FletchBuckers
Higher output, versatile & that fat rich tone!
Without the Humbucker how would we Rock!?
All my humbuckers are Hand-wound with carefully selected wire & mounted onto quality Nickel silver baseplate with wooden spacers. The trick to a great humbucker is to mismatch the number of winds on each coil - my humbuckers are carefully mismatched to produce a wonderful musical clarity throughout the musical spectrum.
Wired with 4 output wire as standard:
Red Hot, White (N) to Green (S), Black Earth.
Humbucker sizes - 50mm Neck & 52mm Bridge..
Starting from £55 each
Pickups - Vintage
Alnico II
Provenance
First there was the Single Coil and it was Good. Then there came the Humbucker..............
With a nod to the first great humbuckers I present my take on the originals;
Both Neck & Bridge have the same output and 50mm pole to pole.
To balance the neck with the bridge it is placed lower relative to the strings, resulting in a clearer neck tone with less string pull. Sandcast Alnico II give a creamy smoothness with beautiful sweet clarity.
One for the Tone Fiends!
Both 7.6k 4.4H
Alnico III
Paradise
Mellow warm tones and singing sustain. Slightly underwound on the neck to boost clarity, these have a woody tone in the neck and warm mellow bridge. A sultry vibe dripping with smooth. Hollow body paradise.
Neck 7.2k 3.9H
Bridge 8.0k 4.8H
Alnico II
Heaven
With a more mids and cleaner highs, these can push an amp into sweet distortion or lick up smooth vintage cleans. Versatile enough for jazz to rock. Nicely suited to brighter light woods.
Neck 7.2k 3.9H
Bridge 8.0k 4.8H
Alnico IV
Elysium
With an even EQ response, these will make a good guitar sound awesome. Best on warm tone woods with hard tops, these produce that classic PAF tone and versatile enough for most genres. My recommendation.
Neck 7.2k 3.9H
Bridge 8.0k 4.8H
Alnico V
Home
Classic humbucker punch and clarity. Controlled bass with clear punch in top and scooped mids. I called it Home because you know where you are with this combo. Classic rock. At home in Maple & Mahogany.
Neck 7.2k 3.9H
Bridge 8.0k 4.8H
Alnico V
The Blender
This pickup combines two different wire gauges to give a rich complex tone.
The thicker 42awg wire has the clarity of voice and articulation to be expected of a vintage style pickups. The thinner 43awg wire adds a touch of warmth and drive to the mix, resulting in a pickup with the openness of a vintage pickup with a warm powerful tone of a more modern voiced pickup.
Neck 8.3k 4.1H
Bridge 9.4k 5.0H
Pickups - Non-Standard
Two pups in one
Two Tone Tap
Can't decide which output you want! Tapped (not coil split) Humbuckers will allow you to go from one output to another - Low single coil output to Proper vintage. Or Vintage to Silly!
Two tapped coils allow fully humbucking change in power, the range to which you want is up to you. Due to space constraints, some configurations may require use of thinner wire, resulting in different tones.
Standard 4 wire output
From £70 - Requires a cover, included in price.
Alnico V (or II, III, IV) - Vintage Output
HummerLess
Single voice clarity without hum. This pickup replaces the large bar magnet with individual Alnico poles in place of the slugs. Three magnets to each coil creates a clear bright & warm tone somewhere between a true single coil and a p90, without the hum, and with some of the power of a humbucker.
2 wire output only. Poles are non-adjustable & requires 3x3 cover.
Neck 6.6k, Bridge 7.5k
£70 each
Alnico V (or II, III, IV) - Vintage Output
HummerLess p90
Similar objective as the HummerLess, these have only 3 poles per bobbin. However, construction is more like a traditional humbucker or p90 in that the bar magnet is retained & steel screws are used.
Addition of steel to the mix results in a more p90 flavour.
2 wire output only. Poles adjustable & requires a 3x3 cover.
Neck 7.2k, Bridge 8.0k
£70 each
Alnico V (or II, III, IV or a blend) - Vintage/Hot output
BroadScope
High clarity Humbucker. Similar in design to the HummerLess, this pickup replaces the large bar magnet with individual Alnico poles in place of the slugs. Six magnets to each coil of different length replacing the steel screws/slugs, creating a clearer, brighter & quicker response over a standard humbucker.
