Vintage Series
-
All Vintage Series pickups are wound in CJLab workshop in US.
-
Humbucker: Nickel cover is default. Open (black or zebra, no additional cost) or gold cover (+$10) pickups are made per request. Pole piece spacing is 49.2mm
-
Single coil (both Strat and Tele): hand (scatter) wound. Slightly less magnetized for tight bottom and round high. Both white and black covers are provided.
V-I1 - Modern Replica of Greco Dry Z
-
A3 magnet / PE42
-
Neck: 7.54 kohm
-
Bridge: 8.16 kohm
-
Price: each - $159, set - $299
The V-I1 was born by many people's inquiries and/or requests - to make a vintage humbucker version of the I-1. It is based on f the legendary "Dry Z" pickup made by Greco in 1980-1981 for their high-end Les Paul models. It comes with an AlNiCo 3 (simply, A3) magnet. A3 is known to generate the least magnetic strength among all AlNiCo family, resulting in super "flat" response to the all frequency range. The tone is true to the guitar wood character. It shines with light to mid overdrive. The sound out of it is... It feels like my Les Paul should have sounded this way but I didn't know before... It sounds weird but that's the best description I can make. If you like vintage sound and are not happy with your current pickups, this would be a great tryout.
The V-I1 is not a clone of the original Dry Z in 2 ways:
-
It uses Imperial screws like Gibson pickups, while the original Dry Z used metric screws like other MIJ pickups.
-
V-I1 bridge pickup is over-wound unlike many known Dry Z pickups. We decided to do that because it sounded better that way.
V.5 - Clean, Wild, Unique Yet Vintage
-
A3 magnet / PE41.5
-
Neck: 6.82 kohm
-
Bridge: 7.38 kohm
-
Price: each - $159, set - $299
It started with 2 events. The first one was the website that CJ found while he was studying about the history of Dry Z pickups. It said its resistance was sub-7 kohm, kind of unbelievable so was just ignored. Then the second event happened - a magnet wire spool with an accidentally-wrong label came to us. It was labeled as PE42 but actually was PE41.5. The wire was wound into I-1 (at least CJ thought so) but the resistance of neck pickup was sub-7 kohm... well, it reminded him of that website. He went deeper with this magnet coil and ran experiments on coil turns and magnets.
Compared to traditional vintage style pickups wound with PE42, its tone is "wild" with more clarity, definition and power. It feels like it pushes hard the amp speaker. It may sound that it is about hard rock or heavy metal sound but we are talking about vintage sound here!
V-S1 - Scatter Wound 60's Strat Pickups
-
A5 magnet / HFV42
-
Neck: 6.0 kohm
-
Middle: 6.0 kohm, RW/RP
-
Bridge: 6.75 kohm
-
Price: each $85, set - $245
The V-S1 is a scatter-winding version of the S-1 model, made in the CJLab workshop like other Vintage Series models. It is basically aimed to replicate the 60's vintage single coil pickups. Pickup magnets are slightly under-magnetized for tight bottom and round high, the idea of which CJ got from his early single coil pickup winding experiences. On top of bell-like clarity, it accommodates a tad of warmth and fullness in tone.
A V-S1 set consists of a neck pickup, a middle pickup with RW/RP (reverse wound/revers polarity) and an over-wound bridge pickup.
V-S2 - Scatter Wound Hot And Articulate Blue Strat Pickups
-
A5 magnet / SPN42
-
Neck: 6.22 kohm
-
Middle: 6.22 kohm, RW/RP
-
Bridge: 7.04 kohm
-
Price: each $85, set - $245
The V-S2 is a scatter-winding version of the S-2 model, made in the CJLab workshop like other Vintage Series models. The bridge pickup (V-S2B) was a little bit tweaked from the S-2B spec for even hotter sound. This pickups set is for hot blues sound seekers. The sound is glassy and bright, but at the same time, beefy and biting.
Like the V-S1 set, a V-S2 set consists of a neck pickup, a middle pickup with RW/RP (reverse wound/revers polarity) and an over-wound bridge pickup. Also, pickup magnets are slightly under-magnetized for tight bottom and round high.
V-T1 - Scatter Wound 60's Telecaster Pickups
-
A5 magnet / PE43 and PE42
-
Neck: 7.27 kohm
-
Bridge: 6.95 kohm
-
Price: each - $99, set - $189
The V-T1 is a scatter-winding version of the T-1 model. This set was designed to reproduce the vintage 60's telecaster sound, which is bell-like clean with the neck pickup and hot, biting and growling with the bridge pickup. The pickup pair is well balanced in both tone and output.
Like Strat pickups, our Tele pickups are slightly under-magnetized to tighten bottom and smoothen high. It helps produce balanced tone while neither shrilling nor losing bell-like ringing sound.