on some zoological tangent but um yeah so so often it's a break like
that there's also a common repairs like 70s strap pickups they very very commonly
start sounding really thin,
And that's actually a break in the winding. Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask,
is it like a loss of insulation, or is it a full-on break in the winding?
(10:51):
Because this is insulated wire as well. It's run through a path of lacquer or
enamel or whatever it's coating.
Now, those 70s ones were potted, so being dipped in wax after they're manufactured
to stop the winding vibrating.
Now, the 70s ones were dipped in lacquer. ah now
(11:12):
lacquer can degrade over time so i
don't know exactly why it's so common with
them but that seems to be the the common factor interesting is
that is that more the thought is amongst quite
a few people that that lacquer degrades so if
you imagine it checking like you would get run on all the
guitar and it's inside the pickup so it just takes the wire out
(11:33):
with it or at least the insulation i see yeah so commonly so
you would expect that to be you put it on test meter it says open circuit so
you go oh well that's broken but actually they still make a sand okay
but it's very very thin because they're
sort of held together kind of by capacitance really yeah so they're not really
working properly so that's a very common one is the 70s strats and that's kind
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of what i learned on oh nice that's good to start with the one that fails the
most so well when i When I started winding pickups,
which was in the mid to late 90s.
They were considered old rubbish because they got that 15, 20 year thing,
you know, that they got to the lowest point of any value.
(12:18):
Mid 70s straps were not considered fancy pants vintage things like they are now.
So if a pickup went, well, we'll put something, a nice new one in there.
So there were lots of them around that were dead. So that's kind of what I learned
on was mucking about with cheap pickups, which is what they were.
Isn't it funny how the world changes? Yeah.
(12:41):
And, you know, going, you see how many windings can they get on one of these
before the whole thing bangs and falls apart and all that kind of stuff,
rather than trying to restore them to vintage. That was what I was into at the time, you know.
Whereas now, you know, you're putting them back to what they should be.
Right. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic.
Yeah. So you play out as well as build the pickups and do your other work?
(13:03):
Fantastic. What's your go-to rig when you go and play out?
Jensen. The Jensen? Nice. All Jensen-based. But that was a head,
which I built into a combo.
Oh, nice. So I wanted a half-open back, one by 12, just because it's much more convenient.
And then I can angle it back to point up at me as well, which is what I want.
(13:24):
I don't want it all going through my knees to front the house to disturb other
people. Right. So, yeah. So I use that.
I'm more of a pedal guy than an amp overdrive person.
So that's, you know, it clips a little like all valve amps do,
but most of the stuff comes from the floor.
(13:46):
Currently, I'm using an Epiphone Flying V. Nice.
Because I used to be afraid of not being flash enough for a guitar like that,
and I don't care anymore.
Off but but pickup wise you know
that that's that's that's my that's my test area
you know doing gigs is the r&d department
because every every pickup needs to be you know i test it in here different
(14:11):
amps different pedals different different whatever but until you get in front
of a drummer you don't know yeah yep i actually come from a drumming background
so right i've I've always been guitar adjacent for a very long time, but yeah,
I picked up my first guitar in like 91, but yeah.
So that mix is always the interesting bit.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. And do you, and it's a lot of it's in,
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it's in, it's in the clarity, well high in clarity, but also the bottom end.
And it's often too much bottom end, especially neck pickup.
You know, if you go to the neck pickup and you just evaporate into the swamp,
then it's not going to do you any good.
So yeah that's a good test and practicing with
a drummer and bass player really cool but with a gig
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you know they've done a few gigs at every prototype and
you're in different rooms in different situations and then you
start really getting an idea of it and
not only that but it's the feel of it nice now
as an amp guy you'll you'll know that that you
plug into a transistor this example you're playing a valve amp and it feels
(15:18):
different under your fingers yeah and you can't quite ever explain that to a
non-non-guitar player but pickups feel different you know it and and that's
the thing you know it needs you need to feel like you've got that that dynamic,
thing that you can tickle it or you can dig in and it's going to be a completely
different piece Yeah. Yeah.
(15:40):
Yeah. Absolutely. You can only really tell if you're too loud with the people,
you know, and you can really feel how you can.
So I like to back off as soon as the singer opens his gob, I'm backing off because
I'm sharing his frequencies.
He's kind of more important than me, which is a shame, but that's how the world is.
(16:02):
So I need, you know, you need to be able to do that without dancing on pedals for the whole gig, so.
Yeah, that actually brings up another point I was going to ask you about.
So I, two things. One was I, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's said about
different pickups pairing well
with certain guitars, like a fine wine and potato or cheese, whichever.
(16:23):
Do you think that that's true, or do you feel that there's other specific amps
that should be paired with a specific pickup?
It's marketing.
It's like saying, what is a good sound?
Now, I don't know. It's good for what?
(16:46):
I think a great example of that is It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones.
Jones yeah there's a guitar that goes and which
i allegedly is jimmy page doing a session but anyway it's a horrible horrible
guitar sound but it's perfect on that record so what's a good sound right yeah
(17:08):
so it's it's so i don't really say i wouldn't say oh you should use this,
type of pickup with mahogany or with
a scale length or what have you because i
don't know what we don't know what that customer is trying to achieve right
so you know a telecast is a good example you know people want to achieve quite
(17:30):
different things with telecasters you know some people do want the really thin
like a 70s telly which has that kind of ice picky thing which you You might want to use it for funk.
Whereas most people, most, a lot of people, I think most modern people now don't
want that for a telly or they don't want a telly to play country.
(17:52):
If you look at Fender's or Fender's more modern demos of telecasters,
these people are not playing country.
You know? So you go, okay, well, they've done their research. Yeah.
So, and I sell more, my biggest selling pickup is a telly pickup. pickup.
It's the Cruel Mistress, but it's not a pingy, jingy, jingy sort of Tele pickup.
(18:14):
It's got a bit more girth and it will happily rock.
And I think it's people who bought a guitar for the looks, and let's face it,
they are cool, and they feel the sound isn't with them, so they want to change that.
So I think, yeah, what's a good sound? I don't know. It's in the ear of the beholder.
(18:35):
Yeah, I know exactly what I prefer.
That's not necessarily a good sound. It's just my preference. Sure.
So I think it's nice for people to have help buying pickups.
Information is very hard to come by, but it's not quite as simple as mahogany, therefore, this.
(18:59):
So I have on my website a kind of help thing for buying, but it's simply two questions, really.
You know what have you got what you're trying to do and
then and then and then i reply as a human
being rather than an algorithm right making
it up so yeah no that's actually really really cool and i'm again being of the
(19:22):
tinker that i am i i'm always wanting to try something that somebody might in
the in the marketing might feel like it's unusual or not right just to see myself
itself what that might produce.
So I totally, totally get it. Following on to that,
though, there's a question I had in my head about people moving more away from
(19:43):
actual amplifiers and more into the computer realm and plugins and IRs and all of these,
even the Helix and the various other Tonex and the various other pedal-based modeling platforms.
Do you think the needs, or do you feel, or have you seen any changes that you
would make to the pickups in order to accommodate that usage of technology?
(20:08):
Or is it pretty much a straight crossover and they'll dial in their tone via the modeling setups?
Just curious about that one. Yeah, no, it's really, I think that modeling setup is so malleable.
So easily malleable that, yeah, I think, leave it to those guys at that end to change things.
(20:31):
You know, and I think it's great. I think that modelling of the whole thing
is fantastic, especially if you're touring, if you can have consistency.
You know, every gig you're going to have pretty much the same thing and such
if you're using in-ears or what have you.
Yeah, great, you know. But interestingly, parallel to that,
the resurgence in pedals and valves and
(20:52):
stuff it's interesting isn't it it really is because
it's it's it's almost this this dichotomy you know
what kind of player are you you know are
you are you a fractal or a fender twin what are
you what are you going to do you know yeah it is really really
interesting and i i feel like there's overall there's
too much debate on it when it's really all about
(21:14):
like the whole concept of shut up and play
you know let's let's have a good time kind of thing and and
let's create and you know whatever whatever is
accessible to you especially with a lot of people maybe in
more close housing now so you're
not going to rock in with a fender twin and you
know into your apartment and have anything less than
(21:35):
the police called on you within the next five to ten minutes so
so i think it it all has its place and i
think i think it's just fun to watch for me so that's
just to see kind of what's going on like i'm i'm all about the valves at
this point and and what i can do with those and
what new things i might be able to build with those because it's
i kind of like the retro you know
(21:57):
like i in another life i probably would have been a steampunk kid.
You know so but but this is kind of where where i've
landed and and i do enjoy that but yeah i mean
excellent perspective on that and the modeling bits and i
think you probably hit the nail on the head with like for touring
it makes total sense to grab a little box
and throw it in a bag and off you go and
(22:17):
you plug into front of house and and you're you're
good yeah i think i think there
but there are quite a few aspects of this i think even for home stuff for recording
but then also for in the amp world for like if you haven't got i mean i i used
to own a guitar shop in the uk yeah with a lot of second-hand gear and so you
(22:38):
know i'm very familiar with what what an old twin sounds like or a JCM800 or what have you.
