Wizard retiring...

jamesxryan · August 2013

I just saw on the Wizard Pickups website that Andy is retiring to sail around the UK. Sad to hear, as he makes great pickups and is good to customers. I wish him the best of luck.

But now he's gone, who else do you recommend for pickups?

mike_l · August 2013

Bulldog @Van_Hayden I have one in my Jackson and it's awesomes.

Oil City @Guitarweasel not tried one, but keep hearing good things

Bidley · August 2013

Jaime at The Creamery is excellent too.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

Sad to hear of a fellow 'winder of the blessed bobbins of happiness' hanging up his potting trousers. I'd heard good things about Andy myself. Hope he has a great time in retirement though ...

Van_Hayden · August 2013

Thanks @mike_l - I need to have a look at @Guitarweasel s pickups, new to me since I was last on Music Radar! (still waiting for a reply as to why my user name got locked, think it was 2008...) from his posts he seems like a nice chap - unlike some winders...

Andy was a bit of a legend - him and people like Jim Cairns were the old guard when it came to pickups. In fact without Wizard there probably wouldn't have been a BKP, but that's another story.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

I just e mailed Andy wishing him a happy retirement. Totally agree that without his groundwork, and that of the old guard, we wouldn't be doing what we do and slaving over the hot copper

monquixote · August 2013

mike_l said:

Bulldog @Van_Hayden I have one in my Jackson and it's awesomes.
Oil City @Guitarweasel not tried one, but keep hearing good things

I have some of each in my strat and both are marvelous.

siremoon · August 2013

Another endorsement for Oil City. The ones I've got are excellent

JookyChap · August 2013

Shame to hear that - I've had a few sets of Wizard pups and they have been excellent...

One more for the hat from me is Mojo Pickups - plenty of innovation as well as all the classics

OilCityPickups · August 2013

At some point I intend to do a 'History of pickup winding' either here, or on my blog. My hat comes off to all the early pioneers in this country ... it was nowhere near as easy to get parts even five years ago ... and 'way back' there was practically no information available either. Guys like John Birch operated in pretty much a total vacuum in the seventies. I think nothing of ordering kilos of wire from the US ... and chatting via e mail to suppliers and indeed customers all over the world ... it must have been so much different 'back in the day'.

Van_Hayden · August 2013

JookyChap;10729" said:
Shame to hear that - I've had a few sets of Wizard pups and they have been excellent...

One more for the hat from me is Mojo Pickups - plenty of innovation as well as all the classics

And they're just down the road and I didn't realise - that's how much of a bubble you can get stuck in making pickups....

It's true it's much easier to get hold of parts, I'd have found it hard to set Bulldog up without knowing all the BKP suppliers. And BKP would have found it hard without guys like Bharrat who really did their research.

At one point practically ever luthier was making or repairing pickups in this country. And some were remarkably ingenious.

JookyChap · August 2013

That's a book there Ash...drop Backbeat a line

What I like with the pickup makers over here is the fact that they will try different things rather than just try and replicate the-perfect-PAF(tm).

Wizard did one called (iirc) a Novatron which had this whole Resonator sound going on, which was completely different, and you and Mojo are both pushing things in different directions, which is cool.

What always amazes me is guitarists not wanting anything apart from the 'Classic Tones' . Other than being in a cover band I'd have thought people would be looking for something new/different, but it doesn't seem the way of things, which always seems odd to me. The average painter would take your arm off for a new colour.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

I was lucky in one sense ... my father being an old school engineer who drummed into me lateral thinking ... I resorted to basics when I started: all my early flatwork was done the hard way ... with laboriously built 'plugs' and a router 'following' the masters. I still do new prototypes like that sometimes ... by god it's messy

ICBM · August 2013

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Guys like John Birch operated in pretty much a total vacuum in the seventies.

I think he was operating in an atmosphere of hallucinogenic vapour, given some of the things he did to guitars

.

I agree a lot of these guys were innovators though, whether out of necessity or just because they had different ideas.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

I know there is much criticism of John for his 'butchery' of name American instruments ... and some of his design ... er ... touches on his own instruments. But he was a pioneer, along with Jim Burns, Charley Watkins and a host that followed. Innovation is innovation ... whether out of neccessity or visionary thinking. We've always done rather well at 'making the best of' in Britain.

ICBM · August 2013

I agree, but some of his work borders on deliberate vandalism. There was no sensible reason for a lot of it, and the workmanship was often poor which makes it even less excusable.

impmann · August 2013

You forgot Jack Golder, Ash...

