Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas to all our customers, thanks for your support this year.

www.mrglynspickups.com

MrGlyn Meets Your Maker episode #2

 In Eposode #2 of “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker” I talk to Waylon from McPherson Stompboxes in his workshop in Papamoa. 

I wanted to know how he designs and builds his pedals, his philosophy and how he makes his World class Kiwi made gear. 

These pedals are works of art both inside and out - seems a shame to step on them.

https://mcphersonmusic.site/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WPr4qt9uBg

MrGlyn Meets Your Maker

 Hi all, 

some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear. We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them.

Rather than just having a good moan I’ve been trying to think of ways I can help.

After many conversations with other small manufacturers I’ve come up with an idea.

 I’m starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. 

I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website. Some of these makers you may not even have heard of.

It’s a very simple format, just recording a Skype conversation. There is some editing mainly cutting out my own waffle but I do try and keep edits to a minimum.

I am not a professional presenter I’m just an ordinary bloke working with what I’ve got and this is way out of my comfort zone but I hope you’ll find the content interesting.

I’ve called the series “MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”. 

In episode #1 I’m talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first.

If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then I’ve succeeded. 

Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, that’s how you can help.

 Thanks, 

Glyn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mIeamJ8eT0&t=14s

MrGlyn’s ‘Cruel Mistress’ demo

 A big thanks to Brett Kingman for this fantastic demo of my ‘Cruel Mistress’ Telecaster Pickups.

There is nothing like the high end snarl of a good Tele bridge pickup. However, Tele Pickups are complicated. It’s a sound that needs to be just right – too much treble and it can sound grating and obnoxious, too little and it just isn’t a Tele. The treble needs warmth while still cutting through a mix like a zombie banjo.

With the “Cruel Mistress” -hot Tele wanted to make a pickup with a bit more power to drive an amp harder while keeping the Tele character. My biggest concern was not losing what a Tele is all about. In my repair work I come across quite a few replacement Tele pickups that just don’t sound like Teles. Bridge pickups need grit and the neck a chimey clarity and together they should be full and open and matched well enough to create almost a reverb sound with the switch in the middle position.

The “Cruel Mistress” -hot Tele uses AlnicoV magnets to help with the attack and AWG43 wire to help with the snarl.

The neck pickup on a Tele needs to be smooth and warm and have a great balance with the bridge pickup so that the middle position rings with an almost reverb-like tone. The difficulty with Telecaster neck pickups is there just isn’t much space under that cover. As a result it can be a hard pickup to get right and there were a lot of experiments and disappointments on the way. Eventually I came on a design that has enough bottom end to sound full but not so much to sound boomy. And the final pickup was a great match to the bridge.

I had help from the ears of a couple of my regular customers who were generous enough to let me load their guitars with prototypes. The whole process takes time and only after many road tests and versions did I fix on a design. As a result, each of my designs have been developed over many years of subtle changes and road tests. Having help like this means my pickups are trialed through many different amps and playing styles. The neck/bridge balance as well as dynamics/compression need to be tested in as many situations as possible to find a pickup that will work for most players.

So if you need some grit and aggression from your Tele this is the set for you.

https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/cruel-mistress-hot-tele-pickups/

www.mrglynspickups.com

MrGlyn’s Pickups Bellbird demo

 Thanks to Jason Herbert for managing to use all 5 positions in the funkiest minute you’ll ever experience in this MrGlyn’s Pickups Bellbird demo.

The Bellbird pickup set is a vintage voiced Strat set reminiscent of the early 60's Fender pickups.

The Stratocaster has been around since 1954 and the legend continues. Reading the internet (!?) tells me there have been good and bad years or decades, guitars to avoid and ones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve been repairing guitars since 1995 so I’ve played a lot of old Strats and analysed a lot of old pickups. Vintage pickups aren’t all great but the good ones are fantastic.

I’ve based my Vintage Strat set on the best of the old pickups I’ve had the pleasure of playing through . So I use AWG42 heavy formvar insulated wire – there’s something about the thickness of that insulation that just works with an old Strat pickup.

I’ve aimed for that old quacking chime that makes Strats wonderfully percussive but with a singing quality that’s so musical. Warm and clear with beautiful almost reverb-like clean tones – that’s what I want out of an old Strat. The neck needs to be fat, round and clear, the middle pickup needs to quack and the bridge a cut through twang without thinness. The all important ‘in between’ sounds in positions 2 and 4 must be balanced and characterful. Nothing says Strat more than these sounds.