Not everybody is. So how do you find out?
How do you find out if that sort of sound is your thing, you know.
Or not, or what different sort of cabinets?
And I think it's just a great way to learn that, you know, that you might go,
(22:59):
oh, well, yeah, I'm definitely a JCM 800 sort of player, but yeah,
I know about a quad, though, because of the punchiness, you know, whereas,
you know, I think I've had the benefit of trying a lot of those,
in fact, gigging with a lot of those things.
You know, I really like a half open back one by 12. You know,
I like this. I like it. I like it flapping around a little bit. Right.
(23:21):
You know, whereas a quad, have you ever, you ever done any, do you play out?
Yeah. I don't play out. No. But, but yeah, like I said, being adjacent,
I've had, last band I was in ages ago had full stack actually.
So, but yeah, which moves mountains,
but, but yeah, I mean, a quad has that kind of almost a
boominess to it and having that close back makes a makes a big difference that
(23:45):
i actually built a 2x12 myself and i put a full close back on it and i love
it but when i do any recording with it i have to drop the bass massively because
the whole back baffle is just,
reverberating with with the speakers so it yeah it's nice
when it's in the room with me but when i'm you
know trying to mix it into something i have to bring that that bass way down
(24:07):
on the guitar signal so you're creating quite a lot of air pressure in there
and also what what i've used fine with a quad is it's a cannon so you've got
a punch going right across the room yeah and you've only got to sound a little
to the side and it's quite a bit quieter.
Which is just what, I mean, why would you do that to a sound guy? Yeah.
You know, this poor person's got this thing, blasting guitar.
(24:31):
You know, so, yeah, I just like that.
And I think with a half-open back, you do get a little bit of resonance from
that enclosure, but it still lets that speaker... Yeah, bleeds out a bit,
some of that. Yeah, yeah, it's really nice. Yeah.
But, I mean, that's just a personal, again, that's a personal thing,
you know? I mean, I'm a big Malcolm Young fan, and so I shouldn't be knocking Marshall forward.
(24:55):
Yeah, I mean, everything has its place, right? So, like, I couldn't imagine
the Malcolm Young sound through, I don't know, a Selmer or even Fender, really, I think.
I mean, you could probably still make it work because it's in the player mostly.
But yeah, you know what I'm saying.
And it is in the player, isn't it? It is. This is the start.
(25:17):
That's the start of the signal chain.
You know, it's the player. Yeah, absolutely. And from repairing guitars,
I'd find, you know, I could have done, like, major work on a guitar.
I remember doing one for Chet O'Connell, who's a great player worth talking to as well. Yeah.
And I re-threaded his Strat. So I spent some time with this guitar,
(25:38):
and I thought, you know, lovely.
And then Chet comes in to pick it up, and he plays it, and it sounds completely different.
I mean at least 800 times better because
he's a fantastic player but really you know
it felt good to me but in a
different obviously differently to him you know
and that's and that's i always find that interesting yep you
(26:00):
know what what would i sound like with brian may's rig
right sound like you unfortunately i
think that's the truth yeah yeah i
did want to ask you what was was your actual first guitar
and amplifier that you that you had um
all right right it was it
was i was 16 i'd been
(26:22):
saving up for a motorbike and i
was around my mate's house and he he linked me his brother's record of high
voltage of acdc right you know people will land other people it was very good
yeah and that changed my completely changed my mind and i bought bought a guitar
off him that his uncle had made and put together on bits.
(26:46):
I didn't even know what it was, really. And I don't have it anymore,
and I'm sure it was pretty bad, because there weren't guitar kits available back then.
And as an amp, I had an old radiogram with an oval speaker, a valve radiogram.
And that was awful, and I couldn't get distortion out of it.
(27:07):
And I bought the cheapest distortion pedal I could find, which at the time was
a Ross distortion. Okay. Okay.
Now suddenly become really cool yeah so say i have a book with a picture of that in it so yes,
and they've been re-released and they and they're
all being made by josh singing me and yeah anyway so
that was that and that was awful so certainly nothing to be proud of in in
(27:30):
any way nice yeah similar to that and
what's what would you say is the one guitar or amplifier that they got away
that you wished you had back or is there one yeah yeah there is and everyone's
got the story yeah sure no it was i had a pre-cbs duo sonic oh wow that was
yeah yeah it was really nice,
(27:52):
and it was great for that or if you're trying to write songs or what have you
and you get stuck you pick the guitar up it's completely different from all
the others and he had the narrowest neck ever wow it was it was great yeah and
i sold it very very cheaply when i came to new zealand Ah, gotcha. Yeah.
Yeah. It seems like moving will do that to you a lot. Yeah.
(28:14):
I don't know why I didn't take, I shipped everything else because I had like
half a container or whatever you get and, you know, amps and guitars and stuff.
For some reason, I sold that one. Yeah.
Yeah, the one that got away, yeah. Yeah, but there you go.
So what are some of your favourite El Toro artists that you're currently listening
(28:35):
to or your favourite to go back to?
Well, the last, funnily enough, the last album I actually listened to,
which was this morning, is Warren Mendonca, Blackstrap Blues.
Have you heard him? I have not, but yeah, that's going on the playlist, so.
Absolutely. Yeah, he lives in West Auckland, actually. Okay, cool.
Yeah, just just yeah you have to you have
(28:56):
to hear it he's he's very he's i've actually had a couple of lessons
off him online as well a couple of guitar lessons to try
and get me out of what do they what do they call it the plateau or something
but it's actually a it's a rat you know it's not i'm not the top of the hill
it sounds better as a platz rather than being like somewhere down in the gutter
yeah that makes sense yeah and i just needed a bit more information nice to pull me up,
(29:21):
uh yeah now i need to apply that yeah yeah it
should take no no what warren meant answer it just yeah
that's great absolutely yeah mind-blowing player
lovely bloke fantastic yeah yeah i'll add
that one to the list as well how did you get
involved in building the two multi sorry i'm gonna
mess that one up two mouth howling uh pick up that's all
(29:41):
right yeah look at this i've got
got my alien weaponry t-shirt on yeah that's fantastic um
i saw that yeah i like them
i like the band and we had we had
a conversation about maybe making them a pickup and then time passed and we
forgot and then then neil who's the manager and the dad contacted me they were
(30:05):
actually on the way back from the u.s and he was at the airport and had nothing
to do so he can't go in touch with And I said, should we get this rolling? Yeah, sure.
So I went up there, because they're like two and a half hours up the road.
And so we went up and had a listen and a chat, and then,
Came home, went in some pickups, went back, and then went back and forth a few times.
(30:30):
And their rehearsal space is actually there where they live as well.
So it was literally on their kitchen table, swapping pickups,
and going off and plugging in the Marshall.
Because he's a proper amp guy as well. Oh, nice. Very nice. Which is good, yeah.
Because a lot of those metal guys are laptops rather than big amps.
(30:50):
So that was great. And of course, the drums there as well. So you can put it
all together. So that a few trips back and back and forth.
And yeah, we ended up with something that everyone was happy with.
And then it was the design of it. How, how are we going to make,
what are we going to look?
You know, it needs to look different. Otherwise it's just got somebody named. Right. Right.
(31:10):
So that, that, that came from them. I kind of gave them an idea of what we could
do and how that an insert could be put in.
Well, they, but I didn't want to, you know, the design, the look of it is there. It's, it's not right.
Not mine. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, so laser cut those inserts and stain them
and a bit of mucking about with them, actually. Yeah.
(31:32):
But yeah, and it's, and then he took it before we even had it as a available
to the public. He took it off on a European tour.
So we had, I think I loaded two of his guitars with them. And there was a couple
of guitars that were meeting him in Belgium, I think.
And I had their, their touring tech fit them.
Nice. and then so they did that tour with those
(31:54):
pickups that's fantastic so i mean
you go well that's that's a pretty good road test isn't
it yeah that'll do it yeah comes out of that okay then then we then we've won
this one yeah and then yeah and then and then we sort of made it public just
before they had a couple of gigs supporting guns and roses very nice so again
(32:14):
you go wow yeah that's That's pretty special. Yeah, that's fantastic.
It's great, actually. I really enjoyed that.
Because I grew up reading the guitar magazines.
And it's kind of like you're living your fantasy as a kid.
Yeah. Of doing that.
(32:35):
Yeah, and it seems to me that's a very Leo Fender
style approach where listening and then
going back and tweaking and then bringing it back to the
artists and having them play again through it
and getting feedback from them so that that
when i was reading your blog post on this pickup on your website
that's really what it reminded me of is some of the stories of leo
(32:56):
going back and forth with some of those those players and getting that that
feedback loop going so that it's built into what the player needs and then of
course records get made and and you know next thing you know everybody's heard
it so yeah that's that's pretty special but that's what i do with any pickup that isn't.
