quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
I want a set of blade pups for my Strat.

Are you thinking the little humbuckers? Do you want hotter output or noiseless operation?

Something other than tinny Strat.
More closer to my hot massive single coils in my Rickenbacker.
Probably hotter. I love the look of the blade/rails. Single blade.

Does P220 Smudge work at Lollar?

They are super pickups. My absolute favorite, if-I-could-only-have-one-forever, wouldn’t-change-a-thing guitar has Lollar P-90s. So thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Does P220 Smudge work at Lollar?

Not at the moment but he did. I personally have a set of Lollar P90s with his initials on the back. There's nothing better.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
They are super pickups. My absolute favorite, if-I-could-only-have-one-forever, wouldn’t-change-a-thing guitar has Lollar P-90s. So thanks!

I can testify, brother.

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
Something other than tinny Strat.
More closer to my hot massive single coils in my Rickenbacker.
Probably hotter. I love the look of the blade/rails. Single blade.

Ah, you're after warmth. Hmmm. What I did on my Charvel with 3 lipstick tube pickups is wire it so that the middle pickup is always on and in series. I now have a 3-way switch for the neck and bridge pickups. It definitely warmed up the tone. You may want to give that a go first.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Does P220 Smudge work at Lollar?

They are super pickups. My absolute favorite, if-I-could-only-have-one-forever, wouldn’t-change-a-thing guitar has Lollar P-90s. So thanks!

If you ever feel like it, you might pull one of those out during a string change to look on the back, there will be two letters on the bottom left corner of the tag. If you see KM, that’s the original guy who built all the P-90’s for years (he runs the shop now) who then taught WY, who built them for about four before he taught me. If you see the same signature that’s on the back of all the P-90’s in the pictures on the site, well… that’s me. Late 2017 to some point was T-something, who I taught. After that? No clue.

I’ll be probably stopping over there the first Thursday of next month to have lunch with my friend KM. I can ask questions or take some pictures if you want.

Nice.

My brother just got a new guitar with Lollar P-90s. He loves them. It is a new guitar, so P220 didn't make them.

I do like the sound of a P-90.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Does P220 Smudge work at Lollar?

They are super pickups. My absolute favorite, if-I-could-only-have-one-forever, wouldn’t-change-a-thing guitar has Lollar P-90s. So thanks!

If you ever feel like it, you might pull one of those out during a string change to look on the back, there will be two letters on the bottom left corner of the tag. If you see KM, that’s the original guy who built all the P-90’s for years (he runs the shop now) who then taught WY, who built them for about four before he taught me. If you see the same signature that’s on the back of all the P-90’s in the pictures on the site, well… that’s me. Late 2017 to some point was T-something, who I taught. After that? No clue.

I’ll be probably stopping over there the first Thursday of next month to have lunch with my friend KM. I can ask questions or take some pictures if you want.

Have you ever met or spoken with Ron Ellis at general atomics? Love his work. Understands magnets like no other.

(Have ‘em in a Laurent Brondel and Chuck Thornton s-type collab.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SIGnified,

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Does P220 Smudge work at Lollar?

They are super pickups. My absolute favorite, if-I-could-only-have-one-forever, wouldn’t-change-a-thing guitar has Lollar P-90s. So thanks!

If you ever feel like it, you might pull one of those out during a string change to look on the back, there will be two letters on the bottom left corner of the tag. If you see KM, that’s the original guy who built all the P-90’s for years (he runs the shop now) who then taught WY, who built them for about four before he taught me. If you see the same signature that’s on the back of all the P-90’s in the pictures on the site, well… that’s me. Late 2017 to some point was T-something, who I taught. After that? No clue.

I’ll be probably stopping over there the first Thursday of next month to have lunch with my friend KM. I can ask questions or take some pictures if you want.

That is really cool!

Unfortunately, I think the P-90s in that guitar were probably after your tenure, the guitar was made in 2019 (a Lowden GL-10C).

I also have a set of Vintage Blonde strat pickups I bought directly from Lollar in 2015, if you ever made single coils.

I started playing guitar as a kid and had really cheap Peavey strat copy. In high school around 2001-2002, I saved up summer job money and bought my first good guitar, a Fender Texas Special strat. I loved the strat shape and ergonomics from the Peavey, loved how the transparent red burst looked, and liked the idea of the versatility of the pickups since I was only going to have the one guitar. It had fairly hot single coils in the neck and middle positions and a humbucker in the bridge position.

In practice, though, the output of the bridge humbucker was so much higher than the single coils that switching between them on the fly was really a no-go. I also never really loved the tone of the hot single coils, although the bridge humbucker wasn't bad.

Years later, I got a screaming deal on a used Anderson Cobra T (sort of like a Telecaster-shaped Les Paul - Gibson-scale mahogany body with maple cap and mahogany neck and humbuckers) and pretty much never touched the strat anymore.

I finally decided I had to fix it or get rid of it, so I ordered the aforementioned Lollar Vintage Blonde single coils and wired up a pickguard.

What a difference! With the Vintage Blondes, that guitar absolutely nails the magical, sparkly strat tone I hear in my head.

