Vintage Foil Pickups
Gold Foils and Metal Foils- Two flavors of Vintage Tone!
Why Foil?
These are all based upon the great little Foil topped pickups found on 60's Japanese Student Guitars.
They are the thin little cheapo pickups stuck on cheapo Japanese student guitar from the 70s. Garbage right?? Oh no my friend.. Those foils have a mysterious power to hook even the most dyed-in-the-wool Strat, Tele or Les Paul man.
So the old Gold Foils sound bitchin'... smooth and lanquid with a super clear high end... a relaxed musical midrange and a very understated but deep bottom end. Not the loudest pickups, but they never sound too thin. So vintage Gold Foils are not potted, cheaply made, and VERY thin. To mount them on any modern PLAYABLE guitar you have to go full custom. Get out the Porter Cable router and the jigs and the shims and the files, and who needs that.
We make two families of Foil Pickups:
GOLD FOILS- Based upon the familiar Strat, Tele, Humbucker and P90 Styles you know and love. Strat pickups and P90 feature fiber bobbins and plastic covers. Humbuckers utilize conventional metal covers and thin brass baseplates.These all have the Crystalline Foil sound with a bit more modern power and fullness.
METAL FOILS- A more authentic vintage sound- with the kind of power and punch only a steel baseplate can provide! Strat and Tele pickups feature thick STEEL baseplates, nickel plates for increased upper midrange power. Humbuckers feature thin German Metal shells and oversized bar magnets with scatterwound coils.