Isn't for me if you see what i mean like like my
(33:18):
low-powered telecaster pickup for instance it's
that's it's for it's for players who do what stuff that
i don't do so i with those i've always
had test pilots so when i was repairing guitars
obviously from that i've got to know i know a lot of players a
lot of professional players as well so i'll often give
pickups to people and say can you write could you test
(33:38):
that and then tweak it and change
swap it and tweak and swap until until till we got it right and
then they have that then their pickups there's you
know as a and so they end up with a pickup that really suits them yeah uh and
and that's but that some sort of like the cloud nine which you have that was
for me that works in my world so i didn't really need anyone else there i just
(34:03):
need to put in a few swap it in a few different guitars and put it in a few gigs.
But yeah other ones like the the the
pandora telecaster one that was
that's the one down from the cruel mistress power wise
that one was one that was i do one i do one called sorry the duchess not the
pandora i do one called the pandora which is for esquires so if you've got a
(34:29):
one pickup telly but you've got three-way switch gotcha so what you have there is,
three separate windings oh nice so you wind it off basically so you've got my
true mistress at the more powerful end then you tap off some windings and you've
got another one and you tap off more and then you've got i kind of call it a
(34:52):
gold foil but it's just not a gold foil it's It's completely different, really.
But that middle setting is now its own pickup.
Okay. Because I sent the Pandora off to a guy in the UK, in Leeds,
in Yorkshire, and he loved that middle position.
And after talking to him, it's like, oh, okay, well, maybe I can make you one of those.
(35:15):
And he's in a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, being Bruce, with Yorkshire accent. And so he wanted that.
So, oh, cool. Well, we can do that. So that went to him.
And it's him that does the demos on that. So that was kind of all led.
That was driven by him, really.
Okay. That particular pickup. But, of course, there's plenty of people who want
(35:40):
that. That's actually a really good sound.
There's a bit of a gap in my telly range anyway. Yeah.
That's super interesting. And so you said you earlier, you said that you have
questions on the site where you can help maybe direct people to the right pickup.
And then you also provide feedback.
And so what I wanted to do right here right now is show you a guitar I have,
(36:03):
and then basically talk through maybe some options for it.
And like I said, it's, I have what I like to call Wade's home for, for forlorn toys.
Boys the prs it's a signature model i don't even think prs claims these anymore
they they've just kind of shuffled it off into the annals of something they
(36:23):
hope everybody will forget for some reason it's a fantastic guitar i love it
the the the triple humbucker is a little,
strange for me because i've never had anything like that before and i did get
to the point where where I lowered
the middle pickup because I would keep hitting it with a pick attack.
So that was something that I can either change my playing style or I can lower the middle pickup.
(36:48):
But I always kind of wondered, like, what could I do with a different combination
of pickups that I could put in here? And I've always liked the P90 sound.
So I've always thought maybe the middle pickup could be a P90 and I could go
with something like that and obviously change the wiring for the switch to accommodate
(37:09):
that but yeah ideas options.
What does the wiring do now what's the switch do great question
so typical bridge neck for each end of the throw and the middle actually is
a blending of bridge and the the center pickup and i think it throws it out
(37:29):
of phase i haven't actually looked at the wiring super close at this point,
but it gives it a much more of a single-coil sound when you put it in that mode.
So a little more twangy, a little more of that single-coil bit to it.
It's a little different from the Gibson 3-pack ones. You know, I think,
If you're going to have three pickups, then a few more options are probably,
(37:53):
and this is not me talking pickups, I'm talking about the wiring, really.
Those switches, the name of which I can't remember, that GMAC do.
Give you more positions.
Yes. Because it'd be quite nice, you have three pickups, to have like the strat type setup. Yep.
You know, where you've got those sort of quite logical combinations, really.
(38:15):
And then you've got four knobs, so you could have a
volume for each pickup or you could have a master volume and three
times on a tone for each pickup or you know and
that's probably more that's more up to what you're likely
to use there than sure but but i'd look at those options for first really that
could really help you out now what what do you want to do what do you play what
(38:39):
sort of music yeah so i'm a little all over the board so i do like playing more
bluesy stuff but what's the word more blues rock rock,
I guess is a good way to put it, but I also go pretty heavy sometimes as well.
So I'm kind of somewhere in the middle of that.
So anywhere from the ACDC style tone to, I'm not going to say Aileen Weavenry
(38:59):
heavy wise, but up there, more of a hardcore sound as well, and sometimes a pop punk style sound.
So somewhere in between those three. And I know I don't necessarily need one
guitar to to be able to accommodate all of that.
But the closer I can get to that, the happier I think I'll be.
I think trying to make one guitar accommodate all that is as long as you can
(39:24):
accept the fact that it won't do everything well.
Yeah, that's a fantastic point.
And you find out which bit it does that you love and you do that with it. Yeah.
No one guitar is going to do everything. You can't have a Strat Paul or a Lezakast or whatever.
You know, you're just, yeah, it's just silly to try in some ways.
(39:45):
But anyway, I haven't said that.
It does sound like, to me, because my humbucker size P90, the Black Sand,
yes, it's a P90 in the fact that it's constructed like a P90,
but it's not the same as like a vintage Gibson P90. Okay.
Because you physically cannot fit that.
Into that size right you know because they
(40:07):
are a very flat very wide coil the old p90s like
a soap bar and they fit in
the soap bar they physically won't fit in so what you do
with a humbucker size one is it's wound with thinner
gauge wire i see which changes stuff
if actually look at the okay ohms they look it looks pretty similar but actually
it's a quite different sound because it's different wire ohms not being a measurement
(40:30):
of power right but that's that's a rant for another time but they have they're
actually quite suited to a lot of styles,
so for instance Warren Mendonca who I mentioned earlier on has got a set in
DS 335 but then also Jimmy Christmas from D4 has a set so he's got a much more aggressive punk type.
(40:56):
That angry shouting at you sound,
so so that it's a different like
a normal p90 will have a woody
clonk going on so there isn't but they're more clear than that okay so that
sounds to me like a good option for you for actually quite a few things because
(41:21):
they'll grit up yep in that a lower regain malcolm young way,
but then you've got a nice bit of neck pickup clarity too i mean
i've been doing the last half half dozen gigs with one in the neck and
a cloud nine in the bridge okay so
i can have and they and they feel because they're a single coil they feel like
a single coil you have that less compression and that slightly more dynamic
(41:43):
more dynamics yeah so definitely i'm thinking of one of those okay or two of
those or even three of those.
I'm not sure about your... Yeah, I'm wondering if that would be a good neck and bridge.
I'm almost thinking of a Filtrotron for one of them as well,
but probably just because... It would look fun, for sure. Yeah.
(42:09):
That's what we want. And I'm also thinking, oh, there's three pickups,
let's have three different ones. Yeah.
Yeah, that's gone through my
mind as well. It's like, how weird can I make this already weird guitar?
Although Filtrotrons are a different physical size, you can get the surrounds that
are adapters that'll fit in yeah they're a mess
longer but they fit nearly all humbucker out
(42:32):
and there's this around but i mean
yeah i'm not sure if i'm saying that to the
look right and then bridge bridge bridge pickup i'm not
sure really i think so how you how you're gonna go with the bridge pickup what
you're gonna do with it so yeah my other guitar that i have the cloud nine in
(42:52):
the and the neck i have a dirty fingers in the bridge and it's not the newer
one it's when they first reintroduced them back in i think it was the late 90s or early,
2000s which has a little bit of a different sonic feel
to it from what i've been reading at least because i haven't purchased
one of the new ones but anyway i've had it sitting in a box for
(43:14):
ages and so i finally pulled it out and threw it in this this ltd
esp single cut and i love
it actually sounds wonderful it sounds really
good in that guitar and it's obviously
quite hot and i do kind of like the way that that feels when i when i kick it
in so i think i would probably lean towards that just because i really do enjoy
(43:35):
having that kind of sound and in a single cut guitar specifically so yeah i
would i'm thinking more cloud nine bridge.
I use it in our covers band, and I don't like changing guitar mid-gig. Right.
I kind of think, who do I think I am?
(43:57):
Yeah. You know, it's all right for the edge, but I'm just a bloke in a pub in
Auburn. It's just bleh. So I like to keep the same guitar all night.
So it's a pickup that will do a lot of different stuff. You know,
I want to do the more backed off stuff towards the beginning,
and then at the end when we're doing Sang Man and Killing in the Name. Right.
You know i i want it i want to be able to i like
(44:19):
it sort of the feeling like i'm just barely hanging on to it kind of nice
you know and it'll run away we'll run off on its own yeah yeah yeah no that
actually and from my experience with the bridge cloud nine i think that that
makes total sense to me too so yeah it sounds like the record go cloud nine
black sand black sand yeah yeah yeah Yeah,
(44:41):
that actually... And your wiring...
Yes, you're a wiring guy anyway. I am, yeah.
There's plenty of options there. And I think the switch that you're talking
about, they're made in the UK, if I remember correctly, and they have eight positions on them.
I put one of those in my son's guitar. I was going to put it in my LTD,
(45:03):
but the cavity for the wire in those ESP...
The LTD, it's a 265. is
tiny compared to like a less ball
but i think it's it's a thinner body so that's
one of the reasons they probably made the the the channel so much
smaller and so trying to get you know eight
plus wires through there was shielded was it was almost almost impossible so
(45:28):
i just decided you know it's way easier i'll just put that in his guitar and
i'll just keep mine here and maybe put some push pulls in the and the volumes
and tone knobs and and so yeah i bought the i bought the the push bulls,
but they're sitting in a drawer.