The Bellbird set has been designed mainly for clean tones but they’re certainly not afraid to perform with a bit of gain. As part of a HSS set they’re great with one of my ‘Integrity’ humbuckers in the bridge position.

www.mrglynspickups.com

Jansen Pickup re-wind

A couple of weeks back I received this faulty old pickup from a Jansen stratphonic hollow bodied bass made in New Zealand.

The meter was showing it was ‘open circuit’ so after the usual tests for dry joints and removing the top layer of windings I decided it needed rewinding.

I do enjoy saving old dead pickups and this one looks so cool with that ‘toaster’ cover.

www.mrglynsguitars.com

Postage to Australia

 Postage to Aussie is just NZ$30 - just saying 😎

www.mrglynspickups.com

Pickup Height Adjustment

 Pickup Height Adjustment is crucial to your tone. I find that the better the quality of the pickup the more difference the height makes to the tone.

There is, of course, no correct distance from the string so the measurements I’ll give you are a guide and a great place to start. I recommend you set your MrGlyn’s Pickups to these heights when you installed them but feel free to tweak them to your own taste after.

The principal is, the closer to the strings the pickups are the louder and more dynamic the sound, further away is more compressed and quieter. 

But there’s another factor. Pickups work by magnetism, if a pickup is too close to the string the magnet will attract the string and cause a strange wobbly sound called a wolf tone. This is much more pronounced with single coil pickups and on the bass strings on the higher frets. These ‘wolf tones’ are sometimes called ‘Stratitis’.

The pickup height is measured from the top of the pickup pole (or cover) to the underside of the string when fretting the highest fret.

www.mrglynspickups.com

Here are my recommend heights:

https://mrglyn.blogspot.com/2016/10/treble-bleed-capacitors.html

How Pickups Work

Pickups for new builds

 This week I had an order from Trevor Binford at Binford Luthiery in Onehunga, Auckland. He runs fantastic  courses where you can make a guitar from scratch. 

http://www.binfordluthiery.com/guitar-buildshop

He wanted a set of Silver Lady Telecaster pickups for his own Tele and asked if I make a Precision Bass pickup. Well, they aren’t on the website (not yet) but I do make them. Always worth asking, eh

www.mrglynspickups.com

Bellbird Strat pickups in action

Here’s a cool track by Lea’ana featuring Jason Herbert on guitar using a set of my ‘Bellbird’ Strat pickups

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1258520531191334

www.mrglynspickups.com

Telecaster Love

 

MrGlyn’s Telecaster pickups come in 2 flavours - 

The Silver Lady set : Pure clean vintage alnico III

The Cruel Mistress set : Tele with teeth, alnico V

www.mrglynspickups.com

For sound samples and more information go to the website.

Höfner Pickup re-wind

 Old Höfner pickups are common visitors at the workshop for re-winds. The insulation breaks down on the winding wire they used and they become open circuit and simply stop working.

Although these are built like humbuckers magnetically with 2 rows of pole pieces powered by a single bar magnet they have a single coil inside them.

The bobbins are often very fragile. They’re made of thin plastic and can deform easily. Don’t try this one at home kids.

I was happy with how they came out in the end. They have a really pleasing clear chime to them.

If you have any dead pickups or want to upgrade, get in touch. 

www.mrglynspickups.com

7 string humbucker

7 string humbucker - "Attitude"

For a while I’ve been working on extending my range of humbucking pickups for rock players. The Cloud Nine will do just about anything but I wanted to offer a more specific pickup for modern rock/metal.

I decided to start with a 7 string which is a slightly unorthodox way of going about it but I was concerned with getting the bottom end right. If there was any sogginess in the bottom end a 7 string would show it up more than a 6 string.

7 string pickups are not like others. The low bass string reacts so differently, there’s a lot of string deflection and low harmonics. My mission was to tame this bass and keep it tight but not to sacrifice the sound quality of the treble strings. The treble still needed to be sweet and singing. The mids needed to be balanced and noticeable. I didn’t want this pickup scooped; the mids had to stand out from the mix when needed to.

So in October 2019 I got back in touch with my old mate Graham Young in Yorkshire. He’s an amazing player and really knows his gear.

Back in 1998 I wound a 6 string humbucker for Graham. In those days I had a guitar shop and repair business in Leeds in the North of England and he wanted a bridge pickup to suit his style for a parts caster.

Years passed and he became a 7 string player, so when I decided to develop a 7 string pickup Graham was the person I asked to be test pilot. We’d very loosely kept in touch over the years and it turned out he was still using the 6 string pickup I’d made for him back in the 90’s.

We had a chat via messenger and it turned out he’d tried a lot of pickups but none quite did it for him. So I listened to his thoughts, came up with a design and went away and made a prototype.

