Dear Alan,

I just received the pair of HV 58 Zebra I ordered, and after installing them in my Ibanez SZ320 Gold Top (Mahogany set-neck guitar with maple cap), I must admit they sound really great. Not only for their price, but also compared to major brand pickups. Actually I am a kind of "pickup freak" and I've tried and played with a (huge!) lot of models from different major brands (expensive or not), such as DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Lace, Bill Lawrence (USA and Bill & Becky), EMG, Tonerider, Irongear, etc... I've never really stayed more than a couple of months with the same pickup in a guitar (I own various high-end guitars such as Vigier and Lag - made in France - as well as more "commoners" like Ibanez and Yamaha) as I usually end being kind of "unsatisfied" to a certain point thus the changing for a new pickup. But there are those very few pickups that left in place forever because of the permanent satisfaction they bring me from the beginning of their use, like the Seymour Duncan SH1 '59 Neck and the Tonerider Generator. And those HV 58 entered the top three, as I will definitely not move them from my guitar in many many time given the impression they gave me all the day long. They have this "air ringing" in the sound that makes them shine in the "vintage boutique" side, and the notes sound with those harmonic overtones I have rarely found in my other major-brand (and way more expensive!) pickups. Clean and distorted, they slam brightly with this typical "quack" that tone freaks like to (ridiculously) produce during hours slapping the strings to hear this "high end slap" characteristic while they grin to the other clients of the shop while they sit on their very expensive boutique hand-wired amp. Played clean through a tube amp, then overdriven with a TS-9 or simply distorted with my favourite distortion (Brown Sound in a Box 2), they simply sound fantastic, with a beautiful clarity and harmonics. Sure they are vintage output, so don't expect to use them with high gain stack monsters to obtain "mega gain" sounds, because it is not what they have been designed for (besides I really don't like it). I don't know how they compare to boutique pickups (like Bare Knuckle, Tom Holmes, Lollar, etc.) and I really don't care: they sound great. Period.

To be honest, I was so pleased with the result that I just ordered a set of Nemesis and a set of ASN 57 that are going directly to my high-end Vigier Excalibur. I'll send you a review as soon as I install them.

Thank you for your outstanding work and dedication to bring the best (and affordable!) to all the people.

Best regards,

Simon

Hi Alan,

This basically a thankyou!

I've been a guitar player for many years and as I've got older I've got more into tone

Now when one is shopping for a pickup it is impossible to know how a pickup will sound in YOUR GUITAR until the pickup is installed and played in YOUR GUITAR by you through your gear!

I have been playing a 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom (which I salvaged, repaired, refretted and refinished many years ago)

Playing through a Marshall stack using 4x70 watt vintage and4xG12T75 speakers all driven by my customised 20 watt Marshall valve head.

I now have the bridge tone that I've been looking for through many years of experimentation; I've found that in a Gibson 500tstraight to the switch is just the ticket through my rig...

I have tried various Gibson pickups, Seymour Duncan, BareKnuckle, Schaller etc. etc. a very expensive set of exercises.

Been on the quest for the neck pickup... I have the tone in my head round and powerful (hot) but warm. All pickups I have been trying in this position sound kind of hollow

I am scarred by the pain of searching for the right bridge PU so I decided to buy cheaper pickups, then if I like the basic character, invest in a more upscale pickup based on those magnetics with similar values for DC resistance and inductance

The pickup I was using was a 496r - not enough power at all. I then tried a pickup from 'Iron Gear' called a 'Hot Slag'J - cool name but didn't like it sound. Next I tried an Entwistle 'Dark Star' Immediately on opening the pack I was really impressed with the diagrams and more importantly the pickup was marked as 'N' which saves mix ups! And even more importantly the wires were already tinned, with the coil split wires which would be bridged for humbucker mode, or the simple coil split already soldered up. Ready to drop in basically!

I measured it at 15.6k - I didn't like the graphics so I used some wet and dry to get rid of that, then installed it

Straight away it had a fuller tone, still quite hollow as there was a little top end 'missing' so I disconnected the cap in my tone/vol circuit. Actually sounds excellent, if you don't pick massively hard.

I have it wound moderately far away from the strings so it sounds a little less defined...

To sum up I'm amazingly impressed, it's a lower cost pickup but it not a lower cost tone! It's really beautiful to be honest

I'm gonna try the neodymium next, I was a bit worried about strong magnetics sapping sustain, but I don't need the pickup too close to the strings... And at the prices of these pickups it's great to be able to experiment without committing financial suicide! I've bought it, not got it yet, but I'm very much looking forward to it

Graham