So I'll, I'll get to it one day, but. Here's another idea.
Keep your three-way switch. Mm-hmm.
Wire the three-way switch like a les paul ignoring the middle pickup yeah yep
(45:51):
and have one of those pots as a
volume control for just the middle oh yeah so
you can introduce the middle pickup bring it in with resetting you
might have to do that you might have to do change it in
and out legs of the volume pot you know how you've
normally got you go in the outside leg and
out the middle yep but then like with a les paul in the middle position
(46:12):
of the switch you turn one volume off and the whole guitar goes off yep
you know that yeah well if you wire them other way that doesn't
happen okay nice like with a jazz bass
and they're wired so you can
wire that the other way those pots the other way so that you
can have in that volume so you could have that way
you could have the middle pickup on its
(46:33):
own then yeah then
you don't have any kind of master volume if you want want to shut the whole thing
off no but i could potentially change it
from the dual tone knobs to a
single tone knob and then use the other knob to bring in
the middle pickup if that makes sense yeah yeah
and that that would yeah because i don't necessarily really need two tone knobs
(46:56):
especially with the the shared volume or not the shared volume but the yeah
i could just use a single tone knob that's totally fine that would work for
me but if you want to turn the whole if you're using all three pickups and you
want to turn the whole guitar off,
you've got to turn two volumes down. I see. Yep.
If you're not gigging, it's probably not an issue. Yeah.
(47:18):
There you go. Or you can have a kill switch and you can have your gigging moments as well.
I could do that. I was thinking volume pedal is another option there,
right? So that's another way to pull that one off.
And that's probably easier to do because you're not ordering another switch
and mucking about with that.
Yeah, and that'll probably work intuitively, well enough intuitively,
(47:42):
especially if you wind it up yourself. Right.
You know, that's the other thing with, you know, I've done a lot of modifying
of strats, and there's lots of ways of changing strats, but I've also put a
lot of them back to original for people who've had all sorts of amazing ideas
with this and that and this and that.
Actually, it was pretty good to begin with. Yep. And very intuitive. Yep.
(48:05):
Yeah. Oh, that's great. Great. Wow. That's fantastic. Hey, I really appreciate your time.
I think, I think I don't want to keep you any longer here, but it's been fantastic talking with you.
And I'll let you know as soon as I get ready to place that order.
Cause I think I'm going to do that at some point in the very near future.
So we'll get that, that going. So that'll be a lot of fun.
And of course I'll let you know what it, what it turns out to sound like.
(48:29):
So that'll be good. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh God. No, definitely need to hear that.
Yep. And really can't take Did you or who else you talked to?
Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I've got a running list and thanks for a couple more
names to add to it as well.
I've been doing a lot of research, which has been actually so much fun to just,
you know, start looking around, seeing who I should talk to and reading what
(48:52):
I can about their history and then finding out about that. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
Yeah. Yeah. I look forward to your continuing YouTube episodes. They're great.
So it's really nice talking to these folks, except a lot of times when you're
talking to the makers, it's just really dangerous for the bank account because
I just kind of want to go get one of each and do that, which is complicated.
(49:15):
So, but yeah. But you are clearly a very disciplined human being because you
haven't told me you make pedals.
No, I don't. You've got Nellipirk's background, and yet you've managed to resist that?
Yep. I actually only own one pedal, and it's a Korg, the ODS,
I think is what it's called, which is a pedal kit that you buy,
(49:39):
and they're using their new tube technology.
So it's actually vacuum tubes that they pioneered for use in,
I think, television sets?
So you yeah it's it's only like this long and about that wide and it's mounted
right onto a service mount right onto a circuit board and it was just kind of
a fun thing to play around with so i got it and it's a nice it's a fine overdrive
(50:03):
pedal i think josh did a video on the three corg.
New tube line just recently and it was included in that one wasn't one of the
ones that blew him away but it's for me it's it's an overdrive pedal and it
actually sounds pretty good and the only thing is that if you stomp on it,
you can get a whine that comes out of it because the pedal is,
(50:23):
somewhat sensitive, or sorry, the tube is somewhat sensitive to vibration.
So, it'll get a little bit microphonic on you. So, they get,
they send you a nice little piece of foam that you can mount it on.
And I'm like, oh, it's like a little mattress for my little tube.
And it's not really, but it's a really firm mattress apparently.
So, yeah, it bounces around a little bit.
But for my needs at at this point
(50:44):
in time it's it's fine yeah thanks again your stuff is
amazing and i've been super impressed so so thank you again yeah thanks good
i'll talk to you soon cheers i hope you've enjoyed listening and or watching
the alto guitar show if you like what you hear please subscribe like ring the
bell and we'll let you know when the next one's coming hot down the ditch.
(51:06):
Music.
Music.
(00:10):
Kia ora! Nau mai, haere mai to the Aotearoa Guitar Show, where we catalog,
explore, interview, and discuss all things guitars in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This is a show that will be highlighting and exploring the guitar players,
makers, builders, and breakers of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I hope you'll join me on this journey as we talk to some interesting people,
(00:33):
learn the historical facts and fictions about the guitar playing in New Zealand,
and learn about some new bands and new music.
In this episode, I'll be speaking with Glenn Evans of Mr. Glenn's Pickups.
So without further ado, let's talk to Mr. Glenn.
Hey, how are you, Glenn?
Good. Hey, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. No, you know what?
(00:54):
I just was like 10 minutes early and I've sat down and I played the guitar.
How often does that happen? Yeah, can't get much better than that. How's Moodywide today?
Oh, beautiful, beautiful day. Yeah, the lovely day on the
beach this morning with the dog and yeah and it's
just really nice yeah so i just wanted to chat with
(01:14):
you today ask you a few questions see where that leads us to and
yeah go ahead and kick it off i you are
an immigrant as i assume from your website
as as am i you're from wales originally i
am yep fantastic i mean i've been here i've been
here 18 and a bit years and to
be honest i think i was always a kiwi i didn't quite
(01:37):
i don't think i ever quite fitted in you know
i was the guy wearing shorts and jangles when it wasn't quite appropriate
to so yeah totally understand can
relate as well hey so tell me sorry i'm i'm gonna interview you now tell me
tell me about this podcast what's the plan what's what's what's it all about
yeah absolutely i think that there is and you've been doing some of this yourself
(01:59):
as well as i've I think there's a lot of talent here in the country,
both on the actual playing side as well as the building side,
that is just not that well known in the world.
So I'm trying to catalog a lot of that.
I intend to talk to many players as well as historical figures as well who may
(02:22):
not be playing anymore, but they have played in the past and recorded and or built in the past.
I'm trying to track down...
Whoever might be the Janssen expert for one as well.
So I have a 620 that needs to be restored sitting down here.
And there's a lot of people that are very, very into those amps.
I see one in the background there for yourself. Yeah.
(02:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So and I think if I can swing it, I might try to talk to Clary,
who's actually super local to me, I found out.
So I was going to reach out and have a chat there.
So yeah, just kind of a cataloging and
a way to kind of put some some of this out to the
world from from what i've seen so far here in new zealand which has
been amazing the community is just huge and great
(03:05):
so yeah yeah we all know each other yeah
it seems that way because i yeah
i mean clary's been through that a couple of times yeah the first time he really
needed to and the second time he didn't really need to because he'd already
done it a few years previously but um lovely lovely bloke and they're really
for the for the nuts and bolts to the insides of them, there's not really a greater authority.
(03:30):
Nice. Talk to Simon Gottlieb as well. Yes. Simon Gottlieb. On my list. Yep.
Your other guy, I suppose. Yep. For the ins and outs and nuts and bolts,
I'm not sure about the history. Okay.
Because he's a young fellow like me. But yeah, but Clary was,
yeah, Clary knows all those people who were involved in making them.
(03:50):
Oh, that's great. That's perfect.
There's a real philosophy for repairers. I repaired guitars for 25 years.
And there's an instinct that a lot of us have or had of keeping that as original as possible.
You know, don't change stuff. but sometimes the
(04:10):
customer wants you to change stuff so that's fine
it's their guitar you know you just you've got you've got
to work that one out and it's hard because you often see
vintage stuff that was that's that
was especially stuff that stuff that guitars from
the early 70s so stuff that was about 15 years old in
the 80s you know it was its
(04:31):
lowest value point yes you know you'll get stuff oh
it's got a brass nut now it's got this is your someone's ragged
it out for a super distortion and and but yeah
and i don't i mean i don't look at
that and go oh isn't that a terrible thing because that
was that customer's decision at the time right but yeah i
don't know i'd you know personally i'd rather see something that's been modified with
(04:54):
the different points in its history yeah than something that's
never been played yeah i i and i.
