Custom
Shop
Here's
a
chance to
design your own custom musical instrument pickup! We can offer your
choice of Alnico grades 2, 3,
4 (depending on availability) or 5 magnets for your pickup in any type
of staggering you wish, even if you're left
handed.
We also offer your choice of coil wire gauges, insulation materials,
magnetic polarity and
winding direction,
with winding amounts from very light
for maximal twang to very overwound for heavy sustain.
We
also
have a
choice of colored Forbon material for your pickups - not only 'basic
black' but light gray, blue, green, red, brown, and purple
(among others) are
also
available. There are some examples of actual colored Angeltone
pickups shown at
the
bottom of this page.
Prices for Angeltone Custom Shop musical instrument pickups start at
$99.95 USD.
Angeltone Electronics LLC reserves the right not to make any pickup
that would knowingly infringe upon another pickup maker's patents...
or any pickups that may possibly be intended by the owner to 'sound
bad'. See the Legal Stuff page of this website for more details.
This
pickup
was the inspiration for the Angeltone 'A2' series of
pickups.
It's a 5S7 with
chemically and magnetically treated Alnico
II magnets to visually as
well as tonally
mimic a real fifty year old pickup with rusty magnets. The purchaser of
this pickup owns a
1956 Strat
with a missing lead pickup, and wanted a pickup that looked like the
other two pickups he had as
well as sound like them. What's it like? He said his bandmates couldn't
tell the 'real'
pickups apart from the 5S7 until he pointed it out.
Here's one for all you Hendrix fans
out there. This is an Angeltone 6S9 pickup slightly overwound for more
sustain, and also with 'lefty' magnet staggering. Why is this cool? It
allows the owner of this pickup to get many of the tonal benefits Jimi
got from turning his
Strats upside down and restringing them, while still playing his own
favorite guitar. How does it work? Go to the Pickup Info page of
this website and look up the Magnet Lengths section for more details.
This one is interesting... the owner
of this pickup is a Mark Knopfler fan who wanted to do Mark's
fingerpicking tricks with a vintage tone and using light gauge strings,
but also without using any compressors for maximal dynamics. It's a 5S4
pickup with Alnico III magnets in a modern flatpole configuration like
an Angeltone 7S5 pickup would have, and the 7S5's light gray bobbin
plates and vinyl covered hookup wire, but keeping the 5S4's Formvar
coil windings in a classic barrel shaped coil wind. What's it sound
like? Every note twangs like you would expect from a good vintage
pickup, but with no more of those annoying volume
changes when
jumping from string to string!
Here is another interesting pickup -
this belongs to a fingerstyle player who loves his 1976 Strat's
original tone, but also loves to play Johnny Cash style 'boom chicka'
rhythms. This is a 7S5 rhythm pickup with the Alnico V G, B and high E
magnets
slightly lowered for more low string 'boom' compared to the other
strings, original style plain enamel coil windings and cloth covered
hookup wire. What's this one like? It sounds like the original pickups
in his Strat, but
the low strings in this one are slightly louder than the high strings,
and putting more boom in his chicka.
Here's a 'Special T'... a 50R Telecaster rhythm
pickup
with light gray bobbin flats, slightly overwound 42 gauge plain enamel
coil windings,
lacquer potting, cloth covered hookup wires, and a real gold plated
cover.
A
pickup for the blues...
Here's an interesting
one... An Albert
Collins fan told me that he just bought a 'frosty ice blue' Custom Shop
Telecaster and wanted a very special lead pickup. He asked
for a model 65T
pickup with
a couple of twists - a slightly hotter wind than the normal spec for
more sustain, 'and oh by the way, can you make it blue?' Well,
we did -
the
bobbin turned out almost midnight blue. We also used
blue wax to dye the string overwrapping the coil the same way that
Fender
used black wax in their original pickups.
What's it sound like? Very
'Frosty' indeed, with all of the treble bite that Teles of the era
were known for and more singing sustain too. Wish I had a photo of the
guitar...
Here's one for all you Green Bay Packers football
fans out there - an Angeltone 5S7 pickup with Alnico II magnets,
slightly underwound for more 'twang', and the famous Packers 'green and
gold' team colors. Why? Being a cheesehead means never having to ask
why...
Here's another interesting one... another 5S7, only
with Alnico V magnets and over 9000 turns of single insulated Formvar
coil wire. This one sounds sort of a cross
between a P90 and a Strat. Did I mention it's red?