The first one wasn’t quite right, so he sent it back and I changed a few things and returned it. I don’t know how many adjustments I made but that pickup accumulated quite a few air miles between NZ and the UK over the next few months.

Every time we got closer, every adjustment less than the one before. When you get that close you know you’ve got a good pickup. I was at the point when I felt we really had something great but I just needed that confirmation.

Then Covid 19 happened, the mail got too unreliable to send stuff overseas with any confidence of it arriving and the process was put on hold.

At the end of June 2020 I got a call from Gabe Dovaston in Papamoa. He’d done some demos for me with some of my other pickups and was asking if I did a 7 string, just in case, for an Ibanez of his. Well, this seemed like a chance to test my new pickup on fresh ears. I made a copy of the last one I’d sent Graham, the one I was happy with, and got it off in the post. I sat back and waited. It only took a few days and I got a very happy call, he loved it and he’d already made a demo that he’d put on YouTube.

Great news, but what was I going to call it? The pickup was already on YouTube, it wasn’t on my website yet and it didn’t even have a name!

I got on Facebook and asked people to come up with a name; there were so many excellent suggestions but nothing quite did it. In the end this pickup that had taken so much work to develop, traveled so far and refused to go away I called the “Attitude”.

The Attitude is available in 6 and 7 string, for neck and bridge positions.

www.mrglynspickups.com

"Attitude" Humbucker Demo

A huge thanks to Gabe at The Music Academy Papamoa for his "Attitude" Humbucker Demo.

Mr Glyn's Attitude Humbucker Set

For a while I’ve been working on extending my range of humbucking pickups for rock players. The Cloud Nine will do just about anything but I wanted to offer a more specific pickup for modern rock/metal.

I decided to start with a 7 string which is a slightly unorthodox way of going about it but I was concerned with getting the bottom end right. If there was any sogginess in the bottom end a 7 string would show it up more than a 6 string.

7 string pickups are not like others. The low bass string reacts so differently, there’s a lot of string deflection and low harmonics. My mission was to tame this bass and keep it tight but not to sacrifice the sound quality of the treble strings. The treble still needed to be sweet and singing. The mids needed to be balanced and noticeable. I didn’t want this pickup scooped; the mids had to stand out from the mix when needed to.

So in October 2019 I got back in touch with my old mate Graham Young in Yorkshire. He’s an amazing player and really knows his gear.

Back in 1998 I wound a 6 string humbucker for Graham. In those days I had a guitar shop and repair business in Leeds in the North of England and he wanted a bridge pickup to suit his style for a parts caster.

Years passed and he became a 7 string player, so when I decided to develop a 7 string pickup Graham was the person I asked to be test pilot. We’d very loosely kept in touch over the years and it turned out he was still using the 6 string pickup I’d made for him back in the 90’s.

We had a chat via messenger and it turned out he’d tried a lot of pickups but none quite did it for him. So I listened to his thoughts, came up with a design and went away and made a prototype.

The first one wasn’t quite right, so he sent it back and I changed a few things and returned it. I don’t know how many adjustments I made but that pickup accumulated quite a few air miles between NZ and the UK over the next few months.

Every time we got closer, every adjustment less than the one before. When you get that close you know you’ve got a good pickup. I was at the point when I felt we really had something great but I just needed that confirmation.

Then Covid 19 happened, the mail got too unreliable to send stuff overseas with any confidence of it arriving and the process was put on hold.

At the end of June 2020 I got a call from Gabe Dovaston in Papamoa. He’d done some demos for me with some of my other pickups and was asking if I did a 7 string, just in case, for an Ibanez of his. Well, this seemed like a chance to test my new pickup on fresh ears. I made a copy of the last one I’d sent Graham, the one I was happy with, and got it off in the post. I sat back and waited. It only took a few days and I got a very happy call, he loved it and he’d already made a demo that he’d put on YouTube.

Great news, but what was I going to call it? The pickup was already on YouTube, it wasn’t on my website yet and it didn’t even have a name!

I got on Facebook and asked people to come up with a name; there were so many excellent suggestions but nothing quite did it. In the end this pickup that had taken so much work to develop, traveled so far and refused to go away I called the “Attitude”.

The Attitude is available in 6 and 7 string, for neck and bridge positions.

Precision Bass Pickup Re-wind

 Been doing a few pickup rewinds recently. This Precision Bass pickup from 1974 had one coil completely open circuit. Pretty common for that era. If you’ve got an old Fender (not just basses) with a quiet, thin sounding pickup there’s a fair chance you need a re-wind.