Think if it's it's almost better when
you get it along with a bill of lading
right like here are the things that have have been changed at certain times
and the other thing that i like to see is when something comes with all
of its original parts and a little baggie that's that's
(05:15):
actually nice too because you know there there's still
the opportunity to measure those and see if they are you
know bound for the landfill or if they're actually something
worth keeping around for another project or something along those lines so
yeah sure yeah sure so so hey
i've i had a look at your youtube channel last night and
i really liked it i mean there's there's well
(05:38):
you got 31 followers now you had 30 would be 30 before i when i got there or
subscribers i should say yes really cool it's like that algorithm needs to discover
you i really like i really like i really like the stuff and i just what i watched
all three i thought you know usually i would just have a little quick looking
glance and go oh yeah that's what,
but actually they're really it's really cool stuff yeah thanks yeah i
(06:01):
mean i'm on my own learning journey and i'm trying to share that as
i as i go through it so it's that's kind of a passion i'm a constant and forever
tinker and autodidact as well so it's why not why not share some of that with
with the rest of the world so that's yeah that's been my my kind of drive behind
that so thank you i greatly appreciate that but isn't youtube great for that
(06:21):
because people you you know,
you've got a curious mind and you can't stop learning stuff. Exactly.
Isn't that a great way to get an outlet for that, I suppose?
It really is. It really is. And it's nice hearing some feedback from folks and
hearing about other people that have run into some of the similar problems,
like with the SM57 and the fakes.
(06:42):
That one has done amazingly well as far as views go, because I think a lot of
people are like, is this a real microphone from the real manufacturer?
And so they start looking and it's nice that
they can find that and figure out whether or not they have it or not
so yeah it's been great yeah yeah thank
you first thing i did was a drop down the workshop graphic 57 and
(07:03):
give it give the end a twiddle yep yeah i knew
i knew it i knew it went i knew it twiddled i knew it
yeah i just had to go yeah i have
a day job co-worker who did the exact same thing he was
like now i have like five microphones i have to go check so so
thanks a lot lot but also thanks a lot so uh yeah
yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah it's been it's been a lot of fun i'm enjoying putting
(07:26):
it together we got the stack more to go some fun stuff like creative ways to
repair tolex is is on the the map as well so uh oh yeah i know someone you've
got anyone to talk to about that? No.
Well what's his name just moved down south repairs does recovering
amps his name suddenly has gone
(07:48):
but i'll i'll send it to you later yeah that'd be great that'd
be fantastic appreciate it yeah yeah like i said
i've got a long list of people to chat with which is
great that's that's going to be a lot of fun i
think so getting getting to know some of these folks and and
hearing what they're about and how they're getting on here
so i if you have
(08:09):
some time there i'll showed some questions at you
so so you you build pickups but you
also do restores and rebuilds of pickups or
just oh pickup yes yes yes okay so
if you have not yet but only only pickups it you know
i used to do everything but now i've just i'm just doing
just in pickups and so i don't cut guitars and nobody
(08:29):
can make me that's fantastic
yeah it's good to know that that you're focused solely on
pickups now um yeah yeah i have one of
your cloud nines in in one of my guitars and love love
it it's in the neck and just sounds so sweet
it's just like the perfect pickup but has the growl when i when i bring that
(08:50):
volume knob up as well which which is yeah it's just it's so much better than
any of the other pickups that i've had in there so it's great yeah so i'm gonna
And I guess that building new is probably more straightforward than repairing.
But I'm assuming that repairing or restoring pickups has its own fun challenge to it.
(09:12):
Can you tell me a little bit about what that looks like compared to building new?
Yeah. I mean, it just depends on what's there. Often you don't have to rewind them.
Often it's where, because we're talking about wire that's, I mean, it's stupidly small.
All i mean it's i've got a video on youtube where i'm standing down by the sea
yeah it's an island island one and a half kilometers away and that's how much
(09:36):
wire is in a strap pickup so you can imagine how thin it must be to fit you
know to fit in the space the size of your finger,
one half case so it's it's yeah so it
can break you know you go and funnily enough i've
just i've just had a done a couple of repairs this morning
and they were humbuckers where the wire
from the the winding goes to another thin little little wire
(09:58):
not thicker but it's still quite thin and then that goes out
and that's where that winding was joining that
other wire had just broken one of them had been handled a bit roughly you know
i see people picking pickups up like they were house bricks and and like gotta
be you've got it you've got to treat it like it was a baby mouse you know yeah
so easy to um but is there a word for a baby mouse probably.
(10:26):
Shoot off on some zoological tangent but um yeah so so often it's a break like
that there's also a common repairs like 70s strap pickups they very very commonly
start sounding really thin,
And that's actually a break in the winding. Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask,
is it like a loss of insulation, or is it a full-on break in the winding?
(10:51):
Because this is insulated wire as well. It's run through a path of lacquer or
enamel or whatever it's coating.
Now, those 70s ones were potted, so being dipped in wax after they're manufactured
to stop the winding vibrating.
Now, the 70s ones were dipped in lacquer. ah now
(11:12):
lacquer can degrade over time so i
don't know exactly why it's so common with
them but that seems to be the the common factor interesting is
that is that more the thought is amongst quite
a few people that that lacquer degrades so if
you imagine it checking like you would get run on all the
guitar and it's inside the pickup so it just takes the wire out
(11:33):
with it or at least the insulation i see yeah so commonly so
you would expect that to be you put it on test meter it says open circuit so
you go oh well that's broken but actually they still make a sand okay
but it's very very thin because they're
sort of held together kind of by capacitance really yeah so they're not really
working properly so that's a very common one is the 70s strats and that's kind
(11:56):
of what i learned on oh nice that's good to start with the one that fails the
most so well when i When I started winding pickups,
which was in the mid to late 90s.
They were considered old rubbish because they got that 15, 20 year thing,
you know, that they got to the lowest point of any value.
(12:18):
Mid 70s straps were not considered fancy pants vintage things like they are now.
So if a pickup went, well, we'll put something, a nice new one in there.
So there were lots of them around that were dead. So that's kind of what I learned
on was mucking about with cheap pickups, which is what they were.
Isn't it funny how the world changes? Yeah.
(12:41):
And, you know, going, you see how many windings can they get on one of these
before the whole thing bangs and falls apart and all that kind of stuff,
rather than trying to restore them to vintage. That was what I was into at the time, you know.
Whereas now, you know, you're putting them back to what they should be.
Right. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic.
Yeah. So you play out as well as build the pickups and do your other work?
(13:03):
Fantastic. What's your go-to rig when you go and play out?
Jensen. The Jensen? Nice. All Jensen-based. But that was a head,
which I built into a combo.
Oh, nice. So I wanted a half-open back, one by 12, just because it's much more convenient.
And then I can angle it back to point up at me as well, which is what I want.
(13:24):
I don't want it all going through my knees to front the house to disturb other
people. Right. So, yeah. So I use that.
I'm more of a pedal guy than an amp overdrive person.
So that's, you know, it clips a little like all valve amps do,
but most of the stuff comes from the floor.
(13:46):
Currently, I'm using an Epiphone Flying V. Nice.
Because I used to be afraid of not being flash enough for a guitar like that,
and I don't care anymore.
Off but but pickup wise you know
that that's that's that's my that's my test area
you know doing gigs is the r&d department
because every every pickup needs to be you know i test it in here different
(14:11):
amps different pedals different different whatever but until you get in front
of a drummer you don't know yeah yep i actually come from a drumming background
so right i've I've always been guitar adjacent for a very long time, but yeah,
I picked up my first guitar in like 91, but yeah.
So that mix is always the interesting bit.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. And do you, and it's a lot of it's in,
(14:35):
it's in, it's in the clarity, well high in clarity, but also the bottom end.
And it's often too much bottom end, especially neck pickup.
You know, if you go to the neck pickup and you just evaporate into the swamp,
then it's not going to do you any good.
So yeah that's a good test and practicing with
a drummer and bass player really cool but with a gig
(14:57):
you know they've done a few gigs at every prototype and
you're in different rooms in different situations and then you
start really getting an idea of it and
not only that but it's the feel of it nice now
as an amp guy you'll you'll know that that you
plug into a transistor this example you're playing a valve amp and it feels
(15:18):
different under your fingers yeah and you can't quite ever explain that to a
non-non-guitar player but pickups feel different you know it and and that's
the thing you know it needs you need to feel like you've got that that dynamic,
thing that you can tickle it or you can dig in and it's going to be a completely
different piece Yeah. Yeah.
(15:40):
Yeah. Absolutely. You can only really tell if you're too loud with the people,
you know, and you can really feel how you can.
So I like to back off as soon as the singer opens his gob, I'm backing off because
I'm sharing his frequencies.
He's kind of more important than me, which is a shame, but that's how the world is.
(16:02):
So I need, you know, you need to be able to do that without dancing on pedals for the whole gig, so.
Yeah, that actually brings up another point I was going to ask you about.
So I, two things. One was I, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's said about
different pickups pairing well
with certain guitars, like a fine wine and potato or cheese, whichever.
(16:23):
Do you think that that's true, or do you feel that there's other specific amps
that should be paired with a specific pickup?
It's marketing.
It's like saying, what is a good sound?
Now, I don't know. It's good for what?
(16:46):
I think a great example of that is It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones.
