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Monty’s pickups.

grimlyflick

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
1,276
After about 2 years of owning my 2016 standard the novelty of all the switching finally wore off, also as with my previous standard, from which if memory serves me correct was a 2005/06, I found the burstbuckers to be rather murky sounding especially when using the volumes to clean up the tone.

My classic has a RS kit wired 50s style with Pearly Gates and the standards compared to this guitar always sounded as if they had a blanket over them tonewise. I replaced the pots and caps again 50s style, but once again I just couldn’t dial the burstbuckers in without them sounding murky.

So I set off into the stormy waters of replacement pickups and after reading reviews, watching YouTube clips and comparing prices I settled on ordering a set of Monty’s humdingers, funnily enough after ordering the pickups I had a look around their website and found a few guitarists I admire also have a set of humdingers so I kept my fingers crossed I’d made the right choice.

Pickups arrived in their amazing packaging, but thats another story (Google it, the packaging is stunning), and I had the pickups fitted with a Fake 58 wiring kit.

They sound awesome, just as I imagined, clear and articulate, all the murkyness of the guitar has gone and the tone stays clear with very little treble loss when using the volumes. The tone is more akin to the demos of classic bursts I see online, sweeter treble almost like a big fat tele and unlike some modern style pickups the neck has a lot more presence and doesn’t get too bassy or boomy. I also found it very easy to dial them in height-wise although I’m sure I can improve the set up a little, but for now enough tweaking, I’m just going to enjoy them for a while.

Please note, I’m not trying to replicate a burst, just get that tone in my head. My favourite tone of all time is Page’s tone on Since I’ve Been Loving You, his use of volumes and tones during the track is stunning. Mix that with all those classic early Les Paul tones, a little Audley Freed/Craig Ross and bit of Steve Cropper I’m sure you can get the gist of it.

Overall I’m very, very happy. The clincher is they were only £10 more than a set of off the shelf Pearly Gates.
:salude
 
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