Welcome
to Angeltone's Custom Shop!
At
Angeltone, we believe that one pickup doesn't fit all. Every
player has a 'sound'
they're looking for, and we want to help you find your own.
Our pickups are made one by one from scratch for each
player, and that means
you really can get your new Angeltone pickup the way you
want it.
You're left handed? Cool. Have a pickup you love and
need a matching pickup? Still Cool.
Need a special coil wind or magnets? No problem. Have an
idea for a new pickup?
We're here to help.
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One of the first
Angeltone custom pickup sets... with quite a backstory too!
In 1950, Leo Fender created the first
commercially successful solid body Spanish guitar...
the Broadcaster.
The Broadcaster was a revolutionary instrument with a
powerful, iconic sound perfect for
early country and 'rock 'n roll' music and many design
innovations... including one called the
'take-off lead tone'. This was a powerful volume boost
when switching to the lead pickup alone,
meant to punctuate leads with an effect similar to a steel
guitar's volume swell
or that of a jet airplane taking off.
Player feedback led to Fender redesigning the now
Telecaster's lead pickup
to play at equal volume with the rhythm pickup in
1952.
In 2013, an Austin, TX area country player named John
Stannard asked me if I could make
a set of pickups that could give his Telecaster the power
and tone of an original Broadcaster
*without* his lead pickup's overpowering volume boost, for
use with modern pickup switching
systems. After many attempts, I created the Angeltone
50BS/S set shown in the above photo,
and I made the 50BS/S set until his death in 2015.
If
you would like to hear John talk about his original 50BS/S
pickups
in his own words, please watch this Youtube video he made
himself here
This set
has now been redesigned as the limited edition
50BX set,
now available in the Angeltone Custom Shop here!
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This is a copy of an original 1955
Stratocaster pickup a customer had us rewind for his
late father's
instrument. This pickup has beveled edges on the
bobbin's top plate, slightly oversized magnets
in the correct polarity, real nitrocellulose lacquer
bobbin dip before winding, 42 gauge heavy Formvar
coil wire wound in a 'vintage approved' barrel shape,
cloth covered 'push back' hookup wire, and
real wax potting for coil protection and feedback
suppression.
NEW - This pickup model is now part of
the new Angeltone V Series pickups by popular
demand!
This pickup is now available in both right or left
handed models in the Custom Shop
Please click here for details!
One of Angeltone's
first LEFT HANDED 5S7 (1957 model) Strat pickups.
Why? One of our customers wanted a set of pickups for his
lefty Strat.
Now, every Angeltone pickup with 'staggered magnets' is
available in both
right and left handed versions at no extra cost!
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This pickguard is
very interesting... if you're a Robbie Robertson fan.
This is a custom pickguard for a model of the 'Bronze Strat'
Robbie played
in the movie "The Last Waltz". From top - a righthanded 5S4
(1954) rhythm
pickup, the middle is a lefthanded 5S7 (1957) model, and the
lead is a custom
pickup designed to match the 5S7 when both pickups are
played together
as a humbucking pickup. The customer also asked for a CTS
'pull pot' middle
tone control for more switching flexibility
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Avenger - a
fingerpicker's dynamic delight! This pickup makes your
guitar's
B string audible with modern string gauges... without
compression!
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Corsair - vintage
coil wind with flatpole magnets for even string-to-string
volume balance with modern light gauge strings!
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Lightning - high
power and clean tone without active preamps!
These three pickups were originally custom designed for
customers with
specific tonal needs, and we liked them so much we decided
to give them
their own models!
The Avenger (at top) was designed for a player who wanted to
play Mark Knopfler
styled lead playing without pedals, but his Strat's B string
notes were mostly
inaudible with modern light gauge strings. The Avenger
pickup gave him the ability
to fingerpick without a board full of pedals!
The Corsair (middle) was designed for a player who wanted to
hear his Strat
with equal string-to-string volume balance... with light
gauge strings. This is important
because Leo Fender designed the original Stratocaster
pickup for even string volume
balance using Black Diamond 12-52 string gauges with a wound
G string. If you play a
vintage Strat using modern light gauge strings, each string
will have a different volume
compared to the others.
The Lightning (at bottom) was the answer to a very old customer who
wanted the most
powerful 'Strat style' single coil pickup we
could build with three conditions - 1) the
pickup
had to be passive with no active preamp, 2)
the pickup had to fit in a stock Fender
Strat's
body's pickup route with no modifications, and
3) the pickup must still preserve the clean
tone Angeltones are known for.
He imagined having a pickup with the ability
to instantly change his tone from crystal
clear
to flaming hot simply by changing where and
how hard you hit your strings - without using
any drive pedals or signal processing of any
kind. It wasn't easy,
but after many prototypes we think we finally
succeeded.
If you see a pickup here you would be
interested in, or you would like us to make
your own
custom pickup, just findyourtone@angeltone.com