Jones yeah there's a guitar that goes and which
i allegedly is jimmy page doing a session but anyway it's a horrible horrible
guitar sound but it's perfect on that record so what's a good sound right yeah
(17:08):
so it's it's so i don't really say i wouldn't say oh you should use this,
type of pickup with mahogany or with
a scale length or what have you because i
don't know what we don't know what that customer is trying to achieve right
so you know a telecast is a good example you know people want to achieve quite
(17:30):
different things with telecasters you know some people do want the really thin
like a 70s telly which has that kind of ice picky thing which you You might want to use it for funk.
Whereas most people, most, a lot of people, I think most modern people now don't
want that for a telly or they don't want a telly to play country.
(17:52):
If you look at Fender's or Fender's more modern demos of telecasters,
these people are not playing country.
You know? So you go, okay, well, they've done their research. Yeah.
So, and I sell more, my biggest selling pickup is a telly pickup. pickup.
It's the Cruel Mistress, but it's not a pingy, jingy, jingy sort of Tele pickup.
(18:14):
It's got a bit more girth and it will happily rock.
And I think it's people who bought a guitar for the looks, and let's face it,
they are cool, and they feel the sound isn't with them, so they want to change that.
So I think, yeah, what's a good sound? I don't know. It's in the ear of the beholder.
(18:35):
Yeah, I know exactly what I prefer.
That's not necessarily a good sound. It's just my preference. Sure.
So I think it's nice for people to have help buying pickups.
Information is very hard to come by, but it's not quite as simple as mahogany, therefore, this.
(18:59):
So I have on my website a kind of help thing for buying, but it's simply two questions, really.
You know what have you got what you're trying to do and
then and then and then i reply as a human
being rather than an algorithm right making
it up so yeah no that's actually really really cool and i'm again being of the
(19:22):
tinker that i am i i'm always wanting to try something that somebody might in
the in the marketing might feel like it's unusual or not right just to see myself
itself what that might produce.
So I totally, totally get it. Following on to that,
though, there's a question I had in my head about people moving more away from
(19:43):
actual amplifiers and more into the computer realm and plugins and IRs and all of these,
even the Helix and the various other Tonex and the various other pedal-based modeling platforms.
Do you think the needs, or do you feel, or have you seen any changes that you
would make to the pickups in order to accommodate that usage of technology?
(20:08):
Or is it pretty much a straight crossover and they'll dial in their tone via the modeling setups?
Just curious about that one. Yeah, no, it's really, I think that modeling setup is so malleable.
So easily malleable that, yeah, I think, leave it to those guys at that end to change things.
(20:31):
You know, and I think it's great. I think that modelling of the whole thing
is fantastic, especially if you're touring, if you can have consistency.
You know, every gig you're going to have pretty much the same thing and such
if you're using in-ears or what have you.
Yeah, great, you know. But interestingly, parallel to that,
the resurgence in pedals and valves and
(20:52):
stuff it's interesting isn't it it really is because
it's it's it's almost this this dichotomy you know
what kind of player are you you know are
you are you a fractal or a fender twin what are
you what are you going to do you know yeah it is really really
interesting and i i feel like there's overall there's
too much debate on it when it's really all about
(21:14):
like the whole concept of shut up and play
you know let's let's have a good time kind of thing and and
let's create and you know whatever whatever is
accessible to you especially with a lot of people maybe in
more close housing now so you're
not going to rock in with a fender twin and you
know into your apartment and have anything less than
(21:35):
the police called on you within the next five to ten minutes so
so i think it it all has its place and i
think i think it's just fun to watch for me so that's
just to see kind of what's going on like i'm i'm all about the valves at
this point and and what i can do with those and
what new things i might be able to build with those because it's
i kind of like the retro you know
(21:57):
like i in another life i probably would have been a steampunk kid.
You know so but but this is kind of where where i've
landed and and i do enjoy that but yeah i mean
excellent perspective on that and the modeling bits and i
think you probably hit the nail on the head with like for touring
it makes total sense to grab a little box
and throw it in a bag and off you go and
(22:17):
you plug into front of house and and you're you're
good yeah i think i think there
but there are quite a few aspects of this i think even for home stuff for recording
but then also for in the amp world for like if you haven't got i mean i i used
to own a guitar shop in the uk yeah with a lot of second-hand gear and so you
(22:38):
know i'm very familiar with what what an old twin sounds like or a JCM800 or what have you.
Not everybody is. So how do you find out?
How do you find out if that sort of sound is your thing, you know.
Or not, or what different sort of cabinets?
And I think it's just a great way to learn that, you know, that you might go,
(22:59):
oh, well, yeah, I'm definitely a JCM 800 sort of player, but yeah,
I know about a quad, though, because of the punchiness, you know, whereas,
you know, I think I've had the benefit of trying a lot of those,
in fact, gigging with a lot of those things.
You know, I really like a half open back one by 12. You know,
I like this. I like it. I like it flapping around a little bit. Right.
(23:21):
You know, whereas a quad, have you ever, you ever done any, do you play out?
Yeah. I don't play out. No. But, but yeah, like I said, being adjacent,
I've had, last band I was in ages ago had full stack actually.
So, but yeah, which moves mountains,
but, but yeah, I mean, a quad has that kind of almost a
boominess to it and having that close back makes a makes a big difference that
(23:45):
i actually built a 2x12 myself and i put a full close back on it and i love
it but when i do any recording with it i have to drop the bass massively because
the whole back baffle is just,
reverberating with with the speakers so it yeah it's nice
when it's in the room with me but when i'm you
know trying to mix it into something i have to bring that that bass way down
(24:07):
on the guitar signal so you're creating quite a lot of air pressure in there
and also what what i've used fine with a quad is it's a cannon so you've got
a punch going right across the room yeah and you've only got to sound a little
to the side and it's quite a bit quieter.
Which is just what, I mean, why would you do that to a sound guy? Yeah.
You know, this poor person's got this thing, blasting guitar.
(24:31):
You know, so, yeah, I just like that.
And I think with a half-open back, you do get a little bit of resonance from
that enclosure, but it still lets that speaker... Yeah, bleeds out a bit,
some of that. Yeah, yeah, it's really nice. Yeah.
But, I mean, that's just a personal, again, that's a personal thing,
you know? I mean, I'm a big Malcolm Young fan, and so I shouldn't be knocking Marshall forward.
(24:55):
Yeah, I mean, everything has its place, right? So, like, I couldn't imagine
the Malcolm Young sound through, I don't know, a Selmer or even Fender, really, I think.
I mean, you could probably still make it work because it's in the player mostly.
But yeah, you know what I'm saying.
And it is in the player, isn't it? It is. This is the start.
(25:17):
That's the start of the signal chain.
You know, it's the player. Yeah, absolutely. And from repairing guitars,
I'd find, you know, I could have done, like, major work on a guitar.
I remember doing one for Chet O'Connell, who's a great player worth talking to as well. Yeah.
And I re-threaded his Strat. So I spent some time with this guitar,
(25:38):
and I thought, you know, lovely.
And then Chet comes in to pick it up, and he plays it, and it sounds completely different.
I mean at least 800 times better because
he's a fantastic player but really you know
it felt good to me but in a
different obviously differently to him you know
and that's and that's i always find that interesting yep you
(26:00):
know what what would i sound like with brian may's rig
right sound like you unfortunately i
think that's the truth yeah yeah i
did want to ask you what was was your actual first guitar
and amplifier that you that you had um
all right right it was it
was i was 16 i'd been
(26:22):
saving up for a motorbike and i
was around my mate's house and he he linked me his brother's record of high
voltage of acdc right you know people will land other people it was very good
yeah and that changed my completely changed my mind and i bought bought a guitar
off him that his uncle had made and put together on bits.
(26:46):
I didn't even know what it was, really. And I don't have it anymore,
and I'm sure it was pretty bad, because there weren't guitar kits available back then.
And as an amp, I had an old radiogram with an oval speaker, a valve radiogram.
And that was awful, and I couldn't get distortion out of it.
(27:07):
And I bought the cheapest distortion pedal I could find, which at the time was
a Ross distortion. Okay. Okay.
Now suddenly become really cool yeah so say i have a book with a picture of that in it so yes,
and they've been re-released and they and they're
all being made by josh singing me and yeah anyway so
that was that and that was awful so certainly nothing to be proud of in in
(27:30):
any way nice yeah similar to that and
what's what would you say is the one guitar or amplifier that they got away
that you wished you had back or is there one yeah yeah there is and everyone's
got the story yeah sure no it was i had a pre-cbs duo sonic oh wow that was
yeah yeah it was really nice,
(27:52):
and it was great for that or if you're trying to write songs or what have you
and you get stuck you pick the guitar up it's completely different from all
the others and he had the narrowest neck ever wow it was it was great yeah and
i sold it very very cheaply when i came to new zealand Ah, gotcha. Yeah.
Yeah. It seems like moving will do that to you a lot. Yeah.
(28:14):
I don't know why I didn't take, I shipped everything else because I had like
half a container or whatever you get and, you know, amps and guitars and stuff.
For some reason, I sold that one. Yeah.
Yeah, the one that got away, yeah. Yeah, but there you go.