All of that's an extremely long-winded way to say I'm a huge fan of Lollar and think it's really cool you worked there.

Very cool!

If it's not too much to ask, could you share a sound sample with us?


I'm kicking around the idea of getting a project guitar together. This thread is inspiring.

Those humbuckers look great in that Strat. Was it already routed for humbuckers? I’m looking forward to hearing a sound clip.

Unless things have changed, modern Fender Stratocaster bodies that are not specifically in a vintage replica series or no-pickguard series are all routed to accommodate H-S-H pickups regardless of the actual pickup configuration of the guitar.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:
Those humbuckers look great in that Strat. Was it already routed for humbuckers? I’m looking forward to hearing a sound clip.

No, I took a router to it.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Have you ever met or spoken with Ron Ellis at general atomics?

No.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Unless things have changed, modern Fender Stratocaster bodies that are not specifically in a vintage replica series or no-pickguard series are all routed to accommodate H-S-H pickups regardless of the actual pickup configuration of the guitar.

Depends on what we're calling modern. I've seen Fenders with all kinds of routes, to the point where in my mind, there is no hard-and-fast rule about what's going to be under a pickguard with a Fender.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Unfortunately, I think the P-90s in that guitar were probably after your tenure, the guitar was made in 2019 (a Lowden GL-10C).

I also have a set of Vintage Blonde strat pickups I bought directly from Lollar in 2015, if you ever made single coils.

Yeah, I made Strats, Teles, and bass pickups, but the "Strat" guy at the time was JH. Those are probably the initials on your pickups, and he was three benches over from me at the time. Good guy, did great, consistent work. He has a tattoo shop in Tacoma now. Looks like Lowden has OEM Lollars and that contract happened after I left, looks like. I would've remembered a contract for gold pole screw P-90's going in a guitar like that.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
What a difference! With the Vintage Blondes, that guitar absolutely nails the magical, sparkly strat tone I hear in my head.

Yeah, Blondes sound great, especially the 50's and very early 60's era. For just pre-CBS, the Blackface set (or whatever hell they're calling it now because Blackface is "racially insensitive") is awesome. Before I ever lived out here, I worked at a little independent music store near Cocoa Beach. We carried Nash guitars, and people raved about how great they sounded, but didn't like the "reliced" thing. So, we started carrying Lollar pickups. I immediately fell in love. Some time shortly after that, some guy walked in an '85 Japanese Squier Strat that was his wife's before she passed from cancer. Seeing it reminded him of her and he just had to have it out of the house. The electronics were all shitted out. My boss knew I was looking for a good Strat project and gave me first refusal on it. I went across the street to an ATM and paid the man $170. Everything but the neck, frets, bridge and massive stolid steel sustain block came off that guitar and I built it up on a set of Blackface I ordered with a push/push volume knob wired up to add neck to all positions. Sounds phenomenal. I sold it to my father years back, our relationship fell apart and I never thought I'd see it again. He passed away, and I laid hands on it a month ago. I'll be heading back out there in March to ship it to myself. Aside from the cigarette smoke smell, it's no worse for the wear.

The previous owner, the woman who died of cancer, had put three letter stickers on the back of the nameplate. "BUZ." I left them there as a way to honor her, and asked my father to leave them be as a condition of the sale. They have been removed. When I get it back, I'll find some equivalent sticker to put those letters back. I don't know what the significance of them, but it felt right to leave them there and will feel right to put some back.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
All of that's an extremely long-winded way to say I'm a huge fan of Lollar and think it's really cool you worked there.

Thanks. Coolest job I ever had.

Too bad; maybe sometime you’ll get the chance.

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Originally posted by SIGnified:
Too bad; maybe sometime you’ll get the chance.

It would be cool, but I don't travel in those circles anymore. Aside from Michael Soldano, Bill Nash, and some musicians who stopped in, I didn't really see or meet many interesting people. Besides, the big names were there to talk to Jason and the production manager, not talk to the peons.

Very nice!!

Alvin Youngblood-Hart is a master at “Franken-guitars”. I don’t think he plays one that he’s not assembled. He’s constantly searching pawn shops for stuff and putting parts and pieces together. Rewinding old pickups. He has boxes and boxes of just stuff. One hell of a nice guy. Happy to call him a friend

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Too bad; maybe sometime you’ll get the chance.

It would be cool, but I don't travel in those circles anymore. Aside from Michael Soldano, Bill Nash, and some musicians who stopped in, I didn't really see or meet many interesting people. Besides, the big names were there to talk to Jason and the production manager, not talk to the peons.

FWIW, he’s super approachable-happy to talk w me even (and I’m noooooobody in MI). But a pure genius on old magnets with access to tools only govts can afford. Glad you’re happy with your job neighbor.

Show us some shredding!

Without shredding, it didn't happen.

I want to hear some clips of that Marshall Vintage Modern.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
I want to hear some clips of that Marshall Vintage Modern.

Ah, a man of high society.

It really is a sweet amp. I’ll get something going, I haven’t played for so long and I’ma little rusty.