Wound with thinner wire than the HummerLess for a better mid response.
Poles are non-adjustable.
Neck 8+k, Bridge 9+k
£60 each, without a cover
Pickups - Modern
Over wound Alnico V, VI, VIII or ceramic
Purgatory
Overwound with thinner wire these are more powerful than Hot-Vintage, having more attack and power but not as crazy as modern super-hot pickups, so still versatile enough to play clean. Medium output.
Neck 10.9k 5.9H
Bridge 14.0k 8.9H
Alnico V; Quite a balanced tone of mid through highs.
Ceramic; Huge spongy mid and more bass with greater attack, highest output and compressed sound.
Alnico VIII sits between V & Ceramic with clearer highs. More output than Vs and more musical than ceramic.
Alnico 5
Super Blends
The winding recipe of the Purgatory, with the mismatched wire thickness of the Blends.
One coil of AWG 43, and one of AWG 44 wound to Medium/Hot levels.
Adds a tighter, more complex voice to the Purgatory set.
Neck 11.5k 5.3H
Bridge 16.6k 9.2H
Alnico 5
Hell Level 5
Overwound with thin wire, these offer up-most power. Perhaps too attacking for clean tones, these will rip the house down. Reasonably balanced tones with thick mids
Neck 14k Bridge 18k
Alnico 8
Hell Level 8
Overwound with thin wire, these offer up-most power. Clear highs with controlled mids & bass.
Neck 14k Bridge 18k
Ceramic
Hell Rock Bottom
Overwound with thin wire, these offer up-most power. Unpleasant for clean tones, these will get you noticed. Clear highs, thumping bass & spongy mids.
Will accommodate extra magnets for extra madness
Neck 14k Bridge 18k
Neodymium
NeoHell!!!
Is it puerile and childish to use Neodymium Rare Earth, super-strong magnets overwound to silliness?? Yes.
Not one for the vintage tone seekers
Violent & loud, like being punched in the ear, but funny.
Surprisingly dynamic & musical considering & highly addictive through a tube amp
Bridge 20k
Optional Extras
Coverup
Pickups come uncovered as standard in Black, Cream or Zebra - 6 screw, 12 screw or all slugs
Covers are available in:
6 screw, 12 screw, 3x3, Slotted, H-slot, Covered & Open.
In the following finishes:
Unplated Raw Nickel, Chrome, Nickel or Gold
Relic'd Chrome & Black available on some covers
Only Top quality German Nickel Silver which affects the tone the least
From £12 per pickup.
Relic'd
Artificially aged or Relic'd Humbucker covers available in Nickel or Gold (Chrome doesn't relic well with the method I use).
Each relic'd cover will age differently and look different.
+£5
Rail'd
Solid metal rails in place of slugs/screws. More steel in the pickup produces higher definition and clarity.
More suited to higher output pickups where more definition is needed at higher gain, but available for any given pickups spec.
Available as Thin or Fat rails.
Black, Gold or Chrome Rails
Black or Cream bobbins
+£15 per pickup
Foiled
First pick your Open Cover:
Chrome, Nickel, Raw Nickel, Gold or Matt Black
Then pick your Aluminium foil:
Silver, Gold, Black, Blue or Pink!
or
Steel Mesh:
Chrome, Nickel, Gold or Matt Black
From £12
Overwound Underwound
All Vintage wind pickups can be overwound by 5% to Vintage-Hot for a more edgy, gritty sound, or underwound by up to 10% for a cleaner, clearer vibe.
Underwound pickups are recommended on semi/hollow bodies or bodies with an overly dark tone.
Overwound recommended for bright bodies, or just more power
No extra charge
Sandcast
Standard Alnico magnets used are polished & shiny. Sand-cast magnets are available, in keeping with very early pickups, for a more genuine PAF sound. The rough surface disturbs the distribution of the magnetic field, resulting in a slight reduction of top end, to give a smoother voiced tone.
+£2 per pickup.