Zen and the Art of Pickup Innovation

There’s a zen to winding pickups that can lead to new ideas. Like the day I was winding a Strat-style pickup and put on about 2% more winds than normal. I kept winding. Finally got up to 7% more winds than spec, with a slightly different pattern on the winding. Some say patterns don’t make a difference. I think they do.

Every thousand winds or so I’d stop and do a couple of cross-winds and play with it, just to get a different sound. What was I looking for? A punchy, bright but not too tinny, really powerful sound. Something that might capture a Hendrix, a Gilmore, or a Clapton tone.

These were really close, but they needed something more. So I took a Dremel® to the north-facing (top) surface of the Alnico 5 magnets and grinded them down so they weren’t flat but a little rounded off, to soften the sound.

And the Fervor Special Edition Strat Pickups were born.

Fervor artist Andrew Autin finds the Special Editions extremely responsive, with incredible range. Listen to how many different tones he gets using all his settings.



But you don’t have to play at Andrew’s level to get something out of our Special Editions. My good friend Mike Alfaro, who I’d call a good recreational player, went from factory Fender pickups to Special Editions and was blown away. In his words, they’re in the sweet spot of hot.

WIN a set of Fervor pickups!

Now thru November 30th, you could win your choice of a complete set of Fervor hand-wound pickups. It’s easy:

1. ENTER your name and email address.

2. SHARE with your friends. The more who sign up, the more Fervor pickups we give away:

3. KEEP SHARING. The more entries, the more winners!

This promotion ends on November 30th—so enter and share TODAY!

Potted or Unpotted?

Most manufacturers “pot” their pickups. They’re sealed in a protective coating of wax. Why? Because potting may eliminate unpleasing microphonics. It can also protect a pickup from damage during installation and throughout the rest of its life.

So potting conveniently gets rid of a potential headache for manufacturers. They don’t want to deal with ongoing repairs.

As tone connoisseurs, we think potting isn’t such a good idea. Unpotted pickups yield the best sound — period. The vintage guitars of the 1950s—the same guitars every collector wants to own—were all equipped with unpotted pickups. The tone of these vintage unpotted pickups blows away today’s drenched-in-wax pickups.

As far as damage goes, just tell the people installing your pickups that they’re unpotted. And install them as soon after delivery as you can. Good communication and awareness can avoid most problems.

If you still want your Fervor pickups potted, we can do it. But we firmly believe unpotted pickups give the best results.

The Answer Is Blowing in the Wind(ing)

Feel trapped with your guitar’s tone? Think your only options are sticking with your current sound or buying a much more expensive guitar?

The answer may be in your pickups’ winding.

By adjusting the windings in your existing pickups—or by buying new pickups that are wound to your specifications—you can radically improve your guitar’s tone.

First, decide whether you want your guitar to be overwound (hot) or underwound (less hot) compared to your existing setup. (It helps to know the output, in ohms, of your current pickups. A guitar technician can do this for you, or you can do it yourself.)

Then, do something about those pickups. If you’d like a free evaluation, send them to us. We’ll thoroughly inspect your pickups’ output and contact you with our suggestions. One may be to underwind your existing pickups (we can’t add windings). Depending on the condition of your pickups, we can modify them by removing wire from -1% to -2% percent.

Another option is to purchase the appropriate Fervor pickup(s). We can recommend a pickup and, if needed, a customized winding for the sound you’re looking for.

If you simply want to replace your existing pickups with new Fervor pickups, our online store makes it easy to choose the precise amount of over- or underwinding you’re looking for—if our standard outputs don’t work for you.

The most critical step, though, is deciding on the sound you want to achieve. Once you figure that out, we can help you get it.

Know Your Ohms

We all remember certain numbers—our birthday, our Social Security number. Hopefully our anniversary. But there’s one set of numbers you should definitely know if you’re a serious guitarist: the output of your pickups.

If you don’t know, it’s easy to find out. First, get a multimeter (about $50 or less online, and definitely an essential part of anyone’s gig bag), preferably a digital model.

Then, using the common single-coil pickup as an example,

1) Remove your pickguard and lay it flat, back side up.

3) Turn the multi-meter on and set it to “ohms” (often marked by an omega, or upside-down horseshoe).

4) Place the red probe on the eyelet that connects the white lead wire.

5) Place the black probe on the eyelet that connects the black lead wire.

6) In a few seconds you’ll get the ohm reading, or output. A single-coil pickup should be at least 5.00K (K = ohms). The higher the ohm reading, the higher the output.

7) Write this number down somewhere, enter it in you iPhone, or whatever.

8) Repeat these steps for your other pickups.

The beauty of knowing your output is that it gives you a tonal reference. Whether you’re satisfied with your guitar’s sound or you’re searching for better tone, you’re in a much better position when you know your ohms.