I wish Andy all the best for retirement - I've had some of his pickups and they were first rate, along with his customer service/helpfulness.

In terms of pickup winders, though - I still think it was Kent Armstrong who really pioneered the "we can wind anything you want" ethic in the UK. As I used to live in Kent he was fairly local (before he sold up and bailed out to the US) and I've had many of his units over the years - not those cheapy Korean/Far Eastern made things - in fact, I still have a pair of his overwound humbuckers in one of my Teles.

IIRC, Andy (Wizard) took over the rewinding business from Kent when he left the UK, and Kent sold the name 'Kent Armstrong' to the far east along with some of his more popular designs. And I think originally Andy called the business Wizard Rewinds...

But hey, many beers have flowed since then so my memory might not be spot on!!

B-)

mike_l · August 2013

Van_Hayden said:

Thanks @mike_l -

I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

Damn ... how could I have missed out Jack Golder!
I had a pair of Kent's hand wound humbuckers in the Manson Eagle I used to own. They were absolutely fabulous ...
To me it's sad that his stock has been a little devalued amongst younger guitarists by the cheap Far Eastern products that have his name all over them.

Van_Hayden · August 2013

Shergold. That's a blast from the past.

impmann · August 2013

Totally agree, Ash. His handwound stuff was *seriously* good - the pickups in my guitar were spec'd to sound like Bernie Marsden's Beast (ie PAF with a bit more bite) but being encapsulated in resin so I could run monster amounts of gain without squeeling live. And, whilst I've never played Bernie's burst, I used to be able to get quite close to the tone of the original Whitesnake stuff with those in a Les Paul. In fact, I'm giving thought to taking them out of the Tele and slinging them into another LP, as the top end really sings in one...

Shergold - wonderful guitars. Now *they* have unusual pickups... really unusual! The Re-An humbucker has a tone unlike anything else, due to its very odd construction. They don't sound like any any other guitar as a result - and that makes them interesting. Can you tell I'm a fan...

OilCityPickups · August 2013

My Manson 'Kents' were potted in purple sparkle resin ... and used to kick out some serious racket!
I have a hankering for an old Shergold ... ideally one to restore ... as nice ones are really at a premium these days

Dodge · August 2013

Big fan of Wizard Pickups - a real shame that he's giving up. Superb sounding and without the over-inflated price tag of BKP.

FelineGuitars · August 2013

Kent's hand-wound stuff was great - some of the early offerings that he designed and had made in Korea weren't bad , but the hand-wound stuff was lovely. Kent is still winding in Vermont USA and his son Aaron is running the UK hand-wound business.

I knew Andy from his days at Kent Armstrong's place and later he ran rewinds under the Armstrong name till shifting over to Wizard. I hope he enjoys his new adventure

Roland · August 2013

JookyChap said:

That's a book there Ash...

If it turns out to be a paper book, rather than a blog, then interest from this forum should help you get a publisher/printer interested

OilCityPickups · August 2013

Lol conversations repeat themselves ... FelineGuitars.

FelineGuitars · August 2013

Yes -pretty much what we spoke of yesterday.

EdGrip · August 2013

A +1 for Marc at Mojo Pickups. I've got one of his broadcaster pickups and it's such a good Tele bridge pickup. I wouldn't have heard of him if it weren't for Jooky.

RIPPLES, GUYS

WezV · August 2013

ICBM said:

I agree, but some of his work borders on deliberate vandalism. There was no sensible reason for a lot of it, and the workmanship was often poor which makes it even less excusable.

he did it at a time when most repairman would do stuff we now consider stupid

and john birch did have an excuse, he knew best. Never forget that john birch knew best and everyone else's ideas about guitar are wrong

I love mine and am really happy now it has some original pickups, but yeah, i have seen some horrible conversions and shoddy work on early or one off john birches. my factory les paul style is pretty much perfectly built apart from the 4 massive splits it got from an almighty accident... i brought it like that and was nicely surprised when it turned up still playing quite nicely

rpr · August 2013

I bought some old guitar mags from a charity shop years ago. I'm pretty sure one of them had features on J.Birch, Overwater, Flyte etc. It'll be up in the loft. i'll try digging it out and if any one wants it, you can let me know

hotpickups · August 2013

Monty's guitar pickups. Great set I have i.e. Humdingers.

I did have a set of wizard pickups but I just didn't get on with them and sent them back. That was quite a few years back now and my tastes have changed

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