So what are some of your favourite El Toro artists that you're currently listening
(28:35):
to or your favourite to go back to?
Well, the last, funnily enough, the last album I actually listened to,
which was this morning, is Warren Mendonca, Blackstrap Blues.
Have you heard him? I have not, but yeah, that's going on the playlist, so.
Absolutely. Yeah, he lives in West Auckland, actually. Okay, cool.
Yeah, just just yeah you have to you have
(28:56):
to hear it he's he's very he's i've actually had a couple of lessons
off him online as well a couple of guitar lessons to try
and get me out of what do they what do they call it the plateau or something
but it's actually a it's a rat you know it's not i'm not the top of the hill
it sounds better as a platz rather than being like somewhere down in the gutter
yeah that makes sense yeah and i just needed a bit more information nice to pull me up,
(29:21):
uh yeah now i need to apply that yeah yeah it
should take no no what warren meant answer it just yeah
that's great absolutely yeah mind-blowing player
lovely bloke fantastic yeah yeah i'll add
that one to the list as well how did you get
involved in building the two multi sorry i'm gonna
mess that one up two mouth howling uh pick up that's all
(29:41):
right yeah look at this i've got
got my alien weaponry t-shirt on yeah that's fantastic um
i saw that yeah i like them
i like the band and we had we had
a conversation about maybe making them a pickup and then time passed and we
forgot and then then neil who's the manager and the dad contacted me they were
(30:05):
actually on the way back from the u.s and he was at the airport and had nothing
to do so he can't go in touch with And I said, should we get this rolling? Yeah, sure.
So I went up there, because they're like two and a half hours up the road.
And so we went up and had a listen and a chat, and then,
Came home, went in some pickups, went back, and then went back and forth a few times.
(30:30):
And their rehearsal space is actually there where they live as well.
So it was literally on their kitchen table, swapping pickups,
and going off and plugging in the Marshall.
Because he's a proper amp guy as well. Oh, nice. Very nice. Which is good, yeah.
Because a lot of those metal guys are laptops rather than big amps.
(30:50):
So that was great. And of course, the drums there as well. So you can put it
all together. So that a few trips back and back and forth.
And yeah, we ended up with something that everyone was happy with.
And then it was the design of it. How, how are we going to make,
what are we going to look?
You know, it needs to look different. Otherwise it's just got somebody named. Right. Right.
(31:10):
So that, that, that came from them. I kind of gave them an idea of what we could
do and how that an insert could be put in.
Well, they, but I didn't want to, you know, the design, the look of it is there. It's, it's not right.
Not mine. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, so laser cut those inserts and stain them
and a bit of mucking about with them, actually. Yeah.
(31:32):
But yeah, and it's, and then he took it before we even had it as a available
to the public. He took it off on a European tour.
So we had, I think I loaded two of his guitars with them. And there was a couple
of guitars that were meeting him in Belgium, I think.
And I had their, their touring tech fit them.
Nice. and then so they did that tour with those
(31:54):
pickups that's fantastic so i mean
you go well that's that's a pretty good road test isn't
it yeah that'll do it yeah comes out of that okay then then we then we've won
this one yeah and then yeah and then and then we sort of made it public just
before they had a couple of gigs supporting guns and roses very nice so again
(32:14):
you go wow yeah that's That's pretty special. Yeah, that's fantastic.
It's great, actually. I really enjoyed that.
Because I grew up reading the guitar magazines.
And it's kind of like you're living your fantasy as a kid.
Yeah. Of doing that.
(32:35):
Yeah, and it seems to me that's a very Leo Fender
style approach where listening and then
going back and tweaking and then bringing it back to the
artists and having them play again through it
and getting feedback from them so that that
when i was reading your blog post on this pickup on your website
that's really what it reminded me of is some of the stories of leo
(32:56):
going back and forth with some of those those players and getting that that
feedback loop going so that it's built into what the player needs and then of
course records get made and and you know next thing you know everybody's heard
it so yeah that's that's pretty special but that's what i do with any pickup that isn't.
Isn't for me if you see what i mean like like my
(33:18):
low-powered telecaster pickup for instance it's
that's it's for it's for players who do what stuff that
i don't do so i with those i've always
had test pilots so when i was repairing guitars
obviously from that i've got to know i know a lot of players a
lot of professional players as well so i'll often give
pickups to people and say can you write could you test
(33:38):
that and then tweak it and change
swap it and tweak and swap until until till we got it right and
then they have that then their pickups there's you
know as a and so they end up with a pickup that really suits them yeah uh and
and that's but that some sort of like the cloud nine which you have that was
for me that works in my world so i didn't really need anyone else there i just
(34:03):
need to put in a few swap it in a few different guitars and put it in a few gigs.
But yeah other ones like the the the
pandora telecaster one that was
that's the one down from the cruel mistress power wise
that one was one that was i do one i do one called sorry the duchess not the
pandora i do one called the pandora which is for esquires so if you've got a
(34:29):
one pickup telly but you've got three-way switch gotcha so what you have there is,
three separate windings oh nice so you wind it off basically so you've got my
true mistress at the more powerful end then you tap off some windings and you've
got another one and you tap off more and then you've got i kind of call it a
(34:52):
gold foil but it's just not a gold foil it's It's completely different, really.
But that middle setting is now its own pickup.
Okay. Because I sent the Pandora off to a guy in the UK, in Leeds,
in Yorkshire, and he loved that middle position.
And after talking to him, it's like, oh, okay, well, maybe I can make you one of those.
(35:15):
And he's in a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, being Bruce, with Yorkshire accent. And so he wanted that.
So, oh, cool. Well, we can do that. So that went to him.
And it's him that does the demos on that. So that was kind of all led.
That was driven by him, really.
Okay. That particular pickup. But, of course, there's plenty of people who want
(35:40):
that. That's actually a really good sound.
There's a bit of a gap in my telly range anyway. Yeah.
That's super interesting. And so you said you earlier, you said that you have
questions on the site where you can help maybe direct people to the right pickup.
And then you also provide feedback.
And so what I wanted to do right here right now is show you a guitar I have,
(36:03):
and then basically talk through maybe some options for it.
And like I said, it's, I have what I like to call Wade's home for, for forlorn toys.
Boys the prs it's a signature model i don't even think prs claims these anymore
they they've just kind of shuffled it off into the annals of something they
(36:23):
hope everybody will forget for some reason it's a fantastic guitar i love it
the the the triple humbucker is a little,
strange for me because i've never had anything like that before and i did get
to the point where where I lowered
the middle pickup because I would keep hitting it with a pick attack.
So that was something that I can either change my playing style or I can lower the middle pickup.
(36:48):
But I always kind of wondered, like, what could I do with a different combination
of pickups that I could put in here? And I've always liked the P90 sound.
So I've always thought maybe the middle pickup could be a P90 and I could go
with something like that and obviously change the wiring for the switch to accommodate
(37:09):
that but yeah ideas options.
What does the wiring do now what's the switch do great question
so typical bridge neck for each end of the throw and the middle actually is
a blending of bridge and the the center pickup and i think it throws it out
(37:29):
of phase i haven't actually looked at the wiring super close at this point,
but it gives it a much more of a single-coil sound when you put it in that mode.
So a little more twangy, a little more of that single-coil bit to it.
It's a little different from the Gibson 3-pack ones. You know, I think,
If you're going to have three pickups, then a few more options are probably,
(37:53):
and this is not me talking pickups, I'm talking about the wiring, really.
Those switches, the name of which I can't remember, that GMAC do.
Give you more positions.
Yes. Because it'd be quite nice, you have three pickups, to have like the strat type setup. Yep.
You know, where you've got those sort of quite logical combinations, really.
(38:15):
And then you've got four knobs, so you could have a
volume for each pickup or you could have a master volume and three
times on a tone for each pickup or you know and
that's probably more that's more up to what you're likely
to use there than sure but but i'd look at those options for first really that
could really help you out now what what do you want to do what do you play what
(38:39):
sort of music yeah so i'm a little all over the board so i do like playing more
bluesy stuff but what's the word more blues rock rock,
I guess is a good way to put it, but I also go pretty heavy sometimes as well.
So I'm kind of somewhere in the middle of that.
So anywhere from the ACDC style tone to, I'm not going to say Aileen Weavenry
(38:59):
heavy wise, but up there, more of a hardcore sound as well, and sometimes a pop punk style sound.
So somewhere in between those three. And I know I don't necessarily need one
guitar to to be able to accommodate all of that.
But the closer I can get to that, the happier I think I'll be.
I think trying to make one guitar accommodate all that is as long as you can
(39:24):
accept the fact that it won't do everything well.
Yeah, that's a fantastic point.
And you find out which bit it does that you love and you do that with it. Yeah.
No one guitar is going to do everything. You can't have a Strat Paul or a Lezakast or whatever.
You know, you're just, yeah, it's just silly to try in some ways.
(39:45):
But anyway, I haven't said that.
It does sound like, to me, because my humbucker size P90, the Black Sand,
yes, it's a P90 in the fact that it's constructed like a P90,
but it's not the same as like a vintage Gibson P90. Okay.