For more information and prices go to:

www.mrglynspickups.com

Stay Safe, ROCK From Home

 MrGlyn’s Pickups is still operating during level 3, just order from the website and I’ll post it straight to you. Kia kaha.

www.mrglynspickups.com

“Attitude” Humbucker

 Loaded an LTD with a set of my new “Attitude” humbuckers - www.mrglynspickups.com - All ready for a YouTube demo by Gabe from The Music Academy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teg3_eGmtkw

For more information and prices go to:

www.mrglynspickups.com

How Humbuckers Work

 Here's the third of my videos talking about guitar pickup stuff.

Humbucking pickups get their name from the clever way they cancel out hum. But how do they do it?

Here's a brief video to explain why, with some help from Sammy the dog.

www.mrglynspickups.com

"Tui" Pickup for Strat

Here's a description of what makes the Tui pickup set different (with some help from the dogs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t6ktDdeil8

For more information and prices go to:

www.mrglynspickups.com

How pickups work

Here's a short video explaining how pickups work with a little help from the dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOM2DzkZ1QY

For more information and prices go to:

www.mrglynspickups.com

Working on some New pickups

Had a great morning at the workshop with Shannon from Impostor Syndrome working on his neck pickup sound. 

www.facebook.com/ImpostorSyndrome/

.

.

#impostorsyndrome #mrglynspickups #nzbands #nzmusic #madeinnewzealand #handmadepickups #boutiquepickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

Roboguy Pick Holder

This month is ‘Strat Month’ at MrGlyn’s and to celebrate we’re giving away a Roboguy pick holder with every order.

www.mrglynspickups.com

July is Strat Month

Pinch Punch it’s the first day of Strat Month. 

All sorts of Strat Pickup related stuff planned for July but first here’s Roboguy (aka Mr K Ohm).

www.mrglynspickups.com

Humbucker Covers

Humbucker cover options - aged, open cover, chrome, nickel, gold or no cover at all.
www.mrglynspickups.com

www.mrglynspickups.com

Tui Pickups for Strat - Demo

Take a look at Gabe demonstration my Tui pickups - great player!
Made in New Zealand

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzPETrHT18

www.mrglynspickups.com

MrGlyn’s Tui Pickups in action

Great track from Lockdown Broject.
And for the guitar obsessed the solo is at 2:03. And the single coil pickups on that Strat are MrGlyn’s Tui pickups (www.mrglynspickups.com). Just saying 😎.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EF75x54-E1g

www.mrglynspickups.com

Hamurana Guitars demo with Mr Glyn’s Pickups

Hamurana Guitars demo featuring a set of MrGlyn’s Pickups. Great to hear them in such a quality instrument. Great playing Gabe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRXJzUGyglY

www.mrglynspickups.com

P90 from hell

Had a request for a powerful P90. He wanted it to really ROCK. So here she is 16.4KOhms, nice balance with harmonics popping out and a pair of ceramic magnets to keep the bottom end tight. It doesn’t have a name - any ideas?

www.mrglynspickups.com

I’m back!

First day back after lockdown. Thanks to all my customers for your patience, I’m really proud of what New Zealand has achieved although it isn’t over yet. And one of my first jobs in my new workshop in Muriwai was this ‘63 Stratocaster. I love my job.

 

I am no longer repairing guitars - I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

Relicing

All pickups available reliced, it’s not on the website, just ask me when you’re ordering. Alternatively, just play it hard for 20years.
www.mrglynspickups.com

Mother’s Day NZ

Too late to get your Mum a MrGlyn’s Pickups humbucker size P90 for Mother’s Day but I’m sure she’ll love the flowers. Hand made in New Zealand.
mrglynspickups.com

MrGlyn’s “Tuil hot Strat pickups

My “Tui” Strat set come with steel base plates as standard. They increase the bottom end and reduce the ‘ping’ at the top by changing the shape of the magnetic field. For more info:
www.mrglynspickups.com

Contact me on mrglynspickups@gmail.com or 021912678

What Luthiers do during lockdown

I am no longer repairing guitars - I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

MrGlyn’s Pickups new website

I’ve been making pickups for years, finally I’ve got a website.

https://mrglynspickups.com/

Feel free to contact me on mrglynspickups@gmail.com for any information

Cheers,

 Glyn

MrGlyn’s Update

Kia Ora,
 I hope you are all well and staying safe.

 I will be up and running again as soon as we are back to level 2.

It has been a difficult time for us all.
I’ve had to move out of the old workshop in town after 12 years of being down that tricky little driveway. It was a sad day.
 From now on I will be operating from home (Muriwai).
I’m still going to be repairing guitars but also concentrating on making pickups mrglynspickups.com

Repair drop off and collection is by appointment only on week days.

The best way to contact my is still by text 021912678 or for pickup inquiries mrglynspickups@gmail.com

I am no longer repairing guitars - I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com