Golden Age Humbuckers

I recently purchased a 1999 Ibanez RG570 which I absolutely loved...except for the pickups. They were ok but had no definition. I installed the Golden Age humbuckers and they have transformed this guitar. Notes are clear with no muddiness. They are at least as good as the name brand pickups and in most cases, superior.

I put one of these in the back of the soundhole of an acoustic and it sounds great with electric strings on the acoustic. I may be replacing the pickups in my SG with a set of these at some point.

I have a Gretsch 5122 that I had put a couple of Gibson 57's in to get a nice smooth sound to go with it's acoustics for our church band. The 57's sounded good but not enough punch/clairity on the notes. The 57's are alnico 2's. So I bought a pair of these Golden age alnico 5's and they are beautiful. They are smooth but have more punch and soft clairity. I bought them because I already have some in another guitar similiar to the gretsch and side by side the Golden ages sounded better than the Gibson's 57's for what I'm looking for.

I am Currently scratch building 2 Les Pauls and was originaly going scratch build the pickups modeled after that creamy PAF tone, Then I saw these and decided "Stew-Mac has done all the work for me" so I got them and they sound amazing!, Very Happy.

I purchased the 5402-S Golden age pickups for a custom project I was working on. I wanted a nice vintage warm sound and these pickups delivered exactly that. These will be my go-to pickups from now on when I'm looking for that special sound.

I wanted a brighter sound on more twang for my Epiphone double neck. so I ordered a set of the Golden age pickups for the twelve string. They made a big difference it has a nice clean twang as well great tone!

The vintage vibe humbuckers are a dead ringer for the Gibson PAF's on the ES-335. I put these on an Oscar Schmidt OE-30 in place of the Washburn 421/423 pickups for a friend. I was very impressed by the sound quality as well as the workmanship. I have been playing for over 30 years and these pickups are as good if not better than the originals they were designed to compete with and at this price...don't waste your money on anything else...WOW!

I have just built a "Fenson" that is a Fender Strat neck in a Lespaul SG Body. I have wired the pickups in so that they can be split sing a push pull Tone pot with a mylar cap. The pickups I chose are relatively low output which may seem strange for an SG. However I have also fitted a little box of tricks which gives me a Gain boost and /or a top and bottom end boost. The resulting sounds from the pickups is awesome it goes from crystal clear jazz tones to "my God what happened to my ears" tones for solos and of course most places in between. Superb pickups for the money they are my second lot bought from Stewmac and they won't be the last.

I bought these to finish a stripped SG project that I got from a friend. First off I will admit that I am not a fan of over wound Mid hot pickups. These are just the ticket for me. They sound like the old Gibson Humbuckers that I grew up with. I would put these in the same neighborhood as Seth Lovers or Antiquities tone wise. If you're looking for something to melt your Dual Recto Mesa, these ain't it. It's not that they squeal, They just don't have the output and mids that these beasts like. If you're looking for a Humbucker with nice jangle for your Fender Super or Vox AC30 these will do very nicely. In fact, that's exactly what I use them with. They are just plain nice pickups. For the money, they are one of the best values I've seen yet.

Let me start by making it clear that I'm not a beginner, or novice guitarist. I've been playing for over 22 years & in that time I've owned Gibbo, Fender CS, Fralin, Rio Grande, Loller, Dimarzio, Duncan & many other quality pups. I've owned & played many collectible & coveted guitars.I read all the reviews on Stew Mac's Golden age pups, I mean ALL the reviews. I'm pretty cynical & very obsessive when it comes to tone also, so while I expected tone on par with a production Dimarzio or possibly a Duncan I wasn't expecting to be blown away. I'll say this, the Golden age ALNICO V yields a very complex, subtle & organic tone. These pups are well worth 2-3 times the cost, and that's not an overstatement. Again, I have played through a lot of high line pups, some vintage models that have a street value 10 times what these Golden age pups cost, & I have no reason to steer anyone in the wrong direction on this. I'm a tone snob straight up & the fact that these pups have impressed me this much is quite honestly pretty amazing, period... I did relic the thing up a bit so as it would not look out of place on my Strat.