Because you physically cannot fit that.
Into that size right you know because they
(40:07):
are a very flat very wide coil the old p90s like
a soap bar and they fit in
the soap bar they physically won't fit in so what you do
with a humbucker size one is it's wound with thinner
gauge wire i see which changes stuff
if actually look at the okay ohms they look it looks pretty similar but actually
it's a quite different sound because it's different wire ohms not being a measurement
(40:30):
of power right but that's that's a rant for another time but they have they're
actually quite suited to a lot of styles,
so for instance Warren Mendonca who I mentioned earlier on has got a set in
DS 335 but then also Jimmy Christmas from D4 has a set so he's got a much more aggressive punk type.
(40:56):
That angry shouting at you sound,
so so that it's a different like
a normal p90 will have a woody
clonk going on so there isn't but they're more clear than that okay so that
sounds to me like a good option for you for actually quite a few things because
(41:21):
they'll grit up yep in that a lower regain malcolm young way,
but then you've got a nice bit of neck pickup clarity too i mean
i've been doing the last half half dozen gigs with one in the neck and
a cloud nine in the bridge okay so
i can have and they and they feel because they're a single coil they feel like
a single coil you have that less compression and that slightly more dynamic
(41:43):
more dynamics yeah so definitely i'm thinking of one of those okay or two of
those or even three of those.
I'm not sure about your... Yeah, I'm wondering if that would be a good neck and bridge.
I'm almost thinking of a Filtrotron for one of them as well,
but probably just because... It would look fun, for sure. Yeah.
(42:09):
That's what we want. And I'm also thinking, oh, there's three pickups,
let's have three different ones. Yeah.
Yeah, that's gone through my
mind as well. It's like, how weird can I make this already weird guitar?
Although Filtrotrons are a different physical size, you can get the surrounds that
are adapters that'll fit in yeah they're a mess
longer but they fit nearly all humbucker out
(42:32):
and there's this around but i mean
yeah i'm not sure if i'm saying that to the
look right and then bridge bridge bridge pickup i'm not
sure really i think so how you how you're gonna go with the bridge pickup what
you're gonna do with it so yeah my other guitar that i have the cloud nine in
(42:52):
the and the neck i have a dirty fingers in the bridge and it's not the newer
one it's when they first reintroduced them back in i think it was the late 90s or early,
2000s which has a little bit of a different sonic feel
to it from what i've been reading at least because i haven't purchased
one of the new ones but anyway i've had it sitting in a box for
(43:14):
ages and so i finally pulled it out and threw it in this this ltd
esp single cut and i love
it actually sounds wonderful it sounds really
good in that guitar and it's obviously
quite hot and i do kind of like the way that that feels when i when i kick it
in so i think i would probably lean towards that just because i really do enjoy
(43:35):
having that kind of sound and in a single cut guitar specifically so yeah i
would i'm thinking more cloud nine bridge.
I use it in our covers band, and I don't like changing guitar mid-gig. Right.
I kind of think, who do I think I am?
(43:57):
Yeah. You know, it's all right for the edge, but I'm just a bloke in a pub in
Auburn. It's just bleh. So I like to keep the same guitar all night.
So it's a pickup that will do a lot of different stuff. You know,
I want to do the more backed off stuff towards the beginning,
and then at the end when we're doing Sang Man and Killing in the Name. Right.
You know i i want it i want to be able to i like
(44:19):
it sort of the feeling like i'm just barely hanging on to it kind of nice
you know and it'll run away we'll run off on its own yeah yeah yeah no that
actually and from my experience with the bridge cloud nine i think that that
makes total sense to me too so yeah it sounds like the record go cloud nine
black sand black sand yeah yeah yeah Yeah,
(44:41):
that actually... And your wiring...
Yes, you're a wiring guy anyway. I am, yeah.
There's plenty of options there. And I think the switch that you're talking
about, they're made in the UK, if I remember correctly, and they have eight positions on them.
I put one of those in my son's guitar. I was going to put it in my LTD,
(45:03):
but the cavity for the wire in those ESP...
The LTD, it's a 265. is
tiny compared to like a less ball
but i think it's it's a thinner body so that's
one of the reasons they probably made the the the channel so much
smaller and so trying to get you know eight
plus wires through there was shielded was it was almost almost impossible so
(45:28):
i just decided you know it's way easier i'll just put that in his guitar and
i'll just keep mine here and maybe put some push pulls in the and the volumes
and tone knobs and and so yeah i bought the i bought the the push bulls,
but they're sitting in a drawer.
So I'll, I'll get to it one day, but. Here's another idea.
Keep your three-way switch. Mm-hmm.
Wire the three-way switch like a les paul ignoring the middle pickup yeah yep
(45:51):
and have one of those pots as a
volume control for just the middle oh yeah so
you can introduce the middle pickup bring it in with resetting you
might have to do that you might have to do change it in
and out legs of the volume pot you know how you've
normally got you go in the outside leg and
out the middle yep but then like with a les paul in the middle position
(46:12):
of the switch you turn one volume off and the whole guitar goes off yep
you know that yeah well if you wire them other way that doesn't
happen okay nice like with a jazz bass
and they're wired so you can
wire that the other way those pots the other way so that you
can have in that volume so you could have that way
you could have the middle pickup on its
(46:33):
own then yeah then
you don't have any kind of master volume if you want want to shut the whole thing
off no but i could potentially change it
from the dual tone knobs to a
single tone knob and then use the other knob to bring in
the middle pickup if that makes sense yeah yeah
and that that would yeah because i don't necessarily really need two tone knobs
(46:56):
especially with the the shared volume or not the shared volume but the yeah
i could just use a single tone knob that's totally fine that would work for
me but if you want to turn the whole if you're using all three pickups and you
want to turn the whole guitar off,
you've got to turn two volumes down. I see. Yep.
If you're not gigging, it's probably not an issue. Yeah.
(47:18):
There you go. Or you can have a kill switch and you can have your gigging moments as well.
I could do that. I was thinking volume pedal is another option there,
right? So that's another way to pull that one off.
And that's probably easier to do because you're not ordering another switch
and mucking about with that.
Yeah, and that'll probably work intuitively, well enough intuitively,
(47:42):
especially if you wind it up yourself. Right.
You know, that's the other thing with, you know, I've done a lot of modifying
of strats, and there's lots of ways of changing strats, but I've also put a
lot of them back to original for people who've had all sorts of amazing ideas
with this and that and this and that.
Actually, it was pretty good to begin with. Yep. And very intuitive. Yep.
(48:05):
Yeah. Oh, that's great. Great. Wow. That's fantastic. Hey, I really appreciate your time.
I think, I think I don't want to keep you any longer here, but it's been fantastic talking with you.
And I'll let you know as soon as I get ready to place that order.
Cause I think I'm going to do that at some point in the very near future.
So we'll get that, that going. So that'll be a lot of fun.
And of course I'll let you know what it, what it turns out to sound like.
(48:29):
So that'll be good. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh God. No, definitely need to hear that.
Yep. And really can't take Did you or who else you talked to?
Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I've got a running list and thanks for a couple more
names to add to it as well.
I've been doing a lot of research, which has been actually so much fun to just,
you know, start looking around, seeing who I should talk to and reading what
(48:52):
I can about their history and then finding out about that. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
Yeah. Yeah. I look forward to your continuing YouTube episodes. They're great.
So it's really nice talking to these folks, except a lot of times when you're
talking to the makers, it's just really dangerous for the bank account because
I just kind of want to go get one of each and do that, which is complicated.
(49:15):
So, but yeah. But you are clearly a very disciplined human being because you
haven't told me you make pedals.
No, I don't. You've got Nellipirk's background, and yet you've managed to resist that?
Yep. I actually only own one pedal, and it's a Korg, the ODS,
I think is what it's called, which is a pedal kit that you buy,
(49:39):
and they're using their new tube technology.
So it's actually vacuum tubes that they pioneered for use in,
I think, television sets?
So you yeah it's it's only like this long and about that wide and it's mounted
right onto a service mount right onto a circuit board and it was just kind of
a fun thing to play around with so i got it and it's a nice it's a fine overdrive
(50:03):
pedal i think josh did a video on the three corg.
New tube line just recently and it was included in that one wasn't one of the
ones that blew him away but it's for me it's it's an overdrive pedal and it
actually sounds pretty good and the only thing is that if you stomp on it,
you can get a whine that comes out of it because the pedal is,
(50:23):
somewhat sensitive, or sorry, the tube is somewhat sensitive to vibration.
So, it'll get a little bit microphonic on you. So, they get,
they send you a nice little piece of foam that you can mount it on.
And I'm like, oh, it's like a little mattress for my little tube.
And it's not really, but it's a really firm mattress apparently.
So, yeah, it bounces around a little bit.
But for my needs at at this point
(50:44):
in time it's it's fine yeah thanks again your stuff is
amazing and i've been super impressed so so thank you again yeah thanks good
i'll talk to you soon cheers i hope you've enjoyed listening and or watching
the alto guitar show if you like what you hear please subscribe like ring the
bell and we'll let you know when the next one's coming hot down the ditch.
(51:06):
Music.
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