NGD- New Gravelin Day

[diablo175]

Josh is da man! A year or so ago, he brought to my attention a pickup he was winding for another customer & he thought might interest me: a Van Halen-esque wind somewhere in the neighborhood of Ed's p'up on Fair Warning / Diver Down. 

Dayumm. It rocked in my HEL Spitfire 1! Then he wound a slightly different one, still in EVH territory but with a slight tweak to the high end, and I put that in my HEL Spitfire 2. Boom!! Killer!  So, I ordered one for the upcoming Star Spangled Star. Tone report will come as soon as I get it in hand.

Was anticipating acquiring another guitar so I ordered yet one more of the tweaked EVH. That acquisition fell through BUT...

...as fate would have it, I'm going to be acquiring another Hamer and this newest Gravelin is going in that one!!! 

Stay tuned!

[soli'd]

I recently put a set of fresh shlabotniks in a 95 studio custom. Fantastic pickups. 

https://imgur.com/a/6Cy3WK1

 

Edited Monday at 01:29 AM by soli'd
Trying to get image to embed

[scottcald]

Nice pickups all around.  We're fortunate here to have a number of guitar pickup gurus.

Jim, since I'm not familiar off the top of my head with the EVH Fair Warning pickup, is that more akin to the 78 or the current Wolfgangs or something else?  Ed said so many things about his gear and who knows what's exactly reality. 

[BoogieMKIIA]

13 hours ago, soli'd said:

I recently put a set of fresh shlabotniks in a 95 studio custom. Fantastic pickups. 

https://imgur.com/a/6Cy3WK1

 

I have slightly tweaked Ultimates in my Studio Custom. RS Guitarworks recently did some work on the guitar and readjusted the height and screws, it really screams. Some use the Charlotte set, a bit hotter.

I am too lazy to do more swapping (and I like what I currently have) but would like to check out other pickups. @Jeff R has interesting offerings. RS has their own pickups. 

Anyone have comparisons to share?

[velorush]

14 hours ago, soli'd said:

I recently put a set of fresh shlabotniks in a 95 studio custom. Fantastic pickups. 

https://imgur.com/a/6Cy3WK1

 

Gorgeous!

[diablo175]

15 hours ago, scottcald said:

Nice pickups all around.  We're fortunate here to have a number of guitar pickup gurus.

Jim, since I'm not familiar off the top of my head with the EVH Fair Warning pickup, is that more akin to the 78 or the current Wolfgangs or something else?  Ed said so many things about his gear and who knows what's exactly reality. 

Even I have a difficult time articulating/describing the genesis of this p'up despite chatting with Josh every so often. You're correct that Eddie used numerous p'ups and it was challenging to pin down the exact one he then may have modded or had modded. But I believe this closer to the '78 ( or a Custom Custom) than anything more current. 

Edited Monday at 07:27 PM by diablo175

[diablo175]

Josh is a freaking pickup genius in addition to being a genuinely great guy- knows so much about pickup building- nuances that blow my mind. Screws vs. hex vs. slugs,  rough cast vs. polished, pole piece length, square vs rounded whatchamajig 😆, and of course, alnico vs ceramic. We were chatting recently about p'ups and he got a brainstorm in the midst of talking about modding pickups. Decided he was going to experiment with a certain shaped something or other and a certain type of screw pole piece and I should test it out. Just like that. 

 

[mathman]

Love the pickups he made for my old bullet bass.

[Jakeboy]

The Shlabotniks in my Ultimate are my fave humbuckers ever. Just perfect.  I have Gravelins in my CruiseBass and just ordered a special set for a custom build. And his Tele pickups? Oh my..,so very good.

[bubs_42]

Josh is my GoTo pickup guy. His personal touch is second to none, I no longer ask what Magnets, or wire, or anything. I explain what I’m going for and he works his magic. Everybody and their brother wind pickups nowadays, and f you find a guy that won’t let you down because he cares about your tone you better hang